But the chief priests stirred up the crowd that he might rather release Barabbas to them.
Pilate had found a way out: a festival custom let him release a prisoner, and he offered them Jesus. The priests shut that door by working on the crowd.
Pilate was not fooled about why Jesus had been handed over to him.
Pilate knew enough to see what lay behind all the accusations: "he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up." So he tried to turn the crowd's thoughts toward Jesus, when the question was which prisoner to release. It did not work. The priests had too much influence with the people. Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he violated what sense of justice he had. He released Barabbas, the rebel and murderer. Then he had Jesus scourged and handed Him over to be crucified.
The men doing the stirring held the religious office.
The world got its choice. Jesus and a robber were placed before the world, and the question was put, "Which will you have?" What was the answer? "Not this man, but Barabbas." … The religious leaders and guides of the people persuaded the poor ignorant crowd to reject the Son of God and accept a robber and a murderer instead! These were the men who ought to have led the people in the right way.
Commentators differ on how much the crowd was misled and how much it wanted this.
So the crowd wanted to show their complete subjection to the wicked priests even more. They did this by preferring Barabbas and sealing the death of Jesus. He might still have been freed, but the crazed crowd would not hear of it… They could find no evil. They only imagined it out of the murderous evil of their own hearts.
Either way, the crowd's voice, not the judge's, settled the case.
The voice of the people won out over the better judgment of Caesar's representative. In other words, one man's rule gave way to the crowd, and the popular vote decided it. An old Latin proverb says that the voice of the people is the voice of God. The facts of the crucifixion flatly deny that proverb. Here the voice of the people was the voice of the devil.
The swap was not between two doubtful cases. One prisoner's record was public and appalling, and the charge stuck to the nation long afterwards.
John 18:40 calls him a "robber." Matthew 27:16-26 calls him "a notorious prisoner." He had started a rebellion and had committed murder. Yet the Jews, led by the chief priests and elders, asked for the release of this man instead of the Lord Jesus. Why they asked for this particular prisoner is not known. But their choice shows their ungodliness in the clearest way. They could pick such a notoriously wicked man over the Lord of life and glory, their Messiah. Peter pressed this home on the Jews: "But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you." Acts 3:14.
Pilate's offer forced a swap: Barabbas or Jesus. Under the scheming of men, God had a purpose in it.
Barabbas is seen as a chief of sinners, a rebel and a murderer. For such a man the feast of redemption offers a possible release. But that release comes only, on the terms of Pilate's offer, if Jesus is given up. Jesus becomes, as it were, the Substitute for the chief of sinners. To "release Barabbas" is "to destroy Jesus." Why? Because He has done evil? The judge asks in vain: where is it? Look deeper than the wicked wills of men. In the purpose of God we may see that holy Sin-offering, the true passover. By it even a Barabbas may be set free — not for any good in him, for Barabbas shows none. Barabbas is released: Jesus is given up.
One man could have said this of himself that day.
Barabbas went free, though guilty and condemned, because the Lord Jesus took his place. Christ was his substitute. Once released, Barabbas might have gone out and looked up at Him who hung on the cross. He might have said, "He died for me; He paid my penalty." It is a blessed illustration of the atonement.
- Envy — Pilate saw the real motive behind the charges. But his wish to please the crowd beat his own sense of justice.
- Persuasion — the stirring came from the priests. The men who should have guided the people talked them into rejecting the Son of God.
- Choice — the people preferred a rebel and murderer to the Lord of life. Peter later charged that choice home on the nation.
- Voice — the popular vote decided it. So the cross forever disproves the idea that the voice of the people is the voice of God.
- Exchange — God's purpose ran under their sin. "Release Barabbas" meant "destroy Jesus." The guilty man walked free because Christ took his place.
And Pilate answering said to them again, What will ye then that I do [to him] whom ye call King of the Jews?
Pilate has offered the crowd a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, and they have shouted for the murderer. Now he turns back with a second question. It hands the fate of a man he believes innocent to a mob.
Pilate's job was to weigh the evidence. Instead he asked the crowd what to do.
Poor Pilate! He wanted to stay popular with the people, and he also wanted to set the Lord free. So he put the issue into their hands: "What shall I do with Him?" The answer came from the crowd again, "Crucify Him!" Pilate made his last appeal: "Why, what evil has He done?" They met it with a stubborn demand for His death. The judge had already cleared the Lord in public of any charge deserving death. Now he declared Him innocent of every evil they had accused Him of. Yet, to keep the people happy — unhappy man — he gave in to their noisy demand. That day judgment parted from righteousness. The two will come together again when the King returns, as Psalm 94:15 long ago predicted.
Some have called the wording of Pilate's question clumsy Greek. One commentator answers that charge and explains the sense.
One critic says of "that I do to Him" that the Greek grammar here is incorrect. Such foolishness in a professed scholar is hard to account for. The Greek language was flexible everywhere and at all times. In everyday Greek, "to do good to a man" means to treat him well, and "to do ill to a man" means to treat him badly. So "What shall I do to him?" means "How shall I treat him?" There is no error, no awkwardness in Mark's wording here.
Pilate keeps calling Jesus their king, and the crowd keeps denying it.
They denied Jesus as "King of the Jews." In Mark 15 we read Pilate's questions, and his wording was emphatic, for he had already asked them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?"
The crowd's answer came at once. It says something about every human heart, not only theirs.
Pilate may be a hardened man of the world. Still, he made some feeble protest against the condemnation of the One that everyone knew to be innocent. So, if he is to release Barabbas, he asks, "Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?" Without any hesitation they cried out, "Crucify Him." We do not care for the company of a rebel and a murderer. But the hostility of our sinful nature to God is such that, if we are left to ourselves and have to choose between a murderer and Christ, we prefer the murderer.
Pilate made it an either/or: one man walks out, the other goes to the cross. Under that bargain lies a picture of the gospel.
Barabbas stands out as a chief of sinners, a rebel and a murderer. The feast of redemption offers him a possible release — but only, as Pilate puts the choice, if Jesus is given up. Jesus becomes, as it were, the Substitute for the chief of sinners. To "release Barabbas" is "to destroy Jesus." Look deeper than the wicked wills of men. In the purpose of God we may see that holy Sin-offering, the true passover, that can set even a Barabbas free — not for any good in him, for Barabbas shows none. Barabbas is released: Jesus is given up.
Pilate tried to free Him and got nowhere. His failure was not an accident.
In all this the Jews are guilty. Of course the Roman governor should have been firm, and acted justly, and not left the Lord exposed to the priests' hatred. In Mark's Gospel, however, all the hatred and hostility against the Lord comes from the priests. They are always and everywhere the enemies of the truth and of Him who is Himself the truth in person. Pilate's resistance had no effect. It was God's will that Jesus should suffer. He had come for this, and it was for this that He gave His life a ransom for many.
The crowd had to decide about Christ, and not one of them spoke up for Him. The same question reaches us now.
Jesus or Barabbas? This was the question which divided them. Surely someone will stand for Jesus. Not one! I can almost hear you say, "I would have, if I had been there." Well, show yourself on His side now.
- The question — "What shall I do?" means "How shall I treat Him?" Pilate is no longer asking about law. He is asking a crowd how to handle a man he has already called innocent.
- The abdication — A judge who hands his verdict to the mob splits judgment from righteousness. The King's return will put the two back together.
- The choice — Offered a murderer or Christ, the crowd took the murderer. Left to itself, the human heart prefers anyone to Jesus.
- The exchange — The guilty man walks free because the innocent One is given up. Barabbas adds nothing to his own release.
- The purpose — Pilate's weakness and the priests' hatred did not overrule God. Christ came to give His life as a ransom for many, and the same question now asks each reader which side to take.
And they cried out again, Crucify him.
Pilate asked the crowd what to do with the man they called King of the Jews. Instead of an answer he got a demand — and it came from His own people, not from Rome. Who put those words in their mouths? What were they asking for? And what was God doing while they shouted?
The voice is the crowd's, but the mind behind it belongs to the religious leaders who had already decided the outcome. One writer shows who was really in control, and what the charge against Jesus rested on:
So the crowd chose Barabbas and sealed the death of Jesus. In this way they showed even more clearly how completely the wicked priests controlled them. He could still have gone free, but the deluded crowd would not hear of it... Pilate, cruel and hardened as he was, still protested: "What evil, then, has He done?" And they cried out even more, "Crucify Him." They could find no evil in Him; they only imagined it out of the murderous evil of their own hearts.
They did not just ask for His death. They named one particular kind:
To crucify was to put a person to death in unending shame and disgrace. The Jews could not crucify; stoning was their way of execution under the law. Nor could the Romans crucify a Roman citizen. This way of executing someone was for slaves and foreign criminals. That is the deep meaning of the cry, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." He must not only die. As far as man was concerned, His death had to carry disgrace, cursing and shame that would never be lifted.
Days earlier the crowd had cheered Him. How did the mood turn so fast?
It is a terrible thing to see how changeable the crowd is. They are just the same today... Within a few days, the same crowd that cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" and praised Him to the skies cried with one mouth, "Crucify him, crucify him!" And how did that happen? It was the power of Satan. It was their unbelief, because their applause meant nothing. Applause is only human feeling stirred up for the moment. That feeling can give way to a completely opposite one, and very quickly.
The cry judges more than one crowd. It measures the human heart:
Do we want a perfect standard to measure the world, to measure the human heart, to measure sin? Then we must look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ... When the human voice cried out, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" that voice was the human heart speaking. Nothing else could show so clearly its true condition in the sight of God... When man preferred a robber and murderer to Christ, he proved that he would rather have robbery and murder than light and love.
Barabbas went free instead. Under that exchange lay a purpose the crowd knew nothing about:
Barabbas is seen as a chief of sinners, a rebel and a murderer. The feast of redemption offers him a chance of release — but only, under Pilate's choice, if Jesus is given up. Jesus becomes, as it were, the Substitute for the chief of sinners. To "release Barabbas" is "to destroy Jesus." Look deeper than the wicked wills of men. In the purpose of God we can see that holy Sin-offering, the true passover. By Him even a Barabbas may be delivered — not because of any good in him, for Barabbas shows none.
It is easy to read this scene as a spectator. One writer takes that distance away:
It is no use pleading that we would not have done it if we had been there. True, we will never be able to throw stones at Him in the street, or to cry, "crucify him, crucify him." But everyone has been able to show what they think of Him. Our hearts have been open to every folly, vanity and sin that Satan could put in front of us. Can we deny that they have been completely closed to the beloved Son of the Father?
What did God do with the people who shouted?
"Away with him!" was the world's prayer; His was, "Father, forgive them"... He dies, but He does more than that. When He is risen He tells His disciples to begin at Jerusalem, the place where they had put Him to death. They must go to the very people who had cried, "Crucify him! crucify him!" He tells them to preach the forgiveness of sins through Him — Jesus.
- The cry's source — The words came from the crowd. The will came from the priests. No one could name any evil in Jesus.
- The cry's meaning — They asked for the death kept for slaves and criminals. Not just death, but shame that would never lift.
- The cry's mirror — The human heart chose a robber over Christ. That choice speaks for all of us; none of us watches from outside the crowd.
- The cry's fickleness — Days earlier the same mouths had cheered Him. Applause is feeling, not faith.
- The cry's answer — God's purpose ran under their choice. The guilty man went free, the Substitute took his place, and the first offer of forgiveness came to the city that shouted.
And Pilate said to them, What evil then has he done? But they cried out the more urgently, Crucify him.
The crowd has demanded a crucifixion. Pilate asks them for a reason, and no reason ever comes — only a louder shout.
Pilate was not making a speech. He was asking for evidence. No one gave any, and one commentator traces that silence back to the accusers themselves.
Pilate was cruel and hardened, yet he still protests: "What evil, then, has He done?" And they cried out all the more, "Crucify Him." They could find no evil. They only imagined it out of the murderous evil of their own hearts.
The question also puts Pilate's own verdict on record. He clears the man he is about to sentence.
Pilate makes his last appeal: "Why, what evil has He done?" They meet it with a most persistent demand for His death. The judge had already cleared the Lord in public from any charge worthy of death. Now he declared Him innocent of any evil they had accused Him of. Yet, to content the people — unhappy man — he yielded to their clamouring demand. That day judgment and righteousness came apart. They will come together again when the King returns, as Psalm 94:15 long ago predicted.
The crowd never answers the question. It shouts over it, and one writer asks what the judge should have done.
Pilate tries to reason with a crowd that will not reason. He puts the fitting question: "What evil has He done?" They override the question as unimportant, and cry out more fiercely for His crucifixion. Where was the sober order that belongs in a hall of justice? Where was the control of the judge over his own court? Should he not have silenced the crowd and told them to honour the claims of honest justice?
The crowd had a choice: a rebel and murderer, or Christ. One writer turns that choice on the reader.
Without any hesitation they cried out, "Crucify Him." We do not care for the company of a rebel and a murderer. But the flesh is so hostile to God that, left to ourselves and having to choose between a murderer and Christ, we prefer the murderer.
Pilate looked for a cause and found none. One writer explains where the real cause lay.
And yet, despite His acts of love and His words of grace, they repaid Him evil for good, and hatred for His love (Psalm 109:5). Truly He could say, "They hated me without a cause." There was plenty of cause for hatred, but no cause in Him. No cause in man to call out Christ's love, and no cause in Christ to call out man's hatred.
Barabbas was the prisoner the crowd wanted freed instead of Jesus. One writer looks past the wills of men to God's purpose.
To "release Barabbas" is "to destroy Jesus." Why? because He has done evil? the judge asks in vain; Where is it? Look deeper than the wicked wills of men. In the purpose of God we may see that holy sin-offering, the true passover, which can deliver even a Barabbas — not for any good in him, for Barabbas shows none. So the gospel story is more fully unfolded. Barabbas is released: Jesus is given up.
Shouting settled this verdict, not evidence. One writer asks who carries the guilt for it.
Was there ever such a barefaced travesty of justice? What judge would dare to let the shouting of the accusers settle the verdict? Least of all when the sentence was death. Pilate passed the death sentence while saying that he found no fault in our Lord. That made the Gentiles guilty. The Jews shouted for His death, and that made the Jews guilty.
- No cause. Pilate asks for evidence and gets none. The evil was not in the Prisoner. His accusers imagined it out of their own hearts.
- No answer. The crowd does not answer the question. It shouts louder instead, because it has no evidence.
- No excuse. The judge declares Him innocent and sentences Him anyway. That day judgment and righteousness came apart.
- No neutrality. Given the choice of a murderer or Christ, people chose the murderer — and one writer presses that choice on every reader.
- No accident. Barabbas goes free because they give Jesus up. In that exchange we see God's purpose in the true passover.