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.