Matthew 27:22–23

They denied Jesus as "the Christ." We find Pilate presenting Him this way: "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" (Matthew 27:17).

John's Gospel especially brings out the deity of our Lord, and Luke His humanity. In Matthew we see Him as Messiah. That is why Pilate asks Him here, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

Something, at least, makes Pilate uneasy. He waits for no answer, but goes off to the crowd to declare that he can find no fault with Jesus. In that case his business was only to release Him. But he seeks a compromise with his conscience instead of yielding to it. It looks to him like a way out of a difficult situation, so he puts the whole matter into the people's hands. So he makes it almost impossible to return to the path of righteousness he has left. He openly shows himself as not of the truth.

So he weakens and wavers. He makes it not a question of righteousness, as at first, but of mercy. He puts it into the hands of the Jews themselves, whose malice even he cannot understand.

Here we see the bitter unrighteousness of these religious men... This is what the world's righteousness amounts to, whether in the chief priests or in the Roman. True righteousness is only found where God governs. One alone in this scene is found in the patience, goodness, wisdom of God — perfect in every way. When it was the time to speak, He spoke. When it was the time to be silent, He kept silent.

It is the popular vote. He has been among them three or more years. A constant display of power in grace bore witness to Him, and it met every need of man. His wonderful words went even beyond this. Like light from heaven, they revealed the whole face of the world, while bringing in for it the glory of what is beyond and above it... The end is full, absolute rejection. It is hatred for His love — passionate hatred, as if for some unspeakable wrong. It dooms Him to death: a death of shame, of unspeakable anguish, the death of a criminal, a frightful and accursed death. They hand over the Prince of life and ask for a murderer to be given to them.

What a solemn question it was; and it is so still. They answered the question there, and every person to whom the Lord Jesus Christ is offered must answer it too. Each one must either accept Him as Saviour and Lord or reject Him. The choice decides eternal destiny. Those who accept Him and own Him as their Saviour are saved. All who reject Him as Son of God and Saviour are lost.

The Christ question is with us still, and every man must give his answer to it. No neutrality is permitted, and in fact no neutrality is possible. Whatever men may say with their lips, or whatever they may hold back from saying, everyone has his opinion of Christ. In his own heart at least, every man has recorded his vote, for or against Him. The Saviour Himself has said: "Whoever is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30).

But the unhappy people are under the control of their leaders, and they press hard for their choice of Barabbas. This shows the human heart down to its depths — the mind of the flesh, which is hostile to God. Pilate is still anxious to escape the fatal responsibility. So he asks them what they would have done with Jesus — which he had no right to do. At once the awful cry breaks out from the crowd, as with one voice: "Let Him be crucified!" Pilate asks in vain, "Why? What evil has He done?" The only answer is a fiercer cry: "Let Him be crucified!"

Here we see the bitter unrighteousness of these religious men. At first Pilate seemed too sensible to act like this. But we shall see what his own righteousness comes to. … This is what the world's righteousness amounts to, whether in the chief priests or in the Roman. You find true righteousness only where God governs. Only One in this scene shows the patience, goodness and wisdom of God — perfect in every way. When it was time to speak, He spoke; when it was time to be silent, He stayed silent.

Pilate tries to reason with a crowd past reasoning. He puts the fitting question: "What evil has He done?" They brush it aside as unimportant, and cry out louder for His crucifixion. Where was the control of the judge over his own court? Should he not have silenced the crowd and told them to respect the claims of honest justice?

Here a first element of (democratic) politics comes into view. What matters is not the right moral judgement of the case, but the opinion and mood of the crowd. In one sense, it is not surprising that this principle has become the general rule in many countries. They have rejected the Bible as God's Word and as the standard. So there are no absolute values, and no basis at all for defining "correct moral judgment." … We do well to respect the old warning: "You shall not fall in with the many to do evil" (Ex. 23:2).

David could speak of the wicked as fighting against him "without a cause." Take these words in the fullest, most searching sense, and only One fits them completely. He applied them to Himself, as we see in John 15:25. No one but He could face a crowd of hostile critics and ask, "Which one of you convicts me of sin?" No one else ever died the criminal's death of crucifixion and still had witnesses like these — the judge, a fellow-sufferer, and the officer in charge. Their testimonies were: "I find no guilt in him." "This man has done nothing wrong." "Certainly this man was innocent."

"So true it was that, even in this last scene, Jesus delivers others at His own cost and in every sense. He had just before delivered the disciples from being taken; He is now the means of delivering Barabbas, wicked as he was. He never saved Himself." … Barabbas went free, though guilty and condemned, because the Lord Jesus took his place. Christ was his substitute. Barabbas released might have gone out and looked up to Him who hung on the cross, and said, "He died for me; He paid my penalty."