Another subterfuge of Pilate's: V. 13. And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, V. 14. said unto them, Ye have brought this Man unto me as one that perverteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this Man touching those things whereof ye accuse Him; V. 15. no, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto Him. V. 16. I will therefore chastise Him, and release him. V. 17. (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) V. 18. And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas V. 19 (who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison).
One scheme of Pilate's, to place the responsibility on some one else, having failed, he hoped to have success along another line. The prisoner was once more before the court of Pilate, and so he formally called together the accusers, the chief priests and the leaders and also the people, whose number was growing with every minute. He assembled them in order to communicate to them the finding of Herod and also his own mind and will.
He sums up his points. Their charge had been that Jesus was turning the people away from their allegiance to the Roman Emperor. Now he had made a careful inquiry into the matter, not only in a private hearing, John 18, 33, but also in their presence. And not a single charge had been found to be substantiated by any reliable testimony or by the confession of the prisoner. Nor had the finding of Herod differed from his own. Jesus had been sent to the ruler of Galilee, and nothing worthy of death had been laid to His charge.
But now Pilate made his first grievous public mistake in telling the people that he would scourge Jesus before giving Him His liberty. If Jesus was innocent, as the governor repeatedly affirmed, it was a crying injustice to cause Him to be whipped in the cruel manner which was then customary. He showed his weakness before the people by making this proposition, for he neither wanted to burden his conscience too heavily, nor did he want the Jews to go wholly unsatisfied. The illegal chastisement thus announced simultaneously with the intention to release the prisoner prepared the way for the violent opposition of the people, who were now lusting for blood and felt that the governor was in their power. His weak, futile policy results in a terrible crime. “Fanaticism grows by concession.”
It was Pilate's custom to release some prisoner at the time of the Passover, and this former favor had grown to be an expected duty. The necessity had devolved upon him to release one prisoner to them in connection with the feast. But before Pilate could so much as bring out his suggestion fully, with all the reasons why the people should prefer the release of Jesus to that of Barabbas, the mob began to clamor, not with single voices raised here and there, but in one immense shout rising from all those throats at once, with overpowering volume. They did not plead or beg, but they demanded with a threatening attitude: Take this One away: to punishment, to death with Him! But release to us Barabbas.
That was the people's choice: a low and hideous criminal, a rebel and a murderer, who had been thrown into jail to await the sentence of death. It was a case of blindness and hardness of heart without parallel in history. And to think that many of these same people had probably been in the number of those that had called out in loud hosannas five days before, that for fear of them the chief priests had not dared to lay their hands on Jesus a scant three days ago!
Note: If anyone is willing to honor Jesus as a great prophet, but refuses to repent and to believe in the Savior, to give Him his whole heart, he is in reality far from His grace and from true discipleship. With such people it takes very little to be drawn over into the ranks of the enemies.