13 Then Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined Him here in your presence and found Him not guilty of your charges against Him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent Him back to us. As you can see, He has done nothing deserving of death. 16 Therefore I will punish Him and release Him.”

18 But they all cried out in unison: “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been imprisoned for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate addressed them again, 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

22 A third time he said to them, “What evil has this man done? I have found in Him no offense worthy of death. So after I punish Him, I will release Him.”

23 But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices for Jesus to be crucified. And their clamor prevailed. 24 So Pilate sentenced that their demand be met. 25 As they had requested, he released the one imprisoned for insurrection and murder, and handed Jesus over to their will.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Mei Chan

Something that is so striking about this passage for me is how desperately and fiercely the crowd wanted Jesus to be crucified. Earlier in verse 4 of this chapter, and then 3 times in this passage, Pilate tells the crowd that he finds no basis for the charge against Jesus, and yet each time, the crowd shouts out to crucify Jesus—the same crowd who, a week earlier, had cried “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” as Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. They would rather have had Pilate release Barabbas who was accused of murder and rebellion, than a simple Jewish teacher who had compassion on sinners and criticised the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law.

Sometimes one of my kids will say, “If I had been there, I wouldn’t have yelled ‘crucify’”, and I think that sometimes I slip into that kind of thinking too. But we are just as guilty, because it was our sins that took Jesus to the cross—the big ones, and also the small, “respectable” ones that we are happy to tolerate in our lives. My prayer is that we would never forget the seriousness of the sin that crucified the Son of God, that we would continue to put off these sins in our lives as we walk with Jesus, and that we would never lose sight of the wonder of God’s grace that he has lavished on us through Christ’s death and resurrection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mei is a member of our Fairfield Morning congregation.