PILATE CALLED TOGETHER the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
18With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19(Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
20Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
23But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Original Meaning
THIS PUBLIC TRIAL of Jesus has all the elements of a Roman trial,1 with its set stages of arrest, charges, examination, verdict (with support for guilt or acquittal), and judicial warning.2 What makes this trial so unusual is that two verdicts of innocence have already been rendered, but Jesus still remains on trial in Roman hands. Something unusual is taking place here. Destiny has its hands on Jesus.
This final scene cannot be more open. Gathered together are the chief priests, the rulers, and the people. A representation of the entire nation in her capital assembles to issue a judgment on Jesus. Though the authority for that verdict resides with Pilate, he negotiates Jesus’ fate. The fact that the people share in this discussion is a dramatic reversal for them, for Jesus’ popularity with them was a major factor in the leadership’s more clandestine approach to Jesus’ arrest (22:2).
Pilate makes his clearest statement yet on how he sees the matter. He restates the charge in the exact form it was given to him in verse 2: Jesus is “inciting the people to rebellion.”3 That is, he is subverting the public peace. Pilate examines the charge openly, in the presence of the leadership. The mention of this public trial is important. There is no private meeting, no back room deals. Everything is done in the open. Pilate concludes that “he has done nothing to deserve death,”4 the same verdict Herod reached. Two witnesses have assessed the truth (Deut. 19:15). It sounds like Jesus’ release is coming.
But Pilate knows he has a political hot potato. So he compromises by offering to “punish”5 (i.e., flog) Jesus and release him. This chastisement generally involved a whip with metal tips tied to it. Pilate hopes that a little innocent blood, displayed through a gruesome whipping, will satisfy the leadership.6
This judgment receives a public reaction, but not the one Pilate wants. “With one voice” they cry out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” The response must surely have caught him off guard, for Barabbas was incarcerated for leading an uprising and for murder. He has committed more heinous crimes than the claims made about Jesus. The leadership and people desire the release of a clearly more dangerous man than Jesus.
Pilate knows something is not right, so he addresses them again, hoping to release Jesus. Pilate wants justice but is hesitant to act in the face of widespread public opposition. He is not the first, nor the last, public official to keep his eye on opinion polls! Like a tennis match where volleys are exchanged back and forth, the crowd smashes away Pilate’s proposal. They insist on crucifixion. Only Jesus’ death will satisfy them. They want to be rid of him.
Crucifixion was a particularly gruesome way to die.7 Roman citizens could not be executed in this manner. This form of death was designed to deter criminals. That is why the executions were public. Treason and evading due process were the normal grounds for such a death. It was preceded by a severe flogging that caused bleeding to speed the onset of death. After the flogging, four steps were involved. (1) The criminal carried the crossbeam to the place of execution. (2) He was either nailed or tied to the crossbeam as it lay on the ground. (3) The beam was then raised and fastened to the upright pole. (4) A tablet specifying the crime was nailed to the cross for all to see. The crowd wants Jesus not just to die, but to experience this most gruesome form of execution. He is counted among the worst of criminals (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37).
Pilate tries valiantly to get Jesus released. A third time he asks the crowd what evil Jesus has done. The judge has almost taken up the role of the defense attorney, while the crowd is becoming judge and jury. Luke details the procedure because he wishes to highlight that justice is not sentencing Jesus. Something more sinister is at work.
Pilate insists that nothing worthy of death has been done, and he repeats his earlier verdict to chastise and release Jesus. This agitates the crowd even more, and the voices get louder. Pilate has moved from a private hearing to a near riot on a feast day when the city is full of people. Finally he relents and decides “to grant their demand.” Barabbas is released, while Jesus is surrendered to the will of the people. It is not justice that sends Jesus to the cross, but a mass of humanity.
Bridging Contexts
LIKE THE OTHER Passion passages, this one also functions at the level of history and narrative, though theology is also pictured here. Historically, the trial of Jesus appears as a struggle by a Roman magistrate to administer a dangerous political situation. Given the choice between justice and a mass uprising, the Galilean teacher is a sacrificial lamb who does not deserve the punishment meted out. Standing alone, he is expendable. Jesus dies as an innocent, with many people responsible for his death.
At a narrative level, we again see various reactions to Jesus, running from an insistent hostility to an effort to remain as noncommittal as possible. The leadership has gained the support of the masses. Together they drive for Jesus’ removal. In contrast, Pilate tries to keep his distance, not wanting to say that Jesus is totally right, but not agreeing that he is worthy of the hostility directed against him. In the end, the greater passion wins out. All of these events are unique, and yet they do pattern a plethora of responses to the claims of Christ.
More significant is the theology built into the picture. The exchange of Barabbas for Jesus testifies to two things. (1) As Pilate’s own reaction shows, there is something incredulous about the preference for Barabbas. Here the blindness and logical character of sin are at work. Given the option between a teacher of righteousness and a murderous criminal, the crowd chooses the latter. It shows the kind of passion religious belief can generate and the kind of hostility that it can produce in people. Words are more dangerous than a blade, the soul more important than life. In one sense, the judgment, as irrational as it seems at the surface, is appropriate, for if Jesus is wrong about his claims, he is a very dangerous figure. On the other hand, if he is right (and innocent!), then there can be no worse judgment. The line between truth and falsehood is often the thin thread of a correct perception.
(2) A theological message is wrapped up in the exchange. Romans 5:5–8 summarizes Jesus’ death as the just for the unjust. He dies (literally) in an unjust person’s place. Though the sin we commit may not be murder, nonetheless Jesus suffers on the cross for our sin. That message resounding from the cross is timeless. Barabbas represents the position we are all in as a result of Jesus’ death: We are able to live because he died. In the midst of all the injustice, the grace of God shines through. The message of the cross is that Jesus overcomes evil and injustice, even while in the midst of it. That is the miracle built into God’s plan for the ages.
Contemporary Significance
THE PASSION IS narrated for our reflection. As we read or hear it, the text calls for us to make decisions about the various reactions to Jesus. Those judgments are not about the events as history, since that is assumed by the text. The judgments are more subtle and substantive. Who in the narrative represents the truth? Who is acting with justice and fidelity? Which case has the merit?
The leadership in its hostility looks too insistent to be in the right. They have fabricated charges and rejected a solution that would spare an innocent life. They have pressed for execution. Luke leads the reader to see that there was something criminal in Jesus’ death, and it was not him. The drivenness that sends Jesus to the cross is a hardheartedness that often comes with a rejection of him.
The fickle people also represent something not quite right. Days before, some hailed Jesus as a king (19:38). Now, however, a murderer is better than him. In just a few days, everything has changed. The people reflect a shallowness of conviction and an ability to be swayed that warns against a superficial approach to these issues. Religious reflection is everybody’s business, but to pursue it from a distance means being subject to shifts that are more emotionally driven than thought through. With the lack of sincere reflection comes a wild emotional swing on questions of ultimate significance. This is not unlike today, where the range of emotion expended on such questions can run wildly from indifference to intense passion.
One of the things that used to fascinate me about Madelyne Murray O’Hare was her passion about her atheism. She was so irritated about Christianity that she could not contain her resentment any time she spoke. On the other hand, others table such discussions from their lives. One must realize that the world is full of religious opinion, but the amount of investigation standing behind those opinions, as well as the passion given to it, varies greatly.
Pilate represents a figure caught on the other end of the popular wave. Here is a man who tests the wind more than assesses the truth of Jesus’ claim. He knows in his heart some degree of truth about the situation, but does not stand up to his responsibility. Our world contains a host of claims about Jesus. Some include the misrepresentations of Jesus, as the leadership makes before Pilate, with suggestions that Evangelists and apostles distorted the true portrait of Jesus. Such claims often leave others bewildered and confused, much like Pilate is here. The best way to respond to Jesus’ religious claims is to read them for oneself in Scripture. Often the most effective tool for preventing the kind of indecision Pilate has is to examine the claims directly and to cease listening to the distorting voices of doubters. The denial of testimony given by Jesus and those who walked with him leave Pilate in a dilemma he solves by opening up the deliberations in the hope that sense might spare Jesus.
The world often passes off major religious decisions as Pilate did. An easy approach is to take a popular vote and accede to the majority. Or better yet, let each one do what he or she pleases and have no solid public dialogue about any of it. Pilate senses that a simple public airing and vote are not the right approach, but proceeds anyway. He hopes that giving the public the poor choice of Barabbas versus Jesus will solve his dilemma. But in the end, public acceptance for Pilate is too important to him for him to make a correct decision based on principles of justice. Religious issues need to be thought through, not simply reacted to, as if a Gallup poll can decide religious truth. How many other Pilates might there be in our world?
Regarding Barabbas, we never hear from him, but in a real sense, he is the story that explains Jesus. Those who know what Jesus accomplished on the cross realize that Barabbas’s story is our story. Jesus freed us by his death, just as Barabbas was freed. One who saves a life is owed a life. The Christian walk is a statement of gratitude to the one who has taken our place. He did not complain as he bore the cross for the murderer and for us. He uttered no words of protest about injustice as he hung on Calvary for us. There was only intercession for those enemies who failed to understand what they had really done. There was only forgiveness for another criminal, hanging next to Jesus, who came to his senses as he contemplated what remained of his life. Those who have been rescued from the penalty of sin understand that in Barabbas’s freedom is a portrait of their escape from death through the gracious work of Jesus.