Luke 23:13- [ESV] Read passage...
STORYLINE:
Jesus is taken in a midnight raid to arrest Him. He is then subjected to brutal treatment for hours before being brought before 1st the High Priest and then the Roman authority, who then shuffles Him off to the ‘client king’… Herod. Herod, wants Jesus to perform for him and when Jesus refuses, Herod mocks Jesus and sends Him back to Pilate…
Both Pilate and Herod found no fault in Jesus and now Jesus stands before Pilate once again. Pilate is facing a quandary at this time… He has a standing order from Rome to keep the peace, at all costs, this was the mantra of the Roman Empire.
They would allow the local people to worship as they desired, and even govern accordingly, as long as two things were accomplished, first and foremost, the taxes kept flowing to Rome. And the 2nd and just as important was that peace was maintained! Rome believed that a happy people were a people who would not rebel or revolt…
Keeping the peace could be accomplished in many ways and Rome implemented all of them… from political favors to bringing out troops as a show of strength to sending troops in to do what was necessary to quell the uprising (whatever it was)…Pilate had used them all!
However, when possible, Rome did NOT want to use troops because that would also bring about feelings of rebellions and revolt from the people. Troops were a measure of last resort for Pilate…
This is where we pick up the story beginning in v.13-16:
13Pilate 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.”
Pilate addresses the crowd who had gathered in response what was going on… I am sure that this crowd had grown out of the mob that had come in the middle of the night to arrest Jesus… then had gotten larger as Jesus was taken before the High Priest, and possibly they had followed Jesus to Pilate the 1st time and then to Herod… and now back to Pilate…
At this time the religious leaders had convinced this crowd that Jesus was blaspheming God… Religious zealots are the most passionate activists on this planet! We see evidence of this in our world today… suicide bombers… flying planes into hi-rise bldgs… using children to carry bombs… religious zealots do not think about what is right, but they are focused on what they believe, regardless of its morality.
In 1994, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians died and took 54 adults and 21 children to their deaths… following a man whom they BELIEVED was divine. Their actions took the lives of several federal agents as well…
Marshall Applewhite in 1997 and those who followed him in what we know as the “Heaven’s gate” cult… took 39 people to their deaths in a mass suicide… all died based on their religious zealotry for this man!
Jim Jones in 1978 led and forced over 900 people in a religious fevor to precede him in death…as he forced them to drink poison after he murdered a US Congressman and most of his travel party… Jones then followed by suicide by gunshot!
My point is… this crowd had been whipped into a religious fervor of a frenzy and there was NOTHING that was going to satisfy them other than the death of this man Jesus! In these verses we can see Pilate making the attempt to reason with this crowd.
In fact in v.16 Pilate makes a proclamation that he has made a decision. His decision is that Jesus is NOT guilty of anything and he was going to let Him go. BUT… to appease this blood-thirsty crowd, Pilate makes the feeble offer of chastising Jesus before He is released.
The word chastise here is the Greek word PAY-DEN’N-SAS which means to punish, but it is related to more of a parent punishing his child, or a judge punishing a criminal for a minor offense. In the minds of this crowd, Pilate was simply going to ‘spank’ Jesus and let Him go… and that was not good enough for them.
Now this punishment was NOT something that was easy on the person receiving it… it was still brutal, but it was NOT Crucifixion!
v.17 is omitted by many Bibles because it does not appear in most manuscripts… this is the verse where it is said that Pilate was obliged to release a prisoner during the festival…
In v.18-19 the people/crowd and the leaders will have NONE of what Pilate is trying to sell them! Chastising Jesus was NOT going to be enough… they wanted the death penalty!
18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
BUT!! Wait a minute Pilate… we won’t stand for this! You can’t let HIM go… give us Barabbas instead. The crowd clamored for Barabbas, a known murderer and one who had led a rebellion! Pilate did NOT want to release this man…
They called for the death of one whose “crime” was proclaiming Himself the Messiah, even though there was overwhelming evidence to support His words, the religious leaders refused to believe and wanted Him put to death for blasphemy.
They called for Jesus’ death… and called for the release of a man they KNEW would murder again… that they knew would cause more insurrection and bring about troop involvement leading to more people being hurt… but they did not care… they wanted Jesus dead!
In v.20 we find Pilate trying once again to reason with this zealous crowd:
20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again.
He did not want to release Barabbas but this group was beyond reason and refused to listen to him…
21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Put away this man who claims to be the Son of God… and release the man we KNOW to be a murderer!! Crucify Jesus! Pilate continued to try to reason with them…but they would have NONE of his reason… they were beyond reason!
22 For 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.” 23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
In v.24 we can see that Pilate relents to their blood lust… he realizes that this crowd was not going to listen to reason. They did not care that this man was innocent of the death penalty, and he wants to keep the peace so he makes a judgment call here…
24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Pilate knew that if he insisted that this man was innocent and simply flogged him and released Him that there would be an uproar and he feared that a riot and civil unrest would be the result…
I can see him playing this scenario out in his mind… if I let this man go, they are going to riot and then I am going to have to bring in troops and these people are going to be slaughtered by my troops and I will NEVER hear the end of it from Rome…
they will think I cannot control the people and I might be removed from this position. I have to do something that will save my position and NOT bring about a mass uprising.
Pilate makes the determination in his mind that the life of one man is worth saving the crowd… it is worth saving all this trouble… the life of one man is nothing in comparison to what COULD happen!
Can you see the irony laced within this decision Pilate makes? The irony is that Pilate makes the exact decision God desired him to make… In Pilate’s mind he would have been saving a few hundred, maybe even thousands of people by his actions!
However, in God’s plan, the death of one innocent man… the Son of God… the Lamb of God… the perfect Messiah… the death of this one man would save the lives of not just hundreds to thousands in and around Jerusalem, but it would open the doors for the salvation of millions upon millions throughout history!
Unknowingly, Pilate’s reasoning was exactly what God desired to happen… God can and will use those who are His enemies… their resources and actions as His enemy… he will use that against them and for His own purposes!
One thing we can look at when we see Pilate is that he relents to the crowd’s demands…
How many times do we know the right thing to do and relent to the cries of the crowd? To the pressures of society? Peer Pressure? Pilate had the choice to do something that was right, but chose to do something that compromised his principles and he rationalized that it was ok…
God took that decision and used it for His purpose, and I am so glad He did, but I can tell you this… even if Pilate had NOT relented, God’s plan would have still been seen thru… Jesus would have still given His life for the sin of the world.
