Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Question 1
Have you ever been wrongly punished?
Question 2
How do you think Barabbas felt when he heard he was allowed to go free?
The rooster has crowed, and morning has arrived. Jesus has been questioned through the long hours of the night. The religious leaders were one step closer to finally getting rid of him, but there was another problem that needed to be solved. They didn’t have the right to kill Jesus themselves, so they had to convince the Roman authorities that he deserved to die. They take Jesus to a man named Pilate, the leader of the Romans, and accuse him of all sorts of different things.
Pilate is only interested in one of the accusations, which is whether Jesus said he was King of the Jews and therefore rebelled against Rome. Jesus’ response, “You have said so”, confirms what Pilate is saying, and suggests that Pilate sees that as true. But Jesus is clearly no ordinary rebel. As he is accused of all sorts of other things Jesus remains silent, much to Pilate’s surprise.
We see that Pilate is trying to please the people by releasing someone to them. He expects they will ask for Jesus, because he did nothing wrong. But the chief priest persuades the crowd to ask him to release a prisoner named Barabbas. This man had been rebelling against Rome and killing people, yet they preferred he went free over setting Jesus free.
Imagine what was going through Barabbas’ mind. He knew he was going to be killed, and that he was completely guilty. Then, as the soldiers come to his cell, instead of taking him to be crucified they tell him that he is free! The guilty one was allowed to walk free; someone else was going to die on a cross instead.
Question 3
Why do you think Pilate acted the way he did?
Question 4
In what ways is Barabbas’ experience similar to that of all who have believed in Jesus?
Pray
that God will help you to do the right thing in every situation, and not to do bad things in order to please others.
