Mark 15:14

Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath He done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify Him!

What a picture the evangelist paints here! The surging mob before the Praetorium, rabble, for the most part, but reinforced by the friends of the Jewish councilors; the weak, vacillating procurator, helpless before the bloodthirstiness of the multitude, now appearing on the platform before them, then disappearing for a while, racking his brains for some way out of the difficulty; the high priests and the members of the Sanhedrin, circulating around through the mob, holding the excitement at its highest pitch, since their understanding and consequent use of mob psychology enabled them to dominate the situation. Pilate had introduced the custom of giving some prisoner his liberty on this feast, the one whose release the people desired being usually set free. This custom had now practically become an obligation. The people expected this boon at Easter; and both he and they thought of this fact. Pilate believed that he could still save the situation by giving the people the choice between Jesus and Barabbas. For the latter was an exceptionally fierce criminal. As the leader or one of the foremost in a band of rebels, in one of the many insurrections that were troubling the government, he had committed a murder. He had been caught with his accomplices and was now awaiting his punishment, bound in jail. The governor felt that no people could be so depraved as to ask for such an outcast of society. But hardly had he made up his mind just how to manage the affair, when the people, surging forward, began to demand that he do according to custom, that he grant them that which he had always given them. Their request was accompanied by loud bellowing of the rabble, who instinctively felt that they had the situation in their hands.

The weak proposal of Pilate confirmed them in their belief: Is it your wish and desire, shall I release to you the King of the Jews? His choice of names for Christ at that moment was probably most unfortunate, for its very use was a challenge and an insult to the members of the Sanhedrin. Ordinarily this scheme of playing off the people with their champion, whom they had hailed with such shouts of joy a few days before, against the priests, whose rule was not always relished by the common members of the Jewish Church, might have been successful. For Pilate rightly surmised, and was being confirmed in his belief with every new move of the accusers, that jealousy, envy, was the real reason for delivering Jesus to the jurisdiction of his court. But the priests had been too successful in stirring up, in exciting, in instigating the people. There was no longer even the faintest resemblance to an orderly trial with cool and sensible leads on both sides. The people, under the careful prompting of the high priests, were fully convinced in their own minds that they actually, for their own persons, preferred to have Barabbas released to them. Another appeal of Pilate: What, then, is your wish that I should do with Him you call King of the Jews? The repetition of the hated title was again a foolish move on Pilate's part. Lashed to a perfect spasm of fury, the people, led by the high priests, yelled: Crucify Him! Pilate's weak remonstrance as to any guilt on His part was like the chirping of a cricket in the midst of a tornado. For with mounting rage the bellowing cry rolled out through the narrow streets over the city: Crucify Him! The time for reason and sense had gone by. The unleashed rage of the rabble wanted blood, and Pilate, although convinced of Christ's innocence, knew that the situation was beyond him, for this cry that arose from the people, beyond all measure, showed him that it was too late to insist upon justice. Many a so-called man of the world, that thinks he is neutral with regard to Christianity and believes in letting well enough alone, since undoubtedly the Christian Church is doing much for the community, has followed the example of Pilate in a crisis. Feeling that his original conviction was the right, the correct one, he yet, in times of popular agitation and demonstration, has joined the rank of the rabble that cheer today and curse tomorrow, that cry "Hosanna" on Sunday and bellow a hoarse "Crucify Him!" on the following Friday.