Mark 15:13

‘And they again cried out, “Crucify him”.

This cry could only first have arisen from the enemies of Jesus. To them it was the perfect solution. Pilate had played into their hands. And later they would be able to blame the patriotic crowd for what happened. By this they stained the Jews forever with their own evil desires. His being crucified would get rid of Him, would put the blame firmly on the Romans and would ensure He died under a curse, suspended in the open as a criminal (Galatians 3:13). But the others probably joined in because they wanted there to be no danger of Barabbas not being released, and even possibly because in their callousness they saw it as a grim joke that one of the ‘softies' should take Barabbas' place. They did not care what happened to this other, (‘not this man' - John 18:40). He was not to their liking. Indeed rumour may even have got around that in some way He was threatening to destroy their Temple (Mark 14:58).