Mark 15:6-15
The Crowd Chose Barabbas
6Now it was Pilate’s custom at the feast to release to the people a prisoner of their choosing.
7And a man named Barabbas was imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection.
8So the crowd went up and began asking Pilate to keep his custom.
9“Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” Pilate asked.
10For he knew it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over.
11But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas to them instead.
12So Pilate asked them again, “What then do you want me to do with the One you call the King of the Jews?”
13And they shouted back, “Crucify Him!”
14“Why?” asked Pilate. “What evil has He done?” But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!”
15And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.
Berean Standard Bible
There was a custom at the feast. The governor would let one prisoner go, whichever one the people asked for. This time it falls on the worst possible morning.
There is a man already in the cells, and Mark tells us what for.
And a man named Barabbas was imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection.
So the choice going in front of the crowd is between a man locked up with killers after a riot and a man the governor has already worked out is innocent. Mark does not leave us guessing about the governor either.
For he knew it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over.
Envy. Not fear of blasphemy, not concern for the law, and not any real doubt about the evidence. The man running the courtroom could see exactly what was being done inside it, and he held the hearing anyway.
He offers them the King of the Jews. The chief priests work their way through the crowd. The crowd asks for Barabbas. Pilate, losing hold of the morning by the minute, asks what he is supposed to do with the man they call the King of the Jews, and they shout for him to be crucified. He asks what evil the man has done, and what comes back is more volume. Nobody in that courtyard ever answers the question, because a crowd that has stopped thinking has nothing to answer it with.
These verses need handling with care, because they have been put to bad use for a very long time. What Mark describes is a crowd in a courtyard, worked on by a handful of officials, at one hour of one morning. It is not a nation. Every man who followed Jesus was a Jew, every woman who stayed at the cross was a Jew, and so was he. Anyone who has used this passage to hate a people has read it backwards.
And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.
What physically happened that morning is easy enough to state. A guilty man walked out of a cell and went home, and an innocent man was taken away and killed in his place. Isaiah had written long before that he was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and that the punishment that brought us peace was laid on him. The first man to go free because Jesus was condemned never asked for it and most likely never understood what had happened to him.
How We Know
The sequence in verse 15 matches Roman practice. Roman crucifixion ordinarily involved scourging of the condemned beforehand, and the governor held the authority to release or condemn without reference to anyone else.
Verse 7 fits its setting too. Barabbas is imprisoned with rebels who had committed murder in an uprising, and armed unrest was a recurring feature of Judea under direct Roman rule.
Both are consistent with the period.
- Josephus, Jewish War 2.306. What Mark reports and does not source is Pilate's motive: he says the governor knew the chief priests had handed Jesus over out of envy.
Questions
1 Has anybody ever let you off something you had earned? What did that feel like at the time?
AnswerAnswers here go in different directions, and the awkward ones are the useful ones. Being let off is a relief and it is also a debt, and most of us would rather have earned our way out.
2 What does Mark tell us about Barabbas?
AnswerThat he was in prison alongside rebels who had committed murder during the uprising. Mark gives him a name and a crime, and then lets him walk out of the passage without another word about him.
3 Mark says Pilate knew something. What was it, and what did he do about it?
AnswerThat the chief priests had handed Jesus over out of envy. Not fear of blasphemy and not concern for the law. The governor could see what was being done to the man in front of him, and he ran the hearing anyway.
4 Pilate asks what evil Jesus has done. What answer does he get?
AnswerNone at all. The shouting gets louder instead. Nobody in that courtyard ever names one thing Jesus had actually done wrong, and Pilate goes ahead without an answer. Mark has already told us he knew why they wanted this, and it made no difference to what he did next.
What This Means for Us
Barabbas is the plainest picture of this in the passage. He did not repent, he did not ask, and as far as Mark tells us he never met Jesus. He was in a cell with murderers, somebody else's name got called instead of his, and he walked out into the morning still guilty of everything he had done.
That is uncomfortable, and it should be. The arrangement did not depend on Barabbas being sorry, or on his understanding the first thing about it. It depended on somebody else standing in his place.
Anybody here who thinks they have to clean themselves up first should look at that man for a minute. He was exactly as guilty walking out as walking in, and he went home.
Prayer
Father, a guilty man went home that morning because your Son did not. We are in his position and we know it. Thank you that you did not wait until we deserved it. Help us do something worth doing with the days we were handed. Amen.