Luke 23:13 ¶ And Pilate, when he
had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto
me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him
before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye
accuse him: 15 No, nor yet Herod: for I
sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. 16 I will therefore chastise him, and release him.
17 (For of necessity he must release one
unto them at the feast.) 18 And they
cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas: 19 (Who for a certain sedition
made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) 20 Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus,
spake again to them. 21 But they cried,
saying, Crucify him, crucify him. 22
And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I
have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him
go. 23 And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the
chief priests prevailed. 24 And Pilate
gave sentence that it should be as they required. 25 And he released unto them him that for
sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he
delivered Jesus to their will.
Pilate has determined
that Jesus is not guilty of sedition. He is no threat to Rome, as Pilate sees
it. The only threat to the civil order is coming from the chief priests and the
rulers. However, Pilate is cognizant of the fact that there are times when not
giving a mob what they want is more dangerous to public order than resisting
them. The Jews were very fractious and there were often riots and disturbances.
As a Roman official Pilate needed to maintain order not worry about the rights
of an innocent man. Of course, if Jesus had been a Roman citizen He would have
been entitled to certain legal rights as we will see later in Luke’s writing about
Paul.
Notice that, according
to custom, Pilate will release a prisoner for Passover as an act of magnanimity
to show, obviously, the beneficence of Roman rule. Perhaps this is a clue as to
why Herod wanted to keep Peter locked up in Acts 12:4 and not bring him out to
the people until after the feast, which would also be the anniversary of
Christ’s crucifixion. If Herod operated under the same custom as Pilate and
released a prisoner at Passover perhaps he did not want Jesus’ followers demanding
his release. It is hard to say. Considering how Herod handled John the Baptist
I doubt he would have worried about Peter being killed but be more concerned
about him being forced to release him by a crowd of supporters. We know from
that passage that he arrested him to please the Jews so it seems likely that he
wanted to ensure there was no chance for a demand to release Peter.
The crowd demands that
someone who has been found guilty of sedition AND murder be released over
someone who the authorities have found innocent. This shows us clearly the
threat to the Jews, not the Romans at this time and in this place, that the
Lord Jesus Christ presented.
The crowd, spurred on
by the chief priests and rulers, demands that Jesus be crucified. Pilate asserts
his finding of Jesus’ innocence three times as Peter denied Jesus three times.
Pilate gives in. As different eyewitness accounts of any event give one a
clearer picture of the event I recommend taking the time to read John 18 and 19
about Pilate’s dilemma and his capitulation to the crowd.
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