Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city and for murder.)

Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” Luke 23:18- 22

Why Barabbas?

Indeed, why a murderer and insurrectionist set free, instead of Jesus? It is a question reverberating  through the centuries.

Pilate had a tradition,  during  the Jewish Festival of Passover,  to release one person  from jail.  When Jesus is brought to  him, not finding any evidence of wrongdoing, he intends to set him free.  His wife has already warned him  against harming Jesus, after a sleepless night of troubling dreams.  She begged Pilate to have nothing to do with hurting  an innocent man.

So Pilate offers to release Jesus. To his surprise and ours, a crowd shouts for the release of Barabbas, instead of Jesus.

We try to explain it by saying religious leaders stirred anger and resentment towards Jesus. Still, why the sudden change? How could Jesus, who entered Jerusalem days earlier with cheers and  songs of praise, be so despised just a few days later?

Do our whims really change so quickly?

I ponder this question of, “Why Barabbas?” Why a thief over a compassionate rabbi? Why an insurrectionist instead of one who came in peace?

Is the human condition such, that crowds will always choose the perceived strong man?  The one who acts and talks tough. Or were those in the crowd afraid? Afraid of what 1st Century Religious Police could do to them?  Afraid of what power those who wanted Jesus dead, had over them?

Ultimately, we will never know why the crowd chose Barabbas to be set free. But we do know, the outcome.   In the end, after Pilate asked what he should do with Jesus, the crowd responded with, “Crucify him, crucify him.”

And so it was, Jesus was led like a sheep to the slaughter, flogged and mocked and crucified, in the name of those, who thought they were wise, and right, and good.  People feeling justified and righteous, while killing an innocent man.

^“So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”   So he released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus he handed him over to be crucified.” Matthew 27:24,26