Luke 23:22
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. 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.
For the third time Pilate asked what evil Jesus had done, declaring repeatedly that He had done nothing deserving death and that he found no fault in Him. This was said in the judgment hall where His accusers proved nothing guilty against Him while the Jewish priests and rulers pressed the Roman governor to carry out their will. Though convinced of His innocence, Pilate proposed to chastise and scourge Him and then release Him, in order to appease those crying for crucifixion rather than firmly protecting Him. That willingness to punish One he knew was guiltless was a cruel compromise of justice and conscience, and his wavering attempt to satisfy the mob only encouraged their demands and intensified the cry for crucifixion. Despite the verdict of innocence he ordered Christ bruised and mangled by scourging and then delivered Him to a shameful death by crucifixion, while a robber and murderer was released in His place.
Pilate's Examination and Verdict
The verse belongs to the examination of Jesus before Pilate in the judgment hall. It was a mock trial in which His accusers proved nothing guilty against Him. At that trial the Jewish priests and rulers pressured the Roman governor to carry out their will.
For the third time Pilate asked what evil He had done. He declared repeatedly that He had done no evil deserving death. He found no fault in Him at all and no cause for a death sentence in Him. He saw no sign of guilt in Jesus and resolved to investigate the charges before condemning Him. He knew Jesus had been brought to the judgment hall for envy. He knew that even bound and under accusation His power was the power of God and not of a common man. He wanted to save the innocent man rather than give Him up to a maddened power, and his soul was in terrible conflict.
Herod was stirred up by the chief priests. Acting in union with Pilate, he joined in the unjust death. By that united action the just and holy Son of God was killed while a murderer was released in His place.
Compromise Through Unjust Punishment
Though convinced He had done nothing deserving death, Pilate proposed to have Jesus chastised, scourged and beaten and then released, seeking to conciliate and appease those crying for crucifixion rather than firmly protecting Him from their demand for death. He asked again what evil had been done and protested against putting to death One against whom nothing deserving death could be proved, yet offered scourging and release as a middle course. That offer stopped short of the protection justice required when no cause for a death sentence had been found.
Willingness to punish One known to be guiltless was cruel injustice, a compromise of justice and principle. It was a failure to stand by the evidence and by conscience and to judge fairly, violating conscience step by step until an innocent man was helped toward a shameful death. The yielding that caused Jesus great bodily pain left Pilate himself facing remorse.
The offer revealed weakness and wavering, letting the mob decide. Pilate hoped in vain to satisfy the crowd and to stir pity so that they would accept the punishment as sufficient and let Him go. The attempt to appease them only encouraged their demands and intensified the cry for crucifixion, helping to bring him under the rulers' influence.
Jesus was already faint with weariness and covered with wounds after the shameful humiliation of trial, and the proposed chastisement meant His sacred flesh would be further bruised and mangled. Stripped to the waist with a crown of thorns on His head, He bore long cruel stripes from which blood flowed freely. Pale, blood-stained, exhausted and pained, He was scourged before the multitude to gratify the satanic fury of priests and rulers possessed and controlled by Satan and his hellish army.
Despite that verdict of innocence, with His accusers having proved nothing guilty against Him and with the declaration three times made that no fault at all was found in Him, Pilate ordered Christ scourged and then delivered Him to His enemies. He was handed over to wicked men and scourged like a criminal, then given up to suffer a shameful and most cruel death by crucifixion. His own nation demanded His death while the release of Barabbas, a robber and murderer, was demanded instead.
Christ, Barabbas, and Witnesses
Pilate fell back on the pagan and unjust festival custom of freeing one condemned prisoner as a subterfuge to save the innocent prisoner before him. He set side by side the true and innocent Christ, the Son of God who made the world and all things in it, noble and gentle even in suffering, and the notable Barabbas, a robber, murderer, and debased hardened chief who personified Satan. Even stripped to the waist, crowned with thorns, pale, blood-stained, exhausted and pained from cruel stripes, Jesus could not hide His noble character, which stood in marked contrast to Barabbas, whose every feature proclaimed him a hardened robber chief. Pilate flattered himself that this contrast between innocence and guilt would convince the people to choose Jesus of Nazareth.
Stirred by the priests and rulers, the people with one voice roared like wild beasts for Barabbas and demanded His blood. Satan was working through those leaders, determined to destroy Christ and cut off communication between heaven and earth. So the crowd chose the robber and murderer over Christ the Son of God, crying for Him to be crucified because He spoke truths they did not want to hear, revealing their hatred. Their demand exposed the injustice of Christ's rejection and the cruelty of the forces driving it.
The trial was a mockery of justice in which religious oppression and falsehood condemned the innocent Son of God, though His accusers proved nothing guilty against Him. These last scenes of His life on earth, His trial and crucifixion, were witnessed by the heavenly universe, by God the Father, and by Satan and his angels. Angels from the heavenly courts watched their Commander insulted, mocked, scourged, and put into merciless hands.
His betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and the crowd's cry to crucify Him became a severe test for His disciples. He had prepared them beforehand so the crowd's fickleness and betrayal would not take them by surprise or sweep them into despair. Seeing their beloved Teacher treated as a criminal and handed over to wicked men, though no cause of death had been found in Him, gave them cause to mourn and fast and tested their faith, hope, and courage.
The same choice is being made in the world now, when men cry for Barabbas and for Christ to be crucified. The same rejection of Christ is repeated when His saints are persecuted for truths men do not want to hear. Every person individually demonstrates by his life whether he is choosing Satan or Christ.