Luke 23:23, commentary and pictures

The verse shows the chief priests stirring the people to loudly and persistently demand crucifixion until their voices prevailed, while Pilate, though convinced Jesus was innocent and brought for envy, yielded after compromise and delivered Him to be crucified. It records the choice of Barabbas the robber and murderer over Jesus called Christ, the Son of God and innocent, just and holy One, in striking contrast to a notorious pretender held under satanic delusion. Behind the cry Satan was working with his evil band in confederacy with the priests and rulers to kill Christ, and the loud demand exposed his malice before the watching heavenly universe. Jesus had prepared His disciples for this turning of the crowd and choosing of Barabbas, when seeing their own nation demand His blood and subject Him to mockery and death would test their faith, hope and courage to the point of failure. The same demand is repeated today when people by their lives choose Barabbas and reject Christ in the person of His saints, showing whom they serve and calling for decided reform and firm trust in God against human power used for evil.

Trial Before Pilate

The demand that prevailed for crucifixion came after the Sanhedrin had already condemned Jesus and brought Him to Pilate to have the sentence confirmed and carried out. Those who pressed it kept ceremonial rules to avoid defilement while their murderous hatred itself defiled them. In rejecting Christ, the real Passover lamb, they lost the significance of the feast they were keeping.

Pilate knew Jesus was innocent and had been delivered for envy, and he repeatedly objected that no charge against Him had been proved. He proposed to have Jesus punished and then released, and in terrible conflict of soul he fell back on the pagan and unjust festival custom of freeing one condemned prisoner. He had Jesus scourged and displayed beside Barabbas, hoping the sight of His suffering and the contrast with the hardened criminal would move the crowd to pity. The priests stirred the people to furious opposition, and their loud, persistent demand for death continued until it overbore Pilate's attempts to appease them. Worn down by repeated compromise and disregard of conscience, he yielded and delivered Jesus to be crucified despite finding no fault in Him, declaring himself innocent of His blood while the crowd called for Barabbas to be released.

The chief priests themselves joined the demand and stirred the people, so that crowd and priests with one united loud voice in hostile, jeering uproar required crucifixion until their voices prevailed. Their insistence sprang from seeing that the scourging was an attempt to save One whom Pilate had declared innocent, and they were determined not to let Him go. The cry was their choice of Barabbas the robber and murderer over Christ, and it led Jesus toward crucifixion with Herod and Pilate involved and a murderer supplied in His place.

As He was led away the uproar was checked when the crowd saw the mangled body of Judas. Their mockery diminished at that sight. Many showed fear, as if retribution were already coming upon those guilty of His death.

Christ, Barabbas, and Satan

The cry was the moment of choice between Barabbas the robber and murderer and Jesus called Christ, the Son of God who made the world and all things in it. He stood before them as the true and innocent One, the just and holy One, whose power even while bound and under accusation was the power of God and not of a common man. Pilate set the two side by side, flattering himself that the contrast between innocence and guilt would be so convincing that the people would choose Jesus of Nazareth. In most striking contrast Barabbas was a notorious character of great wickedness who pretended to be Christ, claiming religious power and a right to establish a different order of things and to set the world right. He held under satanic delusion that whatever he could obtain by theft and robbery and murder was his own, and did wonderful things through satanic agencies.

Behind that united loud voice demanding crucifixion, Satan was working with fierce determination with his band of evil in confederacy with the priests and rulers of the nation to kill Christ and by one desperate act to cut off all communication between the world and heaven. The fury of priests and rulers was Satanic in its source, springing from envy and malice, and it was Satan who inspired the rejection and led the mob's abuse. The roar of loud voices like wild beasts demanding Barabbas and demanding the crucifixion of Christ meant that Satan personified was chosen before Christ the Son of God. That choice gave Satan exaltation.

The loud, persistent demand revealed Satan's malice and helped expose his character before the universe. The cry and the choice were a sight to the heavenly universe, watched with intense interest from the heavenly courts by angels. The same crowd had hailed Jesus as king, yet now turned to hissing and reviling Him, and their insistent demand for crucifixion prevailed over those who would not condemn Him, showing how fickle the world's favor is.

Faith Tested and Applied

Jesus had been preparing His disciples beforehand so they would not be overwhelmed when the crowd turned against Him and when some who had followed Him abandoned Him. As He neared the cross and descended into the depths of humiliation, delivered into the hands of wicked men, His disciples would see His own nation clamoring for His blood and demanding His death. They would see that nation choose the murderous Barabbas in His place and subject Him to mockery and abuse, to scourging and to being lifted up on the cross to die as a malefactor. He in whom their hopes of eternal life were centered was rejected by His own people, and witnessing that cry for His blood gives cause to mourn and fast. That sight tries faith and makes hope and courage fail.

The people took an active part in Christ's death, mingling their voices with the rabble throng in His rejection and demanding with loud voices that He be crucified until their voices and those of the chief priests prevailed. When Jesus and Barabbas stood before them they chose a robber and murderer rather than the Son of God, shouting for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified. Though Pilate found no fault in Jesus he delivered Him to them while declaring himself innocent of His blood, and the crowd answered with a cry like wild beasts that His blood be on them and on their children, leaving priests and rulers with hands not cleansed from the blood shed in crucifying the world's Redeemer. These same voices later heard the disciples proclaim that the humiliated, spit upon, thorn-crowned, crucified Man is the Prince of Life at the right hand of God, and were pricked in heart unto repentance.

The verse shows Jesus pressed by Jewish priests and rulers moving the Roman governor to carry out their will, even as He hung on the cross, and His experience is an example of trust in God standing firm against human power used for evil. The moment was one of opportunity to choose between Barabbas and Jesus Christ who made the world and all things in it, yet the roar of loud voices like wild beasts demanding Barabbas and demanding Christ's crucifixion meant Satan personified was chosen before Christ the Son of God. That same choice is being made in the world today, with the cry for Barabbas and for Christ to be crucified repeated, and each person demonstrates by his own life whom he is individually choosing. Men are choosing Barabbas and saying crucify Christ, and they will do this to Christ in the person of His saints, going over the same ground that the Jewish priests and rulers went over in their treatment of Christ. Christ was the Son of the infinite God, an innocent man murdered because He told men truths that it did not please them to hear, and a righteous God must avenge the death of His Son in the soon-coming judgment of the world, so all who have united in a course of action that is wrong in principle must make a decided reformation and forever after walk humbly with God.