Amy C Walters

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified | Luke 23:13-25

During Jesus’ trial, he bounced around from the Jewish Council to Pilate to Herod and then back to Pilate. No one in authority wants to deal with the Jesus problem. Pilate tries multiple ways to appease the crowd but eventually gives in to their demands, showing that inaction does not make us innocent.

Jesus’ trial continues as he’s bounced around from the Jewish Council to Pilate to Herod, and now back to Pilate. Jesus is a problem that the Roman rulers don’t want to deal with. But he is now back in Pilate’s court, and Pilate has to do something with Jesus.

The problem is that Pilate wants to release Jesus. He mentions twice that Jesus has done nothing to deserve death. But the crowd is insistent and shouting. 

How might that have felt for Pilate, being stuck in between what he wants to do and what the crowd wants him to do? No doubt such a situation would be stressful, and frustrating to feel so stuck.

What does Pilate risk in making a decision? If he does what the crowd wants, allowing Jesus to be crucified, he’d have the blood of an innocent man on his hands. And part of his job as governor is to uphold justice. He would fail at that if he condemns Jesus to death. 

But if he releases Jesus like he wants to do, the crowd will be furious, and it may turn into a riot. Another part of his job as governor is to keep the peace. He might fail at that if he releases Jesus. 

Now, let’s keep in mind here. Pilate is not a good person. He has done some evil things in his lifetime. Even in Luke 13, it talks about Pilate mixing the blood of people with their sacrifices. He was highly problematic.

So Pilate is not trying to release Jesus because he is a believer. He just doesn’t want to do the Jewish leaders any favors. 

Pilate is stuck between what he wants and what the angry mob wants. So Pilate tries to satisfy both. He says he’ll punish Jesus, but then release him. Maybe the punishment will appease the crowd, and maybe the release will keep him, Pilate, from feeling responsible. 

But the crowd doesn’t just want punishment. They want Jesus to be crucified. They keep saying, “Crucify him, crucify him!” 

So Pilate’s next solution is to set up an exchange. Matthew 27:15-26 tells us that it was the custom of the governor during the Passover holiday to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. This is where Barabbas comes into the picture.

He’s a notorious prisoner who had led an insurrection against the government and was also a murderer. So clearly Barabbas is trouble. 

Maybe Pilate’s hope is that the crowd would realize that Barabbas was not someone that they wanted roaming free, able to do whatever he wants, and maybe then they would relent and release Jesus instead.

But what does the crowd do? They demand Barabbas. They want Jesus to take his place.

Pilate is running out of options if he’s going to release Jesus without a riot. So he tries appealing to the crowd one more time. He repeats that he will have Jesus punished and then release him. 

Notice that Pilate’s words are changing ever so slightly. At the beginning of the story, he says, “I will punish him and then release him.” Then it changes to, “I will have him punished and then release him.” Pilate’s statement goes from active to passive, from “I will punish” to “I will have him punished.” He’s already trying to distance himself from being responsible for what’s happening. 

So Pilate makes his third appeal, but it does no good. Ultimately, we’re told that the crowd’s shouts prevailed.

It’s interesting how the shouts are almost personified here. The shouts won. The shouts succeeded. Not the truth, not justice, but shouts, pressure, force, the mob. 

So Pilate gives in to the crowd’s demands. In spite of the fact that Pilate had said twice that he would release Jesus, he instead releases a murderer. And he surrenders Jesus to this murderous crowd’s will.

In the previous story, I wrote about how Jesus does not bend to other people’s will. But here in this story, we see Pilate do that very thing. Jesus stands as a stark contrast to Pilate; Pilate who gave in, Pilate who didn’t stand strong against the pressure. And Jesus who did. Jesus who was faithful to the Father’s will the whole way. 

Pilate has tried hard to do the right thing. He’s appealed to the crowd multiple times, he’s explained that he finds no basis for their charges. But ultimately, he gives in and does the wrong thing, allowing an innocent man to be condemned to death. 

Is Pilate justified in doing this? Is he innocent of Jesus’ blood?

He certainly tries to distance himself from it. But I think we would agree that pressure from the crowd is no excuse for allowing a man to be killed. In fact, I think that Pilate’s response shows us what he really wants to do, and that’s to not have to deal with it at all. He doesn’t want to be in the middle of this situation. He doesn’t want to make this his problem. So his response is no response.

But our key truth for today is that inaction does not make us innocent. 

We see that with Pilate. His job is to uphold justice, but he abdicates his authority because of the pressure of the mob. And Pilate is just as guilty of Jesus’ blood as the mob is. 

But notice that our truth says inaction does not make us innocent. Us.

We see the same inaction today. People trying to take the easy way out and say it’s not their problem. We get politicians who squirm out of making tough decisions because they don’t want to jeopardize their chance of winning the next election.

We see churches who don’t stand up for truth because they don’t want to lose people in the pews. Or people who don’t stand up for truth because they don’t want to be canceled. 

Or maybe we picket and lobby against abortion, but we do nothing to help the single mom down the street from us.

Or we try to avoid racially charged topics and issues because they make us uncomfortable. 

I’m ashamed to say that I once stood by at our neighborhood pool as a young African American man was kicked out for what I think was racism, not because of anything he had done. And I did nothing to stop it or stand up for him because I didn’t want to make it my problem. I still feel awful about that. I should have done something. 

We understand all too well where Pilate’s coming from because we make the same compromise. But we cannot distance ourselves from culpability.

Sometimes too, we avoid making a decision about Jesus one way or the other. We try to stay neutral about him or just not think about him because it’s too confusing or we feel that we’d have to give up too much to follow him. 

But this story shows us that indecision is a decision. It’s a rejection of Jesus. You cannot stay neutral about him. You must choose him.