Mark 15:15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed hm over to be crucified.
Crowds are fickle entities. One minute they are protesting the police and demanding that the police departments be defunded, and the next minute they are complaining that it is taking too long for the police to arrive when they need help. They hail Jesus as king, waving palm branches as He enters the city, and they they are crying, “Crucify Him!”
Crowds are not predictable leaders of moral decisions. They are too easily swayed. All it takes is a loud voice and a few that join in with the loud voice, and the crowd is off to destruction. And if the loud voice has an agenda, all bets are off. Their plan will be carried out.
We are seeing the crowd with an agenda leading many decisions right now in our world. The genuine concern at the beginning of the COVID 19 outbreak has caused the current facts around Omicron to be ignored. I looked at the stats yesterday on Omicron here in the United States.
COVID CASES USA: 712,051 JAN 17 2022; 170,094 JAN 17 2021
DEATHS: 774 JAN 17 2022; 1,730 JAN 17 2021
Just in case you missed it, about four times the cases, but less than one half the deaths. So adjusted to cases, 2021 ten deaths per thousand cases, 2022 one death per thousand cases, a tenfold drop in lethality.
But if you listened to the crowd, you would think it was much worse now than last year.
But the Roman governor of Judea, a man with the power of life and death in that region of the Roman Empire, listened to the crowd! Why would a man with that much power listen to the crowd? He gained nothing.
Well, maybe Pilate didn’t want the headache that early in the morning. Maybe he had a golf game scheduled with a tee time of 9AM and he didn’t want to miss it. Maybe he had learned it was much easier to give the Jews what they wanted than listen to them complain! Not a good parenting strategy, and not a good one for leading a government either.
In fact, in this case, it was certainly a move that endangered his rule. Barabbas was a known conspirator, a known insurrectionist. Why would you want him on the loose? Behind bars where you can keep an eye on him was the best place in the province for him.
And yet he lets him go! This makes no sense. Jesus, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, is condemned to death while a known killer is set free. The guilty versus the Innocent. Who would you set free?
Mark includes this detail to show this exact point. Jesus was innocent, and yet He allowed Himself to be killed for the guilty. That is the Gospel message in a nutshell.
We deserve death, just like Barabbas. But Jesus took the punishment we deserve and had earned, and He dies in our place. His death for our life. We are set free because of His death. That is Good News!
Some say that the flogging was a mercy given by Pilate to Jesus. Flogging was much easier to take than days hanging on a cross. The flogging would have weakened anyone so that they wouldn’t have the strength to endure days of crucifixion. Maybe that was Pilate’s way of honoring Jesus. Seems a strange way to honor, right after you have recognized His innocence.
Leaders need to lead and not follow the whims of a crowd. They need to lead from principle and not from polls and focus groups. We need leaders who lead from principle in every area of life. We need to be leaders ourselves with principles that matter for eternity.
What are the principles that drive your life?
The Arnold Journey 