13 And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: 15 No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. 16 I will therefore chastise him, and release him. 17 (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) 18 And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: 19 (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) 20 Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. 21 But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. 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. 23 And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. 24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. 25 And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:13-25 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. How unwilling, how very unwilling, Pilate was to be an instrument of our Saviour’s death; one while he expostulates with the chief priests, saying, What evil hath he done? No, St. Luke here declares, Pilate came forth three several times, professing that he found no fault in him.
Where note, how much more justice and equity Christ me with from Pilate, a heathen, than from the chief priests and people of the Jews, professing the true religion! Oh, how desperate is the hatred that grows upon the root of religion!
Learn hence, that hypocrites within the church, may be guilty of such tremendous acts of wickedness, as the consciences of infidels and pagans without the church may boggle at, and protest against. Pilate, a pagan, absolves Christ, while the hypocritical Jews, that heard his doctrine, and saw his miracles do condemn him.
Observe, 2. How Pilate, at last, suffers himself to be overcome with the importunity of the Jews, and delivers the holy and innocent Jesus, contrary to his judgment and conscience, to the will of his murderers. It is a vain apology for sin when persons pretend, that they are not committed with their own consent, but at the instigation and importunity of others; for such is the frame and constitution of man’s soul, that none can make a person wicked without his own consent: it was no extenuation of Pilates’s sin, no alleviation of his punishment, that to please the people he delivered our Saviour, contrary to the directions of his own conscience, to be crucified.
Observe, 3. The person whose life the wicked Jews preferred before the life of the holy Jesus, Barabbas: We will that thou release Barabbas, and deliver Jesus. Mark these hypocritical high priests, who pretended such zeal for God and religion; they prefer the life of a person guilty of the highest immoralities and debaucheries, even murder and sedition, before the best man that ever lived in the world.
But whence sprang the malice and hatred of the high priests and of the Jews, against our Saviour?
Why plainly from hence, Christ interpreted the law of God more strictly than their lusts can bear; and he lived a more holy, useful, and excellent life, than they could endure.
Now nothing enrages the men of the world more against the professors, but especially the preachers of the gospel, than holiness of doctrine, and strictness of life and conversation. Such as preach and live well, let them expect such enmity and opposition, such malice and persecution, such sufferings and trials, as will shock ordinary patience and constancy of mind. Our Master met with it, let his zealous ministers prepare for it.
BURKITT | Luke 23:1-12 | Luke 23:13-25 | Luke 23:26 | Luke 23:27-31 | Luke 23:32-33 | Luke 23:34 | Luke 23:35-38 | Luke 23:39-42 | Luke 23:43 | Luke 23:44-56 |