23:13-17
Pilate calls the religious leaders to come before him and again tells them that he can find no basis for their claims. He also tells them that Herod could find no basis either. This agreement between Herod and Pilate on the nature of the case is presumably the reason for the new friendship between the two of them. They both recognised that Jesus was not inciting rebellion. Luke emphasises this point because the Roman authorities were starting to become the prime source of persecution of the Christians, and accusing them of the sorts of charges the Jews were bringing here. There is no rebellion against the state.
“Therefore, I will punish Him and then release Him”. This might seem rather strange to us, if He is innocent why not just release Him? We need to remember that we are talking about less politically correct times, and justice was much rougher! You won’t find v17 in most Bibles, but will see a footnote. The best manuscripts don’t have v17.
23:18,19
So Pilate has made the “right” decision, but he is driven by pragmatic reasons, not reasons of justice. Making right decisions, and making them for the right reasons are important. If we make right decisions for pragmatic reasons we will be easily turned from them given enough pressure, and that is what happened here. “The whole crowd” shouted ... Barabbas was a genuine troublemaker, genuinely guilty of the charges they had brought against Jesus. “The whole crowd” were the religious leaders, and anyone else they had managed to get to come along with them. So we see the depths of human sinfulness.
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