Matthew 27:20-21

Matthew 27:20-21: But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said, Barabbas!

Pilate was perhaps the most anxious person present among the Crucifixion participants. He knows that a legal trial would result only in an acquittal of the Prisoner. This would arouse the indignation of the chief priests and scribes, who, Pilate would fear, would misrepresent Pilate to Caesar as an untrustworthy servant of Rome. They could accuse Pilate of being soft on seditionists trying to overthrow the government.

Pilate then chooses to put the decision regarding Jesus to the multitude that had gathered in front of Pilate's Judgment Hall. Democracy had not made it into captured nations, but Pilate briefly offers the people the right to vote on which prisoner will live, and which will die.

Like political operatives, the chief priests went through the crowd persuading them to ask for the release of Barabbas. When Pilate asked, the crowd unanimouly cried out for Barabbas to be released.

During the economic crises that followed World War I, European nations such as Italy and Germany elected men with no moral values because they promised to end the woes in the economy. Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Hitler rebuilt Germany into a war machine stronger than that of any other nation. They did what they promised, and because of that 18 million lost their lives. The priests and scribes convinced the people to choose Barabbas, when the Savior was standing right there.