“Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. … Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.” (Mt 27:15-16,20)
It is quite common for preachers to claim that the same crowd that welcomed Yeshua into Jerusalem and shouted ‘Hosanna’ a few days later shouted ‘Crucify’ to Him. Throughout the years I have heard this claim on more than one occasion, one of the punch lines being: “You can never trust in people. They change from day to day.”
That might be true. But is it really true that it was the same crowd that changed their view of Yeshua so quickly? The second crowd even shouted: “His blood be on us and on our children!” Since this chilling cry throughout history has been used by the church as a charge against the Jewish people as a race, it is important to find out what the Scriptures really say about this.
First of all, we have the testimony of the disciples on their way to Emmaus in the morning of the resurrection. They told the unknown “stranger” that approached them: “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” (Lk 19-21)
Here we clearly see that it was the leadership headed by the chief priests, and not the people in general, which handed over Yeshua to be executed by the Romans.
Secondly, we also read in Matthew:
“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.” (Mt 21:45-46)
And again in Luke:
“And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.” (Lk 19:47-48)
The chief priests and the Pharisees could not arrest Yeshua openly. They had to do it in secret in the night, because the crowds believed that Yeshua was a prophet, hanging on His words. This was the situation up to the very day before the crucifixion.
So who were the people that had gathered before Pilate that morning when he sentenced Yeshua to death? It was obviously a crowd of people associated with the chief priests that used to deal with the Roman government in demanding the release of prisoners. And it was done in the very morning of the Passover when the godly ones were busy preparing for and celebrating the holy Feast. They were not in Jerusalem to deal with the wicked and despised Roman government.
The Jewish historians confirm that the chief priests during this time were powerhungry and corrupt. The Roman government was involved in their appointments, which led to wicked scheming and political maneuverings with the authorities. It was their followers that made up the crowd that morning that shouted: ‘Crucify, crucify!’
It was not the people in general, and certainly not the godly ones among the Jewish pilgrims, that demanded that a murderer should be released to them. They all hoped that Yeshua was the one to redeem Israel. It says when He was led out to His death: “And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.” (Lk 23:27) Jerusalem in general was loving Him and mourning Him. They still held that He was a prophet and a godly man. They were not asking for His death. Just a few decades later up to half of the city or more had become His disciples as we see in Acts 21:20.
It is important to study the Scriptures carefully and prayerfully with an open mind in order to expose wrong teachings. It will become more crucial the closer we come to the coming of the Messiah. Paul wrote about the Bride: “that he [Messiah] might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:26-27)
