The crowd had gathered, and they wanted someone released. In Jesus’ day, it was customary during Passover for a prisoner to be set free in commemoration of the Jews’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt.

Pilate was no political novice. So he gave the mob a choice: the One who raised Lazarus from the dead or the one whose sword had probably sent many to an early grave. The choice seemed obvious. But the people chose the murderer Barabbas.

Mob rule always prefers the wild, the rebel, the maniacal. It chooses the jackals: the Barabbases, the Stalins, and the Hitlers of the world. It rejects the lowly, the humble, the servants, the lambs.

What if we had been there? Whom would we have chosen? We would like to believe that we would have chosen Jesus. But would we? The voice of the crowd is so powerful. A few days before the trial, the crowd had shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Now the people were crying out, “Crucify Him!” The pressure of the multitude can confuse us, frighten us, and carry us away.

O God, help us. Sometimes in the crowd, in spite of all that we know, we’re still tempted to choose the jackal. Help us to choose the Lamb.

  — David C. Egner