Lenten Reader | Day 37

April 1st, 2026

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Mark 15:1-15

Crucify Him

“Crucify Him!” the crowd shouted…they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” Whenever I read this passage, I imagine what the scene must have looked like. A chaotic display with a crowd that was determined to destroy Jesus. I have always felt sad that Jesus had to endure the disdain and rejection of the people He came to rescue. I have always considered the crowd to be one of the villains of the crucifixion story. Were they really, though? 

Jesus came to offer Himself up as a sacrificial lamb shedding his blood as an atonement for the sins of all people. People like me, and like the people in the crowd as well. They weren’t villains. They were sinners in need of rescue and probably thought they were doing the right thing for God. If the chief priests hadn’t stirred the crowd up and Jesus was not handed over to be crucified, then there would have been no salvation work completed on the cross. 

Whether I like it or not, my sins are no different than those of the crowd. All have fallen short of the glory of God. I have come to feel great compassion for the people in the crowd. My hope is that some in the crowd would have watched the rest of the events unfold and come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Today there are still crowds that have been deceived and wish to destroy the truth of salvation through Jesus. Let us pray for the lost in sin that they would come to the knowledge of salvation through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that they would repent of their sins, and that they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Andy Wood