But with one voice, they all cried out, "Away with this fellow! To the cross with him! Don't release him: release to us Barabbas!" It was a custom that at the Feast of the Passover, as a sign of the gladness of the time, to set free some prisoner, whatever man in prison the people should call for. There was at that time in the prison a man named Barabbas, who had led a party of Jews against the Roman rulers, and in the fight had killed a man. He had been condemned to die, but the people did not think any the less of him because he had fought against the Romans, whom they also hated, and whom they would gladly drive out of the land if they were not afraid of their power. The crowd began calling out to Pilate to do as had been done every year, and set free some prisoner. "Are you willing," asked Pilate "that I should free this man Jesus, the King of the Jews?" But the chief priests and the Jewish rulers went around among the crowd, and persuaded them to ask, not for Jesus, but for Barabbas. And the people shouted out, as if they were all one man: "We will not have this man; we will have Barabbas!" This was not what Pilate had looked for. He had thought that according to the custom of the feast he might set Jesus free and still please the people. He said to the crowd: "What then shall I do with Jesus, the man whom they call Christ?" "Send him to the cross! Let him die on the cross!" they roared with all their might. [Illustration: They put on Jesus a cloak of scarlet and wove together a wreath of thorns and pressed it on his head until the blood streamed out; they beat him with the reed, and in mockery bowed before him saying: "Long live the King of the Jews."] "Why, what wicked thing has he done?" asked Pilate of the crowd. "I find nothing on his part that deserves death. I will have him beaten, and let him go!" Then, at Pilate's command, the soldiers took Jesus into the guard room. They stripped off all his clothes, tied him to one of the pillars, and beat him with heavy whips, which tore into his flesh. To mock him, as one who called himself "King," they put on him a cloak of scarlet color; they wove together a wreath of thorns, and pressed it on his head until the blood streamed out; they placed in his hand a reed, as if it were a scepter held by a king; they fell down on their knees before him, and said to him: "Long live the King of the Jews!" They struck him with their hands, over and over again; they beat him with the reed; and they spat in his face. Pilate thought that if the people could see Jesus as he was, crowned with thorns, and covered with blood, they would feel pity for him, and not call for him to be put to death. He said to the Jews: "I will bring him out for you to see; but understand, I cannot find anything wrong in him."