Mark 15:6–15
The righteous King is exchanged for the guilty, foreshadowing substitutionary redemption.
6 Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whom they asked of him.
7 There was one called Barabbas, bound with his fellow insurgents, men who in the insurrection had committed murder.
8 The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them.
9 Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
10 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead.
12 Pilate again asked them, “What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
13 They cried out again, “Crucify him!”
14 Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, “Crucify him!”
15 Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.
The righteous King is exchanged for the guilty, foreshadowing substitutionary redemption.
To expose the injustice of the crowd’s choice and advance the narrative toward crucifixion.
The Crucified King: Condemnation, Mockery, Death, Confession, and Burial
Jesus is condemned though innocent, mocked as king yet truly enthroned through suffering, crucified in the place of sinners, forsaken under judgment, and revealed in death as the Son of God whose sacrifice tears open temple access and fulfills the saving purpose of God.