Pilate wanted very much to let Jesus go, and he said, 'What shall I do
then with Jesus?'

The crowd shouted, 'Let Him be crucified! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'

'Why,' said Pilate, 'what has He done wrong? He does not deserve to
die. I will scourge Him and let Him go.'

Then the people cried out more loudly than ever, 'Let Him be crucified!
Crucify Him!'

But Pilate did not want to be shouted at for five or six days and
nights again. And, besides, he rather wanted to please the Jews if he
could, because he had done many things to vex them; so he thought, 'I
will do what they wish.' But first he had a basin of water brought,
and he washed his hands before all the people, and said, 'I have
nothing to do with the blood of this good Man. See ye to it.' And all
the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us, and on our
children.' Sometimes now, when we don't want to have anything to do
with a thing, we say, 'I wash my hands of it.' But Pilate did have
something to do with the death of Jesus, and water would not wash away
that sin.

And at last, wishing to please them, Pilate had Barabbas brought out of
prison, and gave Jesus up to be beaten. The Roman soldiers seized
Jesus, and took off His clothes and put a scarlet dress on Him, to
imitate the Emperor's purple robe; and they twisted pieces of a thorny
plant which grows round Jerusalem into the shape of a crown, and put it
on His head; and they put a reed in His hand for a sceptre. And then