Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 23:18-19

"But they cried out all together, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: -- one who for a certain insurrection made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison." — Luke 23:18-19 (ASV)

And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)

Do you not see how they refuted their own accusation? If Christ was really the leader of sedition, would they have asked that he should be put to death? Would they have preferred a murderer to him? There can be no danger of a man leading people astray when those very people were crying, "Let him be put to death." It must have been a transparent fraud. Pilate must have loathed them. Mean as he was, he must have seen through their meanness.