<p>27:17 <em>Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them: Who do you want me to- </em>See on 26:57. The way the Jews were &quot;gathered together&quot; at this time, literally 'synagogued', is significant in that we see how the Lord's passion gathered men together, either for or against Him. And it is the same today. </p><p><em>Release to you</em>- This word is used of how Paul could have been released or &quot;let go&quot; because after examination by the Romans, &quot;there was no cause of death in me&quot; (Acts 28:18). Paul's trials are full of connection with those of the Lord, and Paul (like us) took special comfort in any similarity between the Lord's sufferings and his own. For this is indeed why we have such a mass of detail about the Lord's final sufferings- we are to see endless points of connection between His experiences and our own. And as Paul says, if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. It was to this process which we signed up to at baptism, in which we dedicated ourselves to a life of dying and living with Him. </p><p><em>Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?</em>- Not 'who claims to be Christ' or 'is called by some 'the Christ''. Pilate is reminding them Jesus was the Christ, and they had stated that they thought this was a capital offence. Pilate was offering them the choice between Barabbas and Jesus exactly because he knew they would choose Barabbas. He had a conscience about the matter of this Jesus of Nazareth, and he wanted the choice to crucify Him to be theirs and not his. He cleverly reasoned that he had pronounced Jesus innocent, but the choice to kill him would effectively have been the choice of the Jews if they chose Barabbas over Jesus. This is all the sense of the following explanatory comment &quot;For he knew that they had delivered him up out of envy&quot;.</p>