Crowds are convinced

Now as part of the festival [Passover AD 30 Jerusalem] the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd any one prisoner whom they wished. At that time, they had an infamous prisoner called ‘Jesus Son-of-the-father’. So, they having been brought together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you wish that I may release away to you: Jesus the Son-of-the-father, or Jesus the one called Christ?” For he had perceived that it was out of jealousy that they had given him over. Also, as he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife had sent out for him, stating, “Nothing – between you and that same righteous man – because I was greatly moved today through a dream about him.” Now the chief priests and the elders convinced the crowds that they might call for the Son-of-the-father and might destroy away Jesus. The governor answering said to them, “Which of the two do you wish me to release away to you?” And they said, “The Son-of-the-father.” Pilate stated to them, “Then what may I do to Jesus the one called Christ?” They all stated, “Crucify him.” And he disclosed, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted exceedingly, stating, “Crucify him.” Matthew 27: 15-23

“There has never been a perfect forgery of banknotes”. If an expert told you that, would you accept it? Of course not! A little wisdom will immediately realize that, if a perfect forgery had been achieved, the expert would be completely unaware of it – would, in fact, have been fooled by it. Or could there be another reason for making such a statement – a reason motivating the expert to make a false statement like that? If the crowd needed to be confident that bank notes were truly valuable and could be totally trusted, an expert might well make such a statement knowing it to be false.
A precisely parallel situation arose in Jerusalem in AD 30 – see bold above.	‘The trouble with stretching the truth is that people are apt to see through it.’ (Anon.)
Most of us will, I hope, be aware that Barabbas (instead of Jesus) was chosen for release by Pilate at that fateful time. Few of us may have realized that Bar-Abbas is Greek for Son-of-the-father. Even fewer will know that this was not the full name by which je was known, which was Jesus the Barabbas – Jesus the son-of-the-father. For some reason translators have, for centuries, not disclosed this to English readers. This prisoner’s combined name stated that he was the saviour who was the son of the father God above. It was the strong desire of all of Jerusalem’s grandees – the chief priests and the elders – that this Barabbas be released from death row and set free to the crowd. Put your trust in a forgery. It was these grandees who convinced the crowd. They knew that this banknote was forged but they wanted it back in circulation rather than the real thing. Why? Pilate “had perceived that it was out of jealousy that they had given him over.” Yes, there was a reason why the crowd should call for the ‘right man’ to be released. It was so that the other man would be crucified and that would be good because this other one was so hugely better than all of them in every way that he had to be destroyed. Wikipedia reports: In economics, Gresham's law is a monetary principle stating that "bad money drives out good". For example, if there are two forms of commodity money in circulation, which are accepted by law as having similar face value, the more valuable commodity will gradually disappear from circulation.
An obvious question arises: was the real Jesus really ‘good money’? Rather than become a Jersey grandee by telling you what to be convinced about, I’m going to leave that to you to decide.	‘Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks, and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks.’ (Phillips Brooks, lyricist of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’, 1835-1893)
Maybe you’ll decide that he was as good as the chief priests and elders knew he was. And as they would come to know with even greater certainty when he willingly but painfully submitted to their rejection of him – and was raised from the dead. Maybe not.

Sinner Syvret

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