Pilate saw their attitude clearly. He therefore did all he could to make the priests view the matter differently. He cried to the masses, "I find no fault in this man." But when the people, led by the priests, became threatening and shouted again, "Set Barabbas free", Pilate sought to arouse pity for Jesus in them. He had allowed him to be scourged or mutilated, and had this bleeding and half-dead young man brought before the people, and then said, "Behold this man."
      But there was no pity to be had from this crowd, which had been blinded and misguided by the priests. They shouted even more vehemently than before that they wished Barabbas to be set free and Jesus executed. And the priests felt themselves obliged to threaten Pilate and cried: "If you do not set Barabbas free and execute this rebel who calls himself 'The King of the Jews', you are not a friend of Caesar. We have only one king, and he is the emperor of Rome. We will then have to complain about you to the very highest authority." Now Pilate became frightened. There had been complaints about him to Caesar before. He now saw himself in danger and his position threatened. So he set Barabbas free and sentenced Jesus to death, merely to save his own skin. And very many people even today feel indignant towards Pilate. But in reality he was neither worse nor better than all other unfinished civilised human beings. His behaviour shows us the average civilised human being's mentality, not only in Palestine about 1900 years ago, but also the behaviour of the average civilised human being of today here in the midst of the modern scientific world of the 20th century.
      The modern unfinished civilised human being of today is just as hesitant in choosing between the Barabbas-mentality and the Christ-mentality in his own temperament. And this faltering Pilate-mentality will persist as long as there is a human being left on earth who is not completely evolved and has not become a "human being in God's image".