Pilate asked for a reason. The crowd demanded death, but no one had named a crime that deserved it. His question presses them to say what Jesus had done wrong. It also exposes what Pilate already believed: that the chief priests had delivered Jesus "for envy" (Mark 15:10), not for any evil He had done. Luke records that this was the third time Pilate pleaded, adding, "I have found no cause of death in him" (Luke 23:22). Gill sums it up: "They had charged him with many things, but proved nothing against him."

The crowd gave no answer to his question. They named no crime. Instead "they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him" (Mark 15:14). Louder shouting replaced a reason. Gill says they cried "with louder voices, and greater vehemency, the more they found he was inclined to save him," and that "nothing short of death would satisfy them." Pilate gave way: "willing to content the people," he released Barabbas and delivered Jesus, after scourging Him, to be crucified (Mark 15:15).

Pilate's question is the same in Matthew 27:23 and Luke 23:22, and all three Gospels record the crowd answering with a demand for crucifixion (Matthew 27:23; Mark 15:14; Luke 23:23). Luke adds that Pilate offered to "chastise him, and let him go" (Luke 23:22), and that "the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed" (Luke 23:23).

Matthew adds that when Pilate saw he "could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made," he washed his hands before the multitude (Matthew 27:24).

The question "what evil hath he done?" has only one true answer: none. The crowd named none, and in Luke, Pilate says, "I have found no cause of death in him" (Luke 23:22). The Gospels make sure we see that Jesus did not die for His own wrongdoing. Peter later wrote that He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). Barnes, in his note on the parallel in Matthew 27:18, sees God's wisdom even here: "the overruling providence of God, that he was condemned by a man who was satisfied of his innocence."

That is what makes His death so striking. The One who had done no evil was condemned, while Barabbas, who had committed murder, went free (Mark 15:7, 15). Paul writes that God "hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).