Pilate Did Not Want To Kill Jesus.

 15) Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

2) “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

3) The chief priests accused him of many things. 4) So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

5) But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

6) Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

9) “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

12) “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

13) “Crucify him!” they shouted.

14) “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

15) Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Blogger: Pilate knew about Jesus's popularity with the people so it was a total certainty that a crowd would release Jesus and not a murderer. His ploy was excellent and also followed Jewish custom.

Note that this was VERY early in the morning on a holiday. Most would have been partaking of a lie-in.

Those addressed by Pilate were clearly those who had come directly from the trial along with their servants and hangers-on! - A fact evidently not spotted by Pilate.

I have often heard it preached that "The same people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem at the Triumphal Entry turned on him over a few days and were now demanding his execution."

Not so. Two completely distinct groups of people.