Why did Pilate wash his hands before the crowd?
Pilate washed his hands before the multitude because he saw he could prevail nothing and a tumult was made; he declared, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” That claim is not accepted, for he was not actually innocent.
Les explains, in Matthew 27, that the nation of Israel was on trial more than Jesus. Pilate kept trying to convince the crowd that he could find nothing wrong in Jesus, but they did not want Jesus; they wanted Barabbas. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing and that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” Les challenges that statement: “You think he is? No he isn’t.” So the hand-washing was Pilate’s public attempt to disclaim responsibility while the crowd rejected Jesus.
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.