INTRODUCTION... Beauty and the Beast
One of my wife’s favorite movies of all time is Disney’s ’Beauty and the Beast’ which came out in the early 90s. The story centers around a young woman named Belle and her experiences with the Beast. The story begins with her father becoming lost in the woods and imprisoned by the Beast. Belle searches for her father and finds him in the Beast’s castle. She trades herself for him and agrees to stay with the Beast forever. The father flees back to town and reports what has happened and that his daughter is in danger. While this is happening, a romance grows between the Beauty and the Beast. The great hero hunter of the town, Gaston, whips the people into a frenzy to go and kill this Beast. Gaston wants Belle for himself of course and so there are dubious motives.
The people of the town attack the castle and will not listen to Belle that the Beast is harmless and will not pose any danger. The people are in such a frenzy to shed blood that this is all they can think of.
John 19:12-16 records for us the same kind of situation. The Roman governor Pilate sees that Jesus is an innocent man. The people would not listen to Pilate and only shouted “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!” The chief priests were among the people stirring them up for bloodshed. In the end, the people were in such a frenzy that all they wanted to do was kill Jesus.