Let's go to Golgotha

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"Give us Barabbas!" (from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910). Were they all tourists?
"Give us Barabbas!" (from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910). Were they all tourists?

Let's go to Golgotha is a 1975 Science Fiction story by Garry Kilworth, published in a collection of the same name.

In the future period where the story takes place, time-travel has been invented and made commercially availalble. Among other things, tourists can book on a time-travelling "Crucifixtion Tour". Before setting out, they are strictly warned that they must not do anything to disrupt history. Specifically, when the crowd is asked whether Jesus or Barabbas should be spared, they must all join the call "Give us Barabbas!". (A priest absolves them from any guilt for so doing). However, when the moment comes, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd condemning Jesus to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual Jewish Jerusalemites of 33 A.D. are present at all.