“Meanwhile, the leading priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again, ‘Which of these two do you want me to release to you?’ The crowd shouted back, ‘Barabbas!’”
And so it went. Jesus, the King of kings, Creator of the universe, the healer of the sick, the Light of the world, the Living water, the Alpha and Omega, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the One who calmed the storm, raised the dead and fed thousands upon thousands...was to be crucified...
...and the vile, rebellious, notorious murderer, Barabbas, was to be set free.
It sounds so backwards. How do a people decide that the murderer should go free and that the innocent should be violently tortured to death? It sounds like the gospel. The Righteous for the unrighteous. The Son of God for the sinful man. The older I have gotten, the more painfully aware I am of the brokenness of the world. There is a darkness covering the land. Maximize pleasure, minimize pain. Rise to the top by whatever means it takes. Dismiss those who are of no benefit to you. Ignore conviction. Deny the pain you have endured and the pain you have inflicted. Paul describes it well in his letter to Timothy,
In the last days, people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful, proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious but they will reject the power that could make them godly... (II Timothy 3:2-5)
There is “nothing new under the sun,” as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. Man has always wanted his own way and has viciously been driven by the flesh. As Luther once described it, “Sin is man curved in toward the self.” As humans, we become beasts who roam the earth seeking each other like prey. Yet God created us to be “curved outward,” toward God and away from self.
At the core we all fit Paul’s description. These words tell the tale of centuries. The human condition is stained with the black of pride, greed, and selfishness. We are all Barabbas. We are vile, rebellious and motivated by devouring one another. Pilate stands between two men: one falsely accused and one already verified guilty. The crowd screams out for Jesus the Christ to be crucified. The image is clear. Steeped in wrongdoing and burdened with the crimes we have committed, we walk free.
Jesus stays back, standing on the platform, battered, bloody and bruised. Silent before His accusers. Watching us walk free.
This is why Easter is so unavoidable. This is why the one trait that should be most discernible in Christians is humility.
Sadly, however, it’s not.
We don’t see ourselves in dire need. Too often we consider ourselves clean, pure and rather good. But the cross is a barefaced reminder: each of us needs a rescue.
We are Barabbas. And we have been undeservedly set free.
