LENT 2016 – GOING TO JERUSALEM

Holy Week, Tuesday

Barabbas or Jesus: Matthew 27: 15 -23, 26

          Matthew describes Barabbas as “notorious’. It is a colourful word that has mostly negative connotations. Barabbas was someone who had a bad and nasty reputation, at least among the Romans. Perhaps he was a celebrated freedom fighter, a Jewish liberationist, which may have made him somewhat popular among some of the people, and therefore their cry for his release.  But it would also put him on the most-wanted list at the local, Roman post office.

Or perhaps, he was just a thug, a frequent violator of Roman law, someone who had a rap sheet a mile long, and always in trouble; he may just have been just a very horrible man, capable of anything.

Either way, he was finally caught and faced punishment. Barabbas was probably slated for a cross himself that coming day. The Romans were not much for long imprisonments or rehabilitation. There were usually no such things as ex-cons under Roman law.

There has been scholarly debate whether there ever was such a custom as offering clemency to a prisoner on the Passover. Maybe it was unique to Pilate. But it came down to a choice between Barabbas and Jesus. The not-so-innocent versus the innocent. A proven malcontent and troublemaker against a good, righteous man.

This incident is meant to emphasize the gross injustice of Jesus’ pending death. It exposes the fickle nature of the crowds who cheer Jesus one day and jeer him the next. It reveals the hypocrisy of standards of justice, dependent upon whichever power is defining such things. It undermines our faith in governments and legal systems who can free the guilty and punish the innocent. It may make one abhor capital punishment as a means of retribution.

But it also vividly reminds us that Jesus is the substitute for the sins of humanity. “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8). Jesus fills the gap between us and God with his life. He takes on the worse that humankind can be and sets us free. 

Jesus represents Barabbas and you and me. Our notoriety is not lost on Jesus, but absorbed and absolved by the sacrificial presence of Jesus. He truly is a redeemer, the one who intervenes to free us from our messy and out-of-control debts and their consequences.

I wonder what Barabbas thought as all this was happening. Was he relieved and grateful for a second chance? Did he mend his ways? Did he ever think of Jesus, after that? Better him than me or something more?  Did he gloat at his good fortune or did he ever figure out who really saved him that day?

Barabbas was obviously no saint, but then again, I don’t know about you, but neither am I. It troubles me that God used his Son to die so that I could be free. “My chains fells off; my heart was free.”

Now what do I do?

“I rose, went forth, and followed thee.” (C. Wesley)