We see the story of Jesus going to the cross, and everything seems to be hand and hand. But then there’s this one character that seems to interrupt the narrative. His name is Barrabbas.
We don’t even know much about him except that he’s a murderer, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel. Why he’s even mentioned, sometimes i’m not so sure. It's like, what?
This is about Jesus going to the cross.
So in this moment, Pilate thinks, “I hold the destinies of these two men in my hand. I know the Jews have a tradition that on a Holy day I will release one of the prisoners on death row.” Pilate stands on this audacious stage, who now presents Jesus, son of the living God, vs Barrabas the thug and rebel.
He says, “Alright, who do you want? This is blasphemy! This has gone too far! There’s no comparison! This is a rightful prisoner! A man who should be on death row! He’s a rebellion against wrong, he leads a rebellion, he murders people, he’s a bad man, he’s a thug, and he’s a crook!He deserves the chains and he deserves the crucifixion! But Jesus? What has he done but heal? Restore? Deliver? Set free? Open blind eyes?open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper? What has Jesus done? Who do you want?”
The crowd yells, “We want Barrabbas! Yeah give us Barrabbas!”
So the Roman soldiers come up and they put the key in and then they unlock Barrabbas from his chains and shackels and he walks down the platform, welcomed by all of his thug friends as he says, “Yeah the people love me. Yeah i don’t even know who this Jesus guy is. But all I know is my people love me.”
There seems to be no conscience in Barrabas.
There’s no record of him turning to Jesus and saying, “I owe you everything now, for you have set me free.”
No.
You don’t see any of that in Barrabbas, and God knew that.
Jesus stood there silent for He knew the will of the father. He said, “It’s fine father. Let them have Barrabbas.”
For Jesus knew that the father would have to treat Jesus like Barrabbas, so he could treat Barrabbas like Jesus.
Barrabas thought it was the people that set him free.
No. It was the love of the Heavenly Father.
When I look at the story, I realize who Barrabbas really is. That is me.
That is you.
That is us.
I was reading this the other day and I felt God speak to me. “I love Barrabbas. I love him.”
"But God he’s a bad man!"
"I love him and I wanted him to go free."
“But did you know that he’d probably never acknowledge the free gift?"
"Yeah but I love Barrabas."
For while we were still sinners christ died for us.
God sent His Son for Barrabas, even though He knew He would walk away from Jesus and His free gift and never come back.
He loves him!
And the nerve, all the audacity of the believers to think, ‘I got saved by grace. But now that I’m in this deep, dark place of bondage, I better work hard to get myself out!"
What?!
Thats the opposite of the gospel!!
Are you bound??!
Are you held under the temptation? The sin? Do you feel like it’s controlling you?! What are you gonna do?!
"I’m gonna shake myself free."
STOP IT. NO YOU WON’T!! YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THE POWERS OF HELL AND THE URGES OF SIN!
YOU WILL NOT OVERCOME IT, AND YOU WILL NEVER OVERCOME IT!
YOU’LL JUST BE ANOTHER STATISTIC!!
There’s no answer within yourself. Your own marriage, your own goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion- It will not save your marriage! it will not save your kid!
There’s only One and He’s the One that took your place.
He’s the one that stood silently on the platform with Pilate and said “Yes, let them have Barrabbas. Take me.”
How many times have I stood on that platform with Pilate and Jesus, and I’m the Barrabas, and they started to take my chains off and I say, “No no I deserve this! I deserve the guilt! I deserve the shame! I deserve the consequences! I deserve it!”
Jesus seems to look at me and say
“No son let me have it. Let me have your sin let me have your pain."
“No God I did it to myself. I deserve it! My marriage won’t make it. This is what I deserve. I deserve divorce. I deserve poverty. I deserve sickness. I deserve it all!"
NO.
"God I am so ashamed."
"Give me your shame."
"But God what if I do it again?"
“I’d still be there."
“Oh God, I don’t wanna hurt you. I love you. I don’t wanna do this anymore!"
“Give me your sin, son."
This is all we got.
This is all I got.
This is all you got.
We can play games-we can play church games, we can pretend like some people are better than others and that’s why they’re blessed or we can all come to the honest conclusion that it’s God and it’s God alone.
The greatest challenge is not your discipline, your devotion, or your focus. Your greatest challenge is believing the gospel. Could it be that there is a God with a love so scandalous, so wide, so deep, so vast, so high, so expansive, so welcome, so inclusive.
"Let me have your sin, son!”
“Okay!”
And I give him my sin. I stand in this empty space of forgiveness and acceptance while Jesus walks off to the cross that I deserve.
I see him. I see him walking to the post to be whipped as I stand a free man.
All the attention is turned now and I feel the love of God say,
“Go son, live your life! I will pay the price!"
Where do we get off thinking that we were gonna set ourselves free?
It’s still Jesus, it’ll always be Jesus, it’ll never stop being the power of Jesus.
His blood is sufficient for your salvation. His blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge, and every sin, and every temptation. JESUS IS ENOUGH.-Judah Smith
Youtube, "Jesus is loving Barrabas"
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