I have literally heard the story about Jesus’ arrest about a hundred times. Maybe more. The cast of characters include, Jesus, Pilate, and The Crowd. The Angry Crowd. They tell us at Church that if we were there, we would be in that crowd; I would be the one who yells “Crucify him.” But I think they’re wrong.
Because there is another very important person in this story. Barabbas. The Prisoner. The Criminal. The Murder. The One who goes free.
Pilate doesn’t want to crucify Jesus. He tried everything, letting Jesus go, a different Judge, a different punishment, and finally a different criminal. Surely, the Jews would want an innocent man they hated go free rather than a guilty man they hated go free. But Pilate was wrong. The first hundred times I read this story I was so frustrated! They were blinded to Barabbas’ crimes because of their hatred for Jesus. They didn’t care if there was a murderer that walked in their city. They chose Jesus’ blood and a free criminal.
If I was in this story, I wouldn’t be the crowd. I would be Barabbas. The One who goes free.
Because the crowd exchange the blood of Jesus for a guilty man. And that’s exactly what God chose too.
They say the story is about Jesus’ crucifixion. The story is about death. It tells me that I’m an Angry Crowd who is the Enemy of God. It tells me that my sin is disgusting. It tells me that I crucified an innocent man. The movie makes us cry at the brutality. The Pastor makes us feel guilty, and I want to crawl away from God ashamed. But if you stop there, you’re missing the beauty in the story.
There is another side. There is another man. There is life. Barabbas goes free. He had been sitting in a jail cell for who knows how long. He knew he was guilty, and then all of a sudden the death of one man brings life to another man. He walks the streets again. He was literally the man who Jesus died for. And now the story isn’t that my hate crucified Jesus; the story is Jesus died for my freedom. I’m Barabbas.
Because before Jesus died, I was known as the worst kind of criminal, a murder. But now, I’m the One who goes free.
This isn’t just a story about death. This is a story about the death that bought Freedom.
