Son of the Father

But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”

(Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

Luke 23:18-19

We have many stories in the Bible from the week leading up to Jesus’ death. Stories about people he interacted with, places he went in Jerusalem, and people's responses to him. Through the Lenten season, our blog has been walking through some of these events, spotlighting key events and people. One of the people we learn about specifically is Barabbas. Barabbas only has a few words about him in the Bible, but that does not mean he is a small character. He is mentioned in all four Gospels, yet his story only takes a few verses to tell in each.

There are 5 main characters in this story: the Jewish leadership, the Jewish crowd, Pilate, Jesus, and Barabbas. We'll take a quick look at each.

The chief priests and elders of the Jews had made it very clear by this point in Jesus’ life and ministry that they were not his supporters. Several times they tried to capture him, and other times we have records of them plotting to have him killed. Now they have their opportunity. They’ve managed to have Jesus arrested by the Romans, and now they need to create evidence against him. They succeed in convincing some individuals to give false testimony about Jesus, but the Roman rulers are not convinced. Pilate presents to the crowd the option of releasing Barabbas or Jesus back to them. The chief priests stir up the crowd to demand that Jesus be kept and crucified.

The Jewish crowd was quick to respond. They immediately began to shout for Barabbas to be released to them and Jesus to be crucified. Pilate tried twice more to reason with the crowd to simply punish Jesus and then release him. But they shouted all the more loudly and began to create such an uproar that Pilate acquiesced. Keep in mind, these are the same people who four days ago were praising Jesus, waving palm branches, and yelling, “Hosanna!” (“Save us!”). My, how quickly the mob mentality shifted! This side of the resurrection, we can see that the calls of “Save us!” and “Crucify!” are actually the same since without the crucifixion there is no salvation; but that’s not what the crowd was thinking.

Pilate is our next character. He's the mediator of this whole situation. The Jewish leaders could try someone for breaking Jewish law, but since they too were subject to Rome, their punishments could not go so far as the death penalty. According to extra-Biblical historical accounts, Pilate was generally quite a cruel and brutal ruler. However, here he tries to negotiate with the Jewish crowd that Jesus is not guilty of anything from Rome's perspective and certainly doesn't deserve crucifixion. Ultimately though, he does bow to the crowd—releasing Barabbas and sending Jesus for crucifixion.

Jesus is obviously who this entire story is about, but there is no mention of him having any interaction with Barabbas (compared with, say, the thief on the cross). He says very little to Pilate, and most of what he says is vague or seemingly nonsensical. He was "led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7).

Now, Barabbas. He couldn’t be more antithetical to Jesus. Barabbas breaks down to Bar-Abbas, literally meaning “son of the father.” Jesus is The Son of The Father. Barabbas is in prison for insurrection against Rome and killing someone in the process. He has very good reason to be locked up, both for the interests of Rome and the public. Jesus is effectively being charged with insurrection against Rome, but his kingdom is not of this earth and is not a threat to Roman rule or the public. While I don’t have direct evidence, I’m going to assume that Barabbas, like the rest of humanity, was pretty self-centered, contrasted with Jesus who is about to lay down his life for all of that same humanity.

In Barabbas, we fully see Jesus’ substitutionary atonement power. Jesus gave his earthly life so Barabbas could continue living. Jesus gave his perfect soul, taking on sin, so Barabbas and we could be sinless for eternity. The ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for Barabbas is the same as what he did for each one of us. He was sinless to cover our sins. He died so we can live. Live in the joy of that victory this Easter season!