LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 27:16, 21, And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. (21) The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!”

 

The religious leaders of the time finally had gotten their way. They had finally gotten Jesus arrested; they wanted Him dead because He was a threat to them and their teachings. He was before Pilate, who found nothing that Jesus had done wrong, but he knew the religious leaders would not be happy about the release of Jesus. Scripture tells us that at the feast being celebrated at this time, it was his custom to release to the people one prisoner chosen by them. Pilate gave the multitude a choice between “a notorious prisoner called Barabbas” and “Jesus who is called Christ”. Pilate does not want to sentence Jesus to death for no reason; he hopes to satisfy them by severely whipping Him and satisfying the people’s choice to set Barabbas free.

 

Who was Barabbas and what had he done? From the verses from Matthew, Barabbas was a notorious criminal. In Luke 23:19, he had been “thrown into prison for certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder”. In John 18:40, Barabbas is called a bandit or a robber. Barabbas was in prison because he had led a rebellion which was treasonous and held the penalty of crucifixion. It was the same crime the religious leaders had accused Jesus of.

 

Note the significance of the choice offered this “mob”. Barabbas had truly stirred up a rebellion against Rome in Jerusalem, was a murderer, along with other crimes – He was an evil person. He was offered as the one the people could choose to set free while Jesus was allowed to be crucified. Do you see the choice this “mob” was given? Pilate was asking them to choose between Barabbas and Jesus, between evil and good, between unrighteousness and righteousness. Pilate “said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” Yes, the crowd had been stirred up by the religious leaders through their deception and misguided desire to kill Jesus, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Savior of all who would believe in Him – and they chose Barabbas.

 

You and I have been part of a “mob”, part of a group where the emotion is flowing, and you catch yourself tagging along. You have been at an emotion packed game – the larger the game, the crowd is larger, and there is plenty of emotion – where there is lots of cheering for your team. There is that time when the cheering gets louder to encourage your team, yell negatives at the referees, and yell at the coach he/she should do this or that. And you find yourself joining in. Or you might be in a church where the members encourage the preacher with shouts of “AMEN!” or clapping and you find yourself clapping but not knowing or understanding why. The emotion in the crowd can just cause you to join in. “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” “Barabbas!” “Barabbas!” “What then shall I do with Jesus called the Christ? “Let Him be crucified!” Do you feel the emotion of being with the crowd and making decisions?

 

You and I are faced with choosing between Barabbas and Jesus, evil and good every day. Our choice first came when we needed to decide what we were going to do with this Jesus. Were we going to ask Him into our life to save us and change us or choose to remain as a prisoner of our sinfulness. Are we going to choose to stay on the broad way that leads to destruction wanting more and more of the evil in the world or would we choose to walk on a narrow way that leads to eternity in God’s Kingdom?

 

But that is only the beginning as walking the narrow way is a daily choice between evil and good. Who am I going to be today? Oh, you are not going to take a life by actual murder, but maybe the choice to just speak unkindly about another…. And what about what your eyes look at? You add your daily choices to this regarding evil and good because each of us choose every day – probably more than we think.

 

Let me stop here today and continue this in the next page of the blog. There is more to think about.

 

My close friend and brother in Christ, Jim and I were talking the other day and he brought up the subject of people choosing between Jesus and Barabbas, choosing between good and evil. I told him that would be the subject for a page of the blog. He told me to write it even though I wanted him to write it. I hope I captured the essence of what we were talking about, Jim!