This Good Friday, it would be good to also think of Jesus and Barabbas. The account can be read in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 18. Good Friday celebrates the atonement Jesus did on the cross for the sins of the world. It’s simple for us to talk about Pontius Pilate as a spineless ruler and people-pleaser. It’s simple for us to talk about Barabbas as the guilty man who was a murderer and a rebel, worthy of crucifixion. It’s simple to say that the majority isn’t always right based on this situation. The crowd chose the wrong person named Barabbas. What we need to address is that in this process, this was all done for our sake. The crowd’s sinful behavior played right into God’s sovereign plan. Later, in Acts 2, we can read the conversion of some people who once joined this sinful crowd.
It was Passover and it became customary for the Jews to release one man. Pilate tried to get Jesus released but failed. Pilate is a cowardly person. Pilate was already warned by his wife not to do anything with Jesus. Pilate got a huge revelation from Jesus in John 18:36-37 with these words:
36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of the world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But My kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world–to bear witness to the truth Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”
Jesus had declared that He was delivered unto the Jews and that His Kingdom wasn’t of the world. The whole claim sounds insane to the natural person. I assume that this hard-to-believe truth caused the crowd to choose Barabbas over Jesus. Barabbas was a robber, a murderer, and an insurrectionist. Truly, a man who deserves to be crucified. However, what was happening was Isaiah 53 was getting played at that very moment. Jesus was like a lamb led to a slaughter. Jesus wasn’t resisting or defending Himself. The Passover lambs were to be slain on that very day too. Jesus was going to become the Passover. The people there were too spiritually blinded to see what they were doing, was all part of God’s perfect plan of redemption.
In Matthew 27:24-26, Pilate cowardly washed his hands off. Pilate tried to declare his innocence of an innocent man’s blood. One can sneer at Pilate and say, “What a coward!” Well, Pilate would later be removed from office in God’s perfect timing. The Jews would accept the blame and many are still unbelieving to this very day. Pilate tried to appease the crowd by having Jesus flogged. This was a cowardly thing to do. Most people died from the flogging alone. But Jesus survived the flogging as part of the Father’s will. Scourging was usually done for people condemned to be crucified.
The process of flogging was really bloody. Isaiah 52:14 says that the appearance of Jesus was soon beyond human semblance. According to the NIV MacArthur Bible Commentary, the flogging whip consisted of several strands of leather attached to a wooden handle. This may be a cat-o-nine-tails, which is a brutal whip. I read that the condemned was stripped naked and the flogging hit everywhere around the body. An expert could even tear the flesh from the back, lacerate muscles, and sometimes even expose the internal organs. If that’s so when Psalm 22:17 of the bones staring should be taken literally. David may have not experienced it but he saw it. David’s anguish may have allowed him to see his greater Son in that situation.
With Barabbas as an insurrectionist, the Jews may have decided to choose someone condemned guilty for rebelling against the Romans. I believe that people thought Palm Sunday would be the time when the Romans would be gotten rid of. Maybe, they were anticipating that Jesus would lead them to overthrow the Romans. Instead, the great disappointment was that Jesus wasn’t going to start His earthly kingdom yet. Jesus had no record whatsoever of insurrection against Rome. Jesus was innocent of that change. Maybe, that’s why the Jews finally decided to have Him crucified. If Jesus wouldn’t help them get rid of the Romans, why not have the Romans get rid of Jesus? That’s a barbaric reality but it’s all been planned. Jesus was getting imputed for sins He didn’t commit. The Passover lambs were also imputed for sins they didn’t commit.
In the process, Jesus was fully compliant with the Father’s will. Everything on that dreadful day was under God’s control. Barabbas, who deserved to be crucified, gets substituted by an innocent man. Barabbas was scheduled to die with two other thieves. However, Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be crucified in place of Barabbas. This great injustice happened so salvation could take place. In fact, I can get into trouble for saying, “You and I are like Barabbas.” It’s because Barabbas was a robber, a murderer, and an insurrectionist. The Bible is silent about Barabbas’ fate.
David Matthis of Desiring God really puts it in such a way that would describe what happened:
As we’ve seen through the stressing of Jesus’ innocence and Barabbas’s guilt, Luke is leading us sinners, in his careful telling of the story, to identify in this significant way with Barabbas. As Jesus’ condemnation leads to the release of a multitude of spiritual captives from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, so also his death sentence leads to the release of the physical captive Barabbas. It’s a foretaste of the grace that will be unleashed at the cross.
Jesus is manifestly innocent. Barabbas is clearly guilty—just as we also are clearly guilty before God. Rebels deserving death. Romans 3:23 says it’s not a few of us, or even many of us, but all of us who “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.”
So as Pilate releases Barabbas the guilty, and delivers over to death Jesus the innocent, we have here a picture of our own release effected by the cross through faith. In Barabbas we have a glimpse of our guilt deserving death, and a preview of the arresting grace of Jesus and his embrace of the cross through which we are set free.
Here as Jesus is delivered to death, and Barabbas is released to new life, we have the first substitution of the cross. The innocent Jesus is condemned as a sinner, while the guilty sinner is released as if innocent.
Yes, it was a great injustice. However, God had allowed it to happen. It’s because we’re all like Barabbas–worthy of death. The thief on the cross in Luke 23:39-42 later saw Jesus’ innocence. That same criminal who mocked Jesus finally had a realization that he deserved crucifixion but not Jesus. What a wonderful picture. Barabbas, the guilty sinner, was set free. The only way for people can pay for their sins is by dying and going to Hell. The only way for people to go to Heaven is through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus on the cross.
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