My church is doing a series right now called, “40 Days, Preparing your heart for Easter!” And Solid Truth Ministries is right now going through our Bible study on Jesus’ Final Hours. There are so many things that happened during those hours leading up to the cross… so many things worth noting. Because we have heard the story of Easter throughout our Christian life (for many of us… it is MANY years), we can easily haphazardly read it again without much thought. But today I was captured by a scene. The scene outside Pilate’s headquarters, where the Roman governor offered the crowd a choice.
Imagine being in a crowd of people and having the opportunity to choose who will live and who will die. Which one would you want released back into society or which one would you want to die by lethal injection? Whatever the crowd decides will be the final ruling. Before you stand two people… one is a mom who was convicted of a petty crime and the other a terrorist. The crowd can decide which one is set free and which one will die. I’m guessing there would be no question… I’m guessing that the crowd would decide that the mom should be released, while the terrorist dies.
Well, this scene was played out on a horrible day two thousand years ago. The crowd was agitated and stirred up. They were angry. Pilate offers to them a choice. They could choose which one should be released back into society, but the other one would die. One is completely innocent… He did NOTHING wrong. All He did was love, heal, and teach about the Kingdom of God. The other? Well, Barabbas was a known criminal. Not just a petty thief, but he was an insurrectionist… a murderer. What we would call a terrorist. To everyone’s horror, the crowd chooses the terrorist to live and the righteous Man to die.
Here’s the thing… Barabbas is a perfect example of the gospel. On that day, Jesus died while the murderer walked free. Jesus literally took Barabbas’ place. My pastor pointed out that scholars believe that the cross was prepared for Barabbas. But things took a drastic turn when the crowd yelled, “Crucify Him!” Pilate knew He was innocent but since he was more concerned about keeping his job than doing the right thing, he handed Him over to be crucified.
Jesus didn’t die for us. He died in place of us. It was our sin that nailed Him to the cross. My heart is overjoyed thinking about it. I’m indebted to Jesus. So are you. This should make us choose to live for Him, worship Him with our whole hearts, and live in a state of thankfulness every day. Let me encourage you to reread the story of that GOOD FRIDAY and then thank Him because He willingly went to the cross so that you could be free.