The West Side church of Christ

Pilate gave the crowd a choice: release Jesus Christ or Barabbas the murderer? Barabbas went free and Jesus was beaten and crucified. How could they choose the murderer over Jesus? This question plagues our minds as we read of the release of Barabbas recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 27:15-26, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:18-25, John 18:39-40). Yet, the actions of the crowd are not unlike or own. We are constantly choosing Barabbas over Jesus in our own lives.

We choose Barabbas by choosing the physical over the spiritual. Mark 15:7 describes Barabbas as a murder and an insurrectionist. He was one of the militant Jews fighting against the Roman Empire to restore Israel to its former glory. This was greatly desired by the Jews and was still on the mind of the apostles even after the death and resurrection of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:6). Jesus, however, came to establish a spiritual kingdom (John 18:36) and refused to let the crowds make Him such a king (John 6:15). The crowd chose the physical over the spiritual. We are told that if we choose Christ, we will set our minds on the things above (Colossians 3:1-2). Whenever we let our earthly desires overcome our spiritual desires we are choosing Barabbas over Jesus.

We choose Barabbas by acting with hatred instead of with love like Jesus. Pilate was attempting to set Jesus free because he knew they had delivered him up out of envy (Matthew 27:18). The Jewish religious leaders’ dislike of Jesus, however, ran much deeper than envy. They had never liked His message. Instead of listening to Jesus, they were prejudiced and constantly finding fault (Mark 2:16, 2:18. 2:24, 7:5), they grumbled (Luke 15:2) and they ridiculed Him (Luke 16:14). Also, they had been seeking to kill Jesus for a long time (Matthew 12:14, 22:15, Mark 3:6, John 11:57). So the chief priests and elders stirred up the crowd, inciting them to put an innocent man to death and set a murderer free (Matthew 27:20, Mark 15:11). Whenever we act with anger, hatred, envy, pride, and such emotions we are choosing Barabbas instead of Jesus.

We choose Barabbas when we let fear stop us from following Jesus. The crowd probably allowed themselves to be stirred up by the chief priests and elders out of fear. The Pharisees had already threatened to toss anyone out of the synagogues who confessed Jesus (cf. John 9:22, 12:42). Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus and tries a second time to release Jesus (Luke 23:20), but the crowd kept shouting to crucify Jesus, he chose to satisfy the crowd (Mark 15:15). Many of the people there knew Jesus was innocent, many had probably seen His miracle and heard His teachings, but they chose to let fear make their decision for them. A sentiment often attributed to Edmund Burke says: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Ho many of us are letting evil triumph? When we let fear stop us from living as Christians, we are choosing Barabbas over Jesus.

The choice to release Barabbas over Jesus has gone down as one of the most infamous points in history. Peter reminded the Jews of just how horrible of a decision this was: “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14-15). Let’s not make this choice continue by continuing to choose Barabbas over Jesus.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Bulletin Articles.