Releasing Barabbas

Posted by Christian St John in Faithblogs | 0 comments

In the Easter story no one stands out to me as much as Barabbas (apart from Jesus of course). Barabbas was a condemned criminal, probably an insurrectionist and murderer; scholars believe him to be a member of the Zealots, a group of Jewish revolutionaries committed to fighting the Roman occupiers.

Believed to be a very violent and cruel man, Barabbas would not have been a candidate for the people’s choice award. And yet, when Jesus was bought before Pontius Pilate to be examined the people call for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus; if you recall Pilate offers to release one criminal as an act of good will and they call for Barabbas. It’s highly possible that Barabbas was the only known criminal being held at that time and as such the people called out the only name they knew other than Jesus.

Think about this, Barabbas is sitting in a prison cell, his hands and feet in irons. He’s done some really bad things and now he finds himself awaiting his execution; those deemed political prisoners were often executed with a very brief or no trial. From the place where he is being held he hears the crowd calling out. He strains to hear what they are chanting. And then he hears it… his name. The people are calling his name. With widening eyes and sweat beginning to form on his brow he can only think of one thing, they are calling for him to executed.

Suddenly his life flashes before his eyes as he begins to fear his demise at the hands of those he had sought to overthrow. He had probably seen a thousand crucifixions and knew it wasn’t pleasant. The approaching footsteps mark the beginning of the end as Roman soldiers come closer and closer and stop outside of his holding cell door. The squeak of the lock as it is unlocked signals that indeed they have come for him. The door opens and there before him stand several Roman guards. They move quickly to enter the room, get Barabbas to his feet and proceed to march him down long, dark corridors to where he knows life is about to get extremely unpleasant.

Barabbas hears the call of his name getting closer as he is taken from the prison out into the light of day. The suns light temporarily blinds him and it takes him a few moments for his eyes to readjust. And there he finds himself standing before a huge crowd. He looks around and sees his arch enemy, Pilate, sitting on his judgment seat staring in disbelief at him. With a wave of his hand, Pilate orders the soldiers to unlock the chains around Barabbas’ wrists and ankles and then informs him he is free to go. He is informed that the people were not calling his name to have him executed, but released.

Barabbas, not believing his ears wastes no time in walking away from his captors, but not before looking past Pilate to the man standing next to him. ‘I know that man,’ he thinks. ‘I’ve seen him around… I wonder what he has done to deserve execution?’ And then without another thought he runs into the crowd to disappear from sight.

Not a lot is known about Barabbas both before or after this event in his life. Obviously the narrative above is just an idea of how he may have been feeling, what he may have been thinking, and so on… nothing is mentioned in Scripture but the crowd calling for Barabbas to be released and his release (Matthew 27:15-26, Mark 15:6-15, and Luke 23:13–25). But whenever I read about this event I always pause and wonder what Barabbas was feeling at this moment?

Whatever the case, the account of Barabbas being released instead of Jesus is the story of us all. Like Barabbas we have all done wrong. And like Barabbas we deserve punishment for those sins. But as Jesus was willing to allow Barabbas to go free (He could have fought back and pleaded his own case, but He didn’t), He is always willing to allow us to go free. In fact, some theologians have concluded that this account sums up salvation so beautifully – Barabbas represents all those who have done wrong (all of us) and his place upon that old rugged cross was taken by another. He deserved death, but was given the gift of life, the same gift that is still on offer today if we will just accept it.

Some would argue that Barabbas was released not by God’s choosing, but by man’s choosing. To this I would humbly suggest that the entire chain of events that happened that first Easter were orchestrated by the Spirit of God according to the Father’s plan, including the release of Barabbas. I sometimes wonder what became of Barabbas. After his release he disappeared from secular and biblical history and was never heard of again. I like to think that his heart and life were changed the moment he looked into the eyes of Jesus expecting to see hate and resentment and seeing nothing but love.

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
March, 2010

Picture taken from the movie The Passion of the Christ