Good Friday 18th April

Barabbas.

Bar  - Son of

Abba - Daddy

Barabbas - the son of the father.

Jesus stands beside Pilate.  Pilate can find no wrong in him and does not want to sentence him to death.  He thinks of a legitimate and legal way of getting Jesus off the hook when he remembers that on high days and holidays he is allowed to release a prisoner.  He is sure the crowd, who only days ago were laying down palm branches and shouting Hosanna, will choose Jesus over a murdering insurrectionist.   But he hasnt counted on the Pharisees spreading their venom.   So when he asks the crowd who to release they shout  BARABBAS!    Give us the son of the father.   Release the son of the father.

Jesus stands there listening to them shout it.   We want the son of the father!   Knowing that He, the Son of the Father,  has been utterly rejected and that He will take the punishment Barabbas was due.  Barabbas goes free - presumably to return to his life of rebellion and violence.  He is never mentioned again and we have no idea whether he paid the slightest bit of attention to Jesus from the second he was released from prison.  So why is he there?  Is he really necessary to the timeline of what happens to Jesus on that Friday?

No.  Not really.  Except that Barabbas represents the epitome of what Jesus was doing as he stood there before Pilate.   He was an innocent man and the true Son of the Father prepared to willingly die a horrible death so that a guilty murdering son of the Father could go free.   With no suggestion that anything was owed.   With no expectation of thanks or gratitude or devotion.  Merely motivated by an overwhelming love and sense of justice.  Barabbas is mankind - all of us - you and me.  And whether or not we believe it or accept it, the fact is that on Good Friday Jesus stepped up to take the place of every guilty one and set us free.

I wonder what happened to Barabbas.   I wonder if he realised that he had been given a miraculous second chance - a second life - and if he decided to make the most of it.  Or if he just went straight back to the life he had before ; (Matthew refers to Barabbas only as a "notorious prisoner". Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a stasis, a riot. John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as alēstēs ("bandit"))  Was he even aware of who Jesus was?  Was he in the crowds who watched him carrying the cross to Golgotha later that day or did he go home to his family and friends without giving Jesus a second thought?

It is interesting that the first two people Jesus releases from a death sentence are both criminals.  One gets physically released but probably never attains spiritual freedom.  The other - the thief on the cross - is forgiven his sins and promised paradise with Jesus, but still has to die a gruesome death.  Who benefited more?  We are all going to have to die.  We might be aged twelve and die in a ferry accident or be aged ninety three and die peacefully in bed.  We might have to suffer pain or lose our faculties.  But what really matters?  Surely it is knowing that we are forgiven and that we are promised paradise with Jesus.