Good Morning All,
Our verse occurs during Jesus’ trial
before Pilate. Pilate wanted to release
Jesus but was a coward. He tried a back
door approach by trying to stack the deck.
He would free one prisoner at the feast of Passover. He gave the people the choice between Jesus,
a seemingly harmless itinerant rabbi from Galilee, and Barabbas, a murderous
thief and anarchist. It should have been
obvious, but the crowd chose Barabbas.
There are numerous theories as to why the
crowd chose Barabbas. Some think the
crowd was paid off by the Scribes and the Pharisees. Some think the devil possessed the
crowd. Some think the crowd didn’t know
any different. I am no great theologian,
but I think the crowd chose Barabbas because they wanted to. Barabbas was a pain in the side of the
Romans; he was the bad guy who only brought mayhem. He would cause a riot where Roman property
was destroyed. The people wanted to
cause problems for the Romans, so they picked Barabbas.
So, do you pick Barabbas? Do we seek to be part of the problem? Do we seek to avenge even the smallest of
slights? Maybe we don’t do it intentionally,
but we still do it. We want to get even,
balance the scales, get square or whatever we call it. Do we tend to gravitate toward what the world
calls “making it fair”? It can feel so
right but it causes so much pain.
The world will always pick Barabbas; our
sinful nature tells us to pick Barabbas.
Picking Barabbas is the way of greed, selfishness, of an inward curved
view of life. It is part of the view of
life that thinks by tearing others down we can build ourselves up. It is the view that leads to others’ pain and
to our own destruction.
It is the view that sin causes. Sin chooses Barabbas. Yet we know that this painful way of life is
not the only way. Christ came, rejected
by the world, rejected by sinful man in order to redeem sinful man. Jesus came so you would have a choice. The lost, the condemned and the unbeliever
have no choice; that person always chooses Barabbas and always suffers the
consequences of that decision. We, as
God’s children have a choice. God gives
us the ability to choose Jesus. He comes
to us in his Word and his Spirit moves us to desire Jesus. His Spirit gives us the desire to look
outward. His Spirit gives us the desire
to love rather than hurt; to give rather than take; to have compassion rather
than selfishness.
God, because of Jesus and by his Spirit,
gives you the ability to choose Jesus and reject Barabbas. This should always be our hope. There will be days when we fail but God picks
us up and stands us up again so we can choose Jesus. Because of Jesus we can live; so live. Trust in his grace to always guard our ways.
Father of all
mercy, move us by your Spirit to choose Jesus as the one we want to live
as. Help us to bring the healing that
the world needs. Stir in our hearts the
desire to do your will. In the precious
name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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