Last week we read about Peter’s denial of Jesus and his trial
by the religious leadership called the Sanhedrin. After he was beaten, the leaders sent Jesus
to Pilate who questioned him and after discovering he was from Galilee (out of
Pilate’s jurisdiction), sent him to king Herod.
This is not the king Herod that was present in the birth narrative,
rather it is one of his sons. Herod had
wanted to see Jesus, but surprisingly Jesus did no miracles or healings, in
fact, he didn’t even speak. Imagine
that, being brought before the king and not saying a word knowing that he had
the power of death. Likely angry and at
least disappointed, Herod dressed Jesus in robes and mocked him before sending
him back to Pilate. And this is where we
pick up our story.
Text
13 Pilate called together the chief
priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, "You
brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have
examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against
him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can
see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will
punish him and then release him." 17 18 With one voice they cried out,
"Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!" 19 (Barabbas
had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate
appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify
him! Crucify him!"
22 For the third time he spoke to them:
"Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds
for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release
him." 23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he
be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
24 So Pilate decided to grant their
demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for
insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their
will.
The
way in…
Folks from
East Tennessee are known for a lot of things; their love for the Tennessee
Vols, fried chicken, sweet iced-tea and strong accents. If you heard recordings of my younger days
you know what I mean. Though she doesn’t
like to admit it, my mom has one of the strongest accents you’ll hear –
sometimes it’s even hard for me to make out.
A few years
ago we were planning to go to the Sikes family reunion and I asked if the Dobbs
would be there. “Yes,” my mom said, “all
of them except for Andy.” When I asked
why Andy would be absent she replied with what sounded like, “because his fear
of crabs.” We’d always had pulled pork
sandwiches at the reunion so I could not imagine what she was saying. “Crabs?
Why is he afraid of crabs?” “It’s
not crabs,” my mom exclaimed, “he’s afraid of crouwds.” Crowds, ah yes, my cousin had a fear of
crowds.
A fear of
crowds is kind of odd to me, only because we spend so much money to be a part
of large crowds. Think of how much money
people spend for concerts at Key Arena and the Tacoma Dome. And how about the quest to be at Century Link
field to be a part of the 70,000 12th Man. But this number pales in comparison to the
500,000 people who lined the streets of downtown Seattle to cheer the Super
Bowl champs. There is something about
being in a crowd that is just thrilling.
What is the largest crowd you’ve ever been a part of?
Marching
in Berlin
Pilate
and the crowd
Which brings
us to the crowd in our story. Pilate
called together the religious leaders and informs them that he found no basis
for their charges against him and therefore will have him beaten and released. But how does the crowd respond? “With one voice they cried out, “Away with
this man! Release Barabbas to us!”
It is
interesting that Luke tells us that they responded with “one voice.” Isn't that how crowds tend to respond? “DE
-FENSE...DE-FENSE...SEA-HAWKS...SEA-HAWKS...” The only way to be heard in a
crowd is to cry out in one voice. And
what does this crowd cry out? “Bara -bbas...BAR-ABBAS...BARA-BBAS...”
Why would the
crowd cry out for Barabbas?
Barabbas
– Son of the Father
I used to
think the presence of Barabbas was merely incidental to the story. I thought he
was a murderer and thief who had likely deserved to die. I thought the people disliked this guy but
showed how much they hated Jesus by crying to let him out. I thought it would have been a little like
someone saying, “I’d rather let Charles Manson out of jail before I let you
out.” I have come to learn that this was
not the case.
First, notice
what Luke reveals about the reason Barabbas was thrown into prison. It was for “an insurrection in the
city.” Stasis is
the Greek word and can mean discord but most likely meant rebellion. It is used by the Ephesian leaders in Acts 19
to describe what the Romans would charge them with if they crowd did not
disperse. In another place a lawyer
named Tertullus uses the term to accuse Paul of being a 'troublemaker who stirs
up riots among the Jews all over the world.” (Acts 24:5). To be a stasis was not to be a common
criminal, it was to be a rebel. Barabbas
was a rebel.
The second
thing that gives me pause on my old view of Barabbas is his name. The name Barabbas was most likely not his
given name but a title. Bar is the
Hebrew word for Son and Abba is, do you know?
Yes, Father. So his name meant,
“Son of the Father.” Is it possible that
the name Barabbas was another title for the ‘anointed one’ which was “messiah”
in Hebrew and “Christ” in Greek. Put
this together and we get a picture of man who was fulfilling messianic roles,
like Jesus.
If you will
bear with me just a bit longer I will point out one other thing. If you flip over to Matthew 27:16 you will
read that this prisoner was called “Jesus Barabbas.” Now notice the options the crowd has before
them. One hand there is Jesus Messiah
and on the other Jesus Barabbas. The name Jesus was really common, like John or
Dave or Jeremy. The Hebrew pronunciation
of this name was Yeshua which means “Yah – Saves” or Yahweh, which is a Hebrew
title for God, saves. Now come back to
the crowd.
On one hand
they have Jesus Christ and on the other hand Jesus Barabbas. Both prisoners are accused of stirring up
trouble. Both prisoners honor God. And both prisoners claim that Yahweh saves so
why would the crowd shout in one voice, “Bara-bbas...Bara-bbas.”
Thy Kingdom Come
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them
how to pray he begins the prayer on very familiar ground, “Our Father, who art
in heaven, hallowed be Thy name...” He
begins with praise for God the Father as the one whose name is holy. From there he continues on familiar ground
with a petition that every Jewish person would have been able to affirm, “thy
kingdom come, thy will be done...”
When living as
slaves in Egypt, the people prayed that God's kingdom might come to remove them
from Pharoah’s kingdom. When oppressed
by neighboring nations, the people prayed for God's kingdom to come. When taken away into exile to the kingdom of
Babylon, the people prayed that God's kingdom might come. And when the Romans set up their empire in
the middle of Jerusalem, the people prayed that God's kingdom might come and
vanquish these enemies. Everyone wanted
God's kingdom to come, not everyone agreed how that would happen.
Some, like the
Essenes thought it would come by removing themselves from society and living
faultless lives in caves. But others
believed that God's kingdom would only come by force, violent force...through
things like insurrections in the city.
Barabbas represented this way of bringing God's kingdom about. And what about Jesus Christ? What was his way?
When the
disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in the coming kingdom
Jesus calls them together and says, “42 Jesus called them together and
said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord
it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many."
And then on the night when Jesus was betrayed, John
tells us that after the meal he took a towel, wrapped it around his waist and
began to wash the disciples feet. When
they protested, Jesus told them that just as he washed their feet, they must
wash the feet of one another. Are you
getting the picture here?
Way back in the book of Isaiah, we
get a picture of the way Jesus would bring about God's kingdom when we read, “Here
is my servant, whom I uphold. My chosen
one in whom I delight. I will put my Spirit
on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1). Three other passages follow this one in
Isaiah and have come to be called the songs of the suffering servant.
Are you getting the picture of how
Jesus Christ believed God's kingdom would come? Instead of a crown it would come through a
towel. Instead of a king, you have a
servant. And instead of a sword, it would come through the cross. In his clearest statement of what it means to
accept his path Jesus says, “If any would come after me, let them deny
themselves, pick up their cross and follow me.” Does picking up a cross sound like an
appealing path to us? Or, like the
crowd, do we prefer to pick up the sword?
The crowd in front of Pilate embodies our tendency. They and we want Barabbas.
And what about Jesus, Pilate asks,
what should I do with him. Once again
with one voice they shout, “Crucify him!
Crucify him!” In so doing they
are shouting to get rid of this mam-be-pambe way of God's kingdom coming. Kill this path. We don't want it. We want the warrior. We want the brute. We want force and intimidation and the sword.
A third time Pilate asks, “Why? What crime has he committed?” And a third time the crowd gave their answer,
“they insistently demanded that he be
crucified, and their shouts prevailed.”
Three times Pilate asked, three times the crowd rejected Jesus of
Nazareth. Does this sound familiar.
Barabbas
or Jesus?
If you can not
picture yourself among the disciples, if you could not picture yourself as
peter, can you imagine yourself in the crowd?
It’s hard to do so. We love Jesus
and would never want harm to come to him.
But so did the disciples and they ran away. So did Peter and he denied Jesus three
times. And now there is this crowd who
just a few days prior had cried out “Hosanna, blessed his he who comes in the
name of the Lord.” If we can not see
ourselves in the crowd, then we ignore a part of ourselves at our own peril.
I've told you
about my neighbor and friend Brant who I used to play with all the time. He had a little brother named Rob who was
pretty different from Brant, actually he was pretty different from a lot of
people. Rob was thin and a bit small. He was smart and artistic but could also be a
bit irritating. Perhaps Rob's worst sin
was that he wasn't any good at sports.
Brant and I played basketball or baseball all day, but Rob would come
out and play with Smurfs in the flower beds.
And though I couldn't really name it then, he was also a bit effeminate.
One summer day
the crowd of neighborhood kids was down at Jerry Collin's house. Jerry has this nice wide driveway and we were
playing some game; four square or something like it. The cause of the conflict is lost to history
but at some point one of the kids messed up which caused everyone to
laugh. The kid who had messed up was
really embarrassed. So what does he to
do? He looks around the crowd and finds
Rob laughing. “Why are you laughing?” he
says. “You can't even dribble a ball.” “Yes I can.” “No you can't, sissy.” “I am
not.” “Are too.” “Shut up!”, Rob replied. This of course was followed by the classic
bully comeback, “Why don't you make me?”
And with that he stepped closer to Rob.
At this point, what do you imagine the crowd did? Intervene? Try to stop things? No, they circled around. They knew some blood was about to be shed.
The bully shoved Rob. Rob shoved back. All the while the crowd cheered. The bully
swung and hit Rob which led him to begin to cry and then run off in anger and
shame. And the crowd? They were silent for a moment before patting
the bully on the back for the work he'd done and courage he'd displayed. Can you imagine being a part of that crowd?
If so, I would
love to trade places with you because I'd rather have been in the crowd than
where I was, in the middle of the ring taking punches at a kid because he was
odd, and weak and different.
The way out...
The last line of this passage is
hauntingly sad. Luke tells us that
Pilate released Barabbas, the one the crowd had chosen, and Jesus? He surrendered Jesus to their will. Pilate surrendered Jesus to their will. Notice who's will Jesus gets surrendered to. God's?
No, it is the will of the crowd, the people, us. Jesus wasn't crucified because God wanted
it. Jesus was crucified because we,
humanity, wanted it.
But wait a second, you say, didn't Jesus predict he'd be
betrayed and tried and crucified? Yes,
he did. And didn't he pray that God's
will be done. Yes, he did. So how can you say it wasn't God's will for him
to be crucified? Because, “God so loved the world, that he gave his
only son...” We have the focus a bit
off. It isn’t God’s will that Jesus was
crucified, rather it is God's will is that the world realize how loved it
is. To do that, God gave himself for it
and to it – both the world's best and worst.
To reveal the will of his love, God gave himself to a
band of fleeing disciples
To reveal the will of his love, God gave himself to the
will of a denying Peter.
To reveal the will of his love, God gave himself to the
will of the crowd.
If God’s will was to love characters such as them, could
it be that God has given himself over even to me? Far too often, I have chosen the path of
Jesus Barabbas. So now I pray that I/we
may pray to follow the way of Jesus the servant. Let us pray.
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