Musing About Barabbas

Barabbas was a really bad guy. Mark 15:7 says he was "among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder." 

Jesus, on the other hand, was the Son of God and the only one who has ever lived a perfect life. Jesus's mother was Mary, but Jesus's Father was God Himself. Mary was a virgin when the Holy Spirit put Jesus inside her womb. As an adult Jesus taught, healed the sick, miraculously fed thousands and even raised the dead. People got really excited about all that He was doing and began to gather in large crowds around Him. But then things changed. One week they were waving palm branches and praising Him as he entered town, the next week they wanted Him killed. An angry mob had Him arrested and beaten. Ultimately they would nail His hands and feet to a cross and leave Him hanging there until He died. But the best part is that three days later He conquered death and rose from the grave, never to die again! In so doing He made a path to eternal life for us.

Why am I comparing the two? This is not the first time they have been compared. Before Jesus was crucified, even the person in charge knew it was not right. So he offered the people a deal. Of two prisoners, Jesus and Barabbas, he would crucify one and let the other go.  He compared the two, the crowd compared the two, and the crowd chose to release Barabbas, the worst of criminals, and crucify Jesus, the perfect Son of God. And that's exactly what happened.

So I started wondering about Barabbas after that. Where did he go? What did he do?

Did he run and never look back, afraid someone might see him and change their mind? 

Did he stay and watch? Did he peek around the corner to see what was happening to Jesus that might have been happening to him?

Was he humbled? Suspicious? Synical? Did he change his life?

Barabbas was on death row and Jesus became his substitute. Jesus went on death row instead of him. In his place. Jesus quite literally died in place of Barabbas that day. We don't know what Barabbas did after that.

Jesus also quite literally died in my place that day as He did yours. We are Barabbas. Maybe scripture doesn't tell us what Barabbas did next because God is leaving that open for our own response. What will we do when we know that Jesus died in our place? We have a choice.

I hope Barabbas became a Christ follower. I hope he hung around for those three days and saw Jesus after the resurrection. I hope that at some point he was filled with the realization that only Jesus can take our deserved punishment and replace it with abundant life! 

I hope you are a Christ follower too. 

"This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." John 17:3