We see the story of Jesus going to the cross and everything seems to kind of be hand in hand. And then there's this one character that seems to interrupt the narrative. His name's Barabbas.
We don't even know much about him except that he's a murderer, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel. And why he's even mentioned, sometimes I'm not so sure. It's like, what?
This is about Jesus going to the cross. So in this moment, Pilate thinks, I hold the destinies of these two men in my hand. I know the Jews have a tradition that on a holy day, I will release one of the prisoners on death row.
Pilate stands on this audacious stage, who now presents Jesus, son of the living God, versus Barabbas, the thug and rebel. He says, alright, who do you want? This is blasphemy! This has gone too far! There's no comparison!
This is a rightful prisoner! A man who should be on death row! He's a rebel against Rome! He leads a rebellion!
He murders people! He's a bad man! He's a thug!
And he's a crook! He deserves the chains! And he deserves the crucifixion!
Jesus? What has he done but heal? Restore?
Deliver, set free, open blind eyes, open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper. What has Jesus done? Who do you want? We want Barabbas.
Yeah, give us Barabbas. They give us Barabbas, the Roman soldiers come up and they have the key in and they unlock it from his chains and shackles and he walks down the platform welcomed by all of his thug friends. Yeah, the people love me. Yeah, that's right, I don't even know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is my people love me.
There seems to be no conscience of Barabbas. There's no record of him turning to Jesus and saying, I owe you everything now, for you have set me free. No. I don't see any of that in Barabbas. And God knew that.
Jesus stood there, silent, for he knew the will of the Father. He said, it's fine, Father. Let him have Barabbas. For Jesus knew that the Father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free.
No, no, no, no. It was the love. The Heavenly Father The story That's me That's you That's us And I felt I was reading this the other day And I felt God speak to me I love her He's a bad man I wanted him to go free.
Didn't you know that he was the free gift? Yeah, but I love Barabbas. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent his son for Barabbas.
Even the one he knew would walk away from Jesus and his free gift and never come back. He loves them, and the nerve, the call, and the audacity of believers to think, I got saved by grace, but now that I'm in this deep, dark place of bondage, I better work hard to get myself out. What?
That's the opposite of the gospel. Are you back? bound? Are you held under the power of this temptation, this sin, the sexual urges?
Do you feel like it's controlling you? What are you going to do? I'm going to shake myself free. Stop it.
No, you won't. You're no match for the powers of hell and the urges of sin and sexual temptation. You will not overcome it and you will never overcome it. You'll just be another statistic. There's no answer within yourself.
Your own marriage, your own goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion. Will not save your marriage and will not save your kids. There's only one. And he's the one that took your place.
He's the one that stood silently on the platform with Pilate and said, yes, let him have forever. Barabbas, take me. How many times have I stood on that platform with Pilate and Jesus, and I'm the Barabbas, and they start to take my chains off, and I say, no, no, I deserve this.
I deserve the guilt. I deserve the shame. I deserve the consequence. I deserve it. Jesus seems to look at me and say, no, son.
Let me have it! Let me have your sin! Let me have your pain! No, God, I did it to myself!
I deserve it! My marriage won't make it! This is what I deserve!
I deserve divorce! I deserve poverty! I deserve sickness! I deserve it all!
No! I'm so ashamed. Give me your shame.
What if I do it again? I still... Oh God, I don't want to hurt you.
I love you. I don't want to do this anymore. Give me your sins. This is all we got.
It's all I got, it's all you got. We can play games, we can play church games. We can pretend like some people are better than others and that's why they're blessed.
Or we can all come to the honest conclusion that it's God. And it's God alone. The greatest challenge is not your discipline, your devotion, your focus. Your greatest challenge is believing the gospel. Could it be that there's a God with a love so scandalous, so wide, so deep, so vast, so high, so expansive, so welcoming, so inclusive?
Let me have your sin, son. I can't. And I give up my sin, and I stand in this empty space of forgiveness and acceptance while Jesus walks off to the cross that I deserve.
I see him, I see him walking to the post to be whipped. As I stand a free man, all the attention is turned now. And I feel the love of God saying, go son, live your life.
I'll pay the price. Where did we get off? Thinking that we were gonna set ourselves free. It's still Jesus.
It'll always be Jesus. It'll never stop being the power of Jesus. If His blood is sufficient for your salvation, His blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge and every sin and every temptation. Jesus is enough!