Devotions
Rev Gav
Barabbas
Mark 15.1–15
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ He answered him, ‘You say so.’ Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, ‘Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.’ But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Reflect
Barabbas was an Jewish insurrectionist against the Romans — a rebel and political terrorist who was probably thought of as a folk hero. He was imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder during the fighting, but had you ever considered the symbolism of his name?
‘Bar – Abba’ literally means ‘son of the human father’ and Jesus was called the ‘Son of the Heavenly Father’. The symbolism goes deeper because in some manuscripts of Matthew’s Gospel, Barabbas is named ‘Jesus Barabbas’ and the name Jesus means ‘God saves’.
So, back to today’s reading, here we have two different kinds of insurrectionist side-by-side — one a convicted criminal and one an arrested rabbi — and both with the same name. Coincidence?
We have two people waiting to be sentenced — ‘God saves son of the father’ and ‘God saves Son of God’ — and one would take the place of the other in a microcosm of the way in which Jesus Christ takes the place of all ‘children’ of human descent. The symbolism is noted!
As you read the story, who are you? Are you the oppressors, the crowd-stirrers, or jeerers, or are you the one waiting sentence, who would walk free because a strange, itinerant rabbi remained silent and allowed himself to take your place?
Pray
Holy God
Thank you that
Jesus, your Son
took my place on the cross,
that my sins were
crucified with him,
and that through
Christ's self-sacrificial love
I am made holy
and righteous before
your throne.
and then