Barabbas Instead

What the crowd wants is the man who represents the kind of Messiah they were actually looking for.

According to the gospel writers there was a custom, perhaps it was a Pontius Pilate thing, of releasing one prisoner to the Jews in honor of the feast, someone for whom the people would ask. Mark has already told us there was a notorious prisoner being held whose name was Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus son of the father (for that is what “Barabbas” means). He is being held for a murder committed during an insurrection. Being an insurrectionist is essentially what they are accusing Jesus of. So this man is actually guilty of the crime for which they want Jesus condemned. The next thing Mark tells us is this:

Mark 15:8 ESV - And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.

The crowd appears suddenly in the narrative of Mark, but Mark’s is the briefest and most perfunctory of the accounts of this trial. The crowd has apparently gathered early for the same reason that the priests were in a hurry to get there early. They know the schedule. If they don’t get before Pilate now, later it will be too late. They’ve come here to ask for the release of a prisoner, probably Barabbas, who is apparently a popular figure. Pilate, no doubt, was not aware of this. His plan to have Jesus released is about to blow up in his face. Seeing the crowd and seizing his opportunity, Pilate asks a question.

Mark 15:9-10 ESV - And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.

Pilate has read the situation well, but he is outmaneuvered this time. And he makes a key mistake. Has he heard amidst the murmurings and shouts of the crowd the name “Jesus” mentioned? Perhaps he has, and has mistaken a reference to Jesus Barabbas as a reference to our Jesus. Perhaps not. Perhaps he simply assumes that Jesus is more popular among the crowds than he really is. If we may safely assume that this is a crowd with whom zealotry would be a popular position, then Jesus would not be their first choice. After all, when presented with an opportunity to denounce the unpopular tax demanded by Caesar, Jesus had declined. But Barabbas, now there’s a guy who knows how to get something done! There’s a guy who sees the importance of taking matters into his own hands! So Pilate offers to release to them “the king of the Jews.”

Mark 15:11 ESV - But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.

Pilate was an unpopular governor among the Jewish people and the mere fact that he suggested Jesus to them as the one to be released probably worked in favor of Barabbas. Even if all the crowd has not shown up this morning with Barabbas specifically on their minds, for this Jerusalem crowd it is not hard to see why the notorious Barabbas would be a more popular figure than the recently arrived Galilean Jesus. The crowd cries for Barabbas.

Mark 15:12 ESV - And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”

Pilate is seen almost as a sympathetic figure in Mark. Here is his question: “If you wish for the guilty insurrectionist Barabbas to be set free, then what would you have me do with this one whom you’ve supposedly found guilty of being “King of the Jews”? He pleads with the crowd on Jesus’s behalf.

There is so much irony here. The governor pleads with the governed to grant amnesty to the one whom he believes is innocent. The crowd, whose duty it is to obey the verdict of the governor, instead tells the governor what verdict to render. The governor is strangely governed. And now the crowd, having rendered its verdict, passes sentence.

Mark 15:13 ESV - And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”

It is the only death under Roman law that is fitting for someone guilty of high treason. The crowd isn’t necessarily blood thirsty, so much as it just doesn’t care. They’ve got whom they wanted, Barabbas. What do they care what is done with Jesus the Nazarene? Or maybe they are happy to swap out this Galilean Jesus for their popular Barabbas who would have been crucified that day. Crucify Jesus. Crucify him, instead of Barabbas.

And so Jesus is sentenced to death by the mob. The innocent is substituted for the guilty. The innocent will die while the guilty goes free. What a picture! It humbles me, for in this story I am Barabbas, being set free while Jesus takes my place. What about you?