I want to introduce you to a man named Barabbas. He is only
mentioned in one verse of John’s Gospel, here in verse 40, where his name
occurs twice. Don’t let this fact mislead you, however, into thinking that he
is an insignificant character. In fact, he is so significant that he is
mentioned by name a total of eleven times in all four Gospels. When we combine
the information that we have about him in the four Gospels, we learn more about
Barabbas than we know even about some of the Lord’s twelve disciples. But why
is the story of Barabbas so significant that it garners this kind of attention
from the Gospel writers? It is because Barabbas’s story is our own story. In
Barabbas, we find a picture of the saving work of Jesus Christ.
As I examine the story of Barabbas unfolded for us in the
New Testament, I am reminded of the words of one of the greatest hymns ever
written: Charles Wesley’s “And Can it Be.” Often described as Wesley’s
“conversion hymn,” no hymn more vividly portrays the miracle of salvation from
sin through faith in Jesus Christ than this one does. I cannot sing it without
thinking of the wonders of God’s grace in my own conversion experience. I have
a similar experience when I consider this man Barabbas. So, as we look at the
Biblical account of Barabbas, I want to do so through the lens of Wesley’s
hymn, and lead us to discover together the miracle of redemption and
regeneration in Jesus Christ. This miracle has happened to all who trust in
Christ, and can happen to whosoever will!
I. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and
nature’s night.
These are the words that Charles Wesley used (in the third
verse of the hymn as we now know it) to describe his life before he came into a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He viewed himself as a prisoner to sin
and darkness. Those words are true in a spiritually metaphorical way for all of
us in our natural condition. We are born enslaved and imprisoned to sin. Many
will protest this and insist that they are “good people.” Indeed, even Charles
Wesley could have said this about himself. He was raised in a Christian home as
the son of a minister and a godly mother. During his college years, along with
his brother John and some of their friends, Charles was part of a group known
as the “Holy Club” because of their rigorous devotion to spiritual disciplines
such as prayer, Bible study, and practical holiness. In 1735, he was ordained
to the ministry of the Church of England and set sail for the colony of Georgia where
he became missionary chaplain. His stint in the colony lasted just less than a
year, and he never found acceptance among the settlers. In 1736, he returned
home to England
feeling as if the entire venture had been a disaster. In a few short years, Wesley
would come to understand that in spite of all of his good deeds and service in
the name of Christ, he did not really know Christ. He had never been truly born
again, and so he speaks of himself in this hymn as being long imprisoned, bound
in sin and nature’s night.
What was true in a spiritually metaphorical sense of Wesley
was true in an altogether literal sense for Barabbas. In our text in John’s
Gospel, we read that he was a robber. The Greek word here translated as
“robber” literally means “one who seizes plunder.” The word, however, was often
used in the first century to mean far more than this. It could denote someone
who had taken part in a rebellion. Mark tells us that Barabbas had been
imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder, and Luke tells
us that Barabbas had been a participant in these crimes (Mk 15:7; Lk 23:19). He
must have made quite a name for himself in the act, for Matthew tells us that
he was “a notorious prisoner” (Mt 27:16). It is not certain which insurrection effort Barabbas had
taken part in, for during the time that Judea was under the control of the Roman Empire there had been many failed attempts. From
the perspective of a nationalistic Jew, he would have been known as a guerilla
freedom-fighter. From the perspective of the Roman Empire ,
he would have been rightly regarded as a terrorist. His guilt was evident to
all, even to himself. His sentence was imprisonment to what we could call
“death row.” We may infer that he was scheduled to be executed by crucifixion
on the following day, for the criminals who were executed alongside of Jesus
are called by this same title (Mt 27:44; Mk 15:27). The sentence was
well-deserved, and he knew it. We do not know how long he had languished in his
shackles awaiting the day, but he could say as well as Wesley, “Long my
imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
My friends, the same could be said by us all. Barabbas and
Charles Wesley may well represent two extremes of mankind in his natural
condition. One was a notorious murdering rebel; the other a deeply pious and
religious man. Yet, what they had in common with each other and will all of the
rest of us is their need to be saved. No matter how good or bad you are – a
member of the Holy Club, or a terrorist, or something in between – we are all
sinners. The Bible says that this is true of every human being and our personal
experiences in life confirm it. We are born in a state of rebellion to God,
insurrectionists who seek to overthrow His right to reign as Lord of our lives.
And we are all worse than we imagine ourselves to be. In the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus says that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has
already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28). He said that anger
toward another was of equal guilt before God as murder (5:21-22). James 2:10
says that whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point has become
guilty of violating the whole law. That means that when we stand before God, in
our natural condition, we stand on level ground with Charles Wesley and with
Barabbas. No matter how good or bad we think we are, we are all equally guilty
sinners before the bar of judgment. We are rebels, with all manner of evil in
our hearts, spiritual terrorists, imprisoned in sin and deserving of death and
separation from God. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:10, “There is none
righteous, not even one,” and in 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.” That was true of Barabbas; it was true of Charles Wesley,
and it is true of you and me in our natural born condition.
This brings us to the second consideration …
II. He left His Father’s throne above, so free, so infinite
His grace.
With these words, in the second stanza of Wesley’s hymn, the
divine origin of the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth. From His infinite treasure
of love and mercy, in the free grace of unmerited kindness toward the human
race, He came forth from heaven to earth. In the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
God became a man. He came to do what no man in all the history of creation,
from Adam and including him to the present day, has ever been able to do. He
lived a life completely free of the guilt of sin. Not only was He totally free
from all sin, but He was completely, and perfectly righteous. That is, He not
only never did wrong; He always and only did what was right, what was pleasing
to God the Father and in perfect accordance with His will.
In the exercise of His earthly life and ministry, Jesus
confronted evil wherever it was found. And in first century Judea ,
a dark heart of evil lay covered by the external piety of the Jewish religious
leaders. He called them out as hypocrites, as thieves, and as spiritually blind
guides who were not only ignorant of God’s truth, but also inventors of evil
under the guise of religiosity. Under the pretense of righteousness, they tried
to brand Him as a blasphemer because He claimed equality with God. To be sure,
when one claims equality with God, it is the highest form of blasphemy –
unless, of course, the claim is true. And Jesus had proven the truth of His
claims by His many miracles and His teaching which set forth the heart of God
and the true meaning of God’s Word. Never able to outmaneuver Him with
Scripture or logic, the religious authorities had one final recourse to silence
Jesus, and that was to put Him to death. This they could not do without
Pilate’s ruling. Knowing that Pilate would not be willing to intervene in
debates about Jewish religion, they manufactured charges against Jesus that
would portray Him as an insurrectionist – a threat to Roman authority,
stability, and peace in the land.
Pilate examined Jesus thoroughly. John only records a
portion of the exchange, but the other Gospels contain more information. Luke
records that Pilate even shipped Jesus off to Herod Antipas in an attempt to
recuse himself from the responsibility of rendering a verdict. As tetrarch of Galilee , Herod was the senior Jewish political official
in the land. This maneuver backfired as Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. The
decision had to be made. And Pilate ultimately made a decision and announced it
to the crowd: “I find no guilt in Him.” In Luke 23, the statement is fuller: “I
have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against
Him. … and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him.” Thus we must
all conclude if we consider the full truth about Jesus.
Throughout the Bible there is a link between sin and death.
In Genesis 2, God commanded that Adam must not eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, saying, “in the day that you eat from it you will surely
die.” In Romans 5, Paul says that sin entered the world through one man (Adam),
and “death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” In
Romans 6:23, it is stated as succinctly as possible: “The wages of sin is
death.” And Pilate’s testimony of Jesus is as true a statement as any man ever
made: “I find no guilt in Him.”
Jesus was not guilty and did not deserve to die. Barabbas
was guilty and deserved to die. Barabbas stands guilty and deserving of the
sentence of death because of His rebellion against Roman authority. If Barabbas
deserves death because of His rebellion against Rome , how much more do we all deserve death
because of our sinful rebellion against the God of the universe. Barabbas
deserves this. We deserve this. Jesus does not. In the words of Charles Wesley,
“He left His Father’s throne above, so free, so infinite His grace. Emptied
Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.”
Now we can begin to see more clearly how it is that Barabbas
presents us with a picture of redemption, and how his story parallels our own.
III. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the
Savior’s blood?
In the hymn’s opening stanza, Wesley speaks of gaining an
interest in the blood of Jesus. Writing, as he did, in the middle of the 18th
Century, the word “interest” would carry something of the idea of a “benefit.”
He is said to have begun writing this hymn within days of his conversion, and
the opening line expresses his amazement that the blood which Jesus shed in His
death could be of some benefit to him personally. I imagine that the very
thought of it would have been just as overwhelming to Barabbas.
Pilate was caught between a rock and a hard place. On the
one hand, he couldn’t knowingly condemn an innocent man. Had he simply
announced his verdict and proclaimed the matter settled, he might have gone
down in history differently. But, Pilate also had an interest in appeasing the
Jewish leaders. His political position depended on his ability to keep a
volatile region under control and at rest. So, he seized upon a loophole that
he was sure would get him out of the fix. He says in verse 39, “But you have a
custom that I release someone for you at the Passover.” His obvious assumption
was that the people would see the folly of condemning an innocent man, and so
he set the matter before them in this way: “Do you wish then that I release for
you the King of the Jews?” How surprised he must have been that the crowd
demanded the release of Barabbas instead!
The other Gospels tell us that the chief priests and elders
had persuaded, had stirred up, the crowd to ask for Barabbas. They had a
twofold reason for persuading the crowd in this direction. Jesus was a threat
to them because He spoke the truth. Barabbas was a threat to Rome ,
having already committed murder in an effort to liberate the nation from Rome ’s oppression. The
exchange of Barabbas for Jesus was a win-win situation for the religious
leaders of Israel .
But why did the crowds comply so willingly? As a preacher of a bygone era put
it, “The memory of all the gracious words and life-giving actions of Jesus did
not subdue the raging passion of their lust; they could neither see with their
eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understood with their hearts. The light
that was in them was darkened. … Human power and popular feeling and corporate
conscience reached the bottomless abyss of destruction.”[1]
Barabbas, a man who actually did pose a threat to Rome , would be set free, while Jesus, whom Pilate was
convinced posed no political threat to Rome ,
would go to the cross.
Isn’t it striking that the accusation that sent Jesus to the
cross was the same one that threatened to send Barabbas there? Barabbas was an
insurrectionist, complicit in a murderous, bloody rebellion to overthrow Rome . This is the very
same charge that was falsely applied to Jesus – that in claiming to be the Son
of God, He was setting Himself up as a deity (in defiant opposition to the
Roman Emperor’s claims to deity) and as the true King of Israel (in opposition
to Rome’s oppression of Judea). And it was for those charges – charges that
were true of Barabbas, but not of Jesus – that Jesus was crucified.
It was a blatant perversion of justice. Proverbs 17:15 says
“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them
alike are an abomination to the Lord.” And yet, this travesty of injustice took
place under the sovereign oversight of God. Reflecting back on the murder of
Jesus, the early church prayed to God in Acts 4, saying, “truly in this city
there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples
of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and
Your purpose predestined to occur” (Ac 4:27-28). If the question is how
such an injustice could have ever happened among civilized people, the answer
is that God willed it! Why would God do such a thing … such a thing that He
Himself had declared to be an abomination? It is because in this act of
substitution, God Himself was bearing the condemnation of our wickedness in our
place, so that we could be set free from our imprisonment from sin and actually
made righteous by faith in Him.
You see, Jesus not only took upon Himself the charges that
stood against Barabbas, but He took upon Himself the charges that stand against
us all. We have gained an interest in the Savior’s blood because He died to
take our penalty, that our sins could be condemned in Him as our substitute,
and we could be granted a pardon for our sins, and declared righteous. This is
how Barabbas’s story becomes our own. Like Barabbas, we are guilty under the
curse of condemnation because of our sin. But it was not the whims of the
crowd, but the will of Almighty God that His only begotten Son might go to the
cross we deserve so that we could be set free. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, it is
written that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Frank Mead gives us a beautiful and imaginative picture of
Barabbas.
Barabbas, the brigand, shook his
chains. … Tomorrow Roman nails would pierce [his] hands. Barabbas had been
caught red-handed at rebellion, and he had to die. His cross was ready. … [But]
his door flew open and light streamed in. “Come out … Barabbas; you’re free!
Jesus of Nazareth will die in your place.” … They led him to the prison door
and turned him loose in the sunny street. He walked off, blinking, afraid to
laugh, afraid to cry.[2]
At verse 40 of our text, Barabbas exits the stage of
biblical and secular history. Nothing more is known of him. Did he ever
comprehend what Jesus had done for him by dying in his place? Only in heaven
will we find out. For if he ever did understand it, he will be there. And so
will all who receive this pardon that has been made available to us through the
substitutionary death of Jesus. But not all will.
Consider the unusual case of George Wilson, who was
sentenced to death in 1829 for murder and the robbery of mail trains. In 1830, Wilson was offered a
pardon by President Andrew Jackson. For some unfathomable reason, Wilson refused the
pardon. The legal wranglings over his right to refuse the pardon eventually
came before the Supreme Court of the United States . Chief Justice John
Marshall wrote in the majority opinion, “A pardon is an act of grace … which
exempts the individual, on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law
inflicts for a crime he has committed. … A pardon is a deed, to the validity of
which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance.
It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it be
rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to force it on him.”[3] As
a result of his refusal of the pardon, Wilson
was hanged.
Like George Wilson, many have refused the even greater
pardon of the Judge of the Living and the Dead, Jesus Christ. He has satisfied
the wages of their sins by receiving in Himself the penalty upon the cross. And
yet, when the free offer of grace is extended, they refuse it. Did Barabbas
receive the pardon? It is nothing but a matter of historical trivia at this
point. But, it is infinitely more important that you decide whether or not you
will receive the pardon.
J. C. Ryle said this: “We are pardoned, though guilty,
because of what Christ has done for us. We are sinners, yet counted righteous.
Christ is righteous, yet counted a sinner. Happy is that man who understands
and believes this …, who has laid hold on it by faith for the salvation of his
own soul.”[4]
Have you understood and believed that? Charles Wesley did.
Wesley understood that all of his righteous deeds were but filthy rags before
the Lord, and he, like Barabbas, stood guilty and condemned before Almighty God
because of his sin. And on the evening of May 21, 1738, after much
consideration of the promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Wesley said, “I
gave myself to Christ, assured that I was safe. … I now found myself at peace
with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. I saw that by faith I stood.”[5]
Two days later, he began to compose these words:
And can it be that I
should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who
caused His pain – For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can
it be, that Thou my God, shouldst die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above, so free, so infinite grace –
Emptied Himself of all
but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race:
‘Tis mercy all,
immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned
spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a
quick’ning ray – I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my
heart was free, I rose went forth and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I
dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my
Living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the
eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own.
[1] H.R.
Reynolds, in H.D.M. Spence, ed., The
Pulpit Commentary (Vol. 40; New
York : Funk and Wagnalls, nd.), 398.
[2] Frank S.
Mead, Who’s Who in the Bible (Old
Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1976), 224.
[3] United
States
[4] Quoted
in Arno C. Gaebelein, The Gospel of John (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux, 1965), 353.
[5] http://www.songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/and-can-it-be.
Accessed October 22, 2015.
