Mark 15:1-15 “God’s Chosen One”

Last week we looked at Peter’s witness of Jesus Christ and to a certain extent the witness of Joseph of Arimathea. In these reports of some less than honorable acts on their part, they were part of God’s Master Plan. Peter denied Jesus thrice, but it seemed to be what was supposed to happen. Yet, he wept over this later.

Joseph of Arimathea was part of the council that accused Jesus of blasphemy and took him to Pilate for a death sentence. Yet, later he understood Jesus to be the Son of God and went back to the council to ask for the body of Jesus to be entombed in his own tomb. Both Peter and Joseph did witness to the fact that God was in control. They witnessed to the fact that even when we feel that we have brought a curse upon ourselves because of our actions, that God still has blessings for us.

In the scripture for today, I want us to focus on another witnesses of the Passion named in the Bible. That is Barabbas. His is a very unique story in the Bible and is strangely most representative of our understanding of what Christ has done for us. Christ died in his stead. Christ died instead of Barabbas.

Barabbas: We must read carefully what Mark tells us about Barabbas. Some might conclude that he was a murderer that was being held for murder. However, Mark carefully writes that Barabbas was merely being held with others who had committed murder during the insurrection. It is not clear that Barabbas had murdered anybody. It is not even really clear that Barabbas was even truly involved in an insurrection of some sort. John in his Gospel says that he was a robber bandit. Really all we know is that he was being held in prison at the same time as Jesus’ trial, and it is clear that Barabbas was scheduled to be crucified.

The custom was to release one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Of course, it makes sense to release the prisoner who would do the least harm upon his release—best if it were indeed someone who might have been falsely accused—there might have been plenty of those in that day—not just Jesus. It would be even better if the person were a stranger to Jerusalem that they might just want to leave the city quickly upon his release. Jesus, being a Galilean from Nazareth, and who is certainly falsely accused, would seem to be the perfect candidate for that Passover release.

Barabbas is released rather than Jesus because the chief priests went out into the mob and stirred them up to cry for the release of Barabbas rather than Jesus. I will just put it out there: one should never have an excited mob decide such things as prisoner releases. One should imagine that the priests were whispering into people’s ears, passing a few bribes around, making a few promises that they never intended to keep in order to get the people to turn against Jesus.

What would have been Barabbas’ witness to Christ? First, we don’t now actually know from the Bible what happened to Barabbas after his release. There is a church tradition that is written in other sources that says that Barabbas actually went to watch Jesus die on the Cross. He would have been one of the few male witnesses to Christ’s death in this case. It is hard to imagine what he would have felt if that were the case. Could you imagine what it would be like to see somebody else die in your place like that?

There was a movie that came out in 1962 with Anthony Quinn as the lead. The movie was based on a book entitled Barabba in which the character of Barabbas is so moved by Christ’s death and resurrection that he changes his ways and becomes a true witness for Christ. I love that movie. It shows how even a criminal can be changed by the sacrifice that Christ made.

Indeed, we are all changed. In the story of Barabbas is the basic point that Christ died for all of our sins. Christ died innocently on the Cross because of the crimes against God that we have committed. Christ has taken our place in death so that we might know eternal life. What would it feel like to watch someone die in your place? It would feel like being a Christian! We know that Christ sacrificed for us. He took the bullet that had our names on it. We owe him our lives. We live our lives today in total and utter gratitude for that incredible sacrifice made for us!

I have focused on Barabbas but I must say that there were of course other witnesses to the Passion of Christ. There was Pilate of course. The text for today says that he was “amazed” at Jesus. Other gospels make us wonder if Pilate was not in the least truly impressed with Jesus. We know Pilate’s wife had a dream about Jesus which she shared with Pilate, saying that he was truly the Son of God.

The other witnesses were many. Indeed there was a whole crowd of people who were yelling out Barabbas’ name in order that he might be set free. I wonder what he thought about that—all the people yelling his name out to Pilate. He hears the crowd choosing for him over Jesus. I cannot even imagine what that would be like. It is an incomprehensible moment. After all, whom would you rather have in your life right now, today? Jesus or Barabbas? Jesus or anybody for that matter!?

The simple fact of the matter is that God chose His only begotten Son to be the savior of all of humankind. Yet, the mob chose Barabbas. Guilty or innocent of some crime, the mob prefers him.

This last week in our beloved republic, in this sacred democracy, we have seen mobs of angry people. They were shouting out “Stop the count!” At the same time I saw this being broadcast to the nation, I was preparing this sermon and thinking about the angry crowd that was yelling for Pilate to crucify Jesus. Pilate asked the crowd, whom do you want. They shouted out “Barabbas.” And what about Jesus? “Crucify Him.”

What is good and righteous and godly, historically has not been the angry mob! Here is another example straight from the gospel! I think back to the Triumphal entry of Jesus when every one was yelling out “Hail, King of the Jews.” Jesus does not seem to be affected by that. He does not go to the Temple and take the throne in the holiest of Holies. In fact He leaves. He is just “out of there.” He does not do what the crowd wants of Him.

So, now we see this crowd of witnesses around Jesus, some of the same people perhaps, yelling for His death on the Cross. Pilate himself knows that the crowd is being egged on by the chief priests’ selfish interests. We read that, “The chief priests were all about jealousy of Jesus,” says the gospel of Mark. I am thinking that what could have done in those days is that Pilate would hold a referendum of all people in Judea at the time, have some debates between pro-Jesus and anti-Jesus factions, then have a private ballot system that would show a thoughtful outcome. Then Georgia went blue.

I feel for Pilate in a way. He just wants to keep the peace, and so he thinks the way to do that is by appeasing the mob. Just give them the violent outcome they desire then peace will come back. Well, history says that after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the next resurrection came and the Romans had come in and destroy the entire Jewish nation. By 69 AD Rome will destroy the Temple, all of the chief priests that planned the death of Jesus are themselves dead or in hiding. To this day, there is no priesthood in the Jewish faith.

Part of the history here is that once the chief priests got rid of their enemies, such as having Jesus crucified, they turned against one another. Their unending seething hatred just turned inward and they very much ended up destroying themselves. If they had just welcomed Jesus into their hearts instead, they would have been just fine most likely. They missed their opportunity to rule out of love rather than hate. I do not believe that the mob understood fully what they were doing and ever reconciled their actions. At the beginning of the sermon I noted how Peter wept when he realized his betrayal of the Lord. . . .this mob did not break down and cry, they just continued to feed on one another’s anger all the more.

Time for me to preach the Word as I hear it this day. When we become the angry mob again. When we live in hate and jealousy again. When we fail in that simple commandment to love our neighbors and our God, as Jesus commanded His followers, then we are just crucifying Jesus again! We must come once more to that point as a nation when we can weep together before our Lord. We must be able to reconcile again.

In a meeting this last week with other pastors, one of the pastors from Kauai noted that it was time to “love our enemies” as Jesus told us to do. Shoot, when did we become enemies? I pointed out to all the pastors at that meeting that the word “enemy” had changed in meaning since it was first used in the English translations of the Bible. It is from Middle French, en ami, meaning simply that person that is not our friend. That matches the Greek word that is used here, which is “ekthros,” someone outside of our usual circle or group. And, the command to love is plural as well in the Greek: “agapate” and interestingly informal. This was a call for different groups to reach beyond themselves to others in that sacred “agape-style” love!

Let us not put Jesus back on the Cross! Let us weep together again and find that love and peace that Christ died for. Let us send that angry mob away by sending the anger we feel inside ourselves away. Let us not listen to those jealous chief priests for they are done for in God’s plan already!

I call for us to leave the mob and find Jesus’ love instead.

Amen.