And they cried out all at once, saying,
Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:
Luke 23:18
Who was Barabbas and why did
the people to choose to have this man released and have Jesus crucified? Let’s
take a look at an event that has changed the course of history forever. Not
only did this event change the course of history, but a man named Jesus was the
primary leader who sparked this chain of events. From his birth all the way to
his death he was controversial and he was on the hit list of the religious
mafia of Israel.
First we look at the scene
from the time of Jesus being brought before the Roman authorities. Who were the
Roman authorities at that time? The authorities of Rome were: The Chief Priest,
the elders of the people, the scribes, the governor (Pontius Pilate), The King
of Judea (Herod the great), The King of Rome (Caesar). It took six branches of
Roman government to make a decision to arrest & crucify Jesus Christ. If Jesus
was an average normal citizen who committed a serious crime I don’t think it
would have taken so many government officials to kill one man. But this man
Jesus was not like an average man.
And
Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou
the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was
accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Mt
27:11-12
I want you to notice also
that of the six branches of government, two groups were the religious leaders;
the chief priest & the scribes. These two religious groups made up one
third of the roman Government. Before Jesus was handed over to the non-religious
segment of the government, he was arrested and turned over to the chief priest,
elders and scribes. It was these religious leaders who set the whole scene up
in the first place.
Who killed Jesus? Was it the
people who shouted and made a decision to have Barabbas over Jesus/ or was it
the religious community who followed him, tried to trap him and eventually reported
and had him arrested? Who was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ at the
cross?
But
the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas,
and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the
twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto
them, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto
him, let him be crucified. And the governor said, why, what evil hath he done?
But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that
he could prevail nothing, but [that] rather a tumult was made, he took water,
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood
of this just person: see ye to it.
Mt 27:20-24
First let’s understand that
Jesus going to the cross was an event that was supposed to happen according to
prophecy and for the purpose of eternal redemption of all humanity. I believe
there was also a second reason why God allowed Jesus to be crucified. I believe
it was to expose the devils kingdom and that all can see present and future the
schemes and deceptions of the devil.
The world is the devils
kingdom and all those in the world are his servants if they are not servants of
God. There is only two kingdoms in this world. When we look at the involved
parties we must understand that everyone involved in the life and death of Jesus
was either serving the kingdom of Satan or they were serving the kingdom of
God. There is no doubt about it that these two kingdoms were at war and these
two kingdoms were in the world then and are now.
The government of the Roman Empire
was not of the Kingdom of God, it was clearly the kingdom of Satan. As I have
listed the six branches, two of them were a religious branch and the elders and
the people were very religious as well. Yes the religious community was part of
the government of Rome; they were part of a worldly Satanic Kingdom whose
purpose was to remove Jesus from the face of the earth.
No doubt it was Satan’s goal
from the beginning of time to stop the will and plan of God in the earth. But
ultimately there was no greater threat to his kingdom than the Messiah being
born according to prophecy. He heard the prophets and knew of the prophecies
and was determined to try to kill Jesus before he was able to walk. It was the
same government that crucified Jesus that also tried to kill him at his birth.
Then
Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and
sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the
coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he
had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Mt 2:16
But when Herod was dead,
behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying,
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel:
for they are dead which sought the young child's life. Mt 2:19-20
After the attempt to kill Jesus
from an infant failed, Satan devised a plan to kill Jesus and even try to
remove his influence, name and even his disciples from the face of the earth.
At his trial, he was mocked as king of the Jews and he was whipped and beaten.
He was humiliated before the people to be worse than a murderer and thief. They
judged him to be killed at the expense of setting a criminal free.
The governor of Palestine
gave the people a choice; do you want Jesus or do you want Barabbas? The people
became as what we know today as Jurors. They were not ignorant of their
decision of who Jesus was and who Barabbas was. They lived among the two. They
made a conscious decision to choose to have Jesus crucified and a criminal
instead of him.
What kind of hate that makes
people reject someone who has only done good? What did Jesus do that made him
an enemy of the people and made them hate him so much? He healed the sick, was
that his crime? He raised a dead man and put a smile on the face of a blind man
and made the lame walk. Was his miracles his crime or was his teachings his
crime? What was it that made Jesus the most hated man of his time?
Who
was Barabbas
“And
they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.” (Mt 27:16) there are four
things we know about Barabbas in scripture. 1.) He was a robber 2.) He caused
an insurrection (A rebellion against the government) 3.) He was in prison with
Jesus 4.) His name means “son of Abba” and his name is of Chaldean origin. I
want to first pay attention to the above mentioned scripture where it used the
word “notable”.
Barabbas
was a “notable prisoner”. The Greek word for notable means he was “remarkable”.
The English define the word notable as remarkable, distinguished &
prominent. This tells us that Barabbas was not an ordinary criminal. He was a
man of power, and he was very well known for what he did. A modern word to
describe Barabbas would be “notorious”. Notorious signifies a person who is
famous for doing something criminal or evil.
This man
was not just an ordinary criminal in the smallest sense. Not at all, he was a
big time robber and a leader of an insurrection. He had followers and he was
well known for what he did. He can be compared to modern day infamous criminals
like: Al Capone, the leader of a drug & mafia empire; Charles Manson,
leader of three teens who killed on his behalf; or David Koresh, a cult leader
who said he was Jesus Christ and went to war against the government (By whom
Timothy McVeigh, The Oklahoma City Bomber was inspired by). Although these men
were criminals of different crimes, they all had two things in common with Barabbas;
they all did their crimes on a large scale and became infamous for what they
did.
The reason
I’m taking my time to paint this picture and write this drama with detail is so
you can get an image of the hate they had for Jesus. I want you to see that
this hate and disgust was so strong that it was no way possible for it to be conceived
in the hearts of mankind alone. This hate had to have come from a source that
was beyond man himself, a deep dark spiritual and wicked source. For who or
what would substitute a righteous man to let a notoriously wicked man free?
As we
progress in this book I want you to see how the devil has never stopped trying
to destroy Jesus Christ from the time he came into the world and even unto now.
The devil has no new tricks, but one thing for sure he is consistent and
predictable. And we can see his schemes and tricks in the scriptures, in
history and in today’s world.
