Bottom line up front: Do We Scoff at Theological Treason?

Intro: I was in Mark 15. This is the section in Mark’s gospel where the crucifixion of Christ is recorded. No matter how many times I go through Scripture, I cannot get through the crucifixion accounts in the gospels without tears. But before we get to the actual crucifixion of the Holy One, I wonder if we could just focus on events just prior to that horror.

Text: Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. (Mark 15:6-15, ESV)

Teaching: Just look at how much we know about Barabbas from this text alone. First, he was already imprisoned because he was a criminal. Second, we learn not only that Barabbas was imprisoned, but that one of his crimes was murder. And yet the crowd was mad with rage. They demanded the crucifixion of the only righteous man to have ever lived. Even Pilate, Roman governor of Judea from 26-36 A.D., conceded that Jesus was wholly innocent. Barabbas was indeed a criminal. But Jesus? No; He was simply holiness in human form, the ultimate truth-teller, the innocent lamb going to slaughter for us sinners.

Encouragement: Do we scoff at theological treason? That is, should our hearts not burn within us over how sin affects our natures, how crowds can quickly become mad, unhinged, and bloodthirsty? It was treason to crucify the innocent and to free the guilty. But what’s even more staggering is the fact that God was saving sinners by bearing the judgment of the criminals in order that guilty sinners might go free. We are a race of Barabbases, you see. We’re the guilty ones. And yet, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV). At Calvary, God saves us from God, in other words. It’s all of God—from beginning to end—and redounds unto God’s glory.