Day 4: Barabbas

Yesterday we left off with Pilate in a tough spot. He felt Jesus was innocent, but the pressure around him was mounting. The religious leaders were relentless. The crowd was growing louder. And remember what was expected of Pilate from government officials in Rome: keep the peace. No riots. No uprisings.

So Pilate turned to a Jewish Passover tradition—he would let the people decide what to do with Jesus. He offered them a choice between two men: Jesus of Nazareth and a prisoner named Barabbas. It was supposed to be an easy way out. Certainly the crowd would choose this peaceful teacher over a criminal. But that’s not at all what happened.

The Gospels describe Barabbas as someone involved in an insurrection against Rome. But each Gospel adds its own angle. Matthew calls him a “notorious prisoner” (Matthew 27:16)—someone whose reputation preceded him. Mark and Luke tell us he was guilty of both rebellion and murder (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19), while John refers to him as a “bandit” (John 18:40), a term often associated with violent revolutionaries. Barabbas wasn’t just a common criminal. He was a man who wanted to see Rome overturned at all costs. He was likely viewed by some as a freedom fighter—a symbol of resistance. He was a man who threw caution to the wind and fought.

And at Passover—a festival celebrating Israel’s historic liberation from slavery—it’s possible that some in the crowd wanted to see Barabbas try and finish what he started: overthrow Rome with force. This was the opposite of Jesus’s approach. He wasn’t rallying the people. He wasn’t calling for revolution. He was silent. He seemed passive. And maybe to a frustrated and confused crowd who misunderstood who Jesus was, he didn’t look like a deliverer.

The religious leaders knew how to capitalize on that confusion. They stirred the people up, framing Jesus as a threat to the peace and safety of the nation. People had shouted “Hosanna!” and waved palm branches as he rode into town, but these weren’t necessarily the same people making noise here. This was a crowd easily influenced by fear and power. Pilate thought he could escape responsibility by letting the crowd decide. But he misunderstood the layers, the frustration, the heritage of the people—many of them desperate for change. To his absolute shock, the crowd lobbied for him to release Barabbas.

Barabbas, the guilty one, would go free… while Jesus, the innocent one, would be crucified. Little did they know that thousands of years later, we would look back on that day and see how what unfolded was at the very heart of the gospel. Here’s why: of all the people in the Easter story, a character we should largely identify with is Barabbas. We’re the ones who’ve rebelled. We’re the ones who’ve fallen short. And yet Jesus took our place. He went to the cross so that we could go free.

Heavenly Father,

Like Barabbas, we’re the ones who are guilty, flawed, and in need of mercy. And you gave that mercy to us through Jesus. Thank you that he took our place. Amen.