“Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
“ ‘Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
“ ‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them.
“ ‘Crucify him!’ they shouted.
“ ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate.
“But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
“Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.” Mark 15:6-15 (NIV)
Who was the first person to be redeemed by Christ’s crucifixion? We often think of the thief on the cross, but he wasn’t the first.
The first person was Barabbas, a murderer and all around rabble-rouser who should have died on the cross and may have been scheduled for such an executive that very day.
Imagine, if you will, that you are on death row. The day of your execution has arrived and you hear the footsteps of your prison keeper echoing down long, cold stone hallways. You know they are coming for you. The steps halt outside your cell. A key turns in a rusty lock, then a door swings slowly on rusty hinges. Guards enter. Heavily armored and armed Roman guards.
You are taken from your cell and led away, but instead of being led out through the doorway that leads to death, you are left, cowering and confused, outside another door where there are no guards and where no execution is awaiting you.
How much closer to that final situation do we have to get before we understand that the sacrifice made so very many years ago was made for us. Maybe we aren’t on death row physically, but the punishment that awaits us is no less threatening and permanent. Were it not for that cross on a hilltop and the willing sacrifice of the Son of Man, the punishment would still be ours.
“Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.