Matthew 27:15-17, 19

Mark 15:11-15

“Jesus, Barabbas and Pontius Pilate”

Today, we continue in our series of sermons where we are taking an in-depth look at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. And we focus today on that scene where Jesus is taken before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.

After having a trial at night, which was forbidden by their own law, the Sanhedrin sentenced him to death. But only a Roman Governor could carry out the sentence to have a man put to death. So, they had to wait until it was morning to take him to Pontius Pilate.

They bring him to the Antonio Fortress. This is where Pontius Pilate would have sat outside on the Judgment Seat to listen to the accusations against Jesus. The Fortress Antonio was built by Pontius Pilate and it was adjacent to the Temple there in Jerusalem, right in the heart of the city. And this, of course, grieved the Jews … that there was a Roman Garrison housed there on the Temple Mount. But, it served as a symbol for all, of the occupation and rule of the Roman government.

Today, you can go underground and see the excavations of a Roman Road that John’s Gospel calls “The Stone Pavement”. It is 6 AM in the morning when Jesus is taken down this road to the place where he would stand before Pontius Pilate to be sentenced. Standing there, you can imagine the Roman Guards and the people shouting, “Crucify Him!” And then, Jesus is led away to be crucified.

When you go to places like this, it helps you remember that this story is a real story. It’s not fiction. This really happened to a man named Jesus 2000 years ago. But what we want to do today is to try to help this story come alive for us, by seeing ourselves in this story. Part of what we do when we read the Bible, is to ask the question: How does my life connect with this story? How am I like the characters in this story? And this is what we want to do today.

In the 15^th chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we read:

As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

He answered him, "You say so."

Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, "Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you."

But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

What I find amazing and what Pilot found amazing, is that when Jesus stands before the Sanhedrin and then again before Pontius Pilot, in both cases, Jesus remains virtually silent in the face of charges that could lead to his death. Imagine that you are an innocent person who is being charged with these crimes and when you are given the chance to defend yourself, you say nothing? That’s odd to me and it was odd to Pontius Pilate.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” That’s the crime Jesus is being accused of. And Jesus gives a somewhat cryptic answer, “You say so.” What does that mean? It may have meant, “Yes I am” or it may have meant, “You have spoken and I’m not going to disagree with you.” But Jesus gives no other answer.

When I read about the silence of Jesus at his trials, part of what I think is going on, is Jesus’ resignation, or better yet, his determination to die. Jesus is not defending himself or trying to get off from the death penalty. Jesus goes to Jerusalem anticipating that he will die, because he believes that this is part of God’s plan for him. He believes that by his suffering and death, he will contribute to the salvation of humankind. And so, he tells his disciples before he arrives in Jerusalem, “The Son of Man will be betrayed and put in the hands of sinners and will die.” At the Last Supper, Jesus says, “This is my body given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus understands that somehow his death will affect our salvation.

But how does that happen? That’s the million dollar question. This is what theologians have wrestled with … how do we understand the Doctrine of Atonement … the idea that as human beings we are estranged and separated from God because of our sins, but through the death of Jesus we have been reconciled to God. How does that happen?

Well, there are several theories of the Atonement. Today, I am going to offer you one understanding of the Atonement and in the coming weeks, I will offer you some others. All of these will try to paint a picture for us of how Jesus’ death saves us from our sins.

The fact that Jesus knows that this is going to happen, is indisputable in my mind. Jesus is silent, because he is anticipating his death. He prayed in the Garden, “Let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but Thine be done.” As Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate, I believe he has in his mind this passage from the Prophet Isaiah found in chapter 53:6-7. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

Jesus “did not open his mouth”. Jesus was offering himself as “a lamb to be slaughtered” for the sins of the world. As Christians, we believe that Jesus’ death was purposeful and redemptive. Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher who was put to death by the Romans and that was the end of the story. We believe that Jesus’ death was a means by which God was saving the world.

And we see one view of the atoning work of Jesus in what happens with Barabbas. Barabbas was a criminal on death row. He was an insurrectionist who led a revolt against the Roman Government and in the process, he had stolen from Roman citizens and even murdered people. At the time of the Passover, it was custom for Pontius Pilate to release one prisoner to the Jewish people. We’re going to talk about why in just a few moments.

So, Pilot offers two prisoners to the people. He has Jesus of Nazareth and he has Barabbas. Both of them are accused of leading an insurrection and wanting to be King of the Jews. So, Pilot turns to the people and says, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, who has murdered and stolen or Jesus, who has done nothing wrong?” And Pilate figures that the people are going to ask for Jesus, but the people ask for Barabbas. So, in the end, Barabbas is released and Jesus takes Barabbas’ place on death row. By that afternoon, Jesus will be hanging on the Cross in Barabbas’ place. So, Barabbas becomes the first sinner for whom Jesus dies.

And this story becomes a picture for us of Jesus’ atoning work. We call this the “Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement”. This is the idea that Jesus, who is righteous, takes the punishment and dies in the place of those who are worthy of death. In this Theory of Atonement, we believe that all of humankind has sinned and because of our sin, we have been alienated from God. Every time we sin, we create a wall that alienates and separates us from God, but God’s desire is that we not be alienated from him.

We deserve punishment for our sins. The scriptures say that “the wages of sin is death … an eternal separation from God”. But God, who loves us as a father loves his children, does not desire for us to be eternally separated from him, rather God wants to offer us grace and to reconcile us.

And so, according to this Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement, Jesus Christ … God walking in flesh upon this earth, suffers and dies on a Cross for the sins of all of humankind. An ordinary man couldn’t die for all of humankind, but Jesus, being God in the flesh, could. And so, he paid a price that he did not owe and we received a gift of grace that we did not deserve. This is what we see, as Barabbas walks away free and Jesus is carried away to the Cross.

Now, this is hard for us to see sometimes. We look at ourselves and we think, “We’re not so bad of a people that Jesus had to be nailed to cross.” But then, there are those times when this becomes very clear to us. Moments when we have done something so awful and we feel so ashamed, that there is no way that we can forgive ourselves or save ourselves. And it is then, that we look at the Cross and realize that the price has already been paid. And what a costly price it was.

And when we look at the Cross, we are meant to have our hearts changed. We’re supposed to be changed by the realization of the awesome cost of God’s grace. And as a result of that cost, we serve God in humble gratitude and we live with a desire to never sin again. So, we see ourselves in Barabbas. We walk away free, because of the suffering of an innocent man who took our place.

Well, that’s not the only place we’re meant to see ourselves in this story. We’re also meant to see ourselves in the crowd that gathers at 6 AM in the morning to call for Jesus’ crucifixion. We often associate this crowd with all the Jews in Jesus’ day, but that is absolute heresy. Not all the Jews in Jesus’ day called for Jesus’ crucifixion. It was a relatively small crowd that had gathered outside of the Antonio Fortress early that morning.

There were many Jews who believed in Jesus, so who were these people? I imagine that some of them were merchants who used to buy and sell merchandise in the Temple Courts. You remember how, just a few days before, Jesus had cleansed the Temple and thrown them out. They had lost revenue from this and been humiliated by this, so they were angry at Jesus.

Then, there were probably some who were just thugs and rebel-rousers, who just enjoyed seeing violent things happen. And then, there were probably some there who had been a part of that procession on Palm Sunday. They had waived their palm branches in front of Jesus as he entered the city, but now they were shouting, “Crucify him!” How could that happen? How could they praise him on Sunday, and then call for his crucifixion on Friday?

Well, it is this crowd that I want to help you understand. You see, they were excited when Jesus came into Jerusalem. 190 years before Jesus, there was another group oppressing the Jews. It wasn’t the Romans, but rather the Greeks … the Seleucids. They killed many of the Jews. They slaughtered pigs on the altar in the Temple and set up a Temple to Zeus. And during that time, there was a family of Jews called the Maccabeans. In 165 B.C. they incited an insurrection against the Greeks. They forced the Greeks out of Jerusalem and out of the Holy Land. The Temple was then cleansed and today our Jewish friends celebrate this cleansing of the Temple as “Hanukah”.

Now, when one of the Maccabean brothers, Judas, entered Jerusalem, he was hailed as “the great deliverer”. The people took palm branches and they waived them as a sign of victory and they made him their king. So, when the people were waiving their palm branches as Jesus entered Jerusalem, they were saying, “Like Judas did, Jesus, you be our deliverer!” “Hosanna” means “Save us now, Jesus! Save us now from the Romans! Cast them out of this place and set us free from their awful oppression” This is what they were looking for in Jesus.

The word, “Messiah” means “anointed one” or “king”. Solomon was a messiah. David was a messiah. Any of the ancient kings anointed by the priests would become “the anointed one” or “the messiah”.

You may not know this, but during the time from when Jesus was born, until the City of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. there were at least 8 Messiahs hailed by the Jewish people. Every one of these 8 would-be Messiahs took up the sword trying to drive out the Romans. And so, the people understood this to be the task of the Messiah and this was what the people were looking for Jesus to be. But Jesus was the only Messiah who refused to take up the sword.

Therefore, Jesus disappointed many people. When he taught in the Temple Courts, you remember what he said about the Romans? He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He said, “Blessed are the meek and blessed are the peacemakers.” He said, “If a Roman soldier causes you to carry his backpack for one mile, offer to carry it for two.” He said, “If a Roman strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek.”

Wrong answer, Jesus. So by Friday, many of the people were very disappointed in this would-be Messiah, because he went against the grain of the things they believed in. I mean, the only way to survive in this world is by force, right? The only way to be free in this world is by the power of the sword! But Jesus said, “It is not by the power of the sword, but by the power of the Cross that you will be free.” “It’s not going to be by rising up an army that you overthrow the Romans. It’s going to be by demonstrating sacrificial love.”

And Jesus was right. Jesus knew that if you armed every one of the Jewish people in that day and led them to fight against the Romans, they would be crushed. In 66 A.D. there was a man named Manahem ben Judah who was hailed as a Messiah. He rounded up an army of 6000 to fight against the Romans. He cleared the Antonio Fortress and destroyed the Romans there. And that was hailed as a great victory. They hailed Judas as the Messiah and rejoiced, “This is the time! We’re going to have victory now!”

But then, Rome sent 60,000 well-equipped soldiers from the north and they laid siege to the City of Jerusalem. And by the time they were finished, the entire city was in flames. You can still see the smoke on the rocks in Jerusalem today from when the Romans destroyed it. Before they were done, 1 million Jews had been put to death.

It would not be by the sword that they would have victory over the Romans. Jesus knew this. Jesus said: It will be by demonstrating to them the superiority of your ideas. It will be by loving them with the love of God. It will be by letting them see in you the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It will be, by being a light … living before them a different way. When they hear about your God and see God lived out in your lives, their hearts will be changed. And as their hearts are changed, you will conquer them … not by the sword.

And this is exactly how it happened. In Rome, the gods they once worshipped were becoming increasingly ignored as irrelevant. And when Christians began to tell them about Jesus … they found this faith so captivating, that they began to follow Jesus. And for the next 3 centuries, Christianity began to spread like wildfire … so that, by the early 300’s the Roman Empire had been conquered by the Cross of Christ, not by the sword. This was the way of Jesus.

On that day when Pontius Pilate stood before the crowd, he had two would-be Messiahs … and he offers to let one of them go free. Why does he do this? I mean, we can’t find any evidence of this being done at any other time in the Roman Empire. Well, there are some interesting parallels between this practice and our own Presidential powers of pardon. In the Federalist Paper #74, Alexander Hamilton explains why in the 1700’s our government insisted that the President have the power to pardon prisoners. Listen to what Alexander Hamilton had to say: “In seasons of insurrection or rebellion there are often critical moments when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth.”

This is why I believe Pontius Pilot offered to release a prisoner once a year to the Jews. It would be “one well-timed act of pardon” aimed at squelching any rebellion. So, Pontius Pilot brings forth these two insurrectionists and offers them to the people. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that they both have the same first name … “Jesus Barabbas” and “Jesus of Nazareth”. You remember what the name Jesus means? It means, “God saves” or “Savior”. So, there was “Savior Barabbas” and “Savior, the son of Joseph”. “Which of these saviors do you want?” Pilate asks.

This is where we begin to see ourselves in this crowd. Which of them do you pick? If you had the opportunity to choose a savior who is going to lead by force and throw out the Romans and insure that you will have prosperity and power and freedom. Or you have a Messiah who says, “Love these people living in your midst and serve them and see what happens.” Which do you choose?

Twenty years from now, there’s a presidential election and you have two candidates for president. One of them says, “Peace through strength. This is what we need. I will make us the strongest nation on earth, insuring that no one else will mess with us, because they would be afraid to do so.”

The other candidate says, “In this world of turmoil and heartache, I think we need to show others the superiority of our ideas. So, my foreign policy will be to send as many of our people as possible to hurting and broken people in other nations. We’re not going to fight. When we have pain inflicted upon us, we are going to bear that and demonstrate to people the power of grace and love.”

Now, which of those two is going to get elected? There’s no question, is there? I know who I’m going to vote for. I’m going to vote for the one who’s going to make sure that we’re strong!

The point that I’m trying to make, is that what Jesus was calling us to was so counter-cultural … it was so against what makes sense in our minds, that it is easy to see why the crowd would choose Barabbas. “Strength through the sword” or “a changed world by laying down your life”.

In our own history, we’ve seen this choice contrasted between people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the end, when it came to Civil Rights, which was it that changed our country? Was it violence and hate as proposed by Malcolm X … or the power of sacrificial love as demonstrated by Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Mahatma Gandhi had the same experience when he was faced with the war between the Hindus and the Muslims. Being grieved by the war between these two groups, he announced that he was going to go on a hunger strike. He almost starved to death before they finally came to him and promised to stop fighting. This is the power of one little man, who by the superiority of his ideas and his willingness to suffer, brought two nations to peace.

Now, I don’t know what you do with that. I mean, can we really live as Jesus did in this world? Could a nation or a government even survive that way? All I know, is that this is how Jesus calls to live as individual believers. He calls us to choose Jesus of Nazareth over Jesus Barabbas.

Alright, so we have seen how we are sometimes like the crowd and why the crowd called for Barabbas, instead of Jesus. Now, we turn to Pontius Pilate.

Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish Philosopher & Teacher of the 1^st century, tells us this about Pilate: “He was a man of inflexible disposition, harsh and stubborn.” Josephus, a Jewish Historian of the 1^st century tells us that when Pilate wanted to build a Roman aqueduct into the City of Jerusalem and the people wouldn’t give the tax money … he had his soldiers invade the Temple and take their offerings to God to be used to build the aqueduct. Later on, we are told that a group of Samaritans were following a certain prophet that they thought was the Messiah and Pilate rounded them all up and killed them all.

In Luke 13 we read where some Galileans came to the Temple, and Pilate thought they were leading an insurrection, so he mixed their blood with the blood of their sacrifices. He was finally released of his command, because of his cruelty to the Jews.

This was Pontius Pilate. He was not afraid to kill Jews. He had already killed many of them. So, it is interesting that when Jesus is brought before him accused of claiming to be the King of the Jews, Pontius Pilate can’t bring himself to kill him. In each of the Gospels, we see that he is troubled by this decision.

In Mark’s Gospel, we find that he wants to release Jesus. He says, “What shall I do with this man? I don’t see any reason to kill him.” In Matthew’s Gospel, we see that Pilate’s wife pleads with him not to kill Jesus because of the dreams she has had about him. In Luke’s Gospel, we find Pilate so disturbed, that he sends Jesus to Herod Agrippa, who was over the northern province of Galilee, saying, “Herod, you try him, because I can’t find any reason to kill him.” Herod comes to the same conclusion and sends him back to Pilate and once more, Pilate goes out to the crowd and says, “I see no reason to kill this man.”

In John’s Gospel, 5 or 6 times Pilate tries to set Jesus free. Pilate even has Jesus beaten and then brings him before the crowd, hoping that the crowd will have pity on him. But still, they cry, “Crucify him!”

So clearly, we see that Pilate knows what the right thing is to do. He knows what the just thing should be and he has the authority to set Jesus free. But what does he do? In Mark 15:15, we read: “So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.” “Wishing to satisfy the crowd…” Do you see yourself in Pontius Pilate? When have you done things that you knew in your heart were wrong, but because the crowd needed to be satisfied, you did them anyway?

Our young people are being tempted with drugs and alcohol as never before. You ask any of them and they’ll tell you, “Everybody else is doing it.” It’s so hard to say “No” when every body else is doing it, isn’t it? We talk about this as “peer pressure”. We experience it as adults as well. We see our whole culture going in one direction and doing things that we know are not right … it’s not what God wants us to do, but we go along with it, because everybody else seems to be doing it.

What is it that the crowd is asking you to do? When have you given into to doing something that you know is wrong to satisfy the crowd? Part of why gathering in a church together every Sunday is important, is that at least for an hour or two each week, you’re surrounded by a crowd of people who are all trying to follow Jesus. And it helps to realize that we’re not alone in our struggle to be faithful. And hopefully, we will develop relationships here that will be more than just casual acquaintances … people who will be there for you and encourage you in your walk with Jesus. Because “the crowd” has a voice that is so strong and hard to resist.

The question for us is, are you willing to stand up and be counted as one of Jesus’ followers? Are you willing to stand up for Jesus and do what you know to be right, even though the crowd is saying differently? This is the call of Christ for us in this story.

The truth is, all of us are like Pilate sometimes. We know the right thing to do, but we wish to satisfy the crowd. We are all like that crowd, who would rather have physical prosperity and peace through strength, rather than to follow a Crucified Messiah who invites us to lay down our lives for others. And we are all like Barabbas. We are all like sheep who have gone astray and there is one man who has given his life that we might be free.

In Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion, there is that scene where Jesus stands before Pilate and you can hear the crowd shouting, “We want Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!” And you see in Pilate’s face the struggle between doing what he knows is right and satisfying the crowd. And then, as Barabbas is set free, there is that moment where he looks back and sees Jesus standing there. And in that moment, as Jesus looks into his eyes, he realizes that his freedom came at a great price. Can you see yourself in this story?