Scripture Daily

Context No. 3907 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 23:20-25: in context

20Then Pilate spoke to them again, wanting to release Jesus, 21but they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify him!” 22He said to them the third time, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.” 23But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed. 24Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done. 25He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.

Pilate, convinced of Jesus' innocence, tries three times to release him, but the crowd, stirred by the chief priests, shouts him down, demanding crucifixion, and their voices prevail. And so a startling exchange takes place: Pilate releases Barabbas, a man imprisoned for insurrection and murder, and delivers the innocent Jesus over to be crucified in his place.

Whatever we make of Pilate's weakness in yielding to the mob, the exchange itself is a picture of the gospel. A guilty man, condemned for real crimes, goes free, while the innocent one takes his place and bears the sentence. Barabbas, who deserved death, walked away because Jesus, who deserved nothing but life, was handed over to die. That exchange is the story of every believer. We are Barabbas: guilty, deserving condemnation, and yet set free because the innocent Christ took our place and bore the punishment we had earned. The guilty released, the innocent condemned in his place, is not merely a miscarriage of justice; in God's hands it becomes the very shape of our salvation.

Do I see in the release of the guilty Barabbas and the condemnation of the innocent Jesus the shape of my own salvation, that I go free because Christ took my place and bore what I deserved?

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