Scripture Daily

Context No. 4152 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 23:13-19: in context

13Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, 14and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and behold, having examined him before you, I found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. 15Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him. 16I will therefore chastise him and release him.” 17Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast. 18But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!”— 19one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.

Pilate, having examined Jesus, declares him innocent, and not once but repeatedly: I found no guilt in this man; nor did Herod; nothing deserving death has been done by him. Even the Roman governor and Herod, examining the case, could find no fault in Jesus; he was, by the verdict of his own judges, guiltless.

And yet the crowd cries out, away with this man! Release to us Barabbas, a man imprisoned for insurrection and murder. Two things stand out, held together in a terrible irony. Jesus was innocent, declared so plainly by the very authorities who tried him. And yet he was condemned, while a guilty man, a murderer, was set free in his place. This is not only a miscarriage of justice; it is, in God's hands, the very heart of the gospel. Jesus, found guiltless by his judges, took the place of the guilty. He, the innocent, was condemned so that the guilty could go free, not only Barabbas, but all of us.

Do I see in the innocent Christ, declared guiltless by his own judges yet condemned in the place of the guilty, the heart of the gospel, that he, the blameless one, bore my condemnation so that I, though guilty, might go free?

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