Mark 15:6-12: a reflection

6Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whomever they asked of him. 7There was one called Barabbas, bound with his fellow insurgents, men who in the insurrection had committed murder. 8The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them. 9Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 10For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up. 11But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead. 12Pilate again asked them, “What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?”

At the feast, Pilate has a custom of releasing one prisoner, and the crowd, stirred up by the chief priests, calls for the release of Barabbas, a man imprisoned for insurrection and murder. So the guilty man, a convicted murderer, goes free, while Jesus, the innocent one, is condemned to die in his place. Mark even notes the injustice underneath it: Pilate perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over.

Notice the exchange that takes place. A guilty man, deserving death, walks free; an innocent man is condemned and led to execution. Barabbas, whatever he expected that morning, found himself released, his sentence lifted, because another, the innocent Jesus, took the place that was his. The condemnation that belonged to the guilty fell instead on the innocent, and the guilty went free.

That exchange is a vivid picture of the heart of the gospel. In a sense, we are all Barabbas: guilty, deserving condemnation, and yet set free because the innocent One took our place. Jesus was condemned so that the guilty could go free; he bore the sentence that was ours, and we walk out released. Barabbas is not told to have earned or deserved his release; he simply received it, because another took his place. That is what Christ has done for you. You are the guilty one set free because the innocent was condemned in your place. Receive that release with wonder, and live as one who was set free at the cost of another's condemnation.

Lord, the guilty Barabbas went free because the innocent Jesus was condemned in his place, a picture of what you have done for me. I am the guilty one, deserving condemnation, and yet set free because Christ, the innocent One, took my place and bore my sentence. Thank you that I walk out released, not because I earned it, but because another was condemned for me. Let me receive that release with wonder, and live as one set free at the cost of my Savior's condemnation.