Jesus Barabbas: The Name That Changes Everything

Did you know there were two Jesuses being tried by pilot before one of them went to a cross on Calvary? Now, most of us know Jesus the Christ, but I bet you don't know who the other Jesus is. We're going to learn today about a theological concept called substitutionary atonement, but we're not gonna learn about it with heavy words or deep theological insights. We're going to learn about it from two men, one crowd, and a trumped up trial from a scene most people read past in their Bibles. Hey, welcome back to Get Into the Word. My name is Robbie Gallaty, and I'm assuming at this point you are subscribed to the channel. Thank you for doing that. Today, we're gonna see the clearest picture of substitutionary atonement in all of the Bible, and it's not through a metaphor or even a parable. We're gonna learn about it from a real moment, from a real man, a real decision made by a crowd. We have to turn to Matthew 27, and we look at verse 15 and following to see the account of Jesus and Barabbas. Notice what it says. At the festival, the governor's custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted. At that time, there was a man who was a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. So when they gathered together, Pilate said to them,

who is it you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ? Now, he gives them a choice, and the reason he's doing this is in the first century, ancient governors would release a prisoner at Passover as a gesture of mercy to show he was really a kind leader, right? Pilate put forth Barabbas, who John calls in his gospel a robber. Mark actually refers to him as a rebel. He's an insurrectionist, he's violent, he's led an uprising against Rome, and Pilate assumes, like we would, the crowd surely is going to pick Jesus over this guy. Well, he's wrong. Now, I want you to put a pin in that scene in your mind, because we're not just talking about what happened to Barabbas. We're going to talk about what happened to you and to me. Let's go back to verse 18, and let's look at what happens next. For Pilate knew it was because of envy that they had handed Jesus over. See, the word envy there isn't just wanting what someone else has. It's also displeasure that someone else has what you don't want them to have. The religious leaders hated Jesus. Why? Because he was taking away their power.

He was taking away their control. He was taking away their audience. And so Pilate, in the middle of this offer to them, gets interrupted by his wife. Look what his wife says. Have nothing to do with this righteous man, verse 19, for today I have suffered terribly in a dream about him. Interesting. When Pilate is distracted by his wife, the chief priest and the elders begin to work up the crowd. If you listen long enough, you can almost hear what they're saying. We serve God, not this traitor. Trust us. Jesus is a troublemaker. Surely he is. Look at what he said. Look at what he's done. And when Pilate turns around to ask the crowd, who are you gonna choose? Jesus or Barabbas? The crowd flips. And here's what I want you to see. Even when human beings act out of envy and manipulation, God is always sovereignly working his plan together for his glory. You see, the chief priests think they're winning, but they're actually not. They're being used. They're pawns in the plan of God.

Pilate turns around, unaware of what just happened, and asks the question that still echoes through human history. Which one of these two men do you want me to release? Jesus or Barabbas? They say Barabbas, surprisingly. And he says, well, what do you want me to do with this Jesus? And notice what they say down here. They say, we want you to crucify him. And then he says, well, what have they done wrong? What has this man done wrong? He hasn't done anything wrong. And then you get down to verse 26, and it says, then they released Barabbas to them after having flogged or whipped Jesus's back. And we know it was with a cat of nine tails, which is a whip with a hook on the end, a piece of bone that would catch into the skin when it would attach to the back and pull muscles and ligaments with them. It was a horrible way to be flogged. After Jesus was flogged, they handed him over to be crucified. The flogging. was brutal and what the soldiers do next is stranger than most people realize because every detail is a picture pointing to something bigger. Scholars would say there are about 600 soldiers gathering around Jesus during the flogging and what they do is meant to mock him but I want you to follow me on this what they do is actually at the same time painting a portrait that God embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures thousands of years before the first

insight is the scarlet robe that they wrap him with now what they do is they strip Jesus of his clothes and they put on his back a coarse wool military jacket right over his lacerated bleeding body I want you to think about this think about the fabric how it feels against his open wounds but here's the deeper meaning you and I know that the word scarlet has a deeper meaning why because it's used 52 times in the Bible Isaiah uses it to describe a connection directly to sin don't miss this though your sins are scarlet or red they will be as white as snow though they are crimson red they will be like wool Isaiah 118 the psalmist in Psalm 22 describes the death of Jesus in verse 6 and we learned about this in a previous video I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by the people that word worm is actually the Hebrew word for scarlet or red because they got the dye from the worm the red dye when the soldiers wrapped Jesus in scarlet they are without knowing it wrapping him in the visual language of human sin Jesus is being clothed and what he came to carry on his back and that's why Peter puts it plainly in first Peter 2 24 Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree secondly we see the crown of thorns they weave thorns together and force them onto his head and it's meant to be a joke you think you're the king of the Jews here's a crown for your head it's meant to mock Jesus's claim or at least the claim against him but here's what you need to see and in order to understand this we have to go back to the beginning of our Bibles when was the first time we saw thorns appear in Scripture we have to go back to Genesis chapter 7 chapter 3 verse 17 watch this Genesis 3 17 and what we see in Genesis 3 17 is the punishment from God against humanity notice what it says in 17 the ground will be cursed because of you you will eat from it by painful labor verse 18 it will produce thorns and thistles for you now up to this point there were no thorns or even thistles in the world they didn't exist before the fall but they became a physical reminder embedded in creation of what sin did to mankind so when Jesus you're gonna love this wears a crown of thorns on his head he's actually wearing the curse of the fall in the garden this is why Galatians 3 13 makes this explicit Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us because it is written cursed is everyone who is hanging or is hung on a tree God wants you to see exactly what is happening Jesus is wrapped in scarlet taking our sin upon himself Jesus is crowned with thorns taking our curse upon him oh here's another one Jesus is nailed to a tree the very same thing that brought the curse into the world as the first couple ate from the fruit none of these things are coincidental this is the theology of the cross written in pictures but buckle up we haven't even gotten to the most stunning detail yet and it's buried in the footnotes of your Bible let's go back to Barabbas because he's more than a man he is a representative Barabbas was a guilty human being legally condemned he had been judged and sentenced to die he could do nothing to free himself Jesus on the other hand was innocent he had done nothing wrong he didn't belong on a cross and specifically not that cross Luke 23 tells us that Barabbas was guilty of the very crime they were convicting Jesus of which was inciting an uprising against the nation's leaders they share the same charges think about this Jesus dies in a sense on the cross that was destined for Barabbas or Barabbas was destined for Barabbas should have been on that cross that day to hang on the one Jesus took his place He's not just paying for sin in general, Jesus is paying for the exact crime Barabbas committed, which is exactly, coming close, what he does for us. He pays for the exact sins you and I committed. You and I, or Barabbas. Now I want you to look at his name. And in Hebrew, the word Barabbas is interesting. If we go back to the Bible, we see that in the footnote section, the word Barabbas has a footnote. And I think it's in every Bible, or modern Bible today, you'll see this.

But if you read the footnote, it says Barabbas has a first name. And his first name is Jesus. His name is Jesus Barabbas. Just like Jesus the Christ, or Jesus the Son of God. And so we have these two men with two of the same names. But then it gets even better. In Hebrew, the word Barabbas is actually made up of two Hebrew words. Bar means son of. We know this from Mark 10, 46, when we meet a man named Bartimaeus, who cries out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He's the son of Timaeus. Bar means son of. Abba, or Abbas, Barabbas, means father. Barabbas means the son of the father. And now when we look at the footnote together with his name, we realize his name is Jesus Barabbas, the son of the father, or humanity on earth. He's the son of man, or mankind on earth. He's human. Compared to Jesus, the son of God, he's God. So Pilate's question isn't simply, what prisoner do you want me to release? It is written in the very names of these two men, the question coming close, that every human being has to answer themselves. Which Jesus are you gonna put your faith in?

Which Jesus are you going to choose? Jesus Barabbas, the son of the father, who is by birth of the world, guilty, condemned, convicted, or Jesus the Christ, the son of God, innocent, spotless, and our substitute? Barabbas is a representative of every son and daughter of Adam who has ever lived on earth. Born under the cursed, he was imprisoned in sin, unable to free himself just like us until someone comes and takes his place just like Jesus took our place. I want you to imagine Barabbas and what he was thinking the morning of the crucifixion. Chaplains who minister to death row inmates will say something remarkable. They talk about how men who are about to be hanged can't keep their hands away from their throats. It's almost as if they could feel the rope before it's there. Men awaiting the gas chamber begin to take long, deep breaths in their cell before they're escorted to their deaths. The body, in a sense, knows what's coming. Barabbas that day probably rubbed his wrist that morning, trying to imagine what the iron spikes would feel like tearing through his flesh. It probably played out the slow, suffocating death on that wooden cross 100 times in his mind up to that moment.

And then he hears his name. Not a guard's routine call, a roar. The sound of a crowd outside the prison walls chanting over and over his name. Picture it echoing through the hallway. He hears keys rattling. A lock starts to turn and the cell door opens. He braces himself. His time has come. He's let out into the courtyard and finds himself standing next to a man. He looks over and notices a bloodied, beaten, barely recognizable human. Pilate addresses the crowd. Which Jesus do you guys want? And Barabbas hears the response. And suddenly, he's free. He stumbles, probably staggers into the crowd from the platform in disbelief. And as he goes, his eyes turn around and meet the eyes of Jesus. The man who is about to die on the cross Barabbas was supposed to hang on. That image, I believe, never left him the rest of his life. You see, Barabbas is the only man in human history who can say Jesus literally and physically took his place. But here's the encouraging news today. Every born-again believer can say Jesus took our place spiritually. We deserved judgment, Jesus received it.

We deserved punishment, Jesus absorbed it. We deserved hell, Jesus rescued us from it. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3.16. And Pilate asked the crowd is the question every person must answer for themselves Which Jesus will you choose? Jesus Barabbas condemned hopeless unable to save himself or Jesus the Christ the Son of God the substitute for your sin your Savior if You've never placed your faith in Jesus today is the day It's not your good works. That'll get you to heaven. It's not your prayers or church attendance It's not hoping scales will tip in your direction one day on Judgment Day It's trusting the one who has already stood in your place and died for your sin If you've never prayed to ask Jesus into your life and surrender your life to him Let me encourage you to do that right now If this video helped you see something new or maybe an insight in God's Word that was impactful to you Make sure you share it with a friend or even like the video. It helps us get the word out If you haven't subscribed to the channel, make sure you do that now So you don't miss another episode in the days ahead And if it impacted you and maybe you want to share it with your pastor or your spouse or your family members Send it to them so they can learn as well alongside of you until next time get into the word Until the word gets into you