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I have been saying for the last few years that John is a master storyteller.
John brilliantly weaves themes and types and shadows from just about ever corner of creation into his gospel.
He has arced his narratives in ways that call our attention back to the creation story, the temple, the sacrificial system, Back to the prophets and the writings.
Yet he does so with such elegant simplicity that children can read and understand the story.
But not only is he a master story teller, but he is also a master artists… painting vivid pictures with his words.
And this morning, I want our imaginations to grasp the picture John is painting for us as we move closer to the cross.
When you look at the sufferings of Christ, what do you see?
When you consider the words of scriptures as they describe for us the passion of Christ.
What do you see?
We Jesus, stricken, smitten and afflicted,
We see the crown of thorns and we see the nails in his hands and feet.
But what else do we see?
We must realize that when we gaze upon the cross, on the passion, on the sufferings of Christ we are gazing upon the heart of the gospel.
we are looking at the center-point of time and reality.
As we move closer to the cross we begin to see with greater clarity
Our own sin
Our need for redemption
The unfathomable love of God
The abundance of his grace and the storehouse of his mercy.
As we move closer to the cross we see our hope and his exaltation being put forth in such a paradoxical beauty.
When we see his death, we see our life
When we see his wounds, we see our healing
When we see his hands and feet, we see our rebellion being atoned for
When we see him crushed, we see our forgiveness.
What do you see when you look at the suffering of Christ?
John is painting a picture for us, and what he wants us to see is far more striking more arresting than we ever thought possible.
What John wants us to see, what the Spirit of God wants us to see, is a realty that will possess our imaginations and cause our hearts to rejoice.
When we see the picture that John is painting, his theology quickly rushes our hearts into a state of doxology.
So by God’s grace our eyes, our hearts, our minds, our imaginations will be open to see the picture John is putting forward in our verses this morning.
Will will pick up the story in John 18:38-40…
Barabbas holds is very significant place in the picture John is painting for us.
He is not just an extra in this story, he is not just a space filler… but he stands in the center, he stands connected to Christ.
All four Gospels not only associate Barabbas and Jesus, but they do so emphatically and with a deep theological message.
John tells us that Pilate tries to release Jesus, as he knew he was innocent, however he realized that the Jews were possessed, blood thirsty for Christ.
So he, as an act of desperation, offered the Jewish crowd a choice between a notorious and clearly guilty criminal and Jesus.
Who would they like to be set free as a Passover gift from Rome?
Shall it be Barabbas — guilty of insurrection and murder?
or shall it be Jesus the righteous son of God?
And how does the crowd respond?
“Not this man!
but Barabbas!”
The name Barabbas means, “Son of the Father”
Bar = Son
Abba = Father
Just the night before Jesus, the true Son of the Father Prays to his Father in the Garden, calling him Abba.
Yet now, before Pilate and the crowd, a man named “son of the father” will be chosen for release instead of the true “Son of the Father.”
John connects Jesus and Barabbas, as do the other three gospels, in such a powerful way that we can’t separate them.
When we look at the cross, and see Jesus hanging between to robbers, we see him hanging in the place of Barabbas.
Jesus died the death that Barabbas deserved to die.
As we gaze upon the cross, we not only see the crown of thorns, the nails, and the lashes, but we begin to see Barabbas and thus see Jesus’ as a substitute.
He is dying the death Barabbas deserved to die.
Barabbas — who deserved to die — was redeemed from death, because Jesus died in his stead and bore the cross that he should have carried Barabbas into the afterlife — the innocent dying for the guilty.
So as we look at the cross, we see Jesus, but we also must see Barabbas.
As we look into the face of Christ, we not only see Jesus, but we see Barabbas,
but not only that… we also see the face of Adam, we see the face of Israel, we see the face of cursed creation.
And as we look at the painting John is creating for us, as we look into the face of Christ, we see Barabbas, but we also see our own reflection.
This is what Paul saw when he looked into the mystery of the crucifixion…
or
My friends, what do you see when you look to the cross?
Paul saw himself, for Christ died in his place.
As Jesus died in the place of Paul and Barabbas, he also died in our place.
As he received those lashes, as he received the nails into his hands and feet, as he hung upon the cross, he did so in our place.
Like Barabbas, we deserve to be there, hanging upon the cross,
For our sins condemn us to die… yet Christ died in our place.
We see the doctrine of Substitution so clearly here in this passage, but we must realize that this is nothing new…
If you can imagine this picture John is painting with his story… we see Barabbas being absorbed into Christ, we also see Adam, Israel, creation, paul and ourselves likewise being absorbed into Christ.
Christ as our substitute cast a long shadow that covers much of the OT.
As we look at this shadow of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, we see OT Types and figures… we see Isaiah prophesying
Within this shadow
We see God covering Adam and Eve, when he first slays the innocent animals to cover the guilty shame of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21);
we see the bloody sacrificial system, we see it when the sinner laying his hands upon the sacrifice, and then sending the sacrifice into the blade and fire of the alter in place of the worshipper (Lev 1:3-4).
We see in in David’s great grief for his son Absalom when he cries out,
“O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom!
Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam 18:31-33)
We hear it in Rebekah’s words to her son Jacob when she says, ““Let your curse be upon me my son” (Gen 27:13).
Within this shadow of Christ’s substitution we see,
Moses, Abraham, Naaman, Samson and so many more!
Jesus stands there beside Barabbas taking into himself the sin of the world, past, present and future, he has come as the righteous one to die in the place of the unrighteous.
the innocent for the guilty.
These are some of the features and details in the picture John is painting for us.
So when Pilate has Jesus flogged, he is flogging and whipping the one who stands in our place… Those lashes are our lashes, those wounds are our wounds.
Only when we see the depth of this picture will we truly be able to see these next verses clearly.
They ridicule Jesus, they twist together a crown of thorns and a put a purple robe on him and mockingly hail him “King of the Jews.”
Not realizing that what they were doing was actually participating in Jesus’ coronation.
For they are preparing Jesus to be lifted up in glory,
As John puts Jesus and Barabbas together… so he also puts the cross and the crown together.
For only when Christ is lifted up upon the cross will all know that he is truly the divine King, the true son of Man, the true I AM, the true Barabbas, the son of the Father.
Jesus says in John 8.28,
So as they prepare Jesus for his death, through flogging and mocking, they are simultaneously preparing Christ for his enthronement.
They take thorns, and twist them into a crown…
Thorns are the mark of the curse of sin upon creation.
Jesus not only bore the curse of our sin, but he also bore sins curse over creation.
Christ died in our place, he also died in place of creation.
Christ died to atone for sin.
He died to rescue that which sin had enslaved.
Which means, the blood of Christ atones not only for God’s people, but also God’s creation.
As Paul says,
So after the Roman soldiers beat and mocked Christ, after putting the crown of thorns on his head and the purple robe upon his back.
Pilate brings him back out to the people.
This man that stands before the the people wearing a crown of thorns and a bloodied purple robe is everything that God created humanity to be.
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