I am Barrabas - John 19

John 18:38-19:19

The crucifixion of Jesus is not just one thing. It’s a combination of many beautiful scritpural motifs; a mosaic of redemption of Christ.

A Prisoner Exchange for Gain.

Jesus is the innocent King. Barabbas is the guilty rebel.

Jesus’ charges?

healed on the sabbath

claimed to be God

yet according to Rome, He hadn’t done anything illegal.

Barabbas’ charges?

Revolutionary…Rober…Thief

lēstḗs – a thief ("robber"), stealing out in the open (typically with violence); is a thief who also plunders and pillages – an unscrupulous marauder (malefactor), exploiting the vulnerable without hesitating to use violence.

Barabbas was a politcal rebel and terroist.

Acts 3:14 —“You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.”

A violent felon is traded for the only truly righteous person in history.

Jesus is the King exchanged for the rebel.

Jesus is the innocent exchanged for the guilty. The life-giving King is exchanged for a death-dealing rebel.

Beloved Son exchanged for an estranged son.

“Barabbas’s name means, literally, “son of the father”—from bar (“son”) and abba (“father”).[6] That’s interesting. What is Jesus’s primary identity in John’s gospel? The Son of the Father. Jesus is the “only begotten Son,” whom the Father has loved from “before the creation of the world.” Jesus is “in the Father,” and “the Father is in [him].” Jesus is so identified with his Abba that he can proclaim, as his Bar, “I and the Father are one.”[7]

Jesus is the true Bar-Abbas.”

“Barabbas is a picture of Israel. The nation was a son of the Father: As God’s “firstborn son,” they were called to live and reign with him among the nations of the world.[8] Yet they were also a rebel: They had engaged in the harlotry of worshipping idols and wreaked the havoc of injustice. Israel took the path of violent revolution. At least, many did. The temple had become “a den of robbers,” a hideout of revolutionaries—like Barabbas—plotting ways to “fight for God.”[9]

They were guilty: The rebel nation lived under a death sentence. Rome hovered over them as executioner, an angel of death threatening to bring down the sword on God’s firstborn son. Yet there was hope for a new Passover. A new Lamb to be slain so “the son of the Father” could be released. Did you catch when Barabbas is pardoned? “It is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.”[10] A new Passover Lamb is about to be slain; a new exodus is afoot.

The beloved Son must die so the condemned son can go free.”

We gain freedom, not from God, but for him. We use our freedom to lay down our rights to follow Him and serve others.

Pilate gained political points, but we, like Barabbas, gained our freedom.

A Surrendered Tribute for Redemption.

Jesus Submitted Himself for death.

Jesus was NOT passive or reluctant to go to the cross. He was an active agent of surrender and atonement.

He was in control. He played the long game.

He laid His life down, Pilate didn’t take it.

Jesus volunteered to be tribute, the Father didn’t force wrath against the will.

“Active substitution isn’t as strange as it seems. Or perhaps it is strange—yet in a way our hearts long for. Self-sacrifice in a self-protective world. Indeed, this is the stuff of epic drama.”

“This is Iron Man snapping his fingers to take down Thanos, knowing he’ll go down with him.

This is Aslan laying down his life on the Stone Table to set a traitor free.”

“This is Katniss Everdeen saying “I volunteer as tribute” so her sister can go free.”

“This is Harry Potter surrendering himself willingly to Voldemort so his friends can live.”

Isaiah 53:12 “12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.”

John 19:28-30

2. Jesus was our substitute Lamb, dying to Redeem us.

— buy back. deliver or “loose” from a power.

What was finished:

His Response of obedience to Father’s will

His revealing of the Father’s Heart

His redeeming of his father’s world was completed.

Titus 2:14 “14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.”

1 Peter 1:18–19 “18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”

Galatians 3:13 “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Galatians 4:5 “5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

It is finished.

All the Covenant requirements were satisfied.

A new covenant was being ratified, yet not fully realized (materialized).

Response: Communion

Hyssop & Wine

Ps 51:7 — Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Exod 12:22 — Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning.

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Talk it Over (being honest & open with friends, a spouse, or your Group)

The message was about Jesus freeing us from the prison of sin. What is one idea from Sunday’s message that impacted you?

Read John 18:38-19:19. What is the Holy Spirit saying through these verses?

What does the name 'Barabbas' mean and how is it significant ? What does Jesus' identity as the 'Beloved Son' teach us about our identity as God’s children?

In what ways can we emulate Jesus' active submission in our own lives?

Read Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 1:18–19. What are these scriptures revealing to us? What implications do these truths have for our daily life?