Passion Week 2026 Devo: Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, which is the day where we remember Jesus’s death on the cross for us.

For just a few minutes, I want us to back up the climactic moments that took place in Jesus’s final trial before his crucifixion.

Jesus had been arrested Thursday night and had been through a series of trials in front of high priests and Roman rulers.

After a lot of back and forth, he ends up in front of a ruler named Pilate.

Pilate examined Jesus and found no reason to put him to death.

That’s where we pick up in Mark 15:6-15…

All four gospel writers mention Barabbas in their accounts. When you combine them, you get the picture that this man was possibly a thief, definitely a murderer, and one who had participated in an uprising against Rome.

He was condemned to die as a criminal, yet the crowd called for Barabbas’s release and Jesus’s crucifixion.

You know what’s fascinating about this story? We know absolutely nothing about how Barabbas responded.

After Jesus took his place, Barabbas disappears from the pages of both secular and church history.

People have proposed every suggestion under the sun for what happened to him. Maybe he repented, or maybe he returned to a life of crime…we just don’t know.

I kinda feel like God did that on purpose.

Jesus standing in Barabbas’s place, dying the death Barabbas deserved, is the clearest picture I can imagine of what Jesus was doing for all of us on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Like Barabbas, we deserved to die and Jesus died in our place.

We don’t know how Barabbas responded to Jesus taking his place. In all reality, it doesn’t matter.

What matters today for you is how you respond to the grace, mercy, and unfathomable love of God who took died in your place so that you could live.

The end of Barabbas’s story is unknown. What about yours?

I hope that today, you are aware in a fresh way of the goodness of God through Christ’s sacrifice and that today will truly be a Good Friday.

See you tonight at 6:00 for our Good Friday service.