At the Cross: Key Actors in History’S Greatest Drama

SERMON MANUSCRIPT At the Cross: Key Actors in History’s Greatest Drama No. 4: “The Man For Whom Christ Died” (Matt. 27:15-26) 22 March 1992 • Dr. Doug McIntosh, Senior Pastor CORNERSTONE BIBLE CHURCH • 869 COLE DRIVE • LILBURN, GA 30047 Introduction: Fascinating Characters As one reads the New Testament, it is difficult to resist the desire to want to know some of the people who are mentioned in it better. The gospel writers sometimes hit some of the most fascinating characters only a glancing blow. Many years ago, the great Southen Baptist scholar, A.T. Robertson, wrote a book entitled Some Minor Characters in the New Testament in which he detailed what was taught both in and out of Scripture concerning people like Herod Antipas, Judas Is- cariot, Caiaphas, and others. Interestingly, he did not include Barabbas in his volume, even though Barabbas is one of those people we find fascinating in the text. But Barabbas has 38 verses devoted to him directly in the New Testa- ment. That is more verses than Judas Iscariot receives, for example. Actually, there are more verses directly dealing with Barabbas than there are describing the individual deeds of most of the disciples. And, people have this insatiable desire to know more about Barabbas. Novels have been written about him—usually very bad ones, unfortunately. Movies have centered on him. One of the worst, unfortunately, was the sad film called King of Kings, made back in the sixties. There has seldom been seen in movies a worse example of casting. I still cringe as I remember Robert Ryan as John the Baptist, standing in the River Jordan and saying “I baptize you with water…” sounding as though he was about to fall asleep and exhibiting all the moral force of a spaghetti noodle. Even worse, Jeff Hunter was cast as Christ. The re- views described Hunter as “I was a teenage Jesus.” But it was Barabbas who was the central character of King of Kings. And even though that film was bad, I sympathize with the longing to know this man more deeply. Few people tell the story of the cross and its central place in history so eloquently as does Barabbas. He was the only man in history who was able to say in a physical sense, “Christ died for me.” Let’s read Matthew’s account of what happened to him, as found in chapter 27 of his gospel. Scripture: Matthew 27:15-26 15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. 16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have noth- ing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.” 20 But the chief priests and elders per- suaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” 22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” 23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” 24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” 25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. What the New Testament Tells Us of Barabbas What do we know of Barabbas from the New Testament? More, perhaps, than you might think. First of all, we learn there about… His name The name Barabbas means “son of the father.” Now that may sound redundant to you, but it isn’t, really. Rabbis were called “father” popularly, so he was probably the son of a rabbi. But Barabbas is actually a last name, and perhaps its use is accounted for by a reading that is found in a few of the more ancient manuscripts in verses 16 and 17. In verse 16, a number of manuscripts read, “They had then a notorious prisoner called Jesus Barabbas.” Barabbas’s first name may well have been Jesus, which, after all, was a common name at the time of the New Testament. This may also Page 2 explain the wording of Pilate’s question in verse 17: “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” In other words, which Jesus do you want? Entirely apart from the confusion which would naturally arise from these two people having the same name, the New Testament writers would naturally have found it distasteful to have to give the infamous character called Barabbas the same first name as the Lord, so they probably preferred to call him by his last name. Now the New Testament also tells us something else about Barabbas… His vocation Mark says, “And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow insurrectionists; they had committed murder in the insurrection” (Mark 15:7). Barabbas was arrested with other people like him. It is natural to think that the two people who died on the cross the same day as Jesus were the people referred to in Mark. He was an insurrectionist, meaning that he was in favor of the violent overthrow of Roman rule in Palestine. He was a patriot. Now there was a group of people in the land at this time who fit this description. They were called the Zealots. Barabbas was probably a Zealot. The Zealots wanted Rome out of Palestine at any price, and they were willing to give their lives if necessary to see it happen. You may recall that forty years after these events a large number of Jews died at their own hand in the mountain fortress of Masada, fighting the Romans. They committed suicide rather than submit to Roman slavery. They were Zealots, the last people to die in the Jewish revolt. If Barabbas was a zealot, he would have known Simon the Zealot per- sonally. Who was Simon the Zealot? He was one of the twelve disciples! So Barabbas may have known quite a bit about Jesus. The Galilee was full of Zealots in Jesus’ day. In fact, the Zealot movement began there, led by a man named Judas of Galilee, who began a revolt in Galilee when Jesus was about twelve years old. Sometimes they were called the “Sicarii”—the daggermen. So Barab- bas was a man whose loyalty to God and to his country was so fierce that he became a fanatic. He was a preacher’s kid who became a ter- rorist. Religious feelings and nationalistic feelings run deep, and when you combine the two you have a powerful mixture, set to explode at any time. Barabbas believed that the only way to freedom was through violence. So we know his name and his vocation. We also know about… His crimes He was a murderer Page 3 Mark 15:7 tells us that Barabbas had committed murder in the insurrection. Barabbas would have been the kind of person who would feel little remorse in the killing of a human being, particularly if that human being was a Roman. Insurrection has a way of breeding murder and murderers. He was the kind of man who would have told himself, “As long as your objectives are noble, you can commit any crime in the name of freedom.” So he was a murderer, but also… He was a thief You may remember from last week that John 19:40 says, “Now Ba- rabbas was a robber.” It is doubtful that Barabbas wanted to be a robber, but funny things happen to extremists. When you are sowing the seeds of revolution, you find yourself on the run as a fugitive. Zealots whose revolution doesn’t work often discover the truth of Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” They find that they become thieves to survive. So we know about his name, his vocation, and his crimes; but we also know of… His fame You will notice that verse 16 uses the word “notorious” to describe Barabbas. Now although this word usually has negative overtones in English, it may merely describe someone who was famous in a good sense. In fact, it is used just that way in Romans 16. Barabbas may well have been a folk hero among the populace. He was daring and patriotic. By contrast, Jesus was silent on this occasion, and He was someone who had stepped on many a toe in Jerusalem, particularly the toes of important religious leaders. So it is perhaps understandable that the crowds would have preferred to see Barabbas released and Jesus crucified. It also helped that the priests and Pharisees had gone through the crowd coaching them and encouraging them to call for Barabbas’s release.

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