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. So we know from the New Testament of Barabbas’s name, his vocation, his crimes, and his fame. But what is really crucial about this man from our point of view is…

What the New Testament Teaches Us Through Barabbas Barabbas is one of those people who show up at key moments of history who seem to be a living illustration of a point God is trying to get across. One writer called this “the accidents of Providence.” Of course, he intended that to be a paradox. If God in His Providence is controlling events, there are no accidents, and Barabbas is a case in point. He arrives on the scene as God’s own intended picture of the

Page 4 people for whom Christ died. Please notice four things about him. First… His Friends It is the crowd’s judgment that Christ ought to be killed and Barabbas ought to be freed. If there has ever been a better picture of the notion that the majority is usually wrong, I don’t know what it would be. Later, the Apostle Peter was to stand before these same people and reflect on this incident. He told them in Acts 3:13-14, “You denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life.” The people in the crowd are friends of Barabbas. You might say that there was an election that day and Jesus came in second. Barabbas got a clear majority. The people may have been uncomfortable with the things Jesus said about Himself. People still are. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was a distinguished English philoso- pher, jurist, and political theorist. But he was also a bit eccentric. Ernest Fitzgerald tells a strange story that says when Bentham died he bequeathed a rather large sum of money to a hospital in England. His will stipulated that, as a condition of the gift, his ashes be brought to the board room for each board meeting and placed at the head of the table. The story goes that for more than a century the secretary of the board added to the minutes of each meeting the words, “Jeremy Bentham, present but not voting.” Isn’t that the way it is with Christ and those of us who are in His Church? We like to count Him present in our worship, committee meetings, discussions, and family gatherings. But we’d rather He not cast a vote; he places us in the minority so often. It ought to be apparent from this episode that if you are going to be a serious Christian you are going to have to say good-bye to the crowd. Making moral decisions on the basis of what is popular will place you precisely in the spot that these people are. Eventually you will prefer the company of terrorists and murderers to the approval and friend- ship of the Son of God. That is spiritual suicide. Please notice also… His Condition A rebel Barabbas was a rebel against Rome. You and I are by nature rebels against God. The picture of God sending His Son to die for rebels is one which ought never to become commonplace before our eyes. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who became the world’s most famous preacher in the Victorian period, went through a period of great con- viction of sin prior to his conversion. He had a clear sense of the jus-

Page 5 tice of God, and his sin became an intolerable burden. He didn’t fear hell as much as he despised the reality of his own wrong-doing. He later reflected on this time and said, “All the while I had upon my mind a deep concern for the honor of God’s name and the integrity of His moral government. I felt that it would not quiet my conscience if I could be forgiven without justice being satisfied. But then came the question: `How can God be just and yet justify me with all my guilt?’” Spurgeon finally came to see that the New Testament’s teaching of the substitutionary atonement was the answer. He said, “I believe that the doctrine of Jesus paying for my sins is one of the surest proofs of the inspiration of Scripture, for who would or could have thought of the just Ruler dying for the unjust rebel?” Guilty and awaiting death Barabbas had already been through a trial. He had been found guilty of the crimes of insurrection, robbery, and murder. He had no standing before the bar of justice whatever. As far as the law was con- cerned, Barabbas was already dead. Any number have studies have been done through the years about the thoughts of prisoners on death row—people who have been sen- tenced to die. Back in the days when hanging was the dominant method of capital punishment, people noted that prisoners would walk around their cells swallowing frequently and placing their hands on their throats. In more recent years, since the use of the gas chamber became the accepted method, many have observed prisoners practic- ing holding their breath—sometimes to the point where they pass out and revive only after a period of unconsciousness. One can imagine that facing crucifixion a prisoner might rub his hands frequently. John Oxenham wrote an imaginary account of Barabbas waiting in his cell. He pictures him pacing back and forth and periodically stop- ping to look out a window. There in the distance he sees the place where three crosses are about to be mounted. He remembers the friends he was arrested with. Today, the three of them are going to die together. Time passes. He hears the sound of marching feet coming in his di- rection. There is the rattling of keys. Next door, a cell opens and someone says, “It’s time.” The prisoner and the jailers move off together. A few minutes later, again marching feet are heard. Another cell, this time on the other side of his own, is opened. People go marching away. Finally the process is repeated the third time. He hears a key turning in a lock. His own cell opens. The jailer says, “Barabbas, you can go. Jesus of Nazareth is being crucified instead of you. The prefect has given you a pardon. You are free.” C.I. Scofield said, “Barabbas need not have been a theologian to have understood what is meant by the substitutionary atonement.”

Page 6 His Release Free because Jesus was bound The great Dutch artist Rembrandt called one of his paintings, “The Erection of the Cross.” The man raising the cross in the painting was dressed in contemporary Dutch clothing, and those who knew Rem- brandt knew it was none other than the great artist himself. His painting was his way of saying that his own sin raised Christ to the cross! It’s what Galatians 2:20 says. Rembrandt would have understood the words of the great hymn, Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree! So Barabbas went free because Jesus was bound. Then again, Barab- bas was… Standing exempt from punishment because Christ took it Barabbas would have appreciated the words of our hymn today: “He breaks the power of cancelled sin; He sets the prisoner free.” Or would he? We don’t know what happened to Barabbas after his freedom. Many people have expressed the question, Did he go to the cross? We don’t know. He may have. He very likely was interested in the fates of his friends. He may have gone there to see what happened. He may have been standing there when Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But whether he did or didn’t, he knew the truth that Christ died and took punishment that was due him. That leads to a third matter… His Responsibility Believe the message That’s all. Just believe the message. Can you imagine the jailer coming to Barabbas’s cell and opening it—and he refuses to leave? He says, “That’s absurd. Why would Jesus die in my place? That’s im- possible that I should be granted a full release before the law just because someone else is dying instead.” That’s how some people react to the gospel. “It’s absurd to think the what one Man did so long ago has any bearing on my destiny.” But there was one thing about Barabbas. He didn’t need to be convinced that he was in trouble. He knew his need, which is more than you can say for our age. That is the great missing piece in modern life. We are offering people a solution for a problem they don’t think they have.

Page 7 In seventeenth century New England an awakening broke out, and one of the key figures was Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was a bril- liant man, but he was a scholar far more than a preacher (he was once professor at Princeton University). He was invited to many pul- pits in these days, and his favorite sermon was called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I have a copy of it in my library. I have read it several times and I confess that I find it rather dull. Yet this sermon was a key factor in what came to be called the Great Awakening. We could be forgiven if we thought that Jonathan Edwards made up in his delivery what he lacked in his content, but that isn’t true ei- ther. He delivered this sermon, as he did all his sermons, by reading the manuscript. He read in a monotone with his face close to his manscript, because his eyesight was very poor. Yet by the time he came to the end of his sermon, there were usually people crying out with a loud voice, “What can I do to be saved?” People fainted and swooned. Untold thousands became Christian believers. Why was this? It was because God had moved in that region to give people a sense of their need before God. They saw their own sin very clearly. They saw where their guilt was leading them. And they cried out to God for mercy and He extended it because they believed the message that Christ died for them. So the message must be believed. But if that is to happen, we must… Shun excuses If you have been following the House banking scandal, what is being called “Rubbergate,” you know that our national leaders may not al- ways be good leaders, but one thing they are good at: making excuses. People make spiritual excuses, too, when it comes to believing the message. They say, “Let me reform myself a little.” “Let me wait to trust Christ until I am worthy.” “Let me wait until God gives me faith, then I’ll trust Christ.” But those are excuses, not reasons; and they are as old as the hills. I like a little ditty Rudyard Kipling wrote years ago. It goes like this: The crafts that we call modern; The crimes that we call new; John Bunyan had them typed and filed In 1682. What’s your excuse? Do you really find it necessary to come up with an excuse to keep from trusting Christ if He died for you?

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Copyright © 1992 P. Douglas McIntosh. This data file/manuscript is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file/manuscript must contain the above copyright notice. This data file/manuscript may not be copied in part (except for small quotations used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale, or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays, or other products offered for sale without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writ- ing and addressed to Dr. Doug McIntosh, Senior Pastor, Cornerstone Bible Church, 869 Cole Drive, Lilburn, GA 30047.

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