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20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded 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. ~ Matthew 27:20-26
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 27 where we have witnessed the trials of the Lord Jesus before He was required to carry His cross to the Place of the Skull. As we have seen, the six trials the Lord Jesus endured that early morning in Jerusalem were divided into two parts, the first three were before the Jewish religious leaders, and the second set of three before two Roman governors, Pilate and Herod.
In v.20-21 of today's passage we read, "20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded 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!'"
Barabbas was an insurrectionist who wanted to overthrow the Roman government. Pilate wrongly believed that if he allowed the Jews to choose between the most despicable prisoner and the Lord Jesus, they would pick the Lord Jesus to be set free. And as we have seen before, such great irony is discovered in the name of Barabbas which means "son of the father." It was the Lord Jesus, the true Son of the Father, who was bound to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Up to this point in the narrative, the crowds in Jerusalem had responded favorably to the Lord Jesus, but that changed as the deceit of the religious leaders began to spread. To the religious leaders and the people, Barabbas was the savior they chose that day. The Lord Jesus was there to give life, while Barabbas was the one who had taken life. The Lord Jesus was there to save the people from sin, while Barabbas was there to save the people from Rome. The people chose the fake over the real, and in so doing the crowd fell to the deceptive powers of darkness. The crowd didn’t free Barabbas because they liked him, they freed him because they disliked the Lord Jesus. They had taken up the offense of the religious leaders of Israel.
In v.22 of today's passage we read, "Pilate said to them, 'What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said to him, 'Let Him be crucified!'"
It was disappointment that drove the Jews to reject the Lord Jesus. They expected Him to fulfill their plans but He came with a much higher calling. It is really unwise to be defined by something like disappointment. In the economy of God, disappointment is necessary for the development of our faith in Him. Patience is a must when we are disappointed and we are making a very important decision. Change one little letter and our disappointments turn out to be His appointments. As Philip Yancey says in his book, Disappointment with God, "Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no opportunity for faith either."
In v.23-25 of today's passage we read, "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.'"
When Pilate asked the crowd about any evil the Lord Jesus had done there was nothing but chaotic words proving the point that the Lord Jesus was as a sheep led to slaughter. It wasn't that the Lord Jesus was so easy to hate. After all, He had done nothing but good for the people. All of this just underscores the incredible deceptive powers of Satan. Having said that, these things had to happen so that mankind could be redeemed back to God. It is not that God made the people choose Barabbas that day, but He allowed the deception of Satan to manipulate the outcome.
In v.26 of today's passage we read, "Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified."
Pilate released Barabbas and he had the Lord Jesus beaten. He didn't mean for it to go as far as it did but Pilate's men nearly beat the Lord Jesus to death. The flogging the Lord Jesus endured was bloody. Long leather cords were imbedded with bits of metal and bone, so that as the thongs whipped around the body of the Lord Jesus, the skin on His back and on His sides was cut and flayed open, until He was a bloody mess. Pilate ordered the flogging, thinking he would not have to crucify the Lord Jesus. He had hoped to awaken the sympathy of the crowd but to no avail. As a result, the Lord Jesus died a relatively quick death. Those who had been crucified before had hung on their cross for weeks at a time before they died.
It was love that sent the Lord Jesus to the cross. Love naturally flows fully out of a heart that is itself conscious of being loved. In Gethsemane that night, the Lord Jesus communed with His Father who completely loved Him. As a result, having been strengthened and steadied, the Lord Jesus availed Himself to the cruelest form of human death, the cross. One cannot show His love further than laying down His life for another, especially when He has the power to wipe those who mean Him harm off the face of the earth in the twinkling of the eye. The Lord Jesus did not wait for us to earn His love to die for us. He knew that we were incapable of such, so, when He died on the cross, He spelled out the fact that God loves us. The cross has one horizontal beam along with another that was vertical. One represents the width of God's love and the other reflects the height of His holiness. As Max Lucado once said, "The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards."
