Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?

 Now Jesus stood before the governor.  And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  Jesus said to him, "It is as you say."  And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.  Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?"  But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished.  And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.  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?"  For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.  While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him."  But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.  The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"  They said, "Barabbas!"  Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?"  They all said to him, "Let him be crucified!"  Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!"

- Matthew 27:11-23

Yesterday we read that when morning came, after Jesus' night trial, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.  And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.   Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."  And they said, "What is that to us?  You see to it!"  Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.  But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood."  And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.  Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced," whom they of the children of Israel priced, "and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me."

Now Jesus stood before the governor.  And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  Jesus said to him, "It is as you say."  And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.  Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?"  But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.  The chief priests do not present their real charge of which they've convicted Jesus -- the claim of equality with God -- because the governor would not be persuaded to sentence Him to death by a charge of blasphemy.  Instead, a charge of treason is brought to the governor against Jesus; that is, that He called Himself the King of the Jews.  This crime in fact would carry a death penalty, as it is a challenge to the rule of Rome and Caesar.

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished.  And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.   The name Barabbas means "son of the father."   The strange irony here is that the crowds have to choose between one Son of the Father and the other.  As the chief priests seek to persuade the crowd to choose Barabbas (v. 20), my study bible says, they indicate to which father they belong -- the devil ( see Jesus' words at John 8:44).

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?"  For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.  While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him."  But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.  The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"  They said, "Barabbas!"  Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?"  They all said to him, "Let him be crucified!"  Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!"  My study bible notes that Pilate tries three times to release Jesus in this passage.  He asks, "Whom do you want me to release to you?"  He repeats by asking, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?", and finally asks, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But the chief priests and elders incited the crowd to demand that Jesus be put to death.  We note that Pilate's final question, "Why, what evil has He done?" remains unanswered.

There is a strange mirroring or mimicking effect that is happening here in this scene of great injustice and evil.  Barabbas first of all, as noted by my study bible, means "son of the father."  The very charge against Jesus is that He has called Himself "Son of the Father," making Himself equal with God.  Secondly, Barabbas is often called a robber, but is more akin to a rebel or brigand -- one who fights Roman rule through violence and theft, a rebel outlaw.  He is a violent revolutionary, a would-be liberator.  And there lies the next parallel to Jesus.  Jesus is the Redeemer, meaning one who sets the captives free, our ultimate spiritual liberator.   This is an attribute also of the Messiah.  Who is the champion of the people?  Who is the one who is truly for them and with them?  This is the question people must decide in their hearts, the question for which the religious leadership incites the crowd to choose that Barabbas be freed.   Which comes first, and what is primary?  How are we to be truly freed?  It is Jesus who has said, when He was seized in the garden of Gethsemane, and Peter drew a sword to defend Him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?  How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?"  Jesus' example of faith is to put God first before all things, and teaching us that this is where our true liberation lies, in contrast to putting faith in weapons and material power.  It is really a question that the whole text of the New Testament, and particularly explicitly in passages of the letters of St. Paul, puts to us about our viewpoint on life:  either we are going to see ourselves as part of a whole perspective of spirit, soul, and body -- inseparable from one another, or our lives are simply material and separate from God.  The choice between Jesus the Son of the Father, and Barabbas "the son of the father" is found just there.  Are we to be liberated at the core of our being, and thus awakened to the whole of our lives and where we may be enslaved -- or is liberation merely a material-minded concept of rebellion separate from our true heart and spirit?   Moreover, this scene is an image of heresy, given to us by Jesus in the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, in which the tares or weeds resemble the wheat, but do not give its good grain.  Barabbas may look like a liberator, and the chief priests and elders sit in the seats ordained for the spiritual leadership of Israel, but each person in this crowd and all others must look carefully to make a choice, and to decide which "father" they want to follow.  So we are faced every day with choices that are designed to fool us spiritually, to enable us to forget that before all other things we have one loyalty which should guide us in our choices.  Evil -- at least as told in the story of Jesus Christ -- is not something that is patently obvious to all.  Rather, evil can be persuasive, can mimic, can be difficult to discern, and Jesus repeatedly demands our wakefulness and watchfulness.  Its very quality is to be consistently misleading, allied with a lie.  Life is not presented to us as a simple or obvious choice, but rather one that asks that we put all our intelligence and capabilities to work.  It is this kind of demand that makes Jesus our true Liberator, as He seeks for His followers to develop all their talents and gifts of God, and to grow in them.  He asks us to remain prayerful, not swayed by crowds and extreme passions, but rather to endure to the end, to be ready for His Return, and live by remembering and following His commandments (see this reading).  This is our recipe for freedom and liberation, being a slave to no one, but free in our faith in Christ and in the truth He brings to us.   Liberation begins in the heart.  We put this faith first, and all else comes of that.