Who was Barabbas?

There are many, many characters in the Bible. Many people have the favorite character. Some even have least favorite characters. Do you have any?

There are some people in the Bible that really just don’t get much attention at all. Most people just read over them like the genealogies in the first five books. It isn’t that they’re not important. It’s probably just because they’re just not significant to the story that’s being told. Let think about one such person in particular for a moment.

He is only spoken of one time and appears near the end of the four gospel accounts. He is the prisoner, Barabbas. He’s been jailed for robbery and murder (Mark 15:7; John 18:40). He is brought before the crazed crowd by Pontius Pilate, who asks this crowd if he should release Barabbas or Jesus. This was a custom from the Roman governors to release a prisoner before the Passover to show favor to the Jewish people.

Now stop and think for a moment. You have to wonder what is going through Barabbas’ head. This large crowd is probably chanting his name and he thinks that he’s going to be put to death along with the prisoners he’s chained to. But instead, he witnesses Pilate releasing him to the crowd. With everything going on, I would think he’s in shock. Does he now think the crowds will kill him instead? Does he just slip through them one by one, as their attention is elsewhere and just run away? Nothing more is said of him after his release. He probably has no clue as to what has just taken place. However, now that we have this recorded, as well as the rest of the New Testament, we know today what went down.

Barabbas was, in a way, representing us. Where Barabbas should have taken the penalty for his actions and been put to death, Jesus instead took his place. Remember, the price for sin is death (Romans 6:23). That’s why the Hebrews had to sacrifice so many animals. But now we know that those sacrifices couldn’t take away our sin (Hebrews 10:4). It had to be the perfect sacrifice. One made by God’s own Son. It is only through His sacrifice, that we can be made right with God once again. Now that it’s been completed, we must accept it in order to reap its benefits.

What a wonderful Savior we have!