Barabbas

Part of the Consider Him Series... 

I would draw our attention to Hebrews 12, verse 3, Consider Him Who Endured, and although that might be a lifetime of study and consideration, that is what I’ve been doing. 

The Greek for consider according to Vine’s Dictionary and the Interlinear is:
(an-al-og-id'-zom-ah-ee), from which we get our word ANALOGOUS. I found it interesting that analogous means “something that is similar to something else and can be compared to another.” OR... “having similar features to another and therefore able to be compared with it.”

As I Consider Him Who Endured, I give sympathetic meditation, conscientious study, careful thought, quiet deliberation, and attentive observation (because that’s what “consider” means) to... JESUS... and Barabbas. 

Matt. 27:15-17 Now at the feast (Passover) the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious (murderous) 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 (Your) Messiah?”               They yelled, “Barabbas!”

22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Messiah?” 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!”

When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a riot was developing, 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.”
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. 

A breakdown of Barabbas’s name would show us that bar means son, and abbas  means of a father; so Barabbas means son of a father, or son of his father. Some say it means son of a rabbi. Wikipedia notes his Romanized name to be:
Iēsoûs Bar-rhabbân... Yeshua, son of the Rabbi.
So his name seems to have been Jesus, son of a Master, as the Interlinear defines it. 

Furthermore, the consequence of coincidental names... Jesus son of a master, and Jesus Son of God... or Jesus Barabbas and Jesus Messiah, and the juxtaposition of Barabbas, Jesus, Pilate, and even the “crowd” makes for a very illuminating study which took me to... Leviticus 16:5, where we read,

5 And he (Aaron) shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering. 7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat, on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness. 

15 Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, (as Caiphas said in John 11:50... “it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish”)... bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 

Then, vs. 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins (Barabbas certainly had all that), putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness. 

So the Lord’s lot was sacrificed for the sin of the people, substitutionary, as an execution of the sentence of the law... “the soul that sins must die.” The other, the “scapegoat” carries the sins which are atoned for by the sacrifice of the Lord’s lot, away into the wilderness, but they were not removed otherwise the “scapegoat” would be clean. 

Now, I don’t want to make theological dogma out of coincidence but nevertheless, we are as Barabbas was. Jesus has indeed died in our place. That was the sentence for our sins. And God accepted the sacrifice because all was perfect. His resurrection proves God’s acceptance and a new life for us, a new creation in Christ. 

We still live here in the wilderness though, with sin in our flesh. But, unlike Barabbas, our old man (the Adamic nature, the flesh) is crucified with Christ and the new man created in us, raised with Christ, does not sin, because Christ Who is the seed of Gen. 3:15 remains in us according to 1 John 3: 9...  
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. John is no doubt referring to the new man, the new creation wherein His seed (Christ) remains.

Jesus was innocent. Barabbas was guilty. Jesus was crucified; Barabbas was freed of his sentence. Jesus was crucified instead of me. Jesus was resurrected from the dead by the glory of the Father. We are risen in new life in Him.
We are ANALOGOUS to BOTH Jesus and Barabbas! 

Col. 3:1-3... Having been then raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Our Father God, I thank you for Your Grace and Love which is life for us. And I thank you for our Lord Jesus Who is our life, having given Himself in my place to satisfy Your judgment of sinners. I know Jesus endured Your wrath, which was rightfully mine to suffer. I know He endured the cross knowing all that he would suffer or us because it was appointed by Your will to do by Your counsel, as Your word says... For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

We consider His obedience and faithfulness by which You have saved us and called us with a holy calling according to Your  own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. So I thank You for Your foreknowledge and our calling and for the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, in Whose name I pray, Amen.