I am overwhelmed today with so many emotions. It is Good Friday, the day Jesus went to the cross to die for us. I am grieved by my sin that required him to go to the cross and I am overcome with gratitude and love that he died for all, including me, to set us free from the punishment of sin.

The Good News of Jesus Christ is not new to me and so over the last few years, my prayer before reading God’s word has been asking God to show me something new or remind me of something I already know about him, so that I can fall deeper in love with him. And I pray and ask that I would slow down and pay attention, especially to things or people that I’ve never paid much attention to before.

God is continually faithful to answer this prayer of mine and today what he allowed me to see brought me to tears. Barabbas! He has always been this side character in my mind and never much of a main point. But, today I saw him and what God’s word has been saying through him more clearly.

The account of Barabbas is recorded in Matthew 27 and Mark 15. Barabbas was a notorious prisoner, a rebel and a murderer. He was guilty. A man who deserved to be crucified.

During the Passover festival, Pontius Pilate would release to the crowd one prisoner they wanted. He offered to release Barabbas or Jesus. Now Pontius Pilate had already questioned Jesus and found him innocent, but to appease the Jewish leaders, he treated him as a criminal. When Pontius Pilate asked the crowd who they wanted released, Barabbas or Jesus, the one man who was guilty and deserved death or the innocent man who did not deserve death, the crowd, under the leadership of the chief priests, asked for Barabbas to be set free. The guilty freed and the innocent condemned to death.

The story, the imagery, and the Truth overcame me. I am Barabbas. We are Barabbas. We are the guilty ones who deserve to die. Jesus was innocent, but as the end of Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” It was his joy to obey God and to exchange his innocence for our guilt, to let us be set free and for him to die an awful death by crucifixion.

Barabbas is not some side character. Through Barabbas God is showing me, us, who we really are and who He, God, is. He is love. He is sacrifice. He has gone to great lengths to save us from our sin and bring us back into relationship with Him. It’s just so Good! Happy Good Friday.