Jesus Replaced This Man? - Barabbas

A mighty roar rose from the crowd, and with one voice they shouted, “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!”

Luke 23:18

He felt sure he was about to die.

As the young man headed off for work that morning, he had spilled some scalding hot coffee onto his lap. Distracted, he ran his car off the highway and down a steep hillside. As his car rolled the final hundred-plus feet, powerful forces thrust him through the windshield.

As the man lay on the ground, he knew that he was bleeding badly and that he probably wouldn’t live much longer. But as he prepared to die, a passing truck driver appeared on the scene. He bandaged the young man’s wounds as best he could and called 911 on his cell phone. They waited together for the ambulance to arrive.

Then the trucker disappeared from the young man’s life.

Though this accident survivor never saw his hero again, he knew he would always remember the man who had saved his life.

Barabbas no doubt arose the morning of his scheduled execution and felt a similar sense of consuming dread. He knew how the Romans dealt with criminals like him, and they had an agonizing, humiliating death all planned. What Barabbas didn’t know that morning was that he would live to see another day because Someone would save his life and take his place at Calvary.

Jesus understood Barabbas’s anguish. He understood because he had been through it himself. He had wept, sweated, and begged. If only there were some other way!

But there was not.

The Roman governor Pilate tried to secure Jesus’ release, but the people who brought him in for trial weren’t having it. Given the choice between sending the vicious criminal Barabbas to his death or sending Jesus, they chose Jesus. We don’t know what Barabbas did following his reprieve, but surely, for the remainder of his life, he remembered Jesus as the One who died in his place.

You should think of Jesus in exactly the same way.

Jesus came to earth and died to save you from the penalty of your sin. When you think of Jesus, don’t just remember him as a teacher whose example has changed your life. Honor him as the One who died in your place.