Barabbas

There is an incredible story in the Bible, repeated four times, about a crowd of people deciding which of two prisoners on death row they will set free. It was custom every year on the Jewish festival of Passover, for one prisoner to be unconditionally released. The Roman official in charge of this region of Israel named Pilate agrees to bring two condemned prisoners before the crowd for them to choose between. So picture this – two guys in chains; one of them is notorious criminal Barabbas who is a murderer and a thief. He is unrepentant and will probably go back to what he knows and keep committing violent crime; the other is a guy called Jesus who has walked from town to village healing the sick, loving indiscriminately and preaching a message of hope and life. He's had crowds of people following Him all over the country listening to His teaching and marveling at his miracles but the Jewish leaders have seized and imprisoned Him, charging Him with blasphemy because He's messing up their religious system. You'd think it'd be a straight forward decision for the crowd, yet the story takes a strange twist.
Pilate says to the crowd “You have brought this man to me accusing Him of misleading the people. And indeed having examined Him in your presence I have found no fault in this man...What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call 'King of the Jews?'”
So the crowd cried out, “Crucify Him!”
Then Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they cried out all the more, “Crucify Him!”
So Pilate, wanting to please the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus to be whipped and then crucified.
If you could imagine yourself standing as part of the crowd, I'm sure you'd be sickened to see a good and innocent man sent away to suffer a violent and prolonged execution and horrified to see a violent criminal released back into the community. I'm sure you’d ask what kind of people would make this kind of stupid decision, hating and rejecting a man who had only ever done good. Yet the sad reality is millions of people all around the world make a similar decision every day. They gladly welcome the presence of evil into their lives, their homes and their community while rejecting the same Jesus who only offers what is lovely good and true. It’s just crazy.
So maybe there's a hundred reasons why even the name of Jesus causes you to flinch or recoil just like the crowd, but like the Jewish people 2000 years ago, do you really understand the choice that you are making and the implications it has for your life? Jesus, who is the exact representation of what God is like, loves you ferociously and only has good in store for you. Maybe it’s time to take the case to the Supreme Court and see the decision reversed. Let Jesus go free in your life.