As Dreams of Cadbury Creme Eggs

As the title of this blog suggests, Easter is coming! And that means chocolate! Truly a great time of the year, but for far more significant reasons than the unhealthy consumption of an exorbitant amount of candy. For this blog, I decided that I would examine a small portion of the Easter story, one that I believe is often overlooked, but one that I believe we can all identify with. This may not be anything too terribly earth-shattering or inspirational, but it is simply something that I have found somewhat interesting and intriguing over the last couple of days.

The passage that I would like to draw your attention to (hopefully I still do have your attention) is found in Matthew 27: 15-23: "Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew it was out of envy that they handed Jesus over to him. While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him." But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor. "Barabbas," they answered. "What then shall I do, with Jesus who is called Christ?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!""

While so many Christians focus mainly on the actions of both Pilate and Jesus in this scene, it is the character of Barabbas that I wish to focus on for the remainder of this blog. When most Christians hear the name Barabbas, they immediately think of an, evil, vile man, who got off easy while our Lord and Saviour was sentenced to a brutally painful death. And this view of him is probably not too far off the mark, as the Bible tells us that Barabbas was a murderer, and was guilty of leading an insurrection against the government of his day. Even by today's standards, this was one guilty man deserving of punishment. And it is to our horror that he is basically given a "Get Out of Jail (or in this case, execution) For Free" card, as it violates every sense of justice in our being. But I believe that when our thought process ends here, we are missing a major point of the story, as every word of the Bible serves a purpose.

Think of it in this way: Barabbas was a man guilty of countless sins, and greatly deserving of punishment. But through Jesus' death sentence, he was set free, without having to face condemnation and punishment for his actions. I believe that this hardened criminal serves as a parallel to every last one of us as Christians, as "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Paul later says in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Like Barabbas, we have all been found guilty of sin, and are deserving of death. Yet through Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross, our sins have been covered over. As the Easter season approaches, I believe that it is impossible to even begin to comprehend the full magnitude of the cross unless we can first accept the fact that we are sinners, worthy of the death penalty. It is when we are blinded by our own pride that we somehow view ourselves as above these "sinners", and in the process, cheapen God's loving sacrifice at Calvary. We fall into the lie that we are somehow deserving of this gift, and therefore take Jesus' pain and suffering for granted. I know that I am guilty of falling into this trap, and have only recently begun the process of removing the blinders of my pride, but it is my desire to be able to fully appreciate and express my gratitude for the cross, although I don't claim to have reached this point in my journey yet. But the good news is that no matter how we may view the cross, it cannot change the cold hard facts of it, and the love poured out for us that day. Anyways, sorry if I bored anyone, I just felt the need to do some more blogging on a quiet evening such as this.