The Other Jesus Matthew 27:11-23

Transcription

1 The Other Jesus Matthew 27:11-23 Easter 2016: Alternate Insight, Part 1 Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, a young Frenchman named Charles Darnay has been condemned to die by the guillotine. One hour before his execution was to take place, he was visited by his close friend - a young English friend named Sydney who could have passed for his twin. Sydney had already made up his mind to take Charles' place on the guillotine - an act of love that he hoped would save his friends life and return him to his wife and child. With that plan in mind, Sydney comes to visit Charles on the night before his execution. After the guard had left, the friend overpowered the Charles with an anesthetic which put him to sleep. Sydney quickly changed clothes with Charles and then called the jailor to help remove his unconscious friend who had become overcome with grief. Charlies Darnay was removed and taken to his friend s home rescued from death at the last moment. The next morning, on his way to the guillotine, the young Englishman, Sydney spoke those final famous words: It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done.... There is a perspective on the final moments of Christ's life that is often overlooked. A perspective seen through the eyes of a criminal who was condemned to die on his cross but the night before, he s rescued and another man dies in his place. The condemned criminal s name was Barabbas! It s as if God wanted us to have a physical, tangible representative a living, breathing person we could actually think of when we think of Jesus dying on the cross in someone else s place. In fact, for the rest of his life, Barabbas will be able to say, both physically and perhaps spiritually, I had a substitute die on my cross who took my place. The truth is, the story of Barabbas has some tremendous things to say to those of us who have received Christ as our personal substitute. Barabbas also has some things to say to anyone here who is still an unbeliever. Turn in your New Testament to the Gospel by Matthew chapter 27. And follow along as I read, beginning with verse 1. Now Jesus stood before the governor questioned Him saying, Are You the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, It is as you say. 12. And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not answer. 13. Then Pilate said to Him, Do You not hear how many things they testify against You? 14. And He did not answer him with regard to even a single charge, so the governor was quiet amazed. 15. Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16. At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. In the Gospel of Mark s account, we re told that Barabbas was being held for execution because of murder (Mark 15:7) and he mentions a recent insurrection among the Jews against the Roman authorities. As far as the Romans were concerned, Barabbas was Osama Bin Laden. And as far as the Jews were concerned, he was Robin Hood. Most conservative scholars believe he more than likely was the leader of the other two men who will hang next Jesus in a matter of hours. Before we go any further, let me inform you of why Pilate s hands are politically tied, even though his wife warns him and he himself knows that Jesus is guilty of nothing except gaining popularity the leaders so envied. Pilate was already in trouble with not only the Jews but Tiberius, the Roman emperor. When Pilate became governor over this region, the first thing he did was visit Jerusalem. And whenever the Roman leaders came, they always stayed in the old palace of the Herods in the western part of the city. And, like all the other political leaders of Rome, when he arrived, his soldiers would have been carrying the standard of Rome - a gold rod with the regal banner of Rome

2 which would have included some likeness some image of the reigning Emperor. Since the Romans regarded Caesar as deity, the Jews considered this pole this banner and insignia of Rome to be nothing less than idolatry. They always demanded that the soldiers remove any likeness to Caesar attached to this standard before they entered their holy city of Jerusalem. In the past, all the other Governors had obliged the Jews but Pilate refused. The Jews gathered, protesting against him and he finally agreed to meet with many of their leaders in the nearby amphitheater. When they arrived, Pilate had them surrounded with soldiers and he then informed them that if they did not stop their demand hew would kill them on the spot. To his surprise, the Jews bared their necks and invited the soldiers to strike. Not even Pilate would massacre defenseless men and so he reluctantly agreed to remove the image of Caesar. And that s how Pilate began his political career. The second thing that hurt his rapport with the Jewish people was following his decision to build an aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem. He didn't have the money for the project and so instead of asking the Jewish leaders for donations, he ordered his soldiers to forcibly take the money from the Temple treasury. As you can imagine, the people rioted. This time, Pilate ordered his soldiers to attack the mob, clubbing and stabbing hundreds of Jews to death. Eventually, Pilate would be called to give an account to Caesar Tiberius and the Supreme Court of Rome. So in the midst of an already disturbing reign, clouded by poor decisions which infuriated the Jewish population having already been warned by his superiors not to cause additional problems with the Jews, the mob is growing against his better judgement that this Jesus this Carpenter, was innocent. And to make matters worse, his wife has a dream which warns him further to let Jesus go. Pilate is between a rock and a hard place. But then he remembers something he remembers that annual custom, taken right from the pages of Israelite tradition. In John s Gospel account, at chapter 18, we read this He (Pilate) went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in Him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews? (John 18a:39-40). This is a stroke of legal genius. This is Pilate s way out. Most O.T. scholars believe this Passover tradition came from the Israelite s remembrance of their slavery in Egypt. They had been effectively freed from their Egyptian dungeon. So over the years, this custom developed as a way of remembering their freedom every Passover, they would release one Jewish prisoner. This was no doubt a wonderfully rich and meaningful custom, so long as the criminal you released was no mass murderer you know, it would be some petty thief who probably would never steal again, having been given a new chance at freedom. Evidently, this recent insurrection had been defeated and their leaders were now imprisoned among them, their notorious leader, Barabbas. Pilate assumes that the Jews would never want a hardened felon a guilty murderer to be released back among them the man who had brought about the recent bloodshed of a failed coup attempt. In fact, notice how Matthew introduces this insurrectionist; Matthew 27:16. And they were holding at that time a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. He s called Barabbas. We are never given the name of this man, other than Barabbas. Barabbas is simply the Aramaic expression which tells us who his father was. Perhaps you remember Peter being introduced as Simon bar Jona (Matthew 16:17) which simply meant, Simon, the son of Jonah. If I d lived back in 2

3 this day I would have been called Stephen bar Keith - Stephen the son of a man named Keith. This prisoner is called Bar-abbas the son of abba which means Father. But the son of a father doesn t make much sense. Frankly, what was more than likely a nickname is lost to our understanding. One church historian began to make sense of this text along with other New Testament scholars and historians. They commented on the fact that many of the greatest and most respected Rabbi's during the time of Christ were referred to as abbas. In fact, well into the 2nd century the custom persisted. Barabbas was the son of an abbas the son of a famous or well-known Rabbi... to put it in our contemporary language, Barabbas was a preacher's kid. Now, we know something about his father, but we still don t know Barabbas first name! Barabbas was his nickname his street name. We discover his rather surprising first name in some of the oldest versions of the New Testament the ancient Syriac and Armenian versions. It s a name that was later dropped from manuscripts because it was an obvious embarrassment to the growing church. WHY? Becuase his name was in the Greek language Jesus! Grant Osborne, in his recent exegetical commentary on the Book of Matthew writes that the name was most likely dropped out of reverence for the name Jesus. 1 In other words, it was just a little too embarrassing for the church to connect the name Jesus with an insurrectionist and murderer and so they conveniently dropped it. But I happen to believe that when the name was dropped centuries ago in the transmission of manuscripts they effectively covered a compelling drama that was unfolding a drama that continues to unfold to this very day. This is why Pilate needs to distinguish between these two men look at verse 17. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release for you? (that s the missing name here) Jesus Barabbas? Or Jesus who is called Christos or Christ? Why the added designation of Christ? Because /Jesus was the name for both of them. In facxt, you need to understand that Jesus was a very common name in these early days; it was as common as Steve or John today. Thousands of little Jewish boys were named Jesus it was the Old Testament counterpart to Yeshua - or Joshua. Why so popular? Because the Jewish parents were hoping that their little boy would grow up and become the deliverer of the nation Israel. So this Rabbi and his wife had a little boy - they're thrilled and they decide to name him Yeshua - Jesus! Maybe he ll grow up to liberate our people maybe he ll be the deliverer maybe he ll become our nation s Messiah! And guess what? He did grow up and he did try to live out the meaning of his name He did try and form an insurrection against the empire of Rome and he even spilled blood in his nationalistic patriotism he really did grow up to try and become his nation s Messiah. You see the drama unfolding here? We have a deliverer who will kill. We have a deliverer who will die. And so Pilate stands and addresses this mob and he gives them the choice verse 21. But the governor said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. 22. Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, Crucify Him! And he said, Why, what evil has He done? But they kept shouting all the more, saying, Crucify Him! Imagine, Which Jesus do you want to get rid of?! Jesus the Son of God or Jesus, the son of the Rabbi? One Jesus has told his disciples to never use the sword; the other Jesus was skilled in guerilla 3

4 warfare; we know from history that these men would attempt to weaken and ultimately overthrow Roman rule one assassination after another. Barabbas was fiercely loyal to Judaism. I can imagine the heated debates he d had over the years with his father. At some point, Barabbas had reached the conclusion that his Rabbi father s passive stand against the rule of Rome should be replaced by hand to hand combat and hidden daggers. Listen beloved, Barabbas was the kind of Messiah they were wanting. He was the kind of Jesus they had been waiting for! My friend, are you an unbeliever this morning becuase Jesus doesn't fit your definition of God. Has his story disappointed you? Has He failed to live up to your expectations too?! The Jewish people here wanted a zealot to overthrow Rome and Barabbas met their expectations of what the Messiah was supposed to do... Barabbas was the people s unanimous choice! Whether they knew it or not, they were effectively shouting and screaming here in this dramatic scene, Give us Jesus the son of the Rabbi and crucify Jesus the Son of God! This is still the question of the ages! One author writes in his recent commentary we have at least two dozen Jesuses to select from... which Jesus do you want? We have the Jesus of our popular authors the Jesus of Marcus Borg; the Jesus of Anne Rice; the Jesus of Dan Brown and Bishop John Shelby Spong. We have the Jesuses found in major world religions do you want the Jesus of Islam, the Jesus of Gandhi, or the Jesus of the Dalai Lama? Do you want the Jesus of Deepak the Jesus of Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy and Edgar Cayce? Do you want the Jesus of The Simpsons and South Park, or the Jesus of sports stars where he s the big guy upstairs? In this supermarket of spirituality, which Jesus will you choose that is the pressing question of our day. 2 Will it be the Jesus whom you see here, led as a Lamb to the slaughter refusing to defend Himself to call a twelve legions of angels to his rescue more than 60,000 angels waiting his command. This drama illustrates the gospel Barabbas illustrates humanity. Condemned already e guilty of crimes worthy of death... awaiting his judgment day. And in this tangible, literal enactment, the Gospel of Luke in chapter 4 is demonstrated where Jesus Christ has come to set the captives free. In His wonderful sovereignty over all these events, He is setting a captive free. Dr. M. R. Dehaan the founder of Our Daily Bread ministries and converted medical doctor used to love telling the true story of Mr. Kline. Mr. Kline was a selfish, greedy, unkind old man whom no one loved or wanted to be around. Children made up rhymes about him and people in general tried to avoid him. One particular Sunday night he was walking down the street past the little Baptist church he d refused every invitation to attend. It was a warm summer night in the 1920 s and the windows of this little church auditorium were opened. 4

5 The congregation was singing and the sound of their singing wafted out the windows and into the nearby neighborhood. No one knew it, but Mr. Kline had grown discouraged and filled with despair... he was coming to end of his life and he knew he was not worth loving and had no hope beyond the grave. He stopped suddenly as he heard the singing and listened. He couldn t believe his ears. The congregation was singing, Jesus died for all mankind and Jesus died for me. His hearing, which wasn t very good at all by now, walked closer to listen he thought they were singing about him. Sure enough, when the congregation came again to the chorus, Jesus died for all mankind, he thought they were singing, Jesus died of old man Kline. Could it be, he thought... could it really be true? He turned and entered that little chapel, sat through the service heard the simple message of the Gospel and came to learn that Jesus had indeed come to die even for him. And that night he believed... and another captive was set free. John wrote, for as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. (John 1:12) Not the name Jesus Barabbas... but the name, Jesus Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah the One who sets the captive free. This manuscript is from a sermon preached on 03/20/2016 by Stephen Davey. Copyright 2016 Stephen Davey All rights reserved 1 Grant R. Osborne, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew (Zondervan, 2010), p Douglas Sean O Donnell, Preaching the Word: Matthew (Crossway, 2013), p