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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Matt. 27
I often marvel at the little things. They are everywhere, and I so often see God in them. I noticed one such little thing in this story this morning. The CSB translation has a footnote on Barabbas’ name. It notes that some manuscripts record his name as Jesus Barabbas. Barabbas was the one who deserved to die, yet he was released because Jesus literally took his place. In light of that fact, the name, Jesus Barabbas, speaks volumes to me.
For one thing, Jesus means, “God saves”. Thus, the name says, “God saves Barabbas”, which is exactly what happened. To take that one step further, I learned that Barabbas means, “son of the father”. Put that together any way you want and it says something. It can say that Jesus is the Son of the Father. It can also say that God, the Father, saved His Son, Jesus, which happened when Jesus conquered death and came back to life. And one last thing I see in it is our choice. The crowd, when presented the choice between Jesus, the true Son of the One Father, and Barabbas, who we could say was the false human imitation, they did as the crowd has always done. They chose the lie that leads to death.
Mark 15
It must have been so difficult to remain silent in the face of all the mockery and false accusations. In doing so, Jesus had to overcome both the urge to defend Himself and to reveal truth to the deceived masses. Yet He did remain silent. He did so because He was focused on His mission. He had a battle with death to fight and He would not be distracted from it. There was no need to pay attention to their lies because He knew the path forward was the way to truly overcome them.
I need to remember that Jesus passed His mission on to me. Not to face the grave, of course, but to point people to the One who did so and won. Maybe that means there are times I need to be silent. And maybe there are times I need to speak up. Either way, however, I need to remember to stay focused; to not let the lies the devil throws at me distract me from shining God’s light into a dark and dying world.