The Gospel According to Barabbas

What is all that yelling? Uhg. What day is it even? Man, I’ve lost all track of the sun in this dark and damp pit of despair that thrown me into. They’re supposed to bring me food once a day, but I fear they’ve forgotten about me. I try to sleep as much as I can, trying to forget about how hungry I am. Otherwise I sit here tempted by the rats as they scurry on past. Oh, wouldn’t I give my left hand for a nice roasted lamb, or even some bread, or maybe fish. But here I sit praying that one of the rats might scurry up close enough for me to pounce. I’m so weak, I’ll do anything for food.

But again, I hear the yelling. I can hear Pilate, they must have woken him up, because he does not sound happy, and it looks like it’s still dark. Not sure really as I can’t see much of outside, but from the looks of it, it might be. Ah, who knows? But man does he sound angry or what. Now Pilate strikes fear in all of us Jews, that’s why I led the last uprising, the rebellion. This is our home, God gave it to us and we should be fighting for it, to take it back. Our Jewish prophets told of a king who would come and rule like David and lead us out of captivity like Moses. I mean, I was just trying to help usher in this kingdom.

Now I’ve heard of this guy, not sure his name, but he’s been going around performing miracles and such, but people are calling him the Messiah, but he has been doing it all wrong. He’s going around talking to prostitutes, touching all those unclean people; lepers, the blind, dead, you name it. Obviously, they are blind for a reason. Probably some sin they or their parents committed. Why else would God be punishing them? Stuff like blindness, leprosy, and other unclean things don’t just happen, but it is God’s punishment for wickedness.

So, this guy roaming around like that whack job John the Baptist, is just another person who is opposed to the High Priests teachings. I guess I did too. They didn’t want me causing problems they rather live in peace under oppression rather than standing up for their beliefs. With the whole uprising thing, yeah it’s not what they wanted, but I was just doing what the scriptures said. I was trying to bring redemption for Jerusalem myself. I would have succeeded if more people had joined my cause. But the Sadducees have their pockets so lined with Roman riches that they let them take me prisoner. So, what, I killed a Roman, this is our land! I should be called a hero.

They have been so caught up in the Roman prosperity that they have forgotten about their Jewish values. They should be begging for my release, rather than condemning me as a criminal. I have not sacrificed my values for the sake of extra silver, why do you think I was robbing people? I have no silver! Those priests will preach about a God of promises and commands, but they don’t want to do anything about the Roman filth that makes us give our money, I mean God’s money! over to them. It’s total hypocrisy. That is why I shouldn’t be here in this prison, but they should have joined me in my cause.

Wait…what did Pilate say? Crucify? They can’t crucify me! Wait, I can hear the chief priests, or at least I think it is. They are yelling in Aramaic and no just anyone could receive an audience with Pilate if they were a Jew. But what are they saying?................I can’t believe it. They are yelling for me to be crucified! AT least they said my name, and the rest are yelling crucify. But how could they! They are my people!

Oh no…. someone is coming. What do I do? I don’t have the strength to fight, but what other choice do I have? I must try to escape. That’s what I’ll do, I’ll hide in the corner and surprise the guard by attacking him from behind. It’s my only shot, if I want to survive. I’m all out of options. Shhhh, they are looking in the door. I can hear the nervousness in their voice…. they don’t see me…. What’s this?!?! They are joking that I’m dead! They can’t even remember who fed me last. I’ll show them, Roman swine who forgot about me. I’ll make them pay for their forgetfulness and their blasphemy against God. 3….2……1…. now!

(pause)

I can hear more voices. Why would there be voices? I’m alone in this cell, and man was I having the strangest dream or what. I dreamt that I was about to be crucified and they were coming for me, and I was about to make my move and then I just woke up. Phew…. why does my head hurt so bad? And why are these voices in here laughing. They’re Roman voices, I wonder if they have another prisoner. Sounds like that guy tried to pull a fast one. They keep joking about how weak the guy was. (groan) Man, does my head hurt. Why is the ground wet? Wait that’s blood…. Wait…that’s my blood! I’m bleeding, but how I was just…. wait they’re talking about me! That means, it wasn’t a dream. They are here for me!

They’re yelling at me to get up. I guess I can’t really fight it, already tried that. I guess I’ll go, better than getting my butt kicked again. I can’t believe they want me crucified, it has to be close to the Passover, certainly they wouldn’t crucify me during the holiday. We are supposed to be remembering God’s grace and mercy, not condemning me to death. Don’t they remember the story? How God commanded Moses to instruct everyone to put the sacrificed lambs blood, the perfect lamb’s blood, on the door posts, and then God’s spirit would pass on its judgment on those who lived in that house? Judgement would Passover, that’s where we get the name even. This judgment too should pass over me, but who am I kidding. The chief Priests don’t want me, I caused a lot of trouble for them against the Romans, man they are probably the ones leading the charge.

Well’ I’m about to the door, I guess I’ll find out what all the commotion is about. Ah, my eyes! Dang it’s bright outside. I haven’t smelled air that didn’t smell like stale urine or rat droppings for what seems like forever. Even if I only get this last glimpse of freedom, I would rather die out here than with the rats. Maybe I’ll just be killed by the flogging, and I won’t have to be crucified. One could only hope….no one wants to die that death.

Of course! as I suspected, there are the Chief Priests leading the crowds. Those traitors, I was doing us a favor, I was trying to gain us our freedom back! Get back to the same kingdom that God has promised to restore!

Hey, who is this other guy? Why does Pilate keep asking him questions, and why on earth is that fool not answering? Put up a fight, state your case, prove your innocence. The Chief priests can’t even come up with charges against you, they just keep yelling to have you crucified. Pilate won’t crucify you without just cause, so fight back. If anyone is guilty it would be me. I’m a thug, a crook, I’ve murdered, and caused so much unrest. What have you done? Pilate says you’ve healed, restored, set free, opened the ear of the deaf and the eyes of the blind. You truly must be a man from God to do those things, a prophet at best……So why do they want you dead?

Ooooh…are you the guy pretending to be the messiah? Good riddance, we don’t need more false prophets, telling us to be at peace with the gentiles. Obviously, we are God’s chosen people and obviously that makes us superior. God wants us to rule, with strength as a testament of God’s strength, to show off God’s glory. See where this love crap got you, now look, they’re going to crucify us both if you don’t prove your innocence. Come on, you are inches away from death, don’t you want to live?!?!?

He’s just staying quiet. That man is so strange. Pilate knows this man has done nothing wrong, he’s just trying to calm down the crowd. He can’t have another incident happen in the province, you know…. after the last one that I led. Well this is it, we are both off to Golgotha. Wait, what was that? They are going to let me go? Why? I mean… I know why. There is this special law that allows for the release of a single prisoner around the Passover, but why me? I’ve caused so many problems. Certainly, Pilate wouldn’t allow it. Not after what I’ve done.

See, Pilate just asked for some water, he’s just biding his time till the crowd comes to their senses. Why did he just put his hands in it? He just said that he is innocent, his hands are washed clean of this. What does that mean? Wait where are you taking me, I want to see how this thing finishes. What will happen to Jesus. Wait, Stop!

(Pause)

The words keep ringing in my head. “You’re free to go. You’re free to go.” But what about the other guy? The guards didn’t know, and frankly they didn’t really care. They just pointed toward the crowd. Well of course the crowd, I could hear them still yelling curses and hate toward that man they called Jesus.

                  I must follow, I have to somehow see what happens to him. I’m free but what about him? Wait a second, I‘m Free. I’m free……. I’m free I’m free I’m free! Why on earth would I follow the very people that wanted to kill me? They might turn on me if they have a change of heart… but wait. There was just something so special about that Jesus guy.  

(Pause)

 (Out of breath) Whew, I finally managed to catch up to the crowd. It helped that they stopped moving. I could ask why, but it’s pretty obvious. Whack! You can hear him screaming in pain. Whack! The crowds are still spitting on him as he crumples to the ground. The solders prop him back up. Whack! Screams have turned into wails. I saw the soldiers take thorns and weave them together to make a crown for his head. Look, “The King of the Jews,” they sneered. Between the crown of thorns and his agonizing pain, one cannot tell the difference between what blood is and what are tears.

Flogging is such a terrible thing. It kind of looks like a whip, but the ends of the whip have pieces of bone, stone, glass, or hooks attached to it. So, when they whip you, they all dig into the flesh, and as they pull it back, flesh, bone, and muscle are ripped to ribbons that loosely dangle from the body. Many people die from just being flogged and don’t even get put on the cross.

That man Jesus, can barely stand. He won’t last much longer. I’ll stay till they say, it is finished. I continue to look around, looking over my shoulder for those who sent me to that terrible prison, but it seems that no one cares about my past sins. All eyes are fixed on Jesus. The only sounds I hear are the curses from the crowd, the Roman guards casting lots for his clothes, the group of women wailing over there on the edge, and the echo of the soldiers nailing the cross together. Soon they will nail him to it.

Oh man, you should see all the blood. The wood timbers he is laid on are crimson in color, like they’ve been soaked in precious dyes. Didn’t he know what crucifixion was when Pilate was questioning him? Well, the obvious answer is no. Who in their right mind would know how bad this kind of death is, and not fight for their innocence, all he had to do is prove he was less guilty than me and he could have lived. Really, it’s not his cross, but I should be the one up there. 

That’s my cross…that should be me nailed up on that cross. He is innocent. Pilate knew it, the chief priests knew it, even I knew it. SO why did he take this from me? What kind of man would die for things that he wasn’t guilty of? What were those stories that I heard about this man? It reminds me of how he saved that life of the woman who was caught in adultery. He convinced the crowd that she was just as worthy as they were, or maybe it was they were just as unworthy as they thought she was. That was pretty amazing. What else did he do? Oh yeah, he also showed grace to the Samaritan prostitute, and he fed thousands of people with just a few fish and a few loaves, he raised that dead guy. What was his name, started with an L, well it doesn’t matter? But I know that it actually happened. It was my cousin’s husband, and I know for sure that he was dead. We showed up and everything, saw him dead and then came back to see him walking around. Even if the other things aren’t true, I know I saw this one with my own eyes.

But why would he do those things? He showed love to the people that us Jews don’t associate with. Why would he show love to such unworthy people? Prophets are supposed to rebuke and lead us back to God, this guy told us that following all of our laws was actually pulling us further away from God. How could we be drifting from God, by following his laws the best we can? That just doesn’t make sense. This guy says our laws are meaningless except to love God and love our neighbor. Look how that turned out for him. King of the Jews is now getting crucified by his “faithful” subjects.

What if his death is just another teaching? What if him taking my spot on the cross was him just showing love to another unworthy person? I should be on that cross, I should be the one hanging by my wrists, with nothing to give me relief other than wine vinegar. That should be me, I am the guilty one, not him. It should not be him, all he did was love, and he must be a prophet, or maybe he is the Messiah, if he was able to do such great things. (Questioning) Is his death another one of his “great things?” To die a criminal’s death, to be judged innocent, but die clothed in the guilt that is rightfully mine? What if this prophet was actually brining us closer to God by showing us that God’s wants us to love him more than blindly follow the rules that we’ve made up. To stop judging others as worthy and unworthy and just showing love to them and letting God do the judging. What if…. wait he is saying something.

“It is finished.” Wait what? What’s finished. I still have questions, why did we have to kill this man who only tried to love those that we don’t, is that really so bad? Maybe God is trying to tell us something. Hold on, the ground is shaking. What's going on!

(Pause)

Wow, it got real crazy there for a minute. The earth shook, split open, and I think I even heard the Roman Centurion call out to God. (Sarcastic) Wouldn’t that be a miracle.

 Everything has calmed down now. The bodies have been taken down, the soldiers and the crowds left, and I am just sitting here. It is finished. Those words circle my head like angry bees. It is finished. It most certainly is. The punishment has been dealt, my punishment, for my crimes. The debt has been paid, the debt I owed society. All gone. I’m a free man. My innocence was declared on that cross, my innocence, with him taking on my guilt. It is finished.