Summary
John 18:38-40: “Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber [lestes: a taker].”
The other Gospels reveal that Barabbas was also an insurrectionist and a murderer. And certain ancient manuscripts of Matthew reveal that his first name was also “Jesus.” So repeatedly, Pilate asks the crowd something like this: “Who would you have me release to you? What kind of savior do you want? Jesus Barjoseph (son of Joseph) or Jesus Barabbas (son of abba, rabbas, or rabbi)?”
John 19:1-7: “Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’…’Behold the man!’ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.’”
That’s ironic: He is not making Himself the Son of God; He is the Son of God making all of us Himself.
John 19:8-15: “When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid… From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’ So, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat [or “sat him down on the judgment seat”]… It was about the sixth hour [sixth hour of the sixth day of the week on the sixth Day of Creation]. He said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’”
• Why would they all vote for Barabbas, the Robber?
• Why would the chief priests (the pastors of Jesus’ church), vote for Caesar?
• Why would God let them?
• What is it that John and Pilate want us to behold?
Pilate doesn’t say, “Behold this man’s policy statement and economic policy,” or “Behold this man is a capitalist or socialist, radical right or lunatic left.” He says, “Behold the Man.” On one level, I would imagine that he’s saying, “Just look at him; he’s harmless. For God’s sake, he looks just like a slaughtered lamb.” On another level, I think he’s saying, “Look at him, he’s terrifying me. He has the courage of a lion; he might be a son of God.” I’m sure that John is saying, “Behold the man.” In his native tongue that would be “behold ha adam (The Adam).” In the words of Paul, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive… The first adam became a living soul; the last Adam (eschatos adam) became a life-giving Spirit.” Behold the Super Man.
Can you imagine the fear that Pilate could instill in a man? But Pilate is terrified of this man, for something is different about this man. You don’t have to be a theologian to see it. What is it? No words are adequate, but here are a few ideas:
1.) He is the Truth. He’s honest. He’s not divided. Pilate can’t break Him; He’s breaking Pilate.
2.) He is Love, Unconditional Love in flesh. He loves God by loving His neighbor, and Pilate is His neighbor. And so, He looks Pilate in the eye and asks, “Who do you say that I am? You say I am King, don’t you, Pilate?” He is faith in Love — Love, who is “Our Father in Heaven.”
3.) He is utterly free, for He is entirely humble. If you’re truly humble, you are impossible to humiliate. You have no ego to protect, no false self that desires to be exalted; you have no need to be first, and you rejoice at being last; you are free of shame and have nothing to hide. You shine.
4.) Jesus is the Good; Jesus is the Beautiful; Jesus is the Glory of God. Jesus is the Light, not buried in “Me-sus” but all Jesus, the perfect image of the invisible God. He is unconditional Love; He is Grace. As John has taught us, Jesus is the Judge who judges by not judging; He is the Judgment. He is who it is that we all must be, will be, and most truly are.
So, why did they choose Barabbas, the robber? In John 10:7-8 Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers [lestes]” . . . All takers! That would include David, Moses, Joseph, and Abraham. All people are takers before Jesus.
So maybe we project ourselves onto Jesus, which is projecting ourselves onto God. And so — under all this talk of love — we believe that God is actually a thief and a robber. Maybe we project ourselves on to God, assuming that God is like us, and yet infinitely more powerful than us — that He is a thief we cannot control, whereas Barabbas is a thief we can control, a thief we can use to make us more like Himself, which is to make us more like ourselves… better takers.
Just five days earlier, the crowd had chanted for Jesus, for they assumed that He would help them take Jerusalem from Caeser. But now it was obvious — Caeser was the winner; Jesus was the loser. And so, they put their hope in Barabbas, and they all began to blame Jesus. They made Him their scapegoat. . . And He let them. WHY?
Desperate, Pilate appeals to the pastors and priests of Israel, the ecclesia, the church. “Would you have me crucify your king?” They respond, “We have no king but Caesar.” WHY?
Maybe we’re all “robbers” and human religion is “organized crime.” “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).
We will soon have an election. Who should we vote for? None of the big and controversial names are on this ballot, so maybe it’s a good time for a suggestion: “Behold the man.” Then, vote for “The Man.” I hear you: “You won’t find Jesus on the ballot. They once tried to make him king, and He ran away, for His kingdom is not of this world. And everybody knows, you don’t vote for king.”
That’s correct! That’s why some Christian denominations have forbidden voting or running for office — but most have encouraged it if one understands that earthly governments are ordained by God in a provisional capacity, like a babysitter. A babysitter can enforce some rules, but a babysitter cannot shape a child in the image of the parent — that takes more than laws, it takes grace.
In the United States, every candidate is an employee, and you are the employer, but Jesus is your King and the voice of our Father. No candidate can save you, but they can assist you in “looking after orphans and widows.”
Jesus refused to become king for he already is King, and yet He would have each of us vote for Him that He might be king in our hearts and we might obey Him, for we want to obey Him in the freedom of perfected love — that’s faith, the very thing that the first Adam was lacking.
In the New Testament, there are no government officials who are also followers of Jesus because Caesar keeps killing them. But in the Old Testament there are. Read the Psalms along with the New Testament, and you’ll discover that Jesus was actually living His life in David. And you can see Jesus is Joseph, can’t you? Jesus is not on the ballot but may be living His life in some that are.
So, “Behold the Man,” and vote for “the Man.” Behold the Man or woman, not the party or policy (at least not at first), not the one that you think will make you rich, or the one that exalts themself the best. Look for the One that Pilate displayed on Good Friday.
1.) Vote for the candidate that’s honest.
2.) Vote for the candidate that loves God by loving people.
3.) Vote for the candidate that’s humble. David sinned in the most horrific way. But at the Word of God spoken by the prophet (this is the prophet’s calling: to speak truth to power), he repented in the most astounding way — literally died with the son of David and rose with the son of David, that’s Jesus. And then wrote the Psalms.
4.) Vote for the candidate that’s Good; that’s the one that forgives; that’s the one that’s full of Grace. Joseph was utterly humbled, then exalted to the second most powerful position in the world. Then and there, he saved the world (and his abusers) from famine. And to his abusers, the sons of Israel, cowering at his feet in terror, he said, “You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.”
And now, in case you’re thinking, “Maybe I voted for the wrong person?” Well, of course you did. Every time we sin, we vote for the wrong man, the false man, the Taker. But every time we speak Truth in Love, the True Man is voting in us, with us, and even as us. Even as we take His life, He fore gives His life, body broken and blood shed.
So, the next time you vote, forgive everyone, humble yourself, love your neighbors, for you know that you’re loved by God, and be honest. And then your vote will be the right vote. And if I forgive everyone, humble myself, love my neighbors, for I know I’m loved by God, and I’m honest, then my vote will be the right vote. And I believe that to be true even if you and I vote for different candidates. In the End, it doesn’t matter who we vote for, at least not in the way we think it matters (“The Most High rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses and sets over it the lowliest of men,” said God to Nebuchadnezzar.)
It doesn’t matter in the way we think it matters. But nothing matters more than how we vote. For if we’re gracious, humble, bleeding love for all, and thoroughly honest, then we are “The Man.” We are the seventh sign that is the substance, the Temple of God, Bride of Christ, and Body of Jesus — the perfect image of the invisible God.
• Why would we all vote for Barabbas? We’re all robbers.
• Why would the pastors and priests vote for Caesar? They’re just organized crime.
• Why would God let us? So that all of us takers would see that He is the Giver of all; so that we would behold the Man on the tree in the garden on the Holy Mountain… And “beholding him,” be “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
• Behold “The Man,” and you will become the Man.