But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Luke 23:18-19
A former Olympic athlete stands before a sea of microphones and tearfully confesses to family and friends of her use of performance enhancing drugs and of lying to federal authorities when questioned about it.
A grim faced state governor known for his crusades against corruption admits to being involved in a prostitution ring which forces him out of office and leaves him fighting to hang on to his family.
A church secretary has a complete meltdown when it’s discovered that over a period of several years she has stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the congregation in order to increase her standard of living.
Each of these tragic stories have a least one thing in common. They’re all stories of people in need of grace. And they’re not alone. For each of us have similar stories. Some of our stories may be scandalous and well known while others are more socially tolerated and private. Either way our stories of transgression force us to face our humanness and our inability to live a truly righteous life on our own. They expose our desperate need for grace.
Such was the case for a man named Barabbas. According to the gospels, Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea who eventually sentenced Jesus to death. But before doing so, he tried to side step responsibility through the annual custom of releasing a prisoner during the Passover festival. The gesture was a political favor designed to keep the people pacified.
So having found Jesus to be innocent of any real crimes against Rome, Pilate offered to either release Jesus or a notorious criminal named Barabbas. Pilate just knew that they would release Jesus. Barabbas was too evil of a man to even consider releasing. But that’s exactly what happened. The last man in the world who had any reason to expect freedom was let go as the crowd demanded Jesus’ blood.
Even those of us who are familiar with the story may not sense the significance of what happened here. Releasing Barabbas was like releasing a modern day terrorist. It would be unthinkable. And yet that’s exactly what happened. The man who deserved to die received an undeserved grace.
Although we may want to resist it, the same is true for us. Grace is always for the undeserving. And we’re all undeserving. Oh, we may not be insurrectionists like Barabbas or modern day terrorists, but we’ve all rebelled against God in our own way. Each of us have fallen short and missed the mark of God’s righteous expectations.
We’ve told lies, held grudges, been mean-spirited, and acted selfishly. We’ve behaved immorally, defended pride, shared gossip, and satisfied greed. We’ve undermined unity, ignored needs, acted unjustly, and abused power. We’ve maintained stubbornness, worshiped hypocritically, shunned others, and the list goes on.
In short, we stand guilty before God without a shred of reason to expect anything but judgment. Yet even in this state, He extends grace to us anyhow. No wonder the hymn writer would call it, “amazing grace.” Amazing indeed.