25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Imagine releasing a known murderer and imprisoning an innocent man instead! This sounds almost like a hostage situation. The terrorist takes hostages and demands the release of some of his fellow terrorists being held in jail; the relatively innocent for the known murderer. My whole life I have witnessed these kinds of bargains played out in the news. What a predicament. The hostage is taken having done nothing wrong. He becomes the commodity traded for the person already in prison, known to have committed terrible things against other people. What a terrible bargain. Releasing someone known to have taken lives in exchange for one life. These are always such tough decisions, gut wrenching decisions. The families of the victims of the convicted man are usually outraged at the thought of their loved one’s murderer being released weighed against the families of the hostages. This is hard stuff. So as Jesus is being led away to his death, the guilty man walks free. I can imagine he was confused by what happened. He was grabbed from his cell and dragged outside. He probably thought, “Well, it was a good life. Now it is going to end.” But instead, his chains are released and they tell him to go home. Confusion ensued. He is then filled in on the details of his release. He is still in shock and disbelief. He probably looks over his shoulders for years, expecting to be picked up any moment and returned to jail. Maybe, at some point in his life he turned his life around and became thankful for what happened. But Jesus didn’t just go to the cross for this convicted man. We too stand convicted. We deserve to have the sentence awaiting the murderer. But Jesus’ death means our release, even though we are guilty. We get to walk free because He remained a prisoner to the point of death. Maybe it is time for us to turn our life into a life of thanksgiving for what Jesus did for us. We can live our life in freedom because Jesus remained in bondage.
The Arnold Journey 