I married someone who loves choices. She thrives on having choices. She loves studying the menu at restaurants to explore every possible meal choice. She asks questions of the serving staff. She carefully weighs all the options before picking. I just point and shoot. The first thing that looks good is usually the one I order. I don’t need choices. I just want food. I’m not there for the food. The food is just a means to spending time together.
On the other hand, when we purchase houses we look at multiple options. I think we set the record of houses viewed in one day, 42. We didn’t walk in all of them, but we did drive by and reject some. Big decisions take more deliberation and careful thought. I am with my wife on this.
Life and death choices are the hardest. I have not served on a jury when the death penalty was an option. I am sure those decisions are extremely difficult. I want people to think hard and long when deciding life or death. I don’t want rash decisions. We owe it to all parties involved. Justice demands that we get it right.
But some decisions seem easy and obvious. Like the choice in our text. Should we chose Jesus, a man dedicated to peace, or a known rebel, known to hang around with murderers and might be a murderer himself?
Let’s think about this another way. Who would you want living next to you, Jesus or Barabbas? Who would you want playing with your kids, teaching them values, babysitting?
We as a society recognize that some people are not as nice as others toward their fellow human beings. We don’t allow known sex offenders to live next to schools, run daycares, volunteer to work with youth at church. We don’t allow convicted violent criminals, known to use guns in the commission of crimes to purchase more firearms. We don’t allow mob bosses to own cement factories. Just a joke.
We as a society make choices about the kind of people we want roaming our streets at night. Or at least we try to control it. We want good neighbors, honest teachers, and politicians with integrity. (If only!)
So when you read about the choice between Jesus and Barabbas in our text, it seems rather obvious who to choose. But it wasn’t that easy. Pressure laid on Pilate and the uneasy crowd would have made this much more difficult.
Besides, Pilate could get in trouble for releasing a known insurrectionist from custody. Doing so would be a rebellion against Rome itself. He faced the possibility of losing his own life in the process if word ever got back to Headquarters, Rome. So Pilate had to weigh his options carefully. No matter what he did, he was assuming some risk. Riot now or possible riot later.
One of the curious things is that this custom is not written about outside of the Gospels. There are no contemporary accounts of this practice. If I were in Pilate’s shoes, I wouldn’t want any media coverage either. If news did travel to Rome, my head would be in the executioner’s basket. So I would do everything I could to keep it a secret. We don’t know if this is the case, but I can imagine it happening.
The Arnold Journey 