The Sinner Goes Free (by Travis Yonkman)

Matthew 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:13-25

Introduction

Injustice – simply hearing the word can set our teeth on edge and raise the hairs on the back of our neck. At the sound of the word, our anger boils while against the perpetrator while at the same time our pity and compassion overflows for the one wrongly treated. Try and remember the powerful emotions you felt on September 11^th. The story was so overwhelming that most people remember exactly where they were when they first heard the news or saw the airplane crash into the side of the building. Feelings of tragedy and loss were overwhelming as we thought of each unsuspecting husband, wife, son or daughter who were killed, but at the same time those feelings battled against fear and anger of those wicked people who had carefully plotted the murder of hundreds of innocent lives.

Of all of the evils in this world, all of the injustices that bring pain and torment, I can imagine no greater injustice than that depicted here in our story. As we examine this tragic tale, we will do so in three sections: first, we will examine the sinner who went free; second, the innocent condemned; lastly, justice through injustice.

The Sinner Goes Free

First, let us examine how the sinner went free.

Enter Barabbas. The little bit we know about him is bad. He was an insurrectionist. He rebelled violently against Rome committing murder in his rebellion. He is like a present day terrorist. He disagreed so strongly with the way a nation operated that he violently rebelled against it, killing in his attempts. Matthew 27:16 tells us that he was a "well-known" prisoner. However, he was probably "well-known" in the same way that someone like Al Capone, Jack the Ripper or Charles Manson were "well-known." Notorious would be more fitting. He was notorious for the crimes he committed, and he waited in prison for his death sentence.

Now enter Pilate and our story begins. Pilate was the Roman proconsul, the governor and the ultimate judge of the land. It was the time of the Feast, probably the Feast of Passover, and Pilate had an absurd custom: At the time annually he would release a prisoner to the crowd. What an ungodly and improper practice to honor a festival by allowing crimes to go unpunished. Yet this was the custom.

Earlier that day Jewish chief priests brought Jesus to Pilate to be tried. Luke records the action clearly. Pilate, the proconsul, tries the man, questions him and examines the evidence and relays the verdict. In Luke 23:14 Pilate relays his results: "I have examined this man in your presence and have found no basis for your charge against him." Pilate stated further that Herod had also tried Jesus and found him innocent. “As you can see,” said Pilate, “he has done nothing deserving death.”

Yet the chief priests were drooling for an opportunity to kill Jesus and Pilate's verdict of innocence would not do. They pressed Pilate further, stirring up the crowds that had gathered for the Feast to demand Jesus' death. Pilate was in a very bad situation. He had a potential riot on his hands as people began shouting for Jesus' blood. He had tried Jesus and found Him innocent. Yet if he released Jesus without giving the people what they requested they would certainly riot. Pilate needed a solution, and he turned to Barabbas to try and find it.

Pilate, knowing the custom of releasing a prisoner to the crowd, decided to give the crowd a very black and white option in order to free Jesus. He gave them an ultimatum that he thought had only one possible choice. "Shall I release to you Barabbas, the notorious murderer, or shall I release to you Jesus who you yourselves have called Christ not even a week ago on Palm Sunday?" Pilate knew that even though Barabbas might have had support initially when he rebelled against Rome, by now he was likely hated. Historically, masses who were being suppressed did not like insurrectionists. The insurrectionists got caught which only led to further suppression for the masses. Pilate, knowing the crowd would reject this insurrectionist and murderer, chose him as the exact opposite of the innocent Jesus. This was really a brilliant move on Pilate's part. He was trying to avoid a riot while at the same time let Jesus go free as an innocent man. This should have been a great solution, for how could people wish for the terrorist to go free while the innocent is condemned?

Then the astonishing happens. Imagine Pilate's shock and horror, his incredible confusion and anger when his offer was returned by a unified reply from the crowd: "Barabbas, Barabbas! Free Barabbas! Free the guilty one!" Imagine Barabbas' shock. He had been condemned to death, awaiting his sentence in prison. Then an opportunity arises for his freedom, but look at his opponent: it is Christ, the perfect one, the innocent one. Then, astoundingly, the crowd calls for his freedom, him, the guilty and the wicked murderer. He knew his crimes. He knew his guilt. Yet he and not the innocent man was going free.

The Innocent Condemned

Now guilty has gone free and now let us examine how it was that the innocent was condemned.

Not even a week earlier Jesus entered Jerusalem in the "Triumphal Entry," what we today now call Palm Sunday. Multitudes gathered, surrounding Him and going before Him shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" This was a momentous occasion, for in entering Jerusalem Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecy from Zechariah 9:9 which read, "Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

Now He stands before multitudes whose faces sneer and scowl at Him. He hears cries "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Imagine His great sadness.

We read in Matthew 26 that Jesus had been tried earlier by the Jewish chief priest, Caiaphas. “Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.” Later He was tried before Herod who also found Him innocent. Even Judas knew Jesus’ innocence as he declared with shame in Matthew 27:4 “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” Now Pilate had tried Jesus in his legal courtroom and found Him innocent.

How ironic that here, in our story, the Gentile Pilate defends Christ against the crowd of Jews. What a terrible picture we have here of the a great shift in redemptive history from the old covenant to the new: for centuries the Gentiles have persecuted God’s chosen, torturing and murdering His people since their oppression in Egypt. Now, the greatest Prophet of all has come and stands before them, and the Jews reject Him while the Gentile defends Him. The end of the old covenant is transitioning into the new covenant. No longer will God’s people be Jews only, but people of every nation and of every color shall be His.

Although Pilate had found Jesus to be innocent, the chief priests who were bitterly jealous of Christ were looking for any and every reason to have Him killed. These men who were supposed to be the religious pillars of the community, the examples of godliness to the people reveal their great wickedness in our story. They had been angered when Jesus' disciples picked some heads of grain on the Sabbath and they were outraged when Jesus had healed the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath. They who were more strict with their Sabbath rules than God are profaning the Sabbath in the greatest way possible. Here we see those same high priests spending their Sabbath day by plotting and scheming the murder of an innocent man. Here we see them not spending the day in holy reverence, but allowing themselves to be consumed by pride and jealousy which drove them to kill. Their hatred for Christ had grown beyond measure, and after all of this they would not let Pilate merely release Jesus with a declaration of "innocent."

The chief priests, driven by their lust for power and their sinful hearts, took advantage of the large crowds who had gathered in Jerusalem at the time of the Feast. They moved among the crowds cunningly, spreading their evil desires to kill Christ among the multitudes like a deadly gas. Their wicked desires spread quickly, overtaking the crowd powerfully so that soon the crowds, the Jews who should have known their Messiah, were completely turned against Jesus. Pilate needed to decide.

We read in Matthew an element of the story that was not included in the other biblical accounts. We find that Pilate's wife sent him the following message concerning Jesus: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him." Here lies another direct testimony to the innocence of Jesus. Pilate has tried Him and found Him innocent. Now his wife attests to His innocence as well, and she does so with great fear. She had a dream in which God had divinely communicated to her that Jesus was innocent, and the news terrified her for her husband was in charge of determining Jesus' fate. Although the thoughts which passed through her mind that day concerning Jesus could have caused her to dream about Him, the dream was nonetheless an extraordinary inspiration from God. All dreams in Matthew are divine inspirations. The two other places where dreams are described in Matthew are when an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to take Mary as his wife and when Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Just as those dreams were from God, so also is this one. This does not mean that every dream in history is divine, as though that dream I once had about flying over telephone poles was directly from God, but her dream was. God gave her the dream, not to rescue Jesus from death, but only to make it even more evident that He endured that punishment which He had not deserved.

Pilate had found Jesus to be innocent. Pilate's wife warned Pilate that she was told divinely of Jesus' innocence. Now Pilate desperately sought a way to release Jesus. As we saw earlier, his brilliant attempt to release Jesus by offering a choice between Jesus and Barabbas failed to his great horror. It should have worked, for even Pilate realized that the only reason for Jesus' presence there was because the chief priests were envious of Jesus. They had brought an innocent man to him merely out of rivalry, and he thought this would be so clear that Jesus would be released. To Pilate's shock, his offer was rejected. Jesus was still to be punished.

Pilate attempted a second time to free Jesus by asking the people, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?" In asking this question Pilate was trying to make them realize Jesus' innocence. They wanted Jesus punished, but for what? Pilate was basically asking them, "What shall I do with this innocent man who stands here?" The question was meant to make the crowd realize that there was no just answer but to release Jesus. Yet instead Pilate was met with the worst of responses: "Crucify Him!" they responded.

Pilate, baffled, attempts further to free Jesus and reveal His innocence. He asks, "Why? what crime has He committed?" Such simple words. Such a powerful phrase that says so much. What crime has He committed? But the crowd, driven by a furious obstinacy and seized with astonishing madness continued even more vehemently in their blind sin. Imagine the sadness that must have overwhelmed the heart of Jesus. We read in the text: "But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

Pilate, unable to control the crowd, yields to them. He condemns Jesus to death, death by crucifixion. All his good intentions to free Jesus amount to nothing, for Pilate was ultimately guilty of condemning an innocent man. He attempts to rid himself of guilt through a useless ceremony of washing his hands with water, but the water did nothing. His actions effected a death sentence upon Jesus. The innocent man was condemned unjustly.

Justice Through Injustice

How could the loving God allow such a great injustice? While at first this story seems to be completely terrible, it was through this great injustice that God’s justice was perfectly fulfilled.

God is perfect. Everything about Him is good and holy, blameless and free from evil. When He created humanity, He did so in order that He might give some salvation, He did so in order that He might bring some into heaven and dwell with them for all eternity in paradise. Yet when humanity fell into sin and corruption through the sin of Adam, every human was tainted with sin. Every human, consequently, was incapable of living and existing with God who is good and holy, perfect in all His ways. This is why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus commanded perfection, saying in Matthew 5:48 "Be perfect, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." God requires perfection not only because He deserves all of our worship as the one true God, but also because perfect holiness is required of anyone to dwell with God eternally. Yet through the fall every single human has been made imperfect; every single person has been disqualified from spending eternity in heaven with the perfect and holy God.

However, God provided a way out, and our story evidences it vividly. There is one way and one way only to escape the wrath due to us for breaking God’s commands: someone who was perfectly innocent and at the same time God had to take our place. Someone had to live the innocent life we were supposed to, and Jesus did that as we see here. Yet even more than that, someone had to pay the eternal penalty of hell which we all deserve. No mere man could do that for all of God's elect. The sacrifice had to be perfectly innocent and fully God in order to take our place. This is what Christ enacted for us through His life, death and resurrection. He took our place.

In this way our story reveals a great irony: God was shown to be perfectly just by the greatest injustice in history. He had promised that if anyone broke His commandments, they deserved eternal destruction. He could not be just by failing to fulfill that promise. The penalty had to be met, and when it was met in Christ, God was then perfectly just in forgiving us sinners. [SLOW] Our story shows us how the greatest injustice in the world brought about God’s perfect justice. Since the perfectly innocent Christ took our place of punishment, God is just in forgiving our sins. God is now just in giving salvation to sinners, for now the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to the elect as Christ has merited eternal life for them. In this way, God is made perfectly just through the greatest injustice in history.

[PAUSE] Every single person in the world falls into one of two categories in our story. For those who reject Jesus Christ, they are those who are in the crowd. They are part of the multitude, yelling out against the innocent one, "Crucify Him! He claims to be the Lord but He is not! Crucify Him!" These are the people who reject Jesus, who ignore the evidence and the testimonies about Him and reject Him blindly. Some of these people are only following the crowd. Everyone else is rejecting Jesus, so they do as well. Everyone else is a Buddhist or a Hindu, so they are as well. Everyone else ignores God to pursue a life of wealth, so they do as well. Yet there are others in this crowd who know Jesus. They know His claims, His life, Who He claims to be and what He claims to be doing, and they reject Him boldly and passionately. This is the first category.

However, there is a second category. For those in this world who know Christ, believe in Him and rest upon Him alone for their salvation, these people are in the place of Barabbas. For you who have accepted Christ, you are in Barabbas' place in this story. You know yourself. You know your life. You know your imperfections and you know what your life deserves. But now, by no work of your own, you find yourself among the free men. You have been released, and you now look up upon Christ in our story. You watch as you see Him being convicted, sentenced. It should have been you up there, receiving the penalty placed upon Jesus. However, it is now Jesus who stands in your place. You look upon Him, you see His innocence, you see His sadness at the throngs of people screaming for His blood, and yet, because He stands in your place, you are free. The sinner has gone free, the innocent condemned. This is the great price of our salvation. This is the pain of Christ's death.

Yet although men ruled unjustly against Jesus, God did not. Jesus was indeed innocent, and as a result death could not keep Him in the grave - it had no right, no power over Him. God vindicated Christ, proving Him to be innocent and righteous, by raising Him from the dead on the third day. He did not allow Jesus to remain buried in the tomb. He did not ultimately allow the innocent to be punished unjustly. No - Jesus was proven innocent on that glorious Easter day when God raised Him up from the dead, resurrecting He who never deserved to die in the first place.

Here we have great evidence that God can use even the greatest of evils for good. Even when things happen which seem to be absolutely evil, even when life is completely unjust, even then God can use the wickedness of humanity, the falleness of creation, and yes, even the work of Satan Himself to bring about good. Just look at the good that was brought about through the unjust death of Christ. Because of this heinous evil, believers are able to be saved. Because of this incredible atrocity, we are able to be brought from death into eternal life. Now we can look forward to a day when all evil will be abolished, when all pains will be ended. Because of the horrific injustice of the cross, we can eagerly await a time when all injustices will be gone.

Conclusion

Injustice - simply hearing the word can set our teeth on edge and raise the hairs on the back of our neck. Yet we have seen that the greatest act of injustice history has ever seen is also one which gives hope and life to all who rest upon Christ. Amen, let us pray.