Substitution

It's mind-blowing how many substitutes exist in our world today. Instead of milk that comes from a cow, we have almond, soy, oat coconut, rice, cashew and hemp milk substitutes. Instead of pasta made from wheat, we have rice noodles, quinoa pasta, lentil pasta, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash substitutes. Instead of face-to-face meetings, we have Zoom calls, texting, phone calls and emails. We have plenty of substitutes. Sometimes you really need a substitute.

Barrabas was the son of a rabbi. That’s how he got his name. “Bar” means “son of” and “rabas” is a reference to a rabbi. No doubt he was raised in a very religious home, going to the synagogue every Sabbath, coming to Jerusalem for the feasts, learning the laws of God.

Somewhere in his journey he became angry with the Roman occupation and got connected with the revolutionaries. He, and the other zealots, assassinated Roman soldiers. When they were caught, the Romans would execute them by crucifixion. They usually put the crosses on well travelled streets to make a statement to the people.

So now Barrabas was standing trial for his crimes against Rome. There was no denying he was as guilty as the day was long. He was trying to liberate his people from oppression like Moses had done 1500 years before him when he killed the Egyptian. He had taken the law into his own hands and broken Roman law.

The good news was that once a year at Passover Time, the Roman governor pardoned one prisoner. This was meant to try to earn goodwill with the people. One of the Jews could

experience mercy at the hands of the Romans. The very morning of the pardon, Pilate, the Roman governor, was awakened by the religious leaders bringing to him Jesus. He

examined Jesus and found Him innocent. Even his wife had a disturbing dream about Jesus and sent word to her husband saying, ”Have nothing to do with that righteous man.” So the right thing to do was to pardon Jesus, the King of the Jews.

What did Pilate do? He asked the crowd, “Would you like me to release this King of the Jews?” Pilate had Him flogged with a lead headed whip and the soldiers put a crown of thorns on his head and put a purple robe on Him. Surely he figured that punishment would appease the crowd. Pilate said Behold the man. Look here is the man. Here is the substitute. The man who will take the place of all men. He is the man who will satisfy God’s justice; He is the man who will bear God’s wrath; He is the man who will show God’s mercy: He is the man whose grace is greater than our sin; He is the man who will demonstrate the love of God. He is the man.

The crowd would choose Barabbas that day to be pardoned. His crimes would be paid for by Jesus. He would walk free; Jesus would pay the penalty. Barabbas who perhaps hadn’t said grac in a while, experienced grace. Barabbas could look at the cross and say to himself I deserved to be there. Jesus died for my sin. He is my Substitute.

The Bible teaches the beautiful doctrine of vicarious, substitutionary atonement. Vicarious acting in the place of another. Jesus acted in humanity’s place. Substitutionary He did

something that should have been required of us. Atonement the reconciliation of God and humanity. It involves the forgiveness of sin and restoration of a right relationship with God. I am exactly like Barabbas. I am not innocent. The list of my crimes would be long. I can make no excuses for what I have done. I have a real problem because I am a sinner. I have a huge

problem because I have sinned.

So I look outside of myself for atonement.

There is One who took the place of humanity, including me. There is One Who did something that should have been required of me. There is One who has reconciled me back to God, granting forgiveness. His Name is Jesus. He is my Savior.