Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 93

April 3;      Mark 15:11;       43/260(IV);        ‘Barabbas Released’

Mark 15:11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them.

There is much symbolism in these verses concerning Barabbas.  The custom of the Passover was to release a prisoner (verse 6).  The blood of the Passover lamb protected the people from the death of the first born on the eve of the first Passover.  The blood, a type of the blood of Jesus, released all prisoners (humanity) from sin and eternal death.  Barabbas was a murderer (verse 7).  The Lord Jesus, who never sinned, should have been let go, but He came to be our Substitute, to die for and be punished, taking our sins and sicknesses upon Himself.  Jesus could not have been released.  The Pharisees thought they were ‘ridding’ themselves of the One they were so jealous of.  In reality they were being used to fulfill the very reason Jesus came.  Symbolically, sin was released by the punishment of Jesus.  Barabbas was a type of all sinners who were released from their deserved punishment, by the sacrificial death of Jesus of our behalf.  Literal accounts have such spiritual significance if you take time to meditate on them looking for more being taught by the verses than the simple narrative.  All of us were guilty Barabbas, deserving to be imprisoned and punished for our sins.  Jesus Christ came and though He never sinned and never deserved the treatment given Him by the religious leaders, the jealousy and hatred of religion was the very ‘vehicle’ which led to the arrest, mocking, cruelty and crucifixion of the Lord.  A few verses, relating a true account, literally teaches so much of the redemptive work of Jesus.