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March 26, 2003
Midweek Lent
Mark 15:1-15
Pastor Robert Raasch

Pilate's Court-A Place for a Substitute

1. The Crowd Chose Barabbas as a Substitute for Jesus
2. God Gave Jesus as a Substitute for Us

Can you tell me, what do you think of when you hear the word, "substitute?" Maybe you think of the temporary teacher who fills in for the regular instructor, and who is therefore is subjected to a bit of abuse by the students. Or maybe the word substitute reminds you of a basketball game where the sixth man on the team comes off the bench to give one of the starters a breather. That man is a substitute. Or maybe the word substitute call to mind all the body doubles that Saddam Hussein allegedly has. People who take his place in various locations so that his enemies don't know exactly where he is at any given time. These are situations, these are all scenes which may come to your mind when you hear the word, substitute.

But this morning/evening, I'd like to suggest that there should be one more scene that should come to your mind when you hear the word substitute. And that scene is a courtroom. More specifically, Pilate's courtroom. Today we continue our study of the Places of the Passion as we turn our attention to Pilate's Courtroom: A Place for a Substitute. Here in our text, we'll see that:

1. The Crowd Chose Barabbas as a Substitute for Jesus
2. God Gave Jesus as a Substitute for Us

This scene is set early Friday morning. The Jewish leaders had already brought Jesus before their own high priest and unjustly condemned him to die. But since, they did not have the authority to put Jesus to death under Roman law, they dragged Jesus to the courtroom of Pontius Pilate. We can imagine the people pounding on Pilate's door, rousing him out of bed and demanding a death sentence from the governor.

Now, let's understand that Pilate could have put a stop to this whole shenanigans right then and there. He could have said, "Forget it. I'm not getting involved in your petty disagreements. Get out of here. I'm going back to bed." But Pilate didn't do that, did he? No, Pilate is a good politician. He sees a chance to curry the favor of his Jewish constituents. So he obliges their request. He sits Jesus down and interrogates him. "Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks. Jesus' response: "Yes, it is as you say." On the basis of Jesus' answers, Pilate concludes that Jesus was not a threat to the Roman government. He was not a political activist. He was not a criminal. Rather, Pilate concludes that Jesus was an innocent man. He announces to the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."

Well, Jesus enemies didn't want to hear that verdict. They insist, "[Jesus] stirs up people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here." That gives Pilate a chance to pass the buck. He sends Jesus to Herod. But Herod comes to the same conclusion that Pilate did. Jesus is an innocent man. So now what is Pilate going to do? He comes up with an idea. "Maybe if I have Jesus brutally whipped and then show the people his bloodied body, then they'll be satisfied. We'll be done with this mess and I'll be able to go back to bed." But the people still were not appeased. They were determined to see Jesus dead.

Finally, Pilate pulls out one last card, the ace in his sleeve, if you will. It was his custom at the time of the Passover, to release one prisoner to the people. So he decides that he will release Jesus. But just to stack the deck in Jesus' favor, he offers the people a choice. Either they can have Jesus or they can have a true murderer named Barabbas. To Pilate's shock and amazement (and maybe ours, as well), the people chose Barabbas over Jesus. They chose to live with a murderer rather than allow an innocent man to go free. They chose evil over good. Can you believe that?

Well, maybe you can. For aren't there many situations where people are doing the same thing today? A woman says, "No one understands how terrible my marriage has been. My husband gets so wrapped up in his work. He comes home exhausted and never has any time to listen to me. We may go out once and awhile, but we never really talk. But at work, there's this fellow who is always willing to listen to me. We've gone out to lunch a few times. I just feel so good when I'm with him. In fact, I think I'm falling in love with him." My friends, what is happening there? Someone is choosing to walk away from God's will rather than walk toward it. Someone is choosing Barabbas rather than Jesus.

Or maybe you know someone who thought that school was more about partying than studying-and his grades show it. Now, he's stuck in a dead end job while his classmates are moving up the corporate ladder. He spends all of his free time in the bars. Last week he was pulled over for drunk driving and lost his license for the second time. That man made some poor choices in life, didn't he? You might say that he chose Barabbas over Jesus.

Whether it's the fellow who chooses to defame his neighbor, rather than defend him; or the gal who gives away her virginity rather than treasure it; whether it's the parent to lashes out at his child in anger rather than carefully choosing his words in love or the child who tells a lie to cover up the truth rather than honestly telling the truth the first time around-if we're honest, we'll have to admit that we've all been guilty of doing essentially what the crowd did here in Pilate's courtroom. When given the choice between good and evil, the choice between what is God pleasing and what is self-pleasing, when given the choice between Jesus and Barabbas, we've chosen Barabbas.

In that sense you and I are no different than those Jewish leaders calling for Jesus' murder. We are just as guilty as they are. In fact, you might say that you and I are just as guilty as Barabbas. Think about it. Barabbas was guilty of murder. He had been involved in a violent insurrection which had taken human life. He was now awaiting his fate. He has been sentenced to die by the most horrific form of execution known to man-death by crucifixion. Can you imagine what Barabbas must have been feeling as he looked ahead to that? I mean, my stomach churns just thinking about a meeting that I think might not go so well. And I can hardly imagine what the parents of some of our military personnel are feeling as they anxiously wonder whether their son or daughter is still alive. But to actually be the one sitting in a jail cell, knowing that your life is going to end by being brutally nailed to a wooden cross, knowing that you were going to be left to hang there for days, until your life ebbs away. And then comes that knock on your cell door. A Roman soldier steps in and announces, "Barabbas, you are guilty of murder, but I have been ordered to set you free. A man by the name of Jesus has taken your place."

Many years ago, someone described what that scene might have been like with this poem:

Barabbas in his prison cell, gazed on the heavens fair
And saw a Pascal moon ascend in night's empurpled air.
The hours crept on; with awe and dread he waited for the morn.
He heard at last the soldier's tread and saw the bolt withdrawn.

"Barabbas," so the soldier spake, "I bring thee news of grace;
For Christ, the man of Nazareth, today shall take thy place.
Outside the gate shall Jesus bear the cross prepared for thee;
Go thou to the atoning feast!" The man of crime went free.

Can you imagine the shock Barabbas must have felt? The awe, the jubilation? To go from a man rightfully condemned for his crimes to a man graciously pardoned and set free from all punishment? Can you imagine? I believe that you can-for what happened to Barnabbas is also what happened to each one of us here today.

Isn't that true? God sent his Son to Calvary's cross to take the place of more than just Barabbas. God sent him there to take our place as well. You and I were the ones who deserved to be cursed by God. But God gave Jesus to be cursed in our place. Really that's the most important substitution associated with the Passion Story. The most important substitution was not that the people chose Barabbas as their substitute for Jesus. But rather that II. God gave Jesus to a substitute for us. We were the ones who once stood under God's condemnation by our sinful thoughts, words and deeds, yes, by our very nature. And yet, what does St. Paul say in 2 Corinthians 5, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." You might say that Jesus was the one who took the bullet for us. He willingly jumped into harm's way. He offered himself as the living sacrifice. Just like the secret service agent who throws himself in front of the assassin's bullet or the marine who jumps on the grenade to save his brigade, so Jesus willingly endured God's righteous fury to protect us from enduring it ourselves. Do you know what that means? It means that you and I can go free because someone has already gone in our place.

In the 1800's the French government decided to draft soldiers into the military by means of a lottery system. If a man's name was chosen, he had to go off to war. No exceptions. One day the French authorities came to a certain man and said, "Your name has been chosen. You must go into battle." The man said, "No, I can't. I was already shot and killed in battle 2 years ago." The authorities said, "What? Have you lost your mind? What do you mean, you were shot and killed two years ago?" The man said, "Check the military records. Look up my name and address." Sure enough the records showed that the man had been killed in battle two years previous. The officials were dumbfounded. "How can this be?" they asked. The man explained. "When my name came up the first time and I was supposed to go off to war, my neighbor came to me and said, 'Friend, you are married with a large family that is dependent upon you. I'm single and nobody is dependent upon me. Please let me take your name and address and I'll go to war in your place.' And so that's what happened. Six months later that man was killed. He was shot in place of me."

Well, the French authorities took that man's argument all the way to Napoleon Bonaparte, the commander of the French forces. Napoleon ruled that the government had no legal claim on the man. The man was a free man because someone had taken his place.

My friends, isn't the same thing true for you and me as well? You might say that we have been set free from the obligation of the law, we've been set free from the fear of dying; we've been set free to devote ourselves to those who are depending on us. We've been set free because someone was shot, or in our case, someone was crucified in our place.

The only question that remains is, "What will you and I do with our blood-bought freedom?" Each and every day, we have the opportunity to use our freedom in a way that glorifies God and builds up our fellow man. By the tone of voice we use, by the way we treat our classmates and family members, by the attention we give to our prayer lives, by the help we offer to lonely and those in need, we are living our lives as God's redeemed people.

My friends, as you think about the ways to please God in your life, as you think about what God calls you to be and do as a father, a mother, a student, a friend, or co-worker, you will have many opportunities to choose the right path, do the right thing. And as grateful children of God, motivated by his love, filled with the Holy Spirit, there's no question that you will do those things that are pleasing to God.

But there will be times when you don't. Times when your conscience plagues you. Times when you've made the wrong choice. It's at those times that God invites you and me to come to the foot of the cross, to look up and see Jesus as the perfect substitute and say with the prophet Isaiah of old, "He was pierced for my transgressions; he was crushed for my iniquities; The punishment that brought me peace was upon him; and by his wounds I am healed." To God be the glory. Amen.