Choosing Barabbas

I was struck last month by the problem that Christmas presents Christians. The babe in a manger is an attractive and endearing story. It speaks of promises fulfilled, a God who loves us and hope for the future. But what happened when the babe grew up, and didn’t fulfill the expectations of those who had depended on him for their deliverance and return to their rightful place and stature as God’s People? What happens when rather than confronting and defeating their enemy as a worldly king should, he talks of loving one’s enemy? He shows concern and respect for those who had been anathema to the Jews, while seemingly offering them a relationship with God that the Jews felt was theirs’ exclusively. He doesn’t resolve the political injustice and oppression that his people were suffering. What happens when the babe grows up and doesn’t deliver on our hopes and aspirations, but instead challenges our sense of fairness, justice and even our spiritual condition?

Most know the story – how the religious leaders needed the occupying government – the Romans – to actually execute Jesus. The Romans needed to know why. The explanation from the religious leaders seemed insufficient so the Roman leader, Pilot, tried to give the people a chance to choose. It was a way out of the dilemma he felt – executing an innocent man. The choice was to decide which of two condemned men would be set free – Jesus or a notorious zealot, Barabbas. Barabbas was a criminal who had likely been imprisoned for his role in an insurrection, but the Romans – Pilot – thought that his notoriety would still be a problem for the Jewish populace. He believed that if the Jewish people disagreed with their religious leaders they would choose Jesus, but they didn’t. What happens when the babe grows up and allows our worldly enemies to flourish, when God’s methods and timing don’t meet our expectations? We choose Barabbas.

“We don’t need a statesman, “we need a Patton to fight our battles.” In a separate conversation with other evangelical leaders and Trump sitting by his side, “I’ve said I want the meanest, toughest SOB I can find to protect this nation.”

Pastor Robert Jeffress

We choose to be of the world. We choose to believe that men and women who are devoted to knowing God and becoming Christ-like are incapable of leading and dealing with the real problems of the real word, or, as Pastor Robert Jeffress said, we need a fighter not a statesman. We choose to remember when God used flawed men to serve his purpose, but choose to forget that God used wicked men to punish His people for turning away from their dependance on Him. We choose to see our political opponents as enemies, not souls for whom Christ died. We choose to masquerade a man who lives his life in opposition to God’s character as God’s worthy servant, fighting our battles as no truly righteous man could. In the end, we choose to diminish our witness by peddling cheap grace to give cover for our chosen leader’s words and life that mock God. This cheap grace was described by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)

Why?

We don’t sin because Satan makes us, we sin because we love it.

Baptist Pastor

Do some evangelicals embrace Donald Trump’s petulant style – his personal attacks on his adversaries, his crude characterizations – because they see him as their surrogate, saying the things they would like to say out loud but feel restrained by their faith from doing so?

Have some evangelicals become impatient in waiting on God to act and are taking matters into their own hands as the Israelites did with Samuel and Saul?

What about Christ’s teachings encourage some evangelicals to embrace Donald Trump’s scorched earth, total war, take no prisoners approach to politics?

Do evangelicals worry that their full-throated endorsement of and unwavering loyalty to a personality that stands in direct conflict with Christ’s character presents a picture of hypocrisy to the lost – those God called us to love and pursue in His name?

¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 15

Are some of our evangelical leaders like the pharisees leading the crowd to call for Barabas – the zealot, a man of action who would take on their political enemies, the Roman occupiers?

What did Jesus tell his disciples to do about the unjust, harsh political situation that oppressed them?

Yes, Christians should be active good citizens, engaged in politics, but we should be careful not to fall into idolatry by wrapping the church in the flag, and focusing more on beating the lost rather than wining the lost for God.

Religious leaders who say that we have to look outside of the teachings of Christ to find an effective, able leader to lead and protect our country preach a weak Christ.

And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Tom Noble