{"id":5379,"date":"2012-03-13T09:23:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T14:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:52:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:52:25","slug":"who-was-barabbas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2012\/03\/13\/who-was-barabbas\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Barabbas?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barabbas, by James Lissot (Wikicommons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a couple weeks, I\u2019m preaching at a church in Texas. It\u2019s Baptist church and, believe it or not, they\u2019re using the lectionary! But, since they\u2019re Baptists, they\u2019re not totally wedded to the lectionary. So when I looked at the Gospel text for that week<\/a>, and found it uninteresting, I asked them if I could jump a week ahead and use part of the passage from Palm\/Passion Sunday. They agreed.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to preach about Barabbas<\/a>, the thief\/insurrectionist (depending on which Gospel you use) who was released on the Passover. The crowd was given the choice: Pilate would release either Jesus or Barabbas. The crowd chose Barabbas. (For a heart-wrenching version of this scene, listen to Bach\u2019s St. Matthew Passion<\/em><\/a>, Movement 44. Here\u2019s a version:<\/p>\n


\n