While I was Yet A Sinner!

It is good to be back to a some what regular schedule after a holiday weekend!  How was your weekend?   

Billy Joe spent all day Saturday getting our garden area ready.  He had to grind a stump on the edge of the garden and till the ground.  We needed to get a jump on it so we could neutralize the soil.  This will be our second year to have a garden, and I am super excited about applying what we have learned.

Lilla Rose Flexi-Clip!

As you may have noticed, there is a new tab at the top of the page that says, Shop Lilla Rose.  If you remember, I said in a post the other day I had been wanting to start a home based business, and this is what I came up with.  I will not be talking about it on the blog a lot, but I will be doing some giveaways very soon.  Are y'all ready for some giveaways?  I have 2 really great gifts in the very near future.....can't wait! ☺

So this morning, I was wondering if you might join me in a short Bible Study.  Grab your Bible and turn to Matthew 27:11-26 or Click Here to read the scripture passage at Biblegateway.  See you back in a few minutes.........

What do we know about Barabbas?  He was a murder, a thief, and a rebel- likely a Zealot.  Barabbas had followers....probably a lot of followers!  He was a leader of an insurrection trying to rid the country of Romans and to remove Roman influence over the Jewish priesthood. 

The Jewish had a tradition that on a Holy Day ( Correct me if I am wrong, the Feast of the Passover was taking place. Jn 18:39.), they would let one prisoner go free.  Now it is up to Pilate to let someone go free.....Jesus or Barabbas.  Do you think he really thought that he was ultimately in control and held the fate of these 2 men in his hands?  (Aren't we like that sometimes in our life?  We try to be in control, when God is holding us in His hand.  God has a plan, and He is sovereign. There are many plans in a man’s heart,  Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.  Proverbs 19:21)   

From our view 2,000 years later we see that there was no comparison between Jesus-The Son of God and Barabbas-The Murder.  Barabbas deserved to die.  What had Jesus done?  I'm sure we could make a mile long list.  How many people had he healed?  How many oppressed people had he set free?  How many wondering souls had he given hope to?  He loved the unlovable.  He ate dinner with the people others despised.  Yet, those religious people wanted Barabbas freed.

The whole story makes me sick to read sometimes because Barabbas deserved to die, not Jesus!  When I was young I thought that Barabbas should have come to his right mind and insisted Jesus go free.  (Praise the Lord, that is not what happened!)  Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the World.  Barabbas was a S-I-N-N-E-R.  They let the sinner go free so Jesus could take his place.  What was wrong with those people?

This is what the Holy Spirit revealed to me.  I stand there on that platform, across from Jesus, and imagine that He let me go free.  WHY?  I don't deserve it.  I am a sinner, no better than Barabbas.  Sin is not weighed out like many Christians would believe.  Barabbas was not a "worse" sinner than me.  For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.  WE ALL NEED A SAVIOR-SOMEONE TO REDEEM US.

It is so easy to read this story and skip over the fact that Barabbas is us - you and me.  We can get so smug in our churchy selves that we start deciding who are good Christians and who aren't. Barabbas was bad, Jesus was good.  That prostitute or drug dealer is bad, church people are good.   That person will never get free, but this one is turning into wonderful image of what a Christian should look like.  It's religion!  We all deserve judgment and death.  We deserved the cross.  Oh BUT, Jesus!  Precious Jesus!  THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THAT NAME! 

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!  Romans 5:8   

 

Jesus looked on Barabbas with love, no one can convince me otherwise.  He had to-He is love!  How could we expect any different when Jesus looked on us with love? 

 

I read this passage and was quickly reminded that we are sinners who deserve the same punishment as the sinner next to you.  How I wish the same eyes of love that Jesus had for Barabbas, I would have for the people around me.  We are the same!

 

Going to church, not cussing, or not drinking is not what makes me righteous.  WE NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT IT IS ONLY BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST.  The Barabbas around us need to experience this grace, and we must be the hands and feet of Jesus on the earth.  We must love without conditions.  We must embrace the unlovable. 

 

Jesus was not found rubbing shoulders with the who's who of the Church in His day because He was too busy looking for sinners.  Church of the Living God, we have got to be like Jesus.  There are many Barabbas waiting to be set free!