Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:17
Some New Testament translations indicate that Barabbas’ name was Jesus. This would explain Pilate’s clarification in Matthew 27:17 where he calls our Lord, “Jesus who is called the Christ.” If Barabbas’ name was Jesus, the crowd would have been offered a choice between two Jesus’s, Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas.
You might have already picked up on the fact that “Bar-abbas” means “son of the father.” “Bar” means
“son of,” as in “Simon Bar-Jonah” – Simon son of John. “Abbas” means father, as in Romans 8: 15 – “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.”
Therefore, the literal rendering of Barabbas’ name would have been, “Jesus, son of the father.” Again, it adds some clarification as to why Pilate had to make a distinction between these two men. They had the same name! Both were known as “Jesus the son of the father.”
I don’t think anyone knows what came of Barabbas. One would hope he would have come to believe in Christ and been saved, but we don’t know. In a symbolic sense though, Barabbas is a picture of every Christian. We all stood condemned. Like Barabbas, we were justly condemned. We were found guilty.
Not only were we all condemned before the law of God, but we were also in peril. Our day of reckoning was fast approaching. “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that judgment.”
Praise God, Jesus came and took our place. He underwent the wrath we rightly deserved. He was condemned so that we might be forgiven and go free.
We were treated as he deserved to be treated, and he was treated as we deserved to be treated. We were, in a sense, given His name. God treated us as if we were Jesus, the son of the Father, and He treated Jesus as if He were us.
Every Christian can see himself or herself in Barabbas.
