Give Me Barabbas

Pilate, the governor of Judea, offered the people a choice. He would free one prisoner: Jesus or Barabbas. Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem with great acclaim. He was a peacemaker; he was the only health policy many of them had. Barabbas was a murderer. And the people chose Barabbas.

Given a choice between Jesus and Barabbas why anyone could choose Barabbas?  

I visited Cambodia when the Vietnamese army occupied the cities and the Khmer Rouge occupied the mountains and set ambushes in the forests. In Phnom Penh refugees from the countryside had moved into French villas, sometimes whole families to a room; goats were kept on balconies and rice was cooked over open fires on the sidewalk. The peasants dug up the street and broke into the city water main for water. Because of shelling and lack of maintenance buildings collapsed. 

Hotels were open, restaurants were open, markets were open, a disco club was open, English was taught along “English Street,” but there was no joy and priceless books from the national library ruined in avenues that were littered with burned out cars. Tuol Sleng, the former high school turned into a torture chamber, was open to visitors, and outside the city the fruits of the killing fields, bones and bits of clothing, emerged from the ground. Night brought the terror of an unknown tomorrow. Desperation amped hope.

Judea was occupied by Rome. Judaism and nationalism were twins joined at the heart and occupation was not only humiliating and oppressive, Roman soldiers in the holy city was sacrilege. The people who cheered Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem were desperate for hope. The Essenes were determinedly pacifist. The Sadducees tolerated occupation as best they could and waited for better days. The Pharisees hated Rome and prayed for a messiah like Judas Maccabaeus who would break the Roman yoke. The Zealots believed they should drive the Romans from their land, trusting God to give them the victory. Josephus wrote that “the nation began to grow mad with this distemper.”

Simon, one of Jesus’s disciples was called a “zealot.” Ischariot may mean that Judas, the betrayer, came from Kerioth or that he was identified with “dagger-men” (sicarri), who assassinated Romans and those who collaborated with them. Judas of Gamala had seized Sepphoris, a few miles from Nazareth. The devil offered Jesus “the kingdoms of the world” if Jesus would follow the ways of Satan. 

Jesus disappointed all of them. He had preached justice to the poor but he had done nothing about the wretched Romans, the greatest injustice of all. He had done nothing to drive them out of the country and build up Israel’s military might. He even said that a Roman officer had greater faith than he had seen in Israel. He said it in front of his disciples, the only ones who had been faithful to him. How do you think that made them feel?  

Like Jeremiah, Jesus was a defeatist. He saw doom on the horizon rather than morning in Israel. He discouraged others and sowed discord. He was a doubter with no faith in their God given protection because they were the good. He was an extremist but not the militant extremist they wanted him to be. Instead of driving Romans out of the holy city, he drove priests out of the holy temple. He said the temple was going to be destroyed as though God couldn’t protect His temple from Caesar, a false god. Heresy and blasphemy. 

Jesus was no patriot. He wore no flag. He told his followers to pay taxes. He told people to love their enemies, to pray for them. Israel’s enemies were God’s enemies, and God’s people would not pray for God’s enemies. Not even that their enemies repent; like Jonah they wanted their enemies dead. He told Israelites to carry a Roman soldier’s pack an extra mile as though God wanted his people to be slaves. 

At his last meal Jesus’s disciples offered him two swords and he rejected both of them. And when the Romans came to arrest him Jesus surrendered like a wuss. 

Barabbas was trying to bring the kingdom of God by violence. A murderer/terrorist/insurgent/militant/patriot, he killed for a good cause: God and Country. The bad things he did was because of the Romans. He was the kind of man you’d like to have a drink with. He wouldn’t ask you to pay taxes to a corrupt government. Maybe writing “Romans go home” on a wall while shopping was all he would require of you.

Who would choose Barabbas? I’ve almost always chosen Barabbas. I wanted those who did wrong in my eyes to be punished and I didn’t want to wait on God to do it. My enemies have usually been God’s enemies. America’s enemies have always been God’s enemies, even when they were fellow Americans. I was willing to kill a Commie for Christ, anyone my country labeled a “Communist,” “enemy,” “terrorist,” “evil.” I was eager to do it, in the way virgins anticipate a life-shattering experience.   

Looking at our foreign policy, our national budget, our preference for profit over health, in my lifetime America has chosen Barabbas. Even in times of peace we spend more money on mechanisms of death than mechanisms for life. We don’t trust in God. We don’t trust in democracy. We trust in MAD, Star Wars, Full Spectrum Dominance. Our weapons of terror are greater than theirs and those weapons and our willingness to use them make us free and secure. 

I’ve heard a lot of prayers in church for our soldiers who are occupying other countries, and prayers for our leaders who want more money for death and less money for life. Since 9/11, I have not heard a single prayer for our enemies. I think American Christians have made our choice. Barabbas by a landslide.   

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