Which Jesus Do You Want?

J. J.

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight,

O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

“Which Jesus do you want?”

He had two prisoners. Both of them had been accused of trouble-making. Of being insurrectionists and revolutionaries. One of them had been fully tried. There was no doubt of the destruction that lay in the wake of his path. Murder. Mayhem. And mischief, of the not so mild variety. He was in the midst of the trial of the other one now.

Conducting trials shouldn’t be on my plate, he thought. Aren’t there judges and magistrates for this? I have other things to do – in particular, food to eat and wine to drink. Why this and why now? The Passover season was a busy time. Jerusalem was a madhouse of travelers. And why this man? He is not acting like any hoodlum or criminal I’ve encountered. While he would have preferred pâté, it was the trial of Jesus Christ that was on Pilate’s plate.

It was this Jesus, the one called the Christ, meaning the Anointed One, or as the Hebrews said, “Messiah,” that was occupying his time and attention, and causing his distress. The other Jesus, Jesus Barabbas, had caused plenty of distress when he was loose. But his case was easy. He was swiftly dispatched and securely enclosed in the dungeon. The trial of this Jesus, however, was a more thorny issue.

It was thornier because of the absence of thorns. Try as he might, Pilate could not find any offense, any thorn, in Jesus. At least nothing deserving of death. And it was thornier because of the thorns, the priests of these people. Always coming to him with demands: “We can’t do this, we can’t do that. We want this, and we want that.” Pilate placated them because it was quicker and relatively less painful than not doing so, such a thorn in his side they could be. But to order a man to be crucified, for no apparent reason other than their idiosyncrasies was too far. Pilate needed a way out of this thorny dilemma.

“I could just find him not guilty. But the priests will not accept that. Hmm, I do set a prisoner free every Passover. -- Why? It’s one of those things, a symbol of their release from bondage in Egypt that the Passover commemorates. -- No, they will still blame me. I need to shift the blame. I need a cover story. Aha! I will let the people do the choosing. This One is not popular with the priests, but Barabbas is more unpopular with the people. Nobody in his right mind would choose Barabbas! Then the decision will not be mine, but the peoples’. The priests can go and complain to them, and I can go back to my dinner.”

And so Pilate carries out his cunning plan. He goes out before the crowd and asks, “Which Jesus do you want? Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus, the Christ?” To his great surprise they yell, “Give us Barabbas.” But my plan! Now disoriented, in his shock and confusion Pilate overplays his hand, “What, then, do you want me to do with this Jesus, the one called Christ?” “Crucify Him!” In asking that Jesus be nailed to a cross, Pilate is nailed in a corner. “Ask them,” he had thought, “who to free. The decision (and the blame) will be theirs.” Now, having gone one step too far, if Pilate doesn’t have Jesus Christ crucified as the crowd demands, the decision and the blame will be his. He will be in a briar patch of thorns with the priests. Pilate attempts to shed the blame, washing his hands of the matter. And instead of executing his cunning plan, he executes Jesus, the one called Christ. Jesus Barabbas he sets free.

It may sound strange to our American ears that there were two Jesuses, but Jesus is merely a Latinized form of the Hebrew name for Joshua. Yet as strange as that may seem, it strikes us stranger still that the crowd would choose Jesus Barabbas, rather than Jesus Christ. Yes, the gospel text tells us that the priests misled them, and encouraged them to demand Barabbas. And that is so. That is how it happened. But it also tells us that Barabbas was notorious. He wasn’t a no-name, two-bit crook. He was a gangster on the most wanted list. How could the crowd forget that? How could they fall for the line the priests were pitching? Nobody in his right mind would choose Barabbas.

Yet choose him they did. And as one theologian noted, choosing Barabbas is not so strange for us. We find that we don’t want that other Jesus. He’s always calling us to repentance. He told one man to sell everything and follow Him. He said that He will set fathers against sons, and mothers against daughters. He says that we need to pay more attention to the poor. Yes, this Jesus seems nice but He has all these demands and requirements. He simply is not like us. No, Jesus the Christ is “other,” different. He is not what we want. We’ll take Barabbas. He’s our kind of people. Yes, a bit of a rounder. A lot of a rounder, actually. But as long as he doesn’t get into our lives, our business, it’ll be fine. He’s just a good old boy. Uh, maybe not so good. But an old boy nevertheless. He’ll fit right in. He’s one of us. He’s like us.