Luke 23:17-25 — Peer Pressured into Evil and also Freedom

READ THIS: Luke 23:17-25

17/18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) 20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” 

22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” 

23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

Pilate was about to release Jesus, but the crowd shouts back to release a guy named Barabbas instead. The curious reader might want to know how in the world that makes sense. Why should Pilate be releasing anyone? What does Barabbas have to do with Jesus? Well, it was actually the custom of the governor to release a prisoner during the festival that was happening in Jerusalem. So, when Pilate mentioned that he would "release" Jesus, he was indicating that he would use his release on Jesus. The crowd rejected the offer and picked another prisoner for Pilate to release instead. 

The crowd let free a man who had murdered people and who had rebelled against the Roman authority, while sentencing to death a completely innocent man that the Roman government itself didn't want to crucify. It feels incredibly unfair. Except if you see humanity as Barrabas. All of us have actually done something wrong. We've harmed our friends and we've rebelled against God. We actually deserve punishment. But, Jesus takes our place, even though He didn't do any of the things we did. Jesus takes our punishment anyway, even though anyone looking at the situation would think that was crazy. Why would God let us go free and take Jesus instead? For Pilate, he did it because he felt pressured to do it. For God, it's because He desperately loves us and wants us to be free. 

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. What do you think Barabbas felt when he was let off death row? How can you relate to Barabbas here? 
 
2. Is it fair that Jesus died? How or how not? Try to think about it from the perspective of yourself, the Roman government, and then God!

TRY THIS:

Read over the passage and see where you can spot the peer pressure happening. Then, imagine if you were in the story and could stop the peer pressure. Imagine how you would do it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 2:1-5 — Marathon Training

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:1-5 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Yesterday, we learned about how Paul went to Jerusalem and shared the incredible things Jesus did, but today, we are hearing about Paul's second time visiting Jerusalem... 14 years later. Paul talks about a bunch of things that happened ...
Read more

Luke 8:19-21 — Jesus's Fam!

R EAD THIS:  Luke 8:19-21 19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Ummmm, hold up, is Jesus dissing on His family here? I mean, I know He is God's Son and all, but at first glance, this passage makes it seem like He is kind of hating on His family! However, if we really look into this passage, it's actually a lot more about us than it is about the family of Jesus.  In case you forgot, the last few passages have features Jesus telling and explaining different parables to a large crowd as well as His disciples. Clearly, the crowd has gotten so large that Mary and Jesus's brothers (yes... Jesus had brothers!) couldn't even reach Him. When someone told Jesus "hey dude, your fam is here an...
Read more

WELCOME BACK! Hebrews Introduction

WELCOME BACK TO DEEPLY ROOTED!!! Greetings fellow Bible readers and Jesus journey-ers! We're stoked to get back in the swing of things with y'all. For any new readers, this section would usually be where our handful of Bible verses will be. The section below would break down what in the world the verses mean. Then, there are some debrief questions for you to dive deeper and an application point. A new addition this year is the Song of the Week! We'll share a song that ties into the theme of the next few verses...if you gaze ahead and have song suggestions, comment below or text! HEBREWS INTRODUCTION: As with any book of the Bible, different Biblical scholars say different things about this letter, but we'll tell you the most probable take. So here it is: Hebrews is a letter written to a group of Jews who were being persecuted for deciding to follow Jesus. It is a letter to encourage them and to show that Jesus truly is the best person to follow despite how hard it was g...
Read more