But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.John 19:15
As we draw near to Lent, my mind goes back to the part of Holy Week I didn’t understand for most of my life: The choice of the crowd to release Barabbas instead of Jesus. I was taught simply that “the Jews” chose to release a murderer instead of Jesus. If this actually happened [1], describing it this way makes no sense. Why would you release a murderer at all, let alone instead of Jesus, for Christ’s sake? (ha ha) It wasn’t until later – until I learned that there was not just one, but many people who claimed to be the Jewish messiah (a partial list is on Wikipedia). And while I knew that people expected Jesus to be a different kind of messiah – a militaristic one who would overthrow the Romans – the implications of that expectation didn’t really hit me until recently. Because from the point of view of Rome, Jesus wasn’t a one-off claiming to be “king of the Jews”. He was one of a series. He was just the latest leader of the latest rebellion. [2] To Pilate and Rome, Jesus would be viewed the same as an American today would view a leader of the Islamic State, or Al-Qaeda. Put yourself in the situation of the crowd that day. Your ruler stands above you. Loyal – and armed – guards and police are on every side. Their hands hover near their weapons, waiting for an excuse to arrest you and your family – or worse. Then your ruler says: “Do you want me to release Charles Manson or…” He looks pointedly at the guards and police surrounding you “… the Al-Qaeda agent?”
