'Jesus Is ___' music project : Jesus Is Loving Barabbas

I was incredibly moved by this track on the 'Jesus Is' album from City Church. Below I have captured what pastor Judah Smith spoke. Read it and let the words minister to your soul, and maybe listen to the track in the background, check it out here on YouTube (and if you like it please purchase it from Amazon, or iTunes, or wherever else). Be blessed!

We see the story of Jesus going to the cross, and everything seems to be hand in hand, and then there is this one character who seems to interrupt the narrative, his name's Barrabas. We don't know much about him, except that he is a murder, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel, and why he is even mentioned sometimes I am not so sure - this is about Jesus on the cross.

So in this moment Pilot thinks 'I hold the destiny's of these two men in my hand' and I know the jews have a tradition that on a holy day I will release one of the prisoners on death row. Pilot stands on this audacious stage, who now presents Jesus, son of the living God, versus Barabbas the thug and rebel. He says 'Alright, who do you want?' This is blasphemy, this has gone to far, there is no comparison. This is a rightful prisoner, a man who should be on death row, he is a rebel against Rome, he leads a rebellion, he murders people, he is a bad man a thug and a crook - he deserves the chains and he deserves the crucifixion. Jesus, what has he done, but heal, restore, deliver, set free, open blind eyes, open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper. What has Jesus done? 'Who do you want?' 'We want Barabbas. Yeah, give us Barabbas.'

The roman soldiers come up, and they unlock Barabbas from his chains and shackles, and he walks down the platform, welcomed by all his thug friends 'Yeah, the people love me, yeah, that's right, I don't know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is that my people love me.' There seems to be no conscience of Barabbas, there is no record of him turning to Jesus and saying 'I owe you everything now, for you have set me free.' No, I don't see any of that in Barabbas.

And God knew that. Jesus stood there silent, for he knew the will of the Father, he said 'It's fine Father, let them have Barabbas', for Jesus knew that the father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas, so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free, but no no, it was the love of the heavenly Father.

When I look at this story, I realise who Barabbas really is ... that's me, that's you, that's us.
I was reading this the other day and I felt God speak to me.
'I love Barabbas, I love him'
'But God, he is a bad man!'
'I love him, and I wanted him to go free.'
'But didn't you know that ... he probably would never acknowledge the free gift-'
'Yeah, but I love Barabbas.'
For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent his son for Barabbas, even one he knew he would walk away from Jesus and his free gift, and never come back.

He loves him, and the nerve, the audacity of believers to think that I got saved by grace but now that I am in this deep dark place of bondage, I have to work to get myself. What!? That's the opposite of the gospel. Are you bound? Are held under the power of this temptation, this sin, these sexual urges? Do you feel like it is controlling you? What are you going to do? 'I am going to shake myself free'. Stop it! No you won't, you are no match for the powers of hell, for the urges of sin and sexual temptation, you will not overcome and you will never overcome it ... you will just be another statistic. There is no answer within yourself. Your own marriage, your own goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion will not save your marriage and will not save your kids. There is only one, and he is the one who took your place, he is the one who stood silently on the platform with pilot and said 'Yes, let them have Barabbas, take me.'

How many times have I stood on that platform with pilot and Jesus, and I am the Barabbas, and they started to take my chains off.
I say 'No no, I deserve this, I deserve the guilt, I deserve the shame, I deserve the consequence, I deserve it'.
Jesus seems to look at me and say 'No son, let me have it, let me have your sin, let me have your pain'
'No God I did it to myself, I deserve it, my marriage won't make it this is what I deserve, I deserve divorce I deserve poverty, I deserve sickness, I deserve it all.'
No!!!
'God I am so ashamed, but God what if I do it again.'
'I'll still be here.'
'Oh God I don't want to hurt you, I love you, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this anymore.'
'Give me your sin son.'

This is all we got, this is all I got, this is all you got. We can play games, we can play church games, we can pretend like some people are better than others and that is why they are blessed, or we can come to the honest conclusion that it is God. It is God alone. The greatest challenge is not your discipline, your devotion, your focus. Your greatest challenge is believing the gospel couldn't be that there is a God with a love so scandalous so wide so deep so vast so high so expansive, so welcoming, so inclusive.

'Let me have your sins son.' I give him my sin and I stand in this empty space of forgiveness and acceptance, whilst Jesus walks off to the cross that I deserve. I see him, I see him walking, to the post to be whipped, as I stand a free man, all the attention is turned now, and I feel the love of God saying 'Go Son, live your life, I'll pay the price.' Where did we get off thinking that we were going to set ourselves free? It's still Jesus, it will always be Jesus, it will never stop being the power of Jesus. If his blood is sufficient for your salvation, his blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge and every sin and ever temptation, Jesus is enough!