Dissecting Barabbas: Part II

CARRYING ON “DADDY’S” TRAITS

As barbaric and cold as that idea appears, it uncovers exactly how the ultimate Barabbas garners assistance in his unflinching agenda of man’s destruction. Consider the language used by some anti-homosexual groups when describing the “providential purpose” of the mass viral executioner, AIDS. Or the racist, hateful sentiment bellowed out by a portion of America’s citizenry during the years of segregation. Or perhaps reflect on the vehement and deadly language used by Hutu’s in regard to the Tutsis in Rwanda, or the Shiites toward the Sunni’s, the Muslims toward the Zionists, etc., and etc., ad infinitum. Instead of recognizing the ultimate Barabbas running loose in our midst, portions of humanity justify, herald, and even commit the enemy’s agenda for him. We have not only released Barabbas, we personally manifest him whenever we act against another human being with disgust, hatred or enmity.

Scripture backs up the last claim. For there is one other bit of specific information we are given about the man, Barabbas: his name. It is constructed through the fusing of two Greek words: “Bar” meaning “son of” and “abba” meaning “father.” Barabbas, in Greek, translates to “son of a father.” The name is highly nebulous, until we look back at Barabbas’ three characteristics. Suppose a star college quarterback grows up and has three sons. One devotes his time to painting, another to tinkering with old muscle cars. But the final son starts peewee football at the age of eight, and by his sophomore year of high school is already the starting quarterback for the Varsity team. Which son would most people state is “just like his old man?” The son who displayed the same characteristics as his father. So then, based on his characteristics, Barabbas might be described as “son of destruction.”

The term “Barabbas” carries serious generational weight. It offers the hearer no information except its purposed reference to the continuation of a lineage. I believe it is through the characteristics of the son that man is exposed as a grandson or granddaughter in that lineage. In other words, by unwittingly partnering with Barabbas, we perpetuate a generational transfer of destruction. Sometimes that destruction is self-inflicted. Consider the millions suffering from venereal diseases and AIDS in America; the destructive results of skyrocketing meth and prescriptive medicine addiction among our teenagers; or the lives of individuals and families decimated from debilitating credit card debt. Sometimes that destruction is residual. The children born with dramatic birth defects after a corporation poisons the local water supply with its hazardous waste; the millions kidnapped and raped around the world through human trafficking to support humanity’s degrading sexual preferences; the millions dead or dying from cigarette smoking or second-hand smoke; the entire displaced inner-city neighborhood left on the street after a real-estate developer acquires the land for “urban renewal.” At other times, destruction starts ideologically and manifests existentially. Consider the 50 million unborn babies aborted in just a few decades; the countless hundreds of thousands left with devastated lives, families, and work environments after gambling casinos propagated on reservations or riverfronts; or the high percentage of marriages ripped apart after society determined that the “freedom of pornography” was a healthy commercial enterprise.

I make no claims of moral imposition here; I am merely pointing out that the by-product of each of these examples produces objective and calculable destruction across numerous realms of existence (physical, social, economical, psychological, generational, etc.) We can rationalize and spin our marketing to accentuate the positives of many of these actions, but we can’t erase the statistical facts.

A question then arises: Is mankind’s ultimate intent its own, or even another’s destruction?

Certainly not, but destruction is our lot because the majority of the world inadvertently shouted, “Give us Barabbas!” when it rejected Christ. But the blame for Barabbas’ release and unchallenged genocidal pillaging does not fall to those having rejected Christ. It falls to those claiming to have chosen him. Man has not rejected the true Christ; he has rejected what most of the church made Christ out to be. The world has distanced itself from the true Christ, because the world wants little to do with most of church’s false Christ façade. And in the ultimate form of tragic irony, man’s predominant reason to choose religion today is as an alleviant for all of the suffering and trauma brought about from Barabbas’ release! We have not only released Barabbas through our lack of evidential Kingdom living, but we also propagate his reign of terror by offering a religious system that does little more than loosely bandage the gaping emotional wounds Barabbas has inflicted on the majority of humanity, and offer a better life after this one ends. But in many areas of Barabbas’ destruction, such as divorce, drug usage and STDs, the church either mimics or surpasses the national average percentages. Based on the evidence, we, as the church, have not only said, “Give us Barabbas,” we’ve given in to him and then attack others for doing the same.

As true Christians, we must now shout, “Give us the Christ!” But we must shout this to ourselves, not to the rest of humanity. To the rest of humanity we must be more than spiritual psychologists, moralistic police, or peddlers of a better eternal life after death. We must be unadulterated love in a dark world we’ve helped create. We must be actions, not words. And our first words must be that of apology, not apologetics. We must give back the true Christ to a humanity that prefers Barabbas due to our glaring hypocrisy. We have lost our right to control the consequences. It’s time to understand the unwritten story of the man Barabbas, is the very real story of mankind today.

“There is now a killer running loose in our community. And we’ve been the one’s to release him.”

WHAT WE MUST DO

The first step is to recognize where we have partnered with Barabbas in our own lives, and then in our corporate bodies. We must focus solely on the byproduct of destruction, and then search it out. Barabbas is a multi-headed hydra, well cloaked in many areas. Many of those areas we rationalize and even sanction through our supposed “piety.” But using a baseline of “destruction,” his evidence exposes him – and us. We must recognize this destruction as it pertains to all of humanity. Christianity transcends its religious confines, and the church must communicate on a level that is clear and objective to all, regardless of ideology, religious affiliation, or cultural background. Until we can expose Barabbas without bringing our religion into the equation, we must remain silent.

Which leads to the second step. We must make a verbal declaration of, “Give us the Christ!” and then live according to His revelation and principles. We can’t simply tell people about His principles, or condemn others for not adhering to them; we must live them. Remember, the condemnation falls on our doorstep. If we chose and embrace the true Christ, the evidence of our lives will be so winsome and transformative that others will inquire of us. Remember, the Christ said, “Be prepared to give an account for the joy inside of you.” If you can’t find that joy and transformative life inside of your current church confines, then either encourage your pastor to seek it out or venture elsewhere. The world is desperately counting on a church that makes a difference. It doesn’t care which denomination or denominations it comes from.

A FINAL THOUGHT

If you are unsure what difference you as an individual can make, remember this entire article was developed through what could appear to have been an afterthought in the Biblical text. The unwritten story is so pragmatic and precise that it illuminated the enemy, uncloaked his objective patterns of destruction, unlocked where mankind has partnered with it, exposed the church’s failure, and provided the precise area for repentance. What can God do with a single Holy Spirit-inspired verse in your own life? Cry out for yourself, “Give us the Christ,” and then wait expectantly for what God will do through your obedience.