The Easter Story – Part 3

In Matthew 27 reading from verse 11 we find ourselves at the trial of Jesus before Pilate. For this part of the devotional I want to hone in on the release of a prisoner. It was customary during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd and so Pilate asked them if he should release Barabbas or Jesus. The crowd, after being persuaded by the leading priests and elders, asked for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified.

A man who was a sinner, guilty and with no way out. Yet Jesus took his place.

Here I am, a sinner, guilty and with no way out. Yet Jesus took my place.

We are Barabbas – released from the penalty of our sin. Given a life we didn’t earn.

And now we walk free.

I never saw the connection before between Barabbas and myself but now I’ve seen it I can’t not see it.

Jesus was crucified, upon his body was the sin of the whole world. Isaiah 53:4-12 brings home the reality of what Jesus went through so that we could live in relationship with God. How great the sacrifice he made for each of us.

All in the name of love. God who had been desperate to reconcile us back to himself, patient as he spoke out his intentions through the prophets of the Old Testament. He waited and at just the right time Jesus fulfilled his purpose on the cross. We have been washed clean and now God sees us as righteous, though none of us could earn it nor do we deserve it, but because we believe and have faith in Jesus we are now children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 27:51 we see how when Jesus released his spirit and he died that the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This is so significant. Before this time people were only able to access God through a priest and only the priest could enter a certain part of the Temple. When the curtain tore in two it was revealing that now there is no longer a barrier between people and God. We no longer had to go through priests to access God. Jesus became the one and only High Priest and now our access to God is through him. There was now no longer a place for the curtain as that separation no longer needed to exist.

Society at the time of Jesus didn’t view women in high regard. They were not able to testify in the courts and were deemed inferior to men. Through Jesus ministry he turned this completely on it’s head, revealing just how important women are to God. One of the ways he achieved this was by choosing a woman to appear to first after he was resurrected. All throughout the bible God has shown how he sees and loves women.

The stone was rolled away from the tomb not so that Jesus could get out, but so that others could see in and be witness to the truth that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead.