Barrabbas' Cross

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Luke, the 23rd chapter. Then the whole company of them arose and brought

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Jesus before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is

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Christ, a king. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the

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Jews? And he answered him, You have said so. Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds,

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I find no guilt in this man. But they were urgent, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all

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Judea, from Galilee even to this place. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a

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Galilean. And when he heard that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

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When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see

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Him because he had heard about Him and was hoping to see some sign done by Him.

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So he questioned Him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing

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Him, and Herod, with his soldiers, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him. Then, arraying

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Him in splendid clothing, he sent Him back to Pilate, and Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

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Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people, and after examining him before you, behold,

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I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him, neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us.

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Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.

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But they cried out all together, Away with this man and release to us

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Barabbas, a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection, started in the city, and for murder.

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Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, Crucify, crucify him!

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And the third time he said to them, Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.

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I will therefore punish and release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed.

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So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted, and he released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered

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Jesus over to their will. And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

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And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

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But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

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For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren in the wombs that never bore, and the breast that never nursed.

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

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Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the

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Skull, there they crucified him. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and Jesus said,

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Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments, and the people stood by watching.

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But the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.

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The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, If you are the king of the

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Jews, save yourselves. There was also an inscription over him, This is the king of the

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Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.

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But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

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And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. For this man has done nothing wrong.

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And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly I say to you,

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Today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

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Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.

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Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly this man was innocent.

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And all the crowds that had assembled for the spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.

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And all his acquaintances and women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

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Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action, and he was looking for the kingdom of God.

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This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid it in a tomb cut in stone.

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There no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.

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The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how its body was laid, and then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

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On the Sabbath day they rested according to the commandment. This is the gospel of the Lord. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our

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Heavenly Father through the power of the Spirit to the praise of His Son. We ask in Jesus' name.

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You may be seated. In the name of Jesus. Well, that's quite the contrast.

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Jesus comes into Jerusalem triumphantly riding on a donkey, and that's

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Sunday, and by Friday He's hanging dead on a cross at three in the afternoon. What went wrong?

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It's kind of an interesting question. Have you ever asked the question, why do bad things happen to good people? Have you ever wondered about that?

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Why do bad things happen to good people? I mean, Jesus is a good guy. Why did these bad things happen to Him?

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And you'll note that when we ask this question, or somebody asks that question, they include themselves always in the category of the good people.

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We don't ever like to think of ourselves as the bad guy. I don't know anybody who relishes the thought of, yeah,

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I wear a black hat, and I crush and destroy people. Nobody ever thinks that way, right?

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So what happens is that when life runs its course and terrible things happen, maybe there's blight in the fields, maybe the flood lasts too long, and you can never get the crops in, or maybe a loved one dies unexpectedly, or worse than that, you get a larger bill from the

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IRS than you had expected, and they tell you that you're going to experience an audit. I've heard these things are painful, right?

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Well, here's the thing, and this is where the rub is. There is only one good person, and that's

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Christ. From Adam all the way to each and every one of us, none of us are good.

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And so when you ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people, and you assume that you're one of the good people, you are not rightly understanding your condition, according to Scripture, as one who is sinful and in need of a

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Savior. But let's work back through the opening part of our gospel text.

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It's a little bit too long to work out in an entire sermon, and let's see what's happening here and see if we can sort some of this out.

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It begins with this note that the whole company of them arose and brought Jesus before Pilate.

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Jesus had just spent the evening in a kangaroo court, and when courts have to meet at night or people have to have secret meetings to make decisions, you know that they're up to no good.

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Well, the Pharisees, the scribes, the high priest and the leaders of Israel, they had one of those kinds of meetings in the middle of the night, made their verdict, and of course they don't have the authority to put

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Jesus to death, so they bring him before Pilate, and as soon as they bring him before Pilate, out come the accusations.

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We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is

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Christ, a king. Now, if you know your gospels, you know your gospels really well, you'll note that they're engaging in a little bit of projection, shall we say, because these are the ones who were misleading

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Israel, and these were the ones who were all upset and kind of not really happy with this idea of paying tribute to Caesar.

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Remember, they tried to trick Jesus with one of those questions. Is it okay for us to pay taxes to Caesar? Right, because one group said no and the other group said yes, and so Jesus was not involved in misleading the nation of Israel at all, nor was he forbidding people to give tribute to Caesar.

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I would say they're projecting their sins onto Christ. It's kind of an interesting thing going on there when you consider the implications.

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So Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered, you've said so.

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Now, that little idiom, you've said so, was a way of saying yes, I am what you just said. That's how the idiom works.

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So Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds, I find no guilt in this man, and you'll note, this is verdict number one.

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This is the guy who has, from the left -hand kingdom, the authority to give a verdict on Jesus.

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The verdict comes down, Jesus is innocent, verdict number one. But they were urgent, saying, he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all

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Judea, from Galilee even to this place. That's a weird, kind of vague charge.

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I would note, stirring up the people, hmm. You know, if some teenager happens to wear a

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Make America Great Again baseball cap into the wrong neighborhood, people would be stirred up.

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What's that phrase that they use for people who are always upset about Trump? Trump derangement syndrome, right?

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I would argue, based upon the behavior of the scribes and the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel, they're suffering from Jesus derangement syndrome.

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It's clear that's what's going on, and boy, they have this in spades. So when

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Pilate heard this, he heard that Jesus teaches from Galilee into this place, and you can kind of see that he's looking for an opportunity to push

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Jesus off. So when Pilate heard this, he asked whether Jesus was a Galilean, and when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

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When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.

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Hey, Jesus, could you pull a rabbit out of a hat? Hey, Jesus, could you do that Moses thing where you turn water into blood?

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Could you do a sign for us, Jesus? And Jesus isn't going to play along with that. So he questioned him at some length, and Jesus made no answer, no answer at all.

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Now I would note that if I were on trial for my life, there had been a court convened in the middle of the night that found me guilty of charges

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I was not guilty of, and what was at stake was my life. When I stood before Pilate, I would have said,

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I didn't do any of this stuff. These people are nuts. They're suffering from derangement syndrome.

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I'm innocent. I would have said the same thing to Herod, trying to save my bacon. This is how we are.

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I don't want to die, especially this way, but Jesus, he makes no answer. I think it's fascinating because Jesus already is beginning his suffering and his passion, suffering by being falsely accused, and as in the same way that when we stand before God, if we stand before God in our sins, there is no defense that could be made.

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The charges and the verdict would be final, and there is no defense that could be made. It makes me wonder if some of that is what's going on here with Jesus.

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So Jesus makes no answer, and here we go again. Jesus' derangement syndrome. The chief priests and the scribes stood by vehemently accusing him.

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Vehemently. So Herod and his soldiers treated him with contempt, and they mocked him.

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Then arraying him in splendid clothing, they sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

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That's a weird sentence. It just makes you wonder. Here you've got people who are at enmity with each other, and they are participants in the suffering and passion of Christ, and it leads to them being reconciled to each other and them actually becoming friends again, being at peace with each other.

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Kind of like the residue of the gospel impacting their relationship. So then

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Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and he said to them, You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people, and after examining him before you, behold,

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I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him, and neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us.

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Look, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.

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That's verdict number two. Twice now, Jesus has been found innocent.

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He's not guilty of any charges deserving the death penalty, and those suffering from Jesus' derangement syndrome are continuing in their madness, and it says they all cried out together,

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Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas! And the text says this,

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A man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.

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That sounds a lot like the devil. That sounds a lot like the devil. Let me explain.

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We know this about the devil, is that he's the one who is responsible for leading an insurrection against God himself.

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The angels rebelling against the Trinity, and as a result of this, a third of the angels fell from heaven, or as Revelation says, that the tail of the dragon swept a third of the stars from the heavens.

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And this same Satan is also described by Jesus as a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

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So here we have Barabbas. Barabbas, a rebel, insurrectionist, and murderer.

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You can't get more like the devil than that, right? And he's as guilty as guilty gets, and that's kind of the interesting part about this.

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And by the way, Barabbas, I always like to point this out, the name itself means son of the father.

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If you were to think of it this way, Barabbas is a perfect stand -in for you, for me.

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You sit there and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not a rebel. I'm not a murderer.

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Well, Scripture actually begs to differ. And that's the thing, is that each and every one of us, born dead in trespasses and sins and under the dominion of darkness, we have participated in the insurrection of Satan against our kind, merciful creator.

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And we, with our lips, if not with our own hands, have murdered others.

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He's a liar and a murderer from the beginning. We have everything in common with Barabbas. And there it is.

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I mean, Barabbas, you think about it this way. That day, that Good Friday, on the eve of the

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Passover, they're setting up three crosses, and this guy knows that one of them is for him.

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And he's just waiting for the guards to come in, to open the cell door, and to march him out to Golgotha and nail him to a cross, as he rightly deserves.

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But the scribes and the Pharisees, suffering from Jesus' derangement syndrome, stir up the crowd.

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And they began shouting, Crucify! Crucify him! And now the third time,

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Pilate says to them, Why? What evil has he done?

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I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him. Three times he says,

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This man is innocent. But what Pilate cannot see is what the prophet

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Isaiah tells us in his prophecy in chapter 53, that God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, including the iniquity of you, the iniquity of me, even the iniquity of Barabbas.

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So they were now urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed.

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So despite the fact that he has three times now declared Jesus innocent, and by law

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Jesus has the right to walk out and to be a free man, Pilate decides that their demand should be granted.

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So he released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered

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Jesus over to their will. And there's Barabbas in his dark, dank cell.

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The guards come in, fully expecting that now he's about to face a gruesome death for his rebellion and his murder, and the guard opens the cell door and says to him, you're free to go.

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Surely this has to be some kind of clerical error. Somebody signed the wrong document, right?

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So Barabbas leaves the prison, walks out into the light of day, a free man.

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Jesus then is nailed to Barabbas' cross, and he bleeds and dies in his place instead.

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You see, the story is even more interesting than that because Barabbas is a stand -in for all of us. We can say in the very truest sense of the concept that Jesus was nailed to your cross, the one waiting for you.

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He was nailed to Dwayne's cross. He was nailed to mine. He was nailed to David's, and Joan's, and Deanne's, and Arlen's, and Michael's.

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He suffered in our place and took our punishment upon ourself, so like Barabbas, we can be released from the prison of sin and see the light of the glory of God in the new creation.

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Free men and women, forgiven by God. So why do bad things happen to good people?

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Let me rephrase it. Why did a bad thing, this terrible thing, happen to the only good person among us?

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So that we who are bad might have good things even though we deserve nothing of the sort.

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So as we enter into Holy Week and consider the passion of Christ and His suffering for us, let us consider that we who were guilty were set free like Barabbas was.

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And all of this was made possible because Christ did not open His mouth. He did not defend Himself.

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He willingly laid down His life, and God the Father laid on Him your iniquity and mine so that we can be forgiven and pardoned.

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And that that mercy that flows from God the Father through the Son, through the Spirit to us today then can flow into our relationships with each other.

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Where there is enmity, where there is strife, where there is rancor, where there is unforgiveness, these must give way.

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In the same way that Pilate and Herod who were enemies before experiencing

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Christ and His passion and His suffering, they became friends that day, we too, having been set free from sin, should seek peace and reconciliation with those whom we have hurt and those by whom we have been hurt.

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This is in keeping with the Gospel and is appropriate. So let us not just consider the sins that Christ has bled and died for that you may be ashamed of, but let us also examine our lives regarding our sins that we may have committed where we have hurt others and where we have been hurt so that we can be reconciled not only to God but to each other.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950,

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Oslo, Minnesota 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th

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Avenue, NW, Oslo, Minnesota 56744 We thank you for your support.

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