THE GOOD SHEPHERD BECAME THE PASSOVER LAMB

On Mount Moriah, God instructed Abraham to offer Isaac, but, by God’s grace, a lamb was “caught in the thicket”(Genesis 22:13). Isaac lived, but the lamb didn’t.

On the night before the exodus from Egypt, a faithful family sacrificed the Passover Lamb to save the life of the eldest son. God promised, “when the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you” (Exodus 12:23).

“The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus, the Good Shepherd became the Passover Lamb for Barabbas.

Barabbas didn’t deserve mercy. He was “a notorious prisoner” (Matthew 27:16), imprisoned

“for a rebellion that had taken place in the city, and for murder” (Luke 23:19). Barabbas was a felon, an insurrectionist, a murderer… he was a terrorist... the worst of the worst. He should have been locked up at the Guantanamo Detention Center … a.k.a. Gitmo! Lock the door and throw away the key!

But in the providence of God, the snarling, slobbering, shouting crowds demanded that Jesus should be crucified and Barabbas released.

“At the festival Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested. There was one named Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion. The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them as was his custom. Pilate answered them, ‘Do you want me to release the king of the Jews for you?’ For he knew it was because of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead. Pilate asked them again, ‘Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Again they shouted, ‘Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Why? What has he done wrong?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them; and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified” (Mark 15:6–15).

I wonder, as Barabbas walked away from the prison, did he have an inkling of the magnitude of saving grace bestowed upon him? Did he ever realize that the Good Shepherd laid down his innocent life as a substitutionary sacrifice, the Passover Lamb? I pray that Barabbas was saved by grace through faith and that he sings today and forever in the hallelujah choir!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).