Give Us Barabbas...We Have No King But Caesar

Lately I’ve been thinking that I’ve been reading Matthew 7:13-14 all wrong. The text — taken from what we usually call the sermon on the mount — goes like this:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Well, maybe not that I’ve been reading it wrong per se, but more, I’ve been imagining it all wrong. I’ve always pictured this illustration as a sort of “fork in the road” — or as Frost said, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” — but I’ve come to see it more as one path that has two doors: in and out — entrance and exit. Maybe there aren’t two different paths, but one path with two gates. Let me illustrate the illustration. Think of a road that travels in two directions. Same road, different destinations. One road, two directions. If that road was something like an interstate it would have an on ramp and an off ramp. Many restaurants and businesses have a door labeled “Entrance” and one labeled “Exit”. 

Think of life as one road that we are all traveling. For most of us, for much of our lives, we don’t give much thought to the road we are traveling or the direction we are moving. For a long time we just kind of “go with the flow” and move along with the people who are around us, but eventually we encounter God along the way, and He has a lot to say about the way we are going.

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

“The way of man is not in himself, it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

Throughout His ministry Jesus tried to warn people about the direction they were heading. In Luke 13 He spoke of what was most likely a violent insurrection of His people that was put down with greater violence by the Romans.

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:1-3.

These weren’t horrible, awful, wicked sinners. They were just regular people. Devout people who believed in God and worshipped God, and likely died thinking God wanted them to kill “the bad guys”. Although history does not record for us the specifics of this instance, it is a fair assumption — based on all that we do know of the temperament and tendencies of the time — that they tried to fight back against something they didn’t agree with that Rome was doing and they died a violent, bloody death as a result. Jesus saw that His entire generation, His nation as a whole, was beginning to move down this path, being influenced by loud voices inciting them to take up the way of violence to solve their problems. Jesus bluntly cautioned them: if you do not repent — turn back — from the direction you are heading, you too will be destroyed. 

Right up until His death He was trying to warn His generation that they were descending into the pit of hell by following the pied pipers of perdition preaching that there were only violent solutions to all of their problems.

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44

Later, He would address their leaders in a mixture of anger and grief:

“How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.” Matthew 23:33-38

Even with His dying breath He was proclaiming, “They know not what they do.”

Sadly, His generation did not listen. Rather than following their Shepherd upward along the path in the direction of the kingdom of heaven, most of them chose instead to descend into the pit of hell. They killed Him, they killed His followers, and they tried to kill the Romans, prompting the Roman general Titus, under the direction of his father, Emperor Vespasian, to burn Jerusalem to the ground and slaughter over a million people in the process. “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”

I’ve come to think that what Jesus describes in Matthew 7:13-14 is two gates, yes, but just one path that leads both uphill and downhill — to life and to destruction, to the kingdom of heaven and into the pit of hell. We all know that walking downhill is much easier than walking uphill, and given the choice, most of us will choose the downhill route most of the time. Of course we will, it’s easier, and like water, people usually choose the path of least resistance. But the problem is, easy now, often means suffering later. All along the journey of life Jesus appears along the path when He sees us traveling the wrong way and invites us to take the on ramp to the kingdom of heaven, the entrance to the way of life — to enter the strait and narrow gate. Yes, it is an uphill climb, but it leads to life. If we are already walking this direction He frequently reminds us — usually when we are growing weary from the uphill climb, longing for an easier journey — not to take the exit ramp that leads away from the kingdom of heaven. Yes, it is downhill, but it leads, not to the kingdom of heaven, but to destruction. If we have eyes to see, we cannot ignore the wreckage from countless people, nations, and empires that litter the landscape as a constant reminder “this is not the way.”

At the point you develop some autonomy and have your own say in the direction your life is going to take, you have a choice to make. This isn’t a one time thing but a series of decisions you will make over and over for the rest of your life. However, there are moments in your life that are "fork in the road" moments. Moments that in hindsight prove to be the setting of the course for the remainder of your life. Not that you are incapable of change, but that you seldom do after such a dramatic, conscious decision has been made. You didn’t mistakenly turn the wrong direction or get sent in the wrong direction by charismatic predators with their own agendas. You can easily fall victim to this in the naivety of your youth, but that’s not what this is. This time you made a conscious decision, having seen the warning signs, and heard the pleas from people who love you, and yet you still set a course for darkness. 

Dale Moreau cautions, “Psalm 115 describes idols as having mouths that don't speak, eyes that don't see, ears that don't hear. Then it delivers the verdict: "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them."

The worshiper conforms to the object of worship. This is why Isaiah 6 is so jarring. God doesn't just say Israel won't hear — He says He will make them unable to hear. Their eyes will be shut. Their hearts will be dull. Why? Because they've spent so long conforming to gods who cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot speak that the judgment has become the condition. They have become their idols. Isaiah 44:18 makes it explicit: idol worshipers cannot perceive truth because God "has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand." Paul picks up the same thread in 2 Corinthians 4 — "the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers." And Matthew 13 applies Isaiah's words directly to the crowds around Jesus. The pattern holds across both Testaments.”

After this point change tends to become too hard, too costly. You would have to endure the humiliation of acknowledging that you were terribly, and shamefully, wrong. You would have to contend with the reality that you left behind people you claimed to love -- people who dearly loved you -- because they refused to go one step further down a road leading you away from everything Jesus did and said. They never stopped shouting to you to turn back before it was too late, but eventually you got so far down the road you could no longer hear their cries in the distance. Change would mean you would have to turn around and walk the long road back through a landscape littered with shame and regret and the wreckage of your selfish, prideful, careless, or thoughtless decisions. Changing would be committing to an uphill climb and for most people, that path is just too steep and narrow and difficult.

All of us are in one of three states right now. Some have already walked through the gate marked “Entrance” and chose the onramp to the kingdom of heaven. They are making the uphill climb. Some walked through the gate marked “Exit” and chose the offramp from the kingdom of heaven. They are moving downhill and are rapidly accelerating toward destruction. Others are standing on a sort of plateau or a plain. Matthew documented the day when Jesus gave this teaching as taking place on a mountain — hence the title “the sermon on the mount”. Luke tells of a day when Jesus gave this same teaching on a plain. Really, both locations fit the illustration. If you find yourself on level ground, pausing to contemplate the direction the rest of your life is going to take, you have two options: an entrance to the uphill path of the kingdom of heaven or an exit to the downhill decent toward destruction.

None of us are the first to make this choice. It has been made countless times before, and will continue to be made as long as the earth stands. The gospels are filled with stories of individuals making these choices, and they all culminate with a collective society making this choice. Tragically, that society chose destruction. Oddly enough, a historically violent, pagan governor was practically pleading with his audience to stop their descent into madness. Having questioned Jesus and found Him not guilty of any crimes — and despite the fact that He was scourged anyway in an attempt to satiate their bloodlust — Pilate himself offered the crowd on Good Friday an offramp from the direction they were heading. In addition to Jesus bar Joseph (son of Joseph) of Nazareth, they were also holding convicted terrorist and murderer Jesus bar Abbas (son of the father). Pilate said he would let one of the men go free as a sort of Passover gift to the crowd, and the other would face the brutally violent weight of the Roman Empire in crucifixion. No doubt Pilate believed that given a choice between barbarism and mercy, they would choose mercy. He was wrong.

“Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”

18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

22 For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”

23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.” Luke 23:13-25

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” 

“Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” 

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. John 19:12-16

I genuinely don’t care how you are registered. I don’t care who you voted for in past elections. What I do care about is whether or not you are going to continue to follow, support, and endorse a way that is literally anti-Christ or if you will turn back toward the way of the Prince of Peace. Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers,  to love your enemies and do good to them that hate you, but our President — on Easter morning, the most sacred day on the Christian calendar — screams to the world:

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah!”

Followed a few days later by:

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Followed a few days later by:

“In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest.”

Only to up the blasphemy ante this Sunday by posting an AI generated image of himself in the place of Jesus healing the sick.

Our nation is not following the difficult path of the kingdom of Jesus, and no amount of blasphemous religious displays and assemblies in the Pentagon or White House can change that — “I cannot bear your worthless assemblies…they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!” (Isaiah 1:13-15).

Our nation is not following the path of the kingdom of Jesus, it is being led by a wanna be Caesar. The only thing preventing him from being a literal Caesar is absolute power, but it’s not for lack of trying or lack of truly believing he should be able to do anything he wants to do without facing opposition, and the right to imprison or kill anyone who does oppose him.  We are witnessing the megalomaniacal audacity usually reserved for rulers depicted in Daniel and Revelation as beasts — men with names and titles like Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Artaxerxes, Herod, Caesar.

For many wearing the name “Christian”, this is that fork in the road moment. This is your “Give us Barabbas....We have no king but Caesar” moment or your thief on the cross moment. Choose carefully, there may be no turning back.