Daily Radio Bible - August 16th, 21

Pilate has a question for the crowd. Who would you like? Who would you like me to give you? Jesus the Messiah or Jesus Barabbas. Matthew tells us that that was his name. two Jesus' are being offered to the crowd, which one will they choose? One is an insurrectionist, someone who's sought by violence and forced to overthrow the government and kill his enemies. And the other tells his followers to put their swords away. He says, Do not resist an evil person to turn the other cheek. He says, Love your enemies. Jesus had just finished telling Pilate that his kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this world. He was not calling his followers to violent revolt. Like all the other kingdoms of this world. Jesus says I'm doing something completely different. He's making all things new. He's renewing all things with the transforming power of love. Christ has come to demonstrate this self giving radically forgiving, co suffering way of life. And he's calling his disciples to follow Him and do the same. This is the only way out of the kingdoms of the world, with all their many Jesus Barabbas' that have come and gone and will continue to come and go.  We will be tempted to find ways to avoid really choosing Jesus the Messiah. We will hear things like that's impractical. The Jesus way isn't really how the world works. And there's going to be a lot of Bible verses that will help us justify choosing Jesus Barabbas instead of Jesus, our Messiah.  It was the Bible people - the Pharisees, after all, who stirred up the crowd to ask for Jesus Barabbas, instead of Jesus our Lord. There are many ways for us to excuse ourselves from really choosing Jesus the Messiah. Pilate poses the question, What do you want? Today, I choose what the crowd did not. I choose Jesus. I choose his way. I choose the self giving radically forgiving, co suffering way I choose. I choose his truth. I choose his life. I choose the God who is love. And that's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That each day I'll see that choice before me and that I will choose him. That's the prayer that I have for my family too for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you may be so.

You are loved!