Choose your own adventure, Crucifixion Edition

Stop choosing Barabbas! PLUS: My very unique fourth grade narrative, reflections on the way we love insurrectionists, and what we learn from Jesus' last day.

I didn’t just want to “write a story.”

Lame. Overdone. Been there, done that.

So in fourth grade, for our narrative writing assignment, I decided to pen a Choose Your Own Adventure-style story! Just like the popular series I enjoyed as a kid, the idea would be that the reader can make a choice at the end of the page, deciding which page to go to next to follow the results of their decision.

Logistically, this was a tough challenge, as it meant mapping out all the pages in advance and designing a little booklet, not just writing a story on the provided lined paper. And it also meant writing in second person to put the reader in the seat of ownership for the tale. Yet, even more complicated was coming up with the perfect situation to put the reader in.

Choose Your Own Adventure covered space travel, undersea exploration, cryptids, exotic locales—that sort of thing. But how would I stand out? What could I, a young, enterprising, overly religious person, choose for my Choose Your Own Adventure?

Easy. The Crucifixion of Jesus.

A bold story to explore, I wrote as if someone were in 1st-century Jerusalem witnessing the last week of Jesus’ life. In writing it, I also started a tradition I’d carry on to this day: writing MORE than the required page or word count.

I can’t recall all the choices that could be made, but I do remember one pivotal decision point: You were taken to the crowds outside Pilate’s residence, able to observe as the governor of the Roman province of Judea gave the crowds a choice.

He could release one prisoner in honor of Passover, as was his own custom. Should he release Barabbas, definitely a criminal and a murderous insurrectionist? Or should he release Jesus, who he was pretty sure was completely innocent?

Well, we know how the story goes. People want Barabbas released. Jesus then goes to his death.

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In my narrative, however, you could sway the crowd to release Jesus! Then Barabbas gets the cross. If that’s the choice you made, however, you’d turn to the assigned page to find… well, because Jesus didn’t die for your sins, everything’s pretty bad. Pretty downer ending, actually.

Theological implications aside, we as moderns—and I’m assuming we’re fans of Jesus—would like to think we’d side with the innocent Savior. Why would we like the zealous, murderous, revolutionary type?

But many today in their hearts, I fear, would rather their ideal guy be a Barabbas and not a Jesus.

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Before we continue…

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And now the spiritual point…

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We find Barabbas mentioned in all four Gospels, a pretty amazing feat because John doesn’t always bother to rehash what the others said! Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 18 all give mention.

Pilate knows that the religious leaders are just jealous of Jesus. Jesus is innocent! He uses Barabbas as a foil to give them an easy way to say, “Yeah, release Jesus. We overreacted. Barabbas is the kinda guy that needs to be locked up.”

But, uh, that’s not what they decided. The crowds, and in particular the Jewish leaders who stir them up, decide to release Barabbas.

The supposed charges against Jesus are, funny enough, inciting an insurrection. But we learn in Mark 15:7 that Barabbas was a “revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising.” And Luke 23:19 says he was “in prison for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government, and for murder.” John 18:40 just calls him a revolutionary.

Barabbas was actual facts someone participating in a rebellion and apparently murdered someone in the process. Jesus was completely anti-violence and, though drew some crowds, was very unconcerned with changing the government.

Yet Jesus is the one they call to be crucified!

To the people, Barabbas is strangely less of a threat than Jesus. Jesus demands a way that is counterintuitive to our self-interest. Jesus upends the order of society—shames even the “wise” teachers. But Barabbas is a bit more palatable. He seemingly was against Rome and probably for Jewish interests. In all likelihood, he murdered a Roman or at least a Roman sympathizer. He’s no threat to the people.

Today, we still have people struggling in their view of Jesus.

Many aren’t a fan of passive Jesus who allows his death without whipping out his AR-15. Jesus had the ear of power in his final moments, yet we learn in each Gospel he says very little to Pilate. Jesus, strangely, didn’t lobby for a new bill on lowering taxes for the rich or something. Jesus wanted people to, like, love one another and to seek the Kingdom and to practice holiness without shoving it down the throats of other people. So, uh, yeah, Barabbas looked like a better choice. Barabbas is all about seizing power, any means necessary.

It’s not a coincidence that I’m writing this on American Independence Day—the Fourth of July. Because I want us to seriously reflect on our allegiance to power. I want us to take a good look at how we’ve shaped Jesus into a tool for politics, over the Lord of our lives. I want us to consider whether or not our role model is innocent, power-laying-down Jesus, or if it’s guilty, power-grabbing Barabbas.

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One of those is God in Flesh, the Savior of the World. And the other one is a criminal, who more than likely died a meaningless death. For as Jesus said hours before coming before Pilate, “Those who use the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).

We’re living in a world where a politician can say, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” And they are probably right. Because we keep choosing people that are convenient to our self-interests and worldview, even when they are a danger to society. And more often than not, we end up locking up the innocents instead.

That’s messed up. Pure evil. As a society, we keep choosing Barabbas.

Our whole lives are choose your own adventures. I pray we start making the decision to follow Christ, who challenges us to be better, and not those that just confirm what we already want to think.

Choose Jesus,

Jake Doberenz

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