This weekend we are starting a new series that will lead us into Easter. “Meeting Jesus at the Cross” is about the people who met Jesus right at the end of his life… and even though their encounter with him was short, it was powerful.

What do you know about Barabbas?

Read Matthew 27:16, Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19, and John 18:40.

If anybody should have died on a cross that day it should have been Barabbas. And yet Barabbas didn’t die that day. He was let loose and it was Jesus who died. To understand how this happened, we also need to talk about Pilate.

*What do you know about Pilate?
*

Read Luke 13:1-3.

What do you think the Jews thought of Pilate?
What do you think Pilate thought of the Jews?
Why do the Jews bring Jesus before Pilate?

They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.” —Luke 23:2 (NLT)

Now Pilate was no dummy. He knew exactly what was going on.

He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy. —Matthew 27:18 (NLT)

But Pilate is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
How would you describe his dilemma?
How are we faced with a similar dilemma?

Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. 16 This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. 17 As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” —Matthew 27:15-17 (NLT)

Barabbas deserved to die, but Jesus took his cross and died in his stead.

How does this story relate to our own lives?

Consider Romans 5:7-8, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, and Ephesians 2:4-5.

Jesus borrowed your cross to die on. He died for you, and He died for me. … He died that we might live. The question is… what are we going to do with this life we have been given?