THE MAN OF GOD’S CHOICE
Paul A Gray
Matthew 27: 15-16
Mark 15: 7
Luke 23: 18-19
John 18: 40
Philippians 2: 5-11
These scriptures have been in my mind today as thinking of the Man of God's choice. We learn by contrast, and Barabbas is presented here as the world's choice in four different aspects. In Matthew, the gospel which particularly emphasises the truth of the kingdom, men had the King before them, and yet they preferred a man of whom it says he was “notable”. The writer in Isaiah 53 says prophetically as to the Lord, “when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him … - despised, and we esteemed him not”, v 2-3. The world prefers what is notable. They have a King who comes to them meek and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass (Matt 21:5), but they would rather have what is notable. What is notable in the world perhaps includes skill in music or sport, perhaps involves a person’s appearance; perhaps it relates to a person who discovers or invents something that is of value to mankind, something that makes a person notable in the eyes of the world. And yet, all that will fade, and the Man that goes through is Jesus, the Man foreshadowed in Esther, when the word is, “What is to be done with the man whom the king delights to honour?”, Esther 6: 6. He was not someone notable in this world, “He shall not strive or cry out, nor shall any one hear his voice in the streets”, (Matt 12: 19), and yet the Man of God's choice goes through. I have felt the edge of this as I have been thinking of these things. You may have trusted in the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour, and know Him, but Satan has many ways of putting choices in front of us, drawing our attention to what is notable, to distract our eyes from the Man of God's choice. The Holy Spirit is here to help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
In Mark different features are brought before us. Barabbas was bound with those who had made insurrection with him. He and others had risen up against the authorities; they despised authority. The Lord accepted the Father’s authority in every matter. He could say of His own life, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”, John 10: 18. He was perfectly in accord with His Father's authority. It never rankled; He never rebelled against it; He did not feel it irksome. He accepted the authority under which He had placed Himself as Man even when, as we read in Philippians, that involved “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. His obedience to His Father's will took Him even to the death of the cross. But this person Barabbas, he was among those who had made insurrection, not just himself but others with him, a man of influence who disliked authority and rose up against it; and the end of it was death. Think of that, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death” Prov 14: 12. There was what seemed right to Barabbas, despite the fact that it led to the sentence of death, and yet the crowd’s choice was to ask Pilate for him: “And the crowd crying out began to beg that he would do to them as he had always done”. They cried out in favour of Pilate releasing to them one who was insubject, and they cried against the One who was always subject to the will of God.
Then in Luke a further feature comes out. It may not be very different from Mark but what I wanted to draw attention to was one who was being held, “for a certain tumult which had taken place in the city”. In Mark there was the general despising of authority, but I think a tumult in the city would involve in its application to us despising the rights of the assembly. Barabbas created a tumult. A tumult involves a great deal of uncertainty, perhaps a great deal of misdirection; nobody can be quite sure what is going on; that is the way Satan works. Think of the time when the people threw away their clothes and cast dust into the air, Acts 22: 23. The Lord never acted like that; there was never any uncertainty about what He said. He never misdirected anyone. His words were clear and true and certain, and in His subjection to the will of His God and Father He would teach us about the importance of subjection to the assembly. And again, the end of tumult is the loss of life; yet persons preferred this man who had brought about tumult in the city.
In John's gospel, all it says of Barabbas is that he was a robber: that is to say, he took something that did not belong to him. Our brother spoke earlier of love; Scripture tells us that love “does not seek what is its own” (1 Cor 13: 5), which is entirely different from seeking to take what belongs to someone else. Love does not seek what is its own and in this, as in all things, the Lord is an example. He goes even further; He says, through the psalmist, “then I restored that which I took not away”, Ps 69: 4. Barabbas took something that did not belong to him, and men were in the presence of the One who restored that which He took not away. He had every right: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John 1: 1. He had every right: “without Him not one thing has received being”, v 3. He had every right: the Light of the world. He had every right: “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”, John 1: 18.. He had every right: One who had the inherent power of life, quickening power in Himself, “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and … shall live”, John 5: 25. He had every right over death itself, and yet the world chose one who had no right to what he took; Barabbas took what was not his. The Lord claimed nothing for Himself even in the presence of Pilate. “Pilate therefore said to him, Thou art then a king? Jesus answered, Thou sayest it, that I am a king”, John 18: 37. He did not assert Himself in the matter, but when it was said He assented to it, “I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth”. Not only did He restore that which He took not away, but He set out the mind of God for man in all its glory.
The Man of God's choice stands in complete contrast to the choices that the world makes. The world will have to bow. Heavenly and earthly and infernal beings will all have to bow, but the great thing is to bow the knee now, and to “let this mind be in you”. This suggests making way for such a mind; it involves displacement on our part. The note says, 'be found amongst you'. If it is going to be found amongst us then it would have to start with me. I could not be looking to somebody else to “let this mind be in you” if I was not doing it myself.
I feel most tested by these things in speaking of them. This Man, the Man of God's choice, who “emptied himself, taking a bondman's form”, also “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death”, as if, one might say, it was not already enough that such a One had emptied Himself. He went further and humbled Himself. He stooped and wrote on the ground, and then He stooped again, John 8: 6, 8. I remember a brother asking why He stooped twice. I believe that love would stoop until there is a full answer for God; that is what love would do. He stooped once into manhood, and He stooped again into death and secured a full answer for God, and God has highly exalted Him. That will be seen publicly in a day to come. He will be acknowledged universally, but as we acknowledge Him now I believe we are preserved in our hearts, in our souls and in our minds from the choices that the world makes. John says, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”, 1 John 2: 15. You might say, 'I do not love the world. I know it is the place where Christ was crucified’, but there are things in it, and the enemy knows at each age and stage of our lives how to put these things in front of us, but the things in the world lead to the ways of the world, and the end thereof are the ways of death. This is the way of life, the Name which is above every name, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”. That is the way of life.
I commend the Man of God's choice to you and trust you may be blessed in considering Him, for His Name's sake.
Word in a Ministry Meeting, Edinburgh
5th February 2019