<p><em>Sometimes the choices between good and evil seem so stark. But clear choices are not necessarily easy. It is possible to see where different paths lead and still not be sure which way is better. It is possible to want the good so badly that one is willing to sacrifice certain ideals to get it. This may be construed as laudable flexibility or selling out ones principles depending upon how things work out. Lukes passion account puts us right in the midst of just such a quandary with regard to choosing Jesus or Barabbas for release. Peacefulness or power which is the better path to accomplishing some good in the world. In Lukes Passion the crowd chooses power. In the heat of difficult decisions and an increasingly divided world what will I choose?</em></p><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><p><strong>April 10 2022: Passion (Palm) Sunday</strong></p><p>Luke 19:28-40</p><p>Isaiah 50:4-7</p><p>Psalm 22:8-9 17-18 19-20 23-24</p><p>Philippians 2:6-11</p><p>Luke 22:14 23:56</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Do We Want Barabbas?</strong></h2><p><em>A reflection by John Falcone</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We want Barabbas!</p><p>In Lukes Passion story which is the gospel for Palm Sunday this is how we as a congregation respond when Pilate offers to release Jesus to us.</p><p>Away with him! We want Barabbas!</p><p>We start Palm Sunday with the disciples celebrating Jesus (Its the Messiah the One Who Is Coming the one who will finally bring peace!) and we end it with them standing at a distance while the crowd condemns Jesus and asks for Barabbas.</p><p>Whats so attractive about this Barabbas? What might they (or we) find in him to admire?</p><p>The gospels do give us a few details about Barabbas. Luke 23:19 tells us that he was imprisoned for starting a riot in Jerusalem and for murder (or perhaps better for assassination). Mark 15:7 tells us that the riot was an uprising. John 18:40 says that he was a lastas a word often translated as bandit but used in other contexts to describe revolutionaries. Well come back to Matthews description at the end.</p><p>By these accounts we know that Barabbas was a committed activist; and that in itself can be attractive. We also know that he was willing to use violence. That is troubling but does it put him in the wrong? Questions about pacifism are not easy to answer. Movements like the Catholic Worker and the historic peace churches (Mennonites Quakers Church of the Brethren) argue that being Christian requires us to reject violence. I once asked my undergrad students to read a Mennonite essay: it argued that Christians must not become soldiers or work as police officers; that we should try to avoid calling the police; and that Christian universities should ask police officers to check their guns at the gate while on campus. The essay was not well received.</p><p>Barabbas was a committed activist who was willing to use violence to bring out political change. But I suspect Barabbas attraction runs even deeper than his stance toward violence.</p><p>I suspect one might be attracted to Barabbas spirit of ruthlessness. Although it is difficult to admit it I know that I can be. As I learn the horrific details of the war in Ukraine some days I welcome more Russian deaths. What else is likely to stop Putins invasion? Surely Barabbas would have felt the same: hard ball power politics. When an ultra-conservative church leader is swallowed by scandal and goes down in disgrace a part of me celebrates. Which is more likely: their conversion or their public defeat?</p><p>Committed activism ruthlessness and hard ball power politics. Some days I admire that spirit. LGBTQ people and immigrants poor people and people of color have lived too long at the wrong end of someone elses stick. We know what its like to have rights and opportunities taken away from us. Many of us have been attacked emotionally psychologically and theologically. Many have suffered physical violence. Many live in fear for their lives even today. I have not lived fifty-plus years without learning how to play hard ball; how to use emotional and political pressure to get something done; how to defend myself and my loved ones.</p><p>Todays readings though point to different possibilities. Isaiah connects the power of God to sustaining the weary and accepting insults and humiliation. Pauls letter to the Philippians reminds us that Jesus reigns supreme over all of creation precisely because he did not use power in that way choosing instead to live (and die) with the oppressed. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Nelson Mandela and so many others have similarly shown us how to absorb violence with integrity instead of projecting it outward and multiplying it in the world. If on some days I admire Barabbas I also admire these nonviolent activists. Who can you name in your own life or community who has combined iron commitment with a soft and compassionate heart?</p><p>Matthew 26:16-17 offers us one additional detail on Barabbas: At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered Pilate said to them Whom do you want me to release for you Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah? (Some manuscripts drop Jesus and simply call him Barabbas but most scholars agree that Jesus Barabbas is the original text.)</p><p>In Aramaic the language of first century Palestine Barabbas would be written bar Abba: the son of Abba the son of the father. How easy it is to confuse Jesus bar Abba with Jesus the Messiah whom were called to adore. That would have been true linguistically back in Jesus time and it is true spiritually today.</p><p>This weeks readings do not offer a plan of action for the great emergencies that we face: racism authoritarianism climate catastrophe wars Dont Say Gay and so many more. Instead they offer us two different understandings of power that can shape our action in response to these great crises. They invite us to choose between two kinds of hero two visions of what God is about. In the end they ask us as Pilate asked the crowd in Lukes account of the Passion to choose what we find more attractive to choose what we want to adore.</p><p>Do we want power politics or compassionate commitment?</p><p>Do we want Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth?</p><p>Most days I am attracted to both. My prayer this Palm Sunday is to seek more consistently the compassionate commitment of Jesus.</p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=mobile-full><img class=mobile-full src=https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/uploads/static/falcone_a3081f4e9668044b421d3d5d3641a3e3.png alt= width=166 vspace=0 hspace=0></div><p><em>John P. Falcone is a practical theologian religious educator and a practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed (PhD Boston College). He has been a Dignity member for more than 20 years with close links to Dignity NY where he met his husband Matias Wibowo in 2005. He is currently Theologian-in-Residence at St. Matthews Bethnal Green (Church of England) in Londons East End.</em></p><p style=text-align: center;><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>