Barabbas is one of the most remarkable details in the Passion narrative. His name — Bar Abba — literally means "son of the father." Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all mention him. He was in prison for insurrection and murder (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19, John 18:40). Pilate, looking for a way to release Jesus, invoked a custom of releasing one prisoner at the Passover: he offered the crowd a choice between Jesus Christ (called in some manuscripts "Jesus Barabbas" to heighten the parallel) and Barabbas the murderer. "They all said to him, 'Let Him be crucified!'... Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, He delivered Him to be crucified" (Matthew 27:22-26). The symbolism is almost unbearable. A guilty man — a murderer — walks free because an innocent Man takes his place on the cross. Literally: Jesus dies instead of Barabbas. This is the whole gospel in a single scene. Every Christian is Barabbas. Every Christian is the guilty one who should have died, whose sentence was commuted because Jesus took it. When Barabbas left the Praetorium that morning, he did not know what he had just escaped, and he did not know who had paid for his escape. But we know. And every Christian knows, with Barabbas, what it is to walk out into the sunshine free because Jesus walked the other way, toward the cross. Tradition is silent on what became of Barabbas. We do not know if he ever understood what had happened. But the story is still his. It is the story of every sinner who has ever been set free because Another took the sentence.