WALKING IN HUMILITY.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY THREE.

MATTHEW 27:17.   Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, of Jesus, who is called the Christ?"
Jesus had been arrested in the garden, and was now standing before Pilate, it was the custom at Passover that the governor would release one of the prisoners that the people wanted to be released. Pilate here gives the people and the religious leaders the choice. They can have Barabbas released or Jesus. The religious leaders influence the crowd and they call for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified. You might well ask, "What has this got to do with walking in humility?" Well we all know that Barabbas was a convicted criminal, awaiting execution, Jesus was totally innocent of any crime, The religious leaders tried to accuse Him of blasphemy, but of course nothing was ever proven against Him, He was totally innocent, His whole life had been one of total humility and submission to the will of His Father. The interesting thing in this is this, the name Barabbas, When you trace it back to its Aramaic roots, it basically means pride or arrogance, haughtiness. It is the same word that is used in Proverbs 8:13; 16:18; 29:23; among others for pride. So the religious leaders and the people had the choice between Jesus, the humble Son of God whose whole life had been one of a servant, or Barabbas, who was a convicted criminal, a man who had shown no respect for his fellow man, who was a thief, a rebel and a murderer, his lifestyle totally reflected what his name stood for. Well we all know that they chose Barabbas, They chose pride over humility, of course people will say, "Well it was in God's will for Jesus to be crucified, if He hadn't been crucified then we would not have a Savior." Yes that is perfectly true, but consider this, It was the arrogance and the pride of the religious leaders who thought that they were right and that they were doing God a favour by getting rid of this Jesus, this rebel who was turning the people away from the truth, it was this that motivated the religious leaders in the first place to arrest Jesus and to have Him crucified. You might be still asking the question, "What has this got to do with me walking in humility?" We, like the religious leaders and the people on that day face choices everyday, who are we going to serve? Who are we going to choose? Barabbas represents the way of the world, we can do our own thing, rebel against God's authority, when we chose to walk in sin, doing those things that we know are not pleasing to God, whatever that might be, we allow the seed of God's word that is in our lives to be destroyed, when we choose to do other things instead of spending time with God or going to church because we just don't feel like it we are robbing God of His time. To choose Barabbas, as it were, is to choose to walk in our own pride, and as Proverbs 16:18 says; Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. James 4:6 But He gives more grace, therefore He says; "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. To choose Jesus is to choose to walk in humility, Jesus said; "If anyone would come after Me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me. "And again in Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, To love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God? So this is the choice that we all have to make, and believe me we will all have to make it every day, everyday we are to deny ourselves, to lay down our own agenda and to take up what Christ has for us, to offer our lives to Him as living sacrifices. We know that before Jesus went to the cross He went to the garden, in that garden He prayed, He asked the Father if there was any other way, if the Father could remove the cup that He knew He was about to drink, but He said, "Nevertheless not My will, but your will be done" My challenge for all of us is this, are we prepared to go to the garden? Are we truly prepared to say like Jesus; "Nevertheless not my will, but your will be done" Barabbas or Jesus, who will you choose?