The Media and The Barabbas Paradox
When I was a church planter, Holy Week was the most exhilarating, exhausting, and emotionally overwhelming time of year. It was exhausting because we had four very different services to plan, and it was emotionally overwhelming because the rhythms of these four services take hold of your heart and lovingly lead us through the whole gamut of human emotions.
In the solemn and sober Maundy Thursday service, we commemorate the new commandment of Christ — Love one another as I have loved you — Demonstrated by the oft-dreaded public foot-washing. In the somber and grim Good Friday service, or as some Anglican Brits call it, Easter Friday, we commemorate the Passion of Christ — Draping the cross in black cloth — Demonstrated by beholding the unimaginable torture Jesus endured and meditating on the final seven phrases he said as He died.
Most assuredly, it was exhilarating because the week culminates with the resurrection of Jesus—A release of power into all of creation that makes the Big Bang look like a Junior High School lab experiment—Demonstrated by the empty tomb, the torn veil, and the inauguration of a New Creation through the reconciliation of all things.
However, the most irrational service was the predecessor to Holy Week, the dual-natured Palm Sunday celebration. It opens with the exulting "Hosannas!" and ends with the revolting "Crucify him!" — Demonstrating the fickle bifurcation of the human heart.
Crowd Sourcing of the Worst Kind
Widely held bible commentary makes the reasonable claim that the same crowds who joyously welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem quickly turned on Him once He was arrested. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew preserve valuable clues. Mark explains the chief priests "stirred up the crowd" (15:11), and Matthew gives a detailed report: "The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed." (27:20)
Alternatively, acclaimed author and scholar Eugenia Constantinou writes in her breathtaking masterpiece, The Crucifixion of the King of the Glory, that likely, the crowds who exclaimed "Hosanna!" during Jesus' entry to Jerusalem were not the same people who shouted "Crucify him!" at Pilate's Praetorium. Her premise is that the herd of agitators demanding that Barabbas be released were a hand-picked lot of political activists.
In either case, as we ponder our piety and place ourselves in these historic contexts, we confidently deduce precisely how we would have behaved if given the chance, and it's always in the most noble, righteous manner possible.
As we transport our current-day morally shaped selves back through history, we proudly know we would never have afforded ourselves to native American land nor entered a home that enslaved a person. And as surely as I write this, I proudly see myself hopping atop the Praetorium wall with my Free Jesus banner to publicly plead my case. With 100% surety, I can confirm that I would never be coerced or persuaded to blindly follow a blood-thirsty crowd and cast my vote for Barabbas.
Or would I?
Professor Jordan Peterson perfectly sums up our surprising blindness to ascertain the depth of our propensity for good and evil under tribal social pressure:
You might think you would have been a hero in Nazi Germany, resisting the regime, but the truth is, most of us would have been Nazis. You would have been the one following orders, maybe even guarding the camps, because that's what ordinary people do under pressure.
This same social dynamic is present today, actively winnowing moral virtuousness from human hearts more than ever.
This social contagion comes in many flavors and labels: groupthink, virtue signaling, the bandwagon effect, or tribal conformity, to name a few. During the Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates, Dr. Robert Malone, horrified by the blind compliance of large percentages of the populace, coined Mass Formation Psychosis.
Always remember that the persistent symptom of deception is that the patient is not aware of their diagnosis.
Five aspects of this social phenomenon are certain. First, if we are not astutely keen-witted and employ rigorous discernment, we are all vulnerable to succumbing to it. Second, resisting this deception is a matter of daily vigilance and frequent introspection. Third, when you hear the crowd clamoring in the West, it is best to set your face Eastward. Fourth, once you permit the poison to enter your mind, you will rarely pick the true heroes and villains.
And fifth, it is very much a spiritual matter.
As I watch the corporate-owned chief priests of media stir up the crowds with persuasive arguments intended to steer them, I am genuinely grieved and confounded by the mass compliance and adherence. I liken it to battered-viewer syndrome: no matter how many lies we are hit with, we somehow believe it's for our own good.
The weapons we raise in this spiritual battle for truth are not cable news personalities, network hosts, or newspaper columnists. The spirit-filled believer is readily equipped to reveal and dismantle false arguments, arrogance, and vain speculations that are presented against the knowledge of God. Once dismantled, we then constrain any rogue ideas to be obedient not to my tribe but to Christ. (My summary of II Corinthians 10:4-5)
Give Us Barabbas!
It astounds me to watch the enemy execute the same tiresome play repeatedly, only to hear the masses screech for Barabbas repeatedly. The media and corrupt politicians revel in foisting their heroes and villains on the nation, but they never seem to choose correctly.
Ferguson, Missouri, became newsworthy for all the wrong reasons when Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer. But do you remember the case of Daniel Shaver in Mesa, Arizona? He was shot and killed by a police officer, too.
The media chose their hero immediately in the Ferguson case and promulgated unproven details that erupted in violent protests, arson, destruction, and looting. Predictably, a proper investigation later proved everything first reported was false and that Mr. Brown was not indiscriminately gunned down.
Do you remember the riots in Mesa? I don't, either. But we all remember, Hands Up, Don't Shoot.
Louisville, Kentucky, became newsworthy for all the wrong reasons when we were told Breonna Taylor was shot to death in her bed by police. But do you remember the case of Duncan Lemp in Potomac, MD? He was shot and killed while sleeping in his bed by a police officer, too.
The media chose their hero in Louisville immediately and promulgated unproven details that erupted in violent protests, arson, destruction, and looting. Predictably, a proper investigation later proved the first reports were false, and Miss Taylor's boyfriend fired at the police first.
Do you remember the riots in Potomac? I don't, either. But we all remember, Say Her Name.
Shall we review how the media covered the cases of George Floyd, Nicholas Sandmann, Kyle Rittenhouse, Daniel Penny, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, Bevelyn Beatty, and the ongoing cast list of the regime machinery's gruesome play? It truly breaks my heart to recount these stories because human lives were persecuted, taken, and destroyed.
My point is not to retry these cases but to remind us how desperately treacherous the media is when picking heroes and villains. And as they continue to dish out their biased slop, the mass formation psychosis is predictably spreading.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia criminally entered this country in 2011 or 2012, was in court for suspected gang-related activities, alleged human trafficking, driving with an expired license, was denied a request for asylum, and had multiple reports of domestic abuse and a civil protective order filed against him by his wife.
As the chief priests of media stir up the crowds of adherents with frothing shouts of Due Process!, no similar protestations were made for John Strand, an innocent, law-abiding U.S. citizen who was terrorized by the FBI, tortured by the DOJ, and forgotten by the media.
Both Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and high school student Austin Metcalf were senselessly murdered in broad daylight, yet the mob in Pilate's Praetorium is once again equivocating who the villains are.
Splitscreen
A recent photo blew through social media with a sobering effect. On one side of the photo, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is shown visiting with Kilmar Garcia in El Salvador. On the other, President Trump is shown visiting with Maryland mother, Patti Morin, whose daughter was murdered by a criminal migrant.
Heartbreakingly, this meme is a fitting depiction of the split-screen in our nation right now. It is the resulting portrayal of precisely what the regime machinery wants you to see when you look at their game board.
As we roll the reels of these past ten years and look at whom the media lauded as heroes and persecuted as villains, has the passage of time proved they cared about truth or the well-being of these souls? Or perhaps, as battered viewers, we were devilishly persuaded at the time to believe something we now know was not true.
At this point, some will choose to berate my faith and accuse me of being unchristian in my judgments. As I have consistently said through the years, we can show great care, concern, and love for the individual while at the same time exposing and tearing down the systems and agendas that stand in opposition to truth, justice, and the knowledge of God.
Did God love Barabbas as he stood before the crowd? Yes. Was Breonna created in God's image? Yes. Did Jesus die for George Floyd? Yes.
I never use the phrase, Love the sinner but hate the sin. Better said, we love people with everything we've got because they are made in God's image. Likewise, we hate corrupt systems with everything we've got because they use tragic stories to leverage more harm and division instead of cultivating healing.
And know this: When a human heart rejects the love of a Savior and welcomes demons to animate it, we need discernment to know the difference because this split screen runs through the center of every human heart—until we put our trust in the one Who died that day instead of Barabbas.
Next time you watch one of the late-night hosts, read an article in the NY Times, or watch a primetime panel of pundits on cable news, ask yourself: Who are they asking me to cheer for? Who is the criminal they are making excuses for? Which crowd do I find myself in?
And, ask yourself: is the Messiah standing quietly by, asking me to consider Him first?
You brought me this man [Jesus] as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
~ Pontius Pilate to the crowd in the Praetorium, Luke 23:14
Yet the crowd shouted all together:
Take Jesus away! Release Barabbas for us!
