“Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 27:26 Mean?
"Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." The exchange is complete: Barabbas goes free; Jesus goes to the cross. The innocent is punished; the guilty is released. The substitution is enacted in a single verse that captures the entire gospel in miniature.
The scourging (phragelloo) was a brutal flogging with a Roman flagellum — a whip embedded with bone and metal that tore flesh from the body. Scourging alone could kill. It was administered before crucifixion as a standard procedure, weakening the prisoner to hasten death on the cross.
The clinical brevity — "he delivered him to be crucified" — understates the horror. Six words for the most significant event in human history. No description of the pain. No extended narrative of the suffering. Just: he was delivered to be crucified. The simplicity of the sentence contains the weight of the universe.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Do you understand that you are Barabbas — the guilty one who goes free?
- 2.How does the simplicity of Matthew's description affect you differently than a detailed account would?
- 3.What does it mean that Jesus accepted the swap — took the consequences that belonged to someone else?
- 4.Whose cross are you not carrying because someone else carried it for you?
Devotional
Barabbas goes free. Jesus goes to the cross. The guilty is released. The innocent is delivered to be crucified. The swap is the gospel in a single sentence.
Matthew doesn't linger on the violence. He states it plainly: scourged. Delivered. Crucified. The restraint is deliberate. The horror needs no embellishment. The facts are enough. The Son of God is whipped and handed over to die. The words carry the weight without adjectives.
The Barabbas exchange is the clearest picture of substitutionary atonement in the Gospels. A guilty man walks free because an innocent man takes his place. The crowd chose Barabbas — a murderer, an insurrectionist — over Jesus. And Jesus accepted the swap. He took Barabbas's cross.
You are Barabbas. Not metaphorically. Structurally. You're the guilty one who goes free because the innocent one took your place. The cross that had your name on it — the consequences that belonged to you — were transferred to someone else. And you walk out of the prison while He walks toward Golgotha.
The scourging isn't mentioned for its brutality alone. It's mentioned because it happened to the wrong person. Jesus was scourged. Barabbas should have been. You should have been. The pain of the innocent is the price of the guilty's freedom.
Do you know whose cross you're not carrying?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Then the soldiers of the governor,.... Those that were about him, his attendants and guards,
took Jesus into the…
And when he had scourged Jesus - See the notes at Mat 10:17. Among the Romans it was customary to scourge or whip a…
when he had scourged Jesus Scourging usually preceded crucifixion. It was in itself a cruel and barbarous torture, under…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture