Choices

Each and every day our lives are filled with choices. Some, we welcome. Others, we dread. Some are important. Some are trivial. But welcome, dreaded, important or trivial, choices are a daily and continual part of our lives. And, so are the consequences they bring.

What choices have you already made this morning? Will I get out of bed on time or lay here awhile longer? Will I get dressed or spend my day in my p.j.'s? (My personal definition of luxury. GRIN) Will I do my hair or get by with wearing a cap today? Will I spend time alone with God first or check my email (or read the newspaper)? Choices confront us before we even open our eyes in the morning, don't they? And choices are still confronting us when we fall into bed at night. Will I commend my spirit into the Father's hands and fall asleep counting my blessings or will I rehash in my mind the stresses of the day? Choices are always there and always demand our decisions. Whether we like it or not, we must make choices.

Mark 15:6-15 records a choice the people of Jesus' time had to make. Jesus had been betrayed by Judas, arrested and tried before the High Priest, Caiaphas, and the whole Jewish council. He had been denied by Peter and delivered before Pilate for sentencing. As governor, Pilate's custom was, according to traditional Passover amnesty, to free one prisoner.

Pilate asked (v.9) "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" With Pilate's question the people were faced with a choice. A choice that would have eternal consequences!

Pilate perceived that the chief priests had delivered Jesus to him out of envy. When Pilate asked the people to make a choice, the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead. Barabbas was imprisoned for murder during his part in a rebellious insurrection. His very name, Barabbas, meant "the son of a human father" (see the word abba in his name?) . . . flesh itself. In this definition, we see the bottom line of the choice they must make. Would they choose, Jesus, the Son of God . . . the Son of THE Father . . . Abba's Only Begotten - or would they choose Barabbas?

And, that dear friends, is the timeless choice of all mankind. Will we choose humanity over divinity? From our perspective in history, more than 2,000 years later, we know they chose Barabbas. They chose one who would harm them over one who would heal them!

In the devotional book I've been using for Lent (Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin Jr.), the author likens their choosing Barabbas to choosing the "popular revolutionary hero, the swashbuckler, the pirate, merry Robin Hood, James Bond, Billy Jack, Clint Eastwood, Rambo, the celebrated predator, the one who "turns them on," over one who asks them to "deny themselves and die."

He goes on to say, in choosing Barabbas, they chose

• entertainment over worship
• self-satisfaction over sacrificial love
• getting things over giving things
• being served over serving
• "feeling good about myself" and having it all and gaining the whole world and rubbing elbows with the rich rather than rubbing the wounds of the poor

Read that list again. Aren't those the very things we too are confronted with today? But, for us, the choice is not so much this man or that man - not so much an external choice as an internal one. What choice are you making in your life? Are you choosing what "turns you on"? Or, are you choosing the One who calls you to "deny yourself and die"?

What will you choose today?

• to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26) or your own sinful nature
• to entrust yourself to God (Prov. 3:5-13) or trust yourself
• to be humble (James 4:6) or prideful
• to endure under trial (James 1:1-15) or seek your own way out
• to be still and quieted (Psalm 131:2) or be anxious and stressed
• to be gracious (I Timothy 1:14-16) or be unforgiving
• to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21) or to seek vengeance
• to be a friend of God (James 4:4) or a friend of the world
• to live by faith (Hebrews 11:1-6) or by only what you can see
• to be kind, gentle and respectful (2 Timothy 2:24-26) or rude, mean and harsh
• to live in victory (Colossians 2:9-15) or live in defeat

The choice may not be easy but, like the choice between Jesus or Barabbas, it may have eternal consequences! Will you choose the divine today?

Remember when you make your choice where the strength for your decision comes from.

Not by might,

nor by power,

but by my Spirit,

says the Lord of hosts.

Zech. 4:6