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He Saved Me as Well
Pilate is having a conversation with the crowd. Pilate said to the crowd, “Whom shall I release to you?”
The crowd shouted, “Barabbas, Barabbas.”
Pilate then asked, “What should I do with Jesus your Christ?”
And the crowd shouted back, “Crucify him, Crucify him.”
Then Pilate inquired, “But what evil has he done?”
They shouted all the louder, “Crucify him.”
About 1000 yards away, at the fortress of Antonias, Barabbas was in a jail cell. From the distance, he hears the crowd call out his name, “Barabbas.” Then heard them cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him. Moments later he heard the soldiers approaching his cell in lock-step, the fumbling of the keys, the cell door opening, and the shackles released from his limbs. He is helped to his feet. At that moment, he braced himself for the unimaginable torture. Instead, the Roman soldiers said to him, “Barabbas, you are free to go.” He would not have believed what he just heard.
So he asked, “How is that possible?”
The soldier would have responded, “Someone else will bear your cross.”
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