Becoming Barabbas — Part 2 of 5 · John 18:28–40
They brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment, and it was early morning. But the chief priests and Pharisees themselves would not go inside. Why? Because entering a Gentile’s home would make them ceremonially unclean, and they needed to be ritually pure in order to eat the Passover.
Read that again slowly. They were in the process of orchestrating the murder of an innocent man — the Son of God — and their great concern was not stepping on the wrong floor.
Clean on the Outside, Corrupt Within
The Pharisees and chief priests represent a kind of spiritual blindness that is perhaps the most dangerous of all: the blindness of self-righteousness. They knew the Scriptures. They were zealous about the law. They had proximity to God’s Word that very few others had. And yet they were further from the heart of God than they could have imagined.
Matthew Poole once wrote, “Nothing is more common than for persons overzealous about rituals to be remiss about morals.” These men proved that statement true. They would not defile themselves by entering a building, but they had no qualms about shedding innocent blood.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.”— Matthew 23:25
A Murderous Zeal Disguised as Devotion
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He had confronted this group more than any other. He called them whitewashed tombs. He called them blind guides. He warned them that their religion was an empty shell — all form and no substance. And here, in the final hours, their hypocrisy reaches its peak.
Their great concern was not justice. It was not truth. It was maintaining their status, their position, and their power. Jesus threatened all of those things, and so He had to be eliminated. They were so consumed with protecting their religious system that they could not see God standing right in front of them.
The Danger of Self-Righteousness
How blind they were. They worried about being made unclean by entering someone else’s building, but did not care about the guilt of committing their own sin. They feared a foreign courtroom but not the shedding of innocent blood.
Of the four groups we see in this passage, the Pharisees may be in the worst condition. The others are guilty of ignorance, weakness, or outright sin — but the Pharisees are guilty of all of those things while believing themselves to be righteous. Their religion became their idol, and their idol blinded them.
This is a warning for anybody who's gotten comfortable. You can know your Bible, be at every service, follow every rule, and miss the entire point. The Pharisees didn't need more knowledge. They needed a broken heart. They didn't need more religion. They needed repentance.
A Word for Us
Watch yourself for self-righteousness. Watch yourself for religious superiority. It blinds you, and it blinds you fast. The moment you begin to believe that your outward obedience makes you acceptable before God, you have stepped onto the same ground the Pharisees stood on — the ground of pride.
They were afraid of being defiled by a building, and not the least bit worried about their own sin. Let’s not make that trade. Examine your own heart before you examine anybody else’s. And don’t miss this: the people who knew the most about God are the ones who rejected Him hardest.
Before you close this
If you’ve never trusted Jesus, hear this carefully — church attendance won’t save you, and neither will being a decent person, and neither will knowing your Bible. The Pharisees had all three. What saves you is Jesus, and He’s received by faith, not earned by record. Call on Him.
And if you do follow Him: self-righteousness is the worst seat in the house, and it’s a comfortable one. Nobody ever sat down in it on purpose. If reading about the Pharisees made you think of somebody else, read it again.
Becoming Barabbas is a five-part study in John 18:28–40. ← Part 1 · Part 3 →