Barabbas

Oh, happy day when the crowd shouted

that I was to be let free.

Did you know we shared a name? Yeshua Bar-Abbas, son of a Jewish father,

and Yeshua who called himself Messiah.

Your savior had my common name.

“Behold, your son will save the world, and you will name him...Josh.”

Not exactly creative.

Is that why they called me, of all the criminals,

to be sought out against that quiet man?

I wore my crimes proudly; saw in the crowd faces

of people who had seen me murder their brothers and sons

Yet somehow, deep and terrible was their anger toward a man

whose hands, next to mine,

were so clean.

The crowd parted as I walked back into the city

and closed behind me like an ocean. I, who knew of Abba,

said a prayer just in case. Then

I broke a man’s skull with a rock.

Your Joshua - such a pity

that he died instead of me

and I never knew what it meant.