The name Barabbas ironically means “son of the father.” The crowd, most of whom were stirred up by the chief priests and elders, called for the release of Barabbas while rejecting the true Son of the Father. In one sense, we are all like Barabbas—we are the sinful sons set free because the true Son of the Father was condemned to death. Barabbas was a thief, murderer, and traitor, while Jesus the Christ was perfect. Those who condemned the Savior to death were presented with a clear choice, and they chose evil.
The law of Moses provided a foreshadowing of Barabbas’s release centuries before it happened. The law of Moses taught that once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest selected two goats. One goat became the scapegoat and was released alive into the wilderness, while the other was ‘for the Lord’ and was killed as an offering for the sins of the people (see Leviticus 16:8–10). The high priest then took blood from the slain goat into the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle. He sprinkled it on the lid of the ark of the covenant (called the mercy seat), symbolically making atonement for the sins of Israel.
Gerald N. Lund, who later became a member of the Seventy, explained how the events on the Day of Atonement foreshadowed the Savior’s offering of His blood: “Christ, as the lamb of Jehovah as well as High Priest, shed his own blood to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies where that blood ransomed from their sins those who would believe in him and obey his commandments. (See Heb. 9:11–14, 24–28; 10:11–22; D&C 45:3–5.)” (Jesus Christ, Key to the Plan of Salvation [1991], 67).
“This brutal practice, a preliminary to crucifixion, consisted of stripping the victim of clothes, strapping him to a pillar or frame, and beating him with a scourge made of leather straps weighted with sharp pieces of lead and bone. It left the tortured sufferer bleeding, weak, and sometimes dead” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary,3 vols. [1965–73], 1:807).
On another occasion, Elder McConkie repeated that “many died from scourging alone, but [Jesus Christ] rose from the sufferings of the scourge that he might die an ignominious death upon the cruel cross of Calvary” (“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign, May 1985, 9–10).
“With all the conviction of my soul I testify that … a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, … the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence.”
“It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone” (“None Were with Him,” 88).
“The Holy of Holies is now open to all, and all, through the atoning blood of the Lamb, can now enter into the highest and holiest of all places, that kingdom where eternal life is found. … The ordinances performed through the veil of the ancient temple were in similitude of what Christ was to do, which he now having done, all men become eligible to pass through the veil into the presence of the Lord to inherit full exaltation” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:830).