John 18, 21

In the Daily Dose of Greek video for John 21:9, Dr. Plummer mentions almost as a side note that ἀνθρακιά ("charcoal fire," in the accusative form in the verse) occurs only twice in the Bible:  in this verse and in John 18:18.

At first, I didn't give much thought to this, but the day after I watched the video, I realized that the contexts in which this word appears are related.

In John 18:18, Peter is standing by a charcoal fire while the soldiers take Jesus to Annas.  In the surrounding verses (17, 25-27), Peter three times denies knowing Jesus.

In John 21, after the charcoal fire is mentioned, Jesus three times asks Peter if he loves Him (verses 15-17).  The three instances (three denials and three questions) link these two passages, as John 21:17 makes clear ("Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?'"), and while the charcoal fire isn't nearly as significant, it's a sensory detail that also connects these two accounts.

On Barabbas

Even before the Daily Dose of Greek got to John 18:40 last month, I started thinking about Barabbas.  Back in August last year, I had a small realization about this particular verse (which I never got around to writing about), and I had an-other realization after watching the Daily Dose of Greek video.

Previously, I'd thought of this exchange between Barabbas and Jesus only as a representation of the exchange between guilt and innocence (aside, of course, from the recounting of an actual event).  In the same way that innocent Jesus takes the place of guilty Barabbas, He also takes the punishment that should be ours.

Considering the passage more closely, I realized that there's a bit more depth than that; there are also specific contrasts between the characters of these two figures.  In John 18:40, the Evangelist comments "Now Barabbas was a robber," and this contrasts with Jesus, Who gives freely (the feeding of the five thousand, for example).  In Mark 15:7, Barabbas is described as one of "the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection."  Jesus is the exact opposite of these attributes, too.  Instead of rebelling, He kept the law perfectly (Hebrews 9:14), and rather than murdering, He creates life (in Acts 3:15, He is called the Author of life).

My other realization, looking at the accounts from a different perspective, is that the crowd is representative of our sinful human nature.  In the same way that the crowd calls for Barabbas and rejects Jesus, we would cling to the darkness of sin and shun the Light of righteousness.