On 24th October an asylum seeker, who had been convicted of assault and was in Chelmsford prison awaiting deportation from the UK to Ethiopia, was accidentally released instead. While the police scrambled to find him, the news broke that two other convicts had been accidentally released from Wandsworth prison shortly afterwards. All have now been recaptured. The Home Office has admitted that in the year to March 2025, over 250 prisoners were accidentally released from UK prisons – a result, it seems, of a chronically overburdened prison system.
Two thousand years ago a prisoner was released from custody in Jerusalem. Judea was part of the Roman empire, and governed by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. At the time of the Jewish Passover, it was customary for Pilate to release one prisoner, who was chosen by the Jews. This Passover, Jesus Christ was standing trial. Pilate could find no fault in Jesus, and knew that the Jewish rulers had delivered him ‘out of envy’ (Matthew 27:15-18). So he asked the crowd whom he should release – Jesus, or a ‘notorious prisoner called Barabbas’. Barabbas was in prison for ‘murder in the insurrection’ (Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:18-25).
Stirred up by their leaders, the crowd demanded that he release Barabbas. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but in order to appease the Jews, and maybe fearing for his job, he agreed to their demand. He released Barabbas and committed Jesus to be crucified.
There was no right of appeal. The crucifixion, a gross miscarriage of justice, happened later that day.
Some countries still have the death sentence. In the USA there is the infamous ‘death row’, where convicted prisoners can end up waiting for years before their execution.
Like it or not, we are all naturally on our own ‘death row’. Our natural life ends in death. As such, we are in a form of bondage or prison. The amazing thing is that the death (and subsequent resurrection) of Jesus can save us from this. In fact, it is the only way we can be released from our predicament. The prophet Isaiah foretold this in beautiful words, which Jesus applied to himself:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1-2 quoted in Luke 4:17-21).
There are similar words about Jesus in other parts of Isaiah (for example 42:1-7).
Psalm 68 describes a ‘host of captives’ being freed (v. 18), and the apostle Paul confirms that this is speaking of the work of Jesus (Ephesians 4:7-8).
We all sin and we all deserve to die. The awesome fact is that, if we are true followers of Jesus Christ, we can be freed from that fate. And freed for ever, with eternal life (Romans 6:23).
The prisoners freed by mistake from UK prisons do not ask for their release. They are generally quickly recaptured. We did not ask Jesus to die for us. But surely this eternal release that we can have, because of his death, is something we should accept with unspeakable gratitude.
Anna Hart