hour had struck. And then the opening of the cell door and the incredible news: "Someone else will be crucified for you - Jesus of Nazareth. You are free!" It was too good to be true. Was he dreaming? Was he already so crazy in his head that he was hallucinating?

It was only when he was freed from his chains and given back his old combat uniform that it dawned on him what had really happened. And when the warden even said goodbye to him personally, gave him a few denarii "for gluing bags in prison" and handed him his release papers, he knew that a miracle had happened: he was free! "Someone else will be crucified for you!" These words echoed in his head - over and over again! Numb with incomprehensible happiness and still slightly confused, he was caught up in the tumult that reigned in the streets of Jerusalem. His release papers read: "Pardoned!" He is free, but who is the other man who is now bound in his place? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth really? His feet habitually carried him to the usual meeting place. He expected to see astonished and surprised faces, but no one was there. It had suddenly become strangely quiet in the streets of Jerusalem. Was he dreaming after all?

The sound of people making noise had shifted towards Golgotha, and suddenly Barabbas knew what was going on: Golgotha - the nightmare of all condemned people. That was where the executions took place. Half of Jerusalem was then on its feet to watch the spectacle and have a change of scenery. That's why there were no more people to be seen here. Barabbas decided to go there by stealth. No, he certainly didn't want to be seen, who knows what the Romans would think of if they discovered him. But the words "Someone else will be crucified for you - Jesus of Nazareth!" stuck in his mind. Jesus of Nazareth - who was this man? Was he a criminal who had even more on his plate than he did? He could hardly imagine, because he knew his way around the scene. He crept closer cautiously and wondered at the huge crowd that had gathered there. He heard hammer blows that rang through his bones. But strangely enough, he heard no screams from the tortured man.

Then he saw a third cross being erected between two crosses. He rubbed his eyes to see better, because he could not believe his ears when he heard what this man in the middle was saying: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Barabbas was now all eyes and ears. The one hanging there was in his spot! He himself, Barabbas, should have been hanging there now. And now someone was dying there, surrounded by a mocking crowd of people who had obviously turned their attention to this man in the middle! He saw how the scribes forgot all dignity and mockingly bowed before him, before him who had been given an ugly, painful crown of thorns and whose face was full of blood and wounds. "He saved others; himself he cannot save" some of the crowd shouted. "If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him" others shouted. Barabbas noticed one of the crucified, he knew him from secret meetings in the past. So they had caught him too. Now he could kick the bucket too. Nevertheless, he obviously used his last reserves to mock the man in the middle. Why on earth? Barabbas couldn't take it any longer. When an unsuspicious woman scurried past him, he ran after her and asked what this Jesus of Nazareth was all about.

"Are you living on the moon or did you just get out of prison," she had replied mockingly, "that's the one they crucified for Barabbas!" Only now did Barabbas understand everything. The cry of "Barabbas" in the early morning was actually for his release and meant execution for this Jesus. "He dies in my place!" Astonished, he watched as the other co-crucified man, who was behaving strangely calmly, said a few words to the other criminal, and then he heard the words: "And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds" and now he looked almost reverently at the man in the middle, "but this man hath done nothing amiss" And then he spoke directly to