Luke 23:7-25 records Jesus’s ‘trial’. In this passage it is easy to be struck by just how fresh this scene is – the characters are so easy to relate to, and indeed I submit to you that the various responses to Jesus and the gospel are completely unchanged over the course of the last 2,000 years. It opens up the question; how do you respond?
First, we have Herod (this Herod, also known as Antipas, is the son of Herod the Great who we meet at Jesus’s birth when he gives the order to kill all children under the age of 2).
Verse 8 – Herod was greatly pleased to meet Jesus. We know that Herod had shown some interest
in hearing religious truths (Mark 6:20 “Herod feared John the Baptist, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him”). In the end, however, he turned his back against the truths that John was speaking and had him killed at the request of his bloodthirsty wife.
This behaviour is actually still rife today – you don’t have to go far to see people being attacked verbally, physically, losing their jobs & careers because those in authority don’t want to hear what they’re
saying. The narrative doesn’t fit what those in power want to hear and so ways are sought to ensure such views are silenced.
Now Herod had had 3 years when he could have gone to hear what Jesus had been saying in the open public places, the towns, synagogues etc. But no doubt he considered his social status too high to mix with the common folk in such a way. And so, it comes to pass that Jesus is sent to him, and so Herod desires to see a miracle and plies him with many questions.
2 observations:
1) Herod is actually shallow and insincere. He wasn’t actually pursuing an understanding of the truth or wanting to make an informed decision. Instead he saw Jesus as a curiosity, like a circus animal who was there to do his bidding, perform a trick and amuse him.
2) verse 9 – Jesus gave him no answer. The one who answered blind beggars, stopped to speak with a bleeding woman and reached out to lepers when they asked for mercy, remains silent before a prince who was only seeking his own gratification.
Jesus makes no distinction between those of high and low status – he tells us that he came to seek and find the lost. He’ll pick up the broken but he cannot help those who don’t see their sin & need.
Jesus is not shy of making a stand for the truth he came to bring and teach. Consider:
– how on Palm Sunday, Jesus decided to fulfil the words of Zechariah and rode a donkey into Jerusalem thereby declaring his kingship and that he was the fulfilment of the Old Testament longings for the Messiah;
– that when he arrived in the city he went to the temple where he drove out the traders and money exchangers.
– how Jesus doesn’t hold back in his criticism of the teachers of the law who “devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely” (Luke 20:47).
But Jesus does know that once someone’s heart has been so hardened and turned from the gospel that the conversation is simply an opportunity for ridicule and dismissal, then silence is the right option. For example we read of him circumventing tests laid before him:
– the woman caught in adultery (John 8); or
– the question around paying taxes to Caesar (Lk 20).
Jesus knows the dishonest question and doesn’t engage on those terms.
And so Herod responds with mockery and scorn – unable to provoke Jesus into acting for his entertainment he resorts to ridicule and dismisses him.
There are many “Herods” today. Those who have some interest in hearing the gospel, but not to enquire and seek the truth, but who seek to act as judge and jury over God’s word, who dictate the terms on which they will entertain hearing what God has to say – not realising it is they who are standing trial
before God. And then resort to mockery when their contempt is ignored.
We find “Herods” in every part of society – many of our world’s political leaders, business leaders, leading academics and journalists act and behave towards the gospel in just the same way.
And so Jesus finds himself before Pilate again. Now Pilate is known to be a ruthless, selfish, violent leader who is more than happy to break laws to achieve his own ends and trample on any who oppose him. Contemporary writings don’t show him in a favourable light – in fact the biblical records are probably the best character endorsement he gets! And we read that in his own way he made some
effort to dismiss the trumped up charges that were brought to him.
Maybe there was something in who Jesus was that caused him to pause? Maybe he just so loathed the Jewish leaders and their obvious vendetta against this humble figure who was quietly accepting his fate (hardly the actions of a defiant anti-Roman revolutionary). But he wasn’t above suggesting a near fatal beating with leather thongs that strip your back through to the flesh and bone – hardly the outcome of someone found innocent at trial!
Maybe he was worried that the leaders were acting against the wishes of the crowd (he may have known about Jesus’s popularity?) In which case agreeing to their demands could have led to a riot. But when he sees that the crowd look like rioting unless he orders Jesus’s execution, then his political leanings override any concerns he has for truth or justice and he signs the death warrant, and releases a man known to be an insurrectionist and murderer.
We have many just like Pilate in our world today. There are many ruthless leaders who will happily abuse the system and processes for their own ends, but will call out the actions of others who seek to do the same. Leaders who know and see what is right and should be done, but expeditiously choose to do what is wrong because it’s popular. This can come in the form of doing what is wrong or maybe just not standing up for what is right.
In this second appearance before Pilate, Jesus is ignored as the dialogue occurs between Pilate, the Jewish leaders and the crowd. We can only assume that Jesus remains silent. I wonder how we’d respond in such a situation? Again, his discernment of when to speak and when not to is observed.
And both in the presence of Herod and Pilate, we have the behaviour of the Jewish leaders. Those who see Jesus’s words as a threat to their status, their lives, envious that the things they hold onto could slip away if the crowds accept what Jesus is teaching. They can’t secure Jesus’s death based on their real reasons for desiring such an outcome and so they seek trumped up charges to get the Roman overlords onside with their goals. Worrying about public opinion they seek to rush through the legal process before anyone has time to object or realise the consequences. With no consequence too high in securing the goal of having Jesus silenced and killed, they’re even willing to see a guilty person released; not that they care for Barabbas, but if it’s necessary to allow criminal behaviour to go unpunished in order to have Jesus and his message silenced then so be it.
So looking at these characters in this episode, how they act, what they say etc. it dawned on me again, that the world we live in is not so different. When I consider many of our national and global leaders I see the same actions/reactions that we see in the people we read about from 2,000 years ago.
Luke finishes this section with the words “and he surrendered Jesus to their will”. And of
course in one sense that’s absolutely true – it was the will of the Jewish leaders and the crowds that resulted in this verdict. They were in full control of their choices and actions when demanding Jesus be crucified. And yet, on another level what we’re seeing unfold is the perfect will of God. Jesus had predicted this outcome and declared it to be the means through which his mission would be completed
and the way through which mankind is able to be reconciled with the God who loves us so much he’s prepared to suffer in this way to enable that to happen.
In John’s gospel (12:24-26), Jesus says “I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”.
Not only is the success of Jesus’s mission to be seen in the cross, but in fact it is to the cross that each one of us who follows Jesus Christ must come. This submission of our life – ie to be clear that our priorities, our goals, our focus must come 2nd to the will of God. If the aim of your life is anything other than God, then Jesus says your life will slip through your fingers and ultimately have no worth or value. However, if we die to self and live for Christ then like the seed which dies we’ll experience a re-birth which produces many seeds in an abundance of life.
There are those who hear and accept this teaching, who know it to be true and who seek to live accordingly. And there are those who don’t hear, won’t hear, won’t accept – the Pilates, the Herods, the kings of this world that stand against the Lord and his anointed (Psalm 2) and the crowds which shout for Jesus to be destroyed and that demand the Barabbases are set free.
This is not new and it’s not a surprise. Jesus told his disciples “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.” (Jn 15:18-20).
Like all those who have gone before us we also have two choices:
1) To commit ourselves to a path of obedience to God’s will, and accept this will mean rejection from the world; or
2) To spurn, mock, reject or ignore this path and take the wide road that Jesus says will lead to loss of life and destruction
The scene is set, the sides have been taken, the choice is before us – who will you be shouting for?
Jesus or Barabbas?