Luke 23:6-12 [ESV]
6When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. 9So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. 12And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other."
STORYLINE:
Jesus has been arrested in the middle of the night in the Garden of Gethsemane. He has been abandoned by His disciples and publicly denied by His lead disciple. He has been mocked, ridiculed and severely beaten for hours by the Temple guard, and then He was marched in front of the Roman Procurator to be judged.
The Roman Procurator, a man named Pilate, did not think Jesus was worth dealing with, and after questioning Jesus his verdict was that Jesus was NOT guilty of any crime against Rome. The religious leaders press him on this issue and expand the charges to Jesus causing dissention among the people, which was serious charge for Rome as they wanted the peace kept, at all costs.
Pilate still does not see any reason to charge and punish Jesus, but he hears that Jesus had been serving in Galilee, and he quickly desires to pass the buck to the local Jewish ‘king’ … King Herod, who was in Jerusalem at the time.
Now why did Pilate send Jesus to Herod? It could be that Pilate knew that these religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus… but he did not want to be the one to pass sentence on Him. In fact, we later see this to be the case… but here in this passage we see that Pilate hopes Herod will pass judgment and relieve him of this burden… and politically speaking relieve him of all the negative fallout that comes with sentencing a popular man to his death.
Another thought is that Pilate could have heard that Herod hated Jesus and wanted Him dead… and this could be why Herod and Pilate are considered friends after this day… [Bobby’s notes] in either regard, Pilate chose to pass the buck (so to speak) to Herod… and here is where we pick up our story!
VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY/STUDY:
6When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
Now, biblically speaking, when we hear the name Herod, it was not so much a name as it was a title… And it was used by at least 3 men in the Bible…
First there was Herod the Great (whose name WAS Herod) was king when Jesus was born.
Then we see that there is a “Herod Agrippa” (grandson of Herod the Great) the king that Paul dealt with in Acts, and almost persuaded to proclaim Christ as Savior.
Then there is Herod Antipas that we see in our passage tonight (son of Herod the Great) we associate with the imprisonment and martyrdom of John the Baptist.
Herod Antipas had married his brother’s wife before his brother’s death… which was unlawful and sinful and John the Baptist proclaimed this sin to the masses. This is why John was eventually imprisoned by Herod, and executed (beheaded) by him.
In our passage tonight, we find Jesus being sent by Pilate to meet with Herod Antipas. Now from all indication in this passage, Herod seems excited to meet Jesus. The presupposition here is that Herod has heard about Jesus and what He has been doing (miracles/signs) but we come to the conclusion that Herod’s excitement was simply that Jesus would ‘perform’ for him.
However, when we look earlier in the book of Luke we can actually read about some of the religious leaders who were following Jesus… they warned Jesus that Herod desired to kill Him…Luke 13:31 [ESV] 31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you."
Why would Herod want to kill Jesus? Before that verse, Herod and Jesus had not been connected… but scripture does tell us that Herod had heard of what Jesus had done and that he believed that Jesus was the John the Baptist come back to life! He had put John to death, so that would have been reason enough for Herod to fear Jesus and desire Jesus’ death…
However, Herod’s attitude seems to have changed by this time (v.8)…
8When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.
By the time of this passage Herod was no longer thinking of Jesus as the reincarnation of John. And although his excitement for Jesus to ‘perform’ in front of him was great, I am also sure that Herod’s motives were political as well… Perhaps he could charm this man named Jesus and IF he could get Jesus to be his ally then he would be able capitalize on His popularity.
9So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.
However, Jesus was not excited to meet Herod. Possibly because He knew Herod’s heart and motives… OR simply because this was a distraction from God’s plan and He wanted to move forward with the plan of the Father.
We find that no matter what Herod said, Jesus was silent… and the implication of Scripture is that Herod either took offense to the silent treatment OR it was that Herod had planned all along to mock and ridicule Jesus. They ALL mocked Jesus as the religious leaders flung constant accusation after accusation onto Jesus.
Now I am no psychologist and I don’t claim to intimately know the hearts of these religious leaders, but I have found that in human nature that when one tends to “Protest Too Much” that there is a tendency not to believe that person because they are so strongly insisting that something is not true…
11And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.
v.11 – this ‘splendid clothing’ more than likely was a white robe, that was the custom of the Jewish nobility...
Later we find that Pilate's soldiers, who were Romans, put Jesus in a purple robe to mock Him as royalty. We find this in Mark and John; both instances they use the custom of their country to mock Jesus.
[Adam Clarke Commentary via www.studylight.org]
With the religious leaders who were there with Jesus and Herod and constantly shouting their accusations to Herod… Here is what I believe happened. Although, we see Herod mocking and ridiculing Jesus, he could NOT find anything to charge Jesus with and so he sends Jesus BACK to Pilate, uncharged and now Pilate has to deal with Him...
12And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other."
In Luke 13, Pilate had desecrated the Temple worship. Pilate had apparently mingled the blood of crucified or killed Jews with the blood of the sacrifices in the Temple… which would be a sacrilege…
The Jews were in an uproar [and thus Herod was angry] about it and I am sure that Pilate’s relationship with Herod became FROSTY on that day, but here in this passage… things now seemed to be smoothed over between the two and any of the past problems are forgotten. It re-establishes an open dialogue between them and they become friends…
So as we look at these verses about Jesus going before Herod Antipas, just what do they hold for us today, as believers?
Well 1st they hold up an example we are all called to emulate and live by… and that is the life of Christ and His unselfish nature and love. Christ loved us so much that He was absolutely willing to give ALL of Himself for our sin! In Philippians 2 Paul exhorts this unselfish attitude and lifestyle that Jesus lived, when we read 2:1-11 [read verses… show on board?]
The 2nd thing is that, we are ALL called to emulate Christ and live according to His commands and purposes. And when we live our lives according to Christ… we will be rejected as He was rejected. Jesus Himself tells His disciples that because they are HIS disciples, the world is going to hate them… we should expect nothing different from the world.
Christ was persecuted and we should understand that persecution and ill treatment comes with our association with Him. We should have the attitude of Peter in Acts 6 in that we should rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer for His namesake.
40and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name [of Jesus].
A 3rd and very difficult lesson we can take from this passage is silence among false accusations. There are so many times in life when we can be accused falsely and we want to SPEAK up in defense of ourselves to disprove the false things being said about us… but here we find Jesus revealing that when it comes to the world condemning you… there are no words will change their minds… as so Jesus chose to remain silent and instead He chose to ACT at this point!
We all know that our actions reveal MORE to the world than our words… so in the face of false accusations we should not rebuke or defend ourselves with words, but remain faithful to the plan of God in our lives and reveal God to the world through our actions… after all… while Jesus was on the cross, did not the Roman soldier look up and say, “Surely this was the Son of God!” and in doing so revealed that the actions of Jesus were more effective than His words could have ever been…
Jesus suffered so that we might live and be free from sin. We have to learn to live as God has called us and in obedience to His plan and purposes, regardless of what the world brings against us… Jesus trusted in the plan of the Father and we too must trust in the plan of the Father as well…
