Luke 23:6-12


Luke 23:6-12
6 When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time.
8 Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. 9 And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. 10 And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. 11 And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate. 12 Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.
Pilate is looking for some way to escape having to judge Jesus as he feels trapped.  He believes that Jesus is innocent, but He understands that the Jews are on the verge of revolt.  He is caught between the desire to do what is right in his heart and what the crowd wants him to do.  What is right and what is popular are rarely the same.  Pleasing God must always be more important to us than pleasing people.

HEROD IS CONSULTED ABOUT JESUS: Pilate is not interested in judging this case as he sees is as an impossible case to settle.  He is convinced that Jesus is innocent, but he knows that releasing Jesus will bring about turmoil with the Jews.  He has a brilliant idea of passing the duty of judge to Herod because Jesus was from his jurisdiction. This would clear Pilate’s conscience and he hoped he had heard the last of this situation.  He was wrong.  When we have a conviction that goes against the wishes of groups of people, it makes it very difficult to do what we know we should.  It is easier for us to please people than to stand behind our convictions.  There will always be situations where we have to decide if we will act according to our fear of the Lord or our fear of men.

HEROD IS CURIOUS ABOUT JESUS: When Herod heard that Jesus was being sent to him, he became excited.  The fame of Jesus and His miracles had spread to Herod and he was hoping to see some spectacular sign from Jesus.  He was curious to see if the reports about Jesus were true and wanted to see how much power He had.  He was greatly disappointed.  He questioned Jesus for a long period of time, but Jesus did not answer his questions.  We don’t know what Herod asked Jesus, but it is very likely that he asked Him about His identity and if He could do some miracles.  Jesus just sat their quietly and did not dignify Herod with a response.  Curiosity about Jesus led Herod to believe that he could command some sort of performance from Jesus.  That was not the case.  Jesus does not respond to manipulation.  Too often out interest is Jesus is not out of a desire to know Him, love Him and believe in Him but out of a desire to manipulate Him into doing our will.  We must recognize that Jesus is Lord of all and we are called to do His will instead of trying to impose our will on Him.

HEROD IS CRUEL TO JESUS: The jump from curiosity to cruelty is a short one.  Since Herod was interested in getting a “show” from Jesus, when that didn’t happen, things turned ugly in a hurry.  Since Jesus was not responding and the Jews were making loud but false accusations, Herod was contemptuous and mocking Jesus.  That is the trouble with being curious about Jesus or even open to Him without truly recognizing Him as Lord.  When we go to Jesus expecting that He will serve us in a certain way, we will be disappointed and even become angry at Him.  Jesus came to save us from our sins and restore us to a place where we can have the joy of serving Him.  Whenever we think that we are His lord instead of Him being our Lord; there will be trouble.  Herod’s disappointment with Jesus led him into even deeper sin and he simply returned Jesus to Pilate because he would rather please the Jews and retain his authority than to do what was right and risk losing position and power.

APPLICATION: Don’t allow the fear of man to keep us from doing what we know to be right.  Be careful not to have a relationship with Jesus that is only marked by curiosity and the desire to see what He can do for us.  When we are disappointed about the circumstances of our lives, it is vital that we don’t blame God or doubt Him.  Being adversarial against God will never turn out well for us in this life or eternity.

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