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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We do not have to look too far into the world around us to come up with an example of a legal inquiry of a sort, the inquiry’s findings, and the findings’ being “spun” in such a way as to exonerate the accused. In tonight’s continued reading of St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired account of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we followed Jesus to the judgment hall (Lutheran Service Book 436:2), we heard reports of two of the highest ranking officials of Jesus’s day make legal inquiries with findings of their own about Jesus’s innocence, including one of those reports’ being “spun” in such a way as to exonerate the accused. One of those reports may be considered the “fourth” of St. Luke’s unique contributions to the whole picture of our Lord’s suffering and death for us, namely, St. Luke’s reporting “Herod’s Seeing Jesus and Finding Him Not Guilty”.
Listen again to verses 5 through 12 and verse 15 from Luke chapter 23, which begins with the chief priests urgently saying to Pilate about Jesus:
5 … “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.” 6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8 When 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. 9 So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10 The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11 And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. 12 And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. (ESV)
Then, having called together the chief priests and rulers of the people, Pilate reminded them of Pilate’s own not having found Jesus guilty of their charge of misleading the people, and Pilate said:
15 “Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.” (ESV)
Having already rendered his own “not guilty” verdict, Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor, at the mention of Galilee, which territory was ruled for the Romans by Herod the Tetrarch (Luke 3:1), a son of Herod the Great—Pilate at a minimum sought Herod’s Jewish “expertise” on Jesus’s case, if not “remanded” Jesus’s case to Herod, by sending Jesus over to Herod, who was in Jerusalem at the time. Herod, who had heard about Jesus and long desired to see Jesus (confer Luke 9:9), apparently for Jesus to perform some sign, questioned Jesus at some length, with the chief priests and scribes standing by accusing Jesus, their malice and deceit evident, but Jesus made no answer (which He did, as we heard last week, when there was an honest question [Luke 22:67‑68]). So, perhaps provoked and angered by Jesus’s silence (or to undermine Jesus’s image, satisfy the Jews, or warn others), Herod with his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt and mocked Him, arraying Jesus in splendid clothing and sending Jesus back to Pilate. For whatever reason that the two men previously had been at enmity with each other—whether over the matter of Pilate’s mingling some Galileans’ blood with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1), or over Herod’s having appealed to Ceasar the matter of Pilate’s displaying gilded shields in Caesar’s honor (Marshall, ad loc Luke 23:12, p.857, citing Philo, Leg. 299-305), or over something else—St. Luke reports that Pilate’s shuffling Jesus over to Herod and Herod’s shuffling Jesus back to Pilate that day made the two men friends—perhaps because of their showing deference to each other, or because of their common opposition to Jesus, or because of their common inability to set free a Man that at least Pilate regarded as not guilty of misleading the people or otherwise deserving death. Pilate at least “spun” Herod’s actions as a verdict of “not guilty”, arguably thereby giving St. Luke the second of the two witnesses, as it were, needed for Jesus’s innocence (confer Deuteronomy 19:15).
Although Herod had imprisoned and eventually martyred John the Baptizer over John’s condemning Herod’s “marriage” to his brother’s wife Herodias, Herod arguably had not really wanted to kill John, but, knowing that John was a righteous and holy man, Herod feared John, kept him safe, and, though greatly perplexed, heard John gladly (Mark 6:20). Although Herod reportedly wanted to kill Jesus (Luke 13:31), when given the opportunity to kill Jesus, Herod did not do so, but, apparently having ignored Jesus’s words and signs spoken and done openly in Herod’s territory, Herod wanted to have Jesus do signs on demand, not that the signs would have made Herod or anyone else believe but they would have been more as entertainment for Herod and his courtiers.
As Herod handled John and Jesus, you and I may treat Jesus and His Word. We may try to silence them when they condemn something we like to do. Lacking the courage of our convictions, we may give in to pressure from others when it comes to how we treat Jesus and His Word. Like Herod and the scribes and Pharisees before him (Luke 12:38), we may demand miracles of our own choosing, maybe saying that they would help our faith, but maybe more for our own entertainment. Perhaps provoked or angered by the absence of those miracles, we may treat with contempt and mock Jesus and His Word. Like Herod, we are sinful by nature and commit countless sins of thought, word, and deed. So, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, but God calls and thereby enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin: our sin of mistreating Jesus and His Word or whatever our sin might be. God forgives all our sin for Jesus’s sake.
In what is sometimes called one of the greatest miscarriages of justice, the God-man Jesus Christ went to the cross innocent of the Jewish leaders’ charges against Him. But in fact, Jesus went to the cross carrying the guilt of the charges against us. For our sins, Jesus died; He died in our place. Jesus, the true King of Kings, suffered a death steeped in hate and scorn (LSB 810:1,3). He was arguably beaten illegally and His Kingship was mocked. He could remain silent because He was in control of the situation and willed its outscome. As He had prophesied, Jesus suffered many things; was rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes; was killed; and on the third day was raised (Luke 9:22). The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed (Psalm 2:2; confer Acts 4:25‑28), but the Lord had the last laugh, as it were, for those who take refuge in Him are blessed (Psalm 2:4, 12). For, far more importantly than ironically making Herod and Pilate friends (TLSB, ad loc Luke 23:12, p.1768), their conspiring over Jesus led to God’s reconciling us to Himself. When we repent and believe, then our guilt is gone. God’s not-guilty verdict spoken over us truly makes us not-guilty.
Unlike Herod, we do not ignore His word and ask for signs of our own choosing, but we pay attention to His Word and accept the signs that He offers us. Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar are all signs that His Kingdom is present and active here in our midst. They are signs of His good and gracious will for each one of us, as water is poured on us individually, the pastor’s hand touches our head and only our head, and bread that is the Body of Christ and wine that is the Blood of Christ goes into our mouths as individuals. These miraculous signs strengthen and preserve us in body and soul, bringing forth from us good confessions of our faith in Jesus as we are brought before kings and governors or wherever else we may have to testify for His Name’s sake (1 Timothy 6:13; Luke 21:12). Like St. Paul and others before us (Acts 23:29), we learn from Jesus to bear such crosses (Luke 9:23; LSB 436), whatever those crosses might be.
Our modern example of a legal inquiry of a sort, the inquiry’s findings, and the findings’ being “spun” in such a way by one party to exonerate and by the other party to find guilty the accused almost leads us to conclude that there is no truth (John 18:38), but, especially when it comes to Jesus and His words and signs, there is truth. For us this night, St. Luke’s unique contribution of “Herod’s Seeing Jesus and Finding Him Not Guilty” reminded us of our sin and pointed us to God’s forgiveness of our sin, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Pilate and Herod played roles in that, but they are part of what our Closing Hymn will refer to as “earth’s proud empires” that “pass away”, they are in sharp contrast to the Lord’s throne, His Kingdom, which “stands and grows forever” (LSB 886:5).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +