I read the true story of a detective was investigating a church burglary. He questioned a likely suspect who wouldn’t admit to the crime. Finally, the preacher of the church stepped forward and asked to speak to the suspect alone. Within minutes, the preacher turned to the detective and gave him the name of the pawnshop where the stolen items could be found. The detective was amazed. “How did you do that?” he asked. The preacher smiled and said: “Well, I told him you could send him to jail, but I could send him to hell.” (Reader’s Digest 4/99 p. 118 by Lisa Hensley)
The thief’s confession depended on the power of WHO was passing judgment. It was just the Detective he could only send the man to jail. But if it was God passing judgment, then the thief might end up in hell. In our story today, we’re reading about a trial where Jesus had been sent to Herod Antipas to be “put on trial.” But it was really Herod who was on trial before Christ.
Now, Herod was a powerful man in that region. He was called a Tetrarch – and he was kind of like a governor of a region that was controlled by Rome. And Herod ruled that region during the entire life of Jesus, from 4 B.C. to 39 A.D.
Now what’s odd about this “trial” was that virtually nothing happened. It such a “BLAH” part of the Gospel story that I couldn’t find many sermons about it on the internet; and even artwork about the trial was bland. BUT – as with all parts of Scripture – there’s something powerful here if you just take the time to examine it.
Now, the first thing to consider is this: WHO IS HEROD? Well, frankly, there were a bunch of Herods in history. Herod the Great (for example) was the ruler in Jerusalem who had all the children of Bethlehem – under the age of 2 - murdered in an effort to destroy Jesus. That Herod… was the father of the Herod of our story. And the Herod of our story today well his apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. He was a weak, evil and selfish man… just like his dad. And it was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, that had had John the Baptist beheaded.
But now - why is THAT HEROD so important to our story today? Well, after Herod had John the Baptist executed, Jesus began known for his miracles. As news of Jesus’ ministry began to spread - Herod Antipas became afraid Him. He feared that JESUS WAS John the Baptist risen from the dead and he became fascinated with Christ and desired to see Him. But ultimately Herod began to fear Jesus and his ministry and even threatened to have Jesus killed.
And NOW - in our story today - Herod is giving Pilate political cover by joining in the physical abuse and the mocking of Christ. Pilate and Herod represented the secular authorities who were aligned against Jesus. And, in Acts 4:24-28, the church realized that both Herod and Pilate were fulfillments of a prophecy from Psalm 2:1-2
"Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ (Psalms 2:1-2)— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” Acts 4:24-28
In other words, what we just read about here in Luke 23 was all part of God’s plan.
But again, the question is - why Herod? Wasn’t Pilate enough of a villain in the story? Well, Pilate was the ruler who represented the Gentiles, and Herod represented the “peoples of Israel.”
In Luke 23, we’re told that “The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing (Jesus). And Herod with his soldiers treated (Jesus) with contempt and mocked him” (Luke 23:10-11). The Jewish leaders joined with Herod in their contempt of Jesus. And so Herod put his stamp of approval on the crucifixion of Christ.
You know, there are people who raise A QUESTION about this – and they ask: Who was responsible for Jesus being crucified? Was it the Jews, or was it the Romans who were at fault?
On an internet site called Quora.com, a Jewish woman responded to that question: “The Romans were the ones who actually did it. The Jews were living under Roman rule and had no political or legal power to execute anyone. The Romans on the other hand, governed in accordance with Roman law and had the power to condemn and execute anyone they thought was a criminal or a threat to Roman authority.
They saw Jesus amassing a sizeable following and feared he might assemble an army to revolt against their rule. So they had a reason to execute him and remove the threat.”
That was this Jewish woman’s view of what took place. She blamed the Romans rather than the Jews. Because… well… she’s a Jew. But, her statement wasn’t completely true. On the other hand, down thru history, anti-Semitic groups (people who hate Jews) have harassed and murdered Jewish people and excused themselves by claiming that it was all the JEWS fault that Jesus died. Or at least, that was how they rationalized their evil deeds. Both views (the view that the Romans… or the Jews had Jesus killed) were warped versions of what actually happened at the crucifixion.
Someone else on Quora summed it up this way: “Everything happened as it should. It was foretold in Isaiah 53… and numerous other Old Testament sources. They prophesied accurately, and in phenomenal detail, about Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. These prophecies were written over a Millennium before the existence of the Roman Empire, before crucifixion, and a myriad of other details fulfilled God’s plan.” (Richard Najjar)
In other words: Jesus had to die for us because… it was prophesied!!!
Now, I liked another response by another individual on Quora (Jayne Beaulieu) that said: “We do blame the Romans. And we blame Herod, and Pontius Pilate and the Romans as well as the Pharisees. However, without Jesus’ death we wouldn't have Christianity.”
And - of course - without Jesus’ death, we wouldn’t have had salvation either. But we’ll come back to this topic … a little later in the sermon.
I want to get back to Herod and how he dealt with Jesus, here in Luke 23. Luke 23:8-9 tells us that “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. So he questioned him at some length, BUT [JESUS] MADE NO ANSWER.” This so angered Herod that “Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.” Luke 23:11
JESUS MADE NO ANSWER TO HEROD. And in Matthew 27:12-14 we read that Jesus gave no answer to Pilate either - “Pilate said to (Jesus), ‘Do you not hear how many things the chief priests and the Elders) testify against you?’ But (JESUS) GAVE HIM NO ANSWER, NOT EVEN TO A SINGLE CHARGE, so that the governor was greatly amazed.”
Now, it’s true that Jesus would answer questions about WHO He was. The High Priest, for example, asked Jesus if he was the Son of God (Matthew 26:63). And Jesus replied “You have said so” (essentially telling the High Priest – “you’re right, that is who I am”). So, Jesus would spoke truthfully about WHO He was and what He’d come to do.
But NOT ONCE did Jesus ever try to defend Himself against the unfair treatment or accusations He was subjected to. And so, that brings up another question: WHY NOT? Why wouldn’t Jesus speak up? I mean, yeah… I know, it was prophesied He would be silent, but there had to be a reason Jesus refused to defend Himself. And there was a reason: Jesus refused to speak because He had to. He had to remain silent. Because His silence spoke of guilt.
Time magazine once told of how the courts used to view silence. common Law held that an innocent man would loudly deny a serious charge, so the belief was that a suspect who remained silent in the face of an accusation had tacitly admitted to the crime. In other words, people who remained silent were guilty. And their silence could later be introduced at their trial as an indicator of guilt. Common law had a phrase for this: "Silence gives consent." (Time magazine – May 5th, 1967)
Now our modern-day legal system claims that an accused person has the presumption of innocence. But I have to admit that every time I hear of a defendant answering a question by saying “I invoke my 5th amendment rights against self-incrimination” I think to myself – “this guy is as guilty as sin!”
And so Jesus was silent because of the guilt of sin - but not his sin… ours. When Jesus died on the Cross we’re told that He became SIN for us.
Isaiah 53:5-6 tells us “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.” He did that for you! He did that for me!
2 Corinthians 5:21 sums it this way “God made him who had no sin TO BE SIN FOR US, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And 1 Peter 2:24 tells us “He himself (Jesus) bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.”
So - who was responsible for Jesus’ death? Was it Pilate who represented Rome? Or was it Herod representing the Jews? Or do we make a blanket accusation - “We blame the Romans. And we blame Herod, and Pontius Pilate and the Romans as well as the Pharisees.” Well... NO! In reality, it wasn’t so much their fault as it was ours. Jesus bore the weight of all MY sins, and all YOUR sins, and all the sins of all mankind – because if He hadn’t, it would have impossible for us to be forgiven of our guilt.
Jesus took our place on the cross. Jesus became sin for us, and He was silent before His accusers because sin has no defense.
Now here’s a thought: ever since the 1960s our police have been required to read a defendant something that’s called their Miranda Rights. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say… can and will be used against you.” And that works pretty well in American courts, but it won’t work so well when we stand before God. Being silent before God won’t do us any good, because God already knows what we’ve done. And we can’t hide our sin from Him.
So the Bible says that (as Christians) when we sin we shouldn’t try to cover your guilt. We should repent, confess, admit that we were wrong. I mean, if Jesus made no defense when He died for our sin, then we shouldn’t try to defend our sin either.
CLOSE: Now, one more thought. I once saw a poll where a person asked “Could Jesus have avoided the cross?” In other words – DID JESUS HAVE A CHOICE? Could He have said “No, I don’t think I’m going to do this?”
Well, Jesus was not trapped. He could have opted out. He could have said "no." In fact, that’s what He was praying about the night He was betrayed. Three times Jesus prayed “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” (Luke 22:42) i.e. - can we find another way to get this done? Jesus’ prayer was so intense that we’re told that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)
The terrors of the cross caused even Jesus to think twice. And at that moment in time Jesus could have decided to just walk away! And, if He’d walked away… we’d have ALL gone to hell; not one of us would ever see Heaven!
But Jesus didn’t walk away. He bore up under the insults of Herod and his friends and the beatings of the Roman soldiers and the cruelty of death on the cross. WHY? Because He loved us. To Jesus… you were worth the price He had to pay! Jesus remained silent so that you would know He loved you.
CLOSE: A preacher friend once shared about why he decided to become a Christian. He said he was sitting in a Sunday school class. He was just a young boy, and church was just something he did; it wasn’t really that important to him.
But on that Sunday morning something changed. The Sunday School teacher held up a picture of Jesus on the Cross, and as that boy gazed at what he saw, he says he remembered thinking “Someone loves me that much?!!!” And that simple childlike observation changed his life forever.
Jesus loved HIM that much - and He loved YOU that much. Jesus was silent before His accusers because He loved you. But now that we’re Christians, we’re told that Jesus will always speak up on our behalf. He will not be silent when it comes to your life and your cares. Because He loves … you!
