Our brother Peter asked me to read from Luke chapter 23 beginning at verse one, then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate, and they began to accuse him saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find no fault in this man. But they were urgent saying, he stirs up the people teaching throughout all Judea from Galilee even to this place. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 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. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad for he had long desire 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 he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by vehemently accusing him and Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day. For before this, there had been an enmity with each other. This is the word of the Lord.
Neil Postman wrote a number of years ago, probably one of the most insightful cultural commentaries of this century. The title of his book was amusing ourselves to death. In this work, he commented that entertainment has now become formed with no content. Television de-emphasizes the quality of information in favor of entertainment. Even news, he says, has become entertainment with only tastes of facts. And besides that, he says the quality of information has increased, or the quality, excuse me, has increased to such extent that it has desensitized us to reacting in any way. Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun. And the characters that we read about today are the characters who display these very same qualities. I ask Julian if he would read a little bit more because jumping right into the beginning statement that Herod was glad doesn't quite put us into the full context. It really has begun the night before when Jesus has freely surrendered himself to the Sanhedrin. And they have mistreated him and accused him all night long, breaking all of their own rules for their trials, finding nothing that they can accuse him of except for the direct statement, are you the son of God to which Jesus said yes I am? And they therefore accuse him of blasphemy knowing that they cannot bring a death sentence upon him so they take him to Pilate. Pilate immediately sees through their bias. He says he can find no wrong for this man. But he also asked Jesus the same question, are you the king of the Jews? Which Jesus affirms it is as you say, and then Pilate repeats. So then you are therefore a king and as Jesus continues it is as you say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world. Pilate then tells them I find no fault in this man. He is innocent. But the Jews would not stop. They kept insisting that he stirs up, he stirs up trouble all over Judea and beginning in Galilee. When Pilate hears that he is from Galilee as he asks, is this man a Galilee and they say yes, then he sees his out. He doesn't want to mess with this issue. Galilee was under the jurisdiction of Herod and he thought possibly Herod might know more about this man than he knows. He wants nothing more to do with these Jewish issues. And Herod just happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. And so looking out a way that possibly he could gain a little favor in this former enemy's mind, he releases Jesus to Herod. I'll let Herod provide the answer to this issue. Now Luke is the only one who gives us this story. None of the other Gospels give us this story. And Luke is very precise in the details that he gives us. And back in chapter 9, the first few verses of that chapter, Jesus has been preaching, performing miracles, healing, and now has sent out the 12. They have come back and the 5,000 have been fed and there's lots of stir in the Galilee area. And Herod then looking to see what has happened. He arrests John the Baptist. He has John the Baptist beheaded. But that doesn't stop all that is going on. And now he hears more and more stories coming from this Jesus. And so it says at that time, Herod wished that he could see this Jesus. Now he gets his chance. Every king gets his way. But as he has this Jesus come to him, he finds something entirely different than what he expected. You see, he wants to see Jesus because he simply wants to see a sign. He wants to see magic. He wants to be entertained. He has no fear of this man for he is the king. And so he simply is looking for Jesus to do something for his pleasure. He pushes Jesus because Jesus will not respond. Jesus has already been declared innocent by Pilate and therefore Jesus has no more to say. He has no need to respond to this man. And Herod pushes him, pushes him. The high priest continues to shout accusations toward him but Jesus remains silent. And so then Herod realizing he's not going to get anywhere with this man. He has his soldiers mock him. They're all standing there. His soldiers are behind him. He has no fear of this man. And so in order to deride him, belittle him in every way possible, he says, let's put a kingly robe on him. And then he sends him back to Pilate. But in doing so, Luke also affirms to us in verse 15 of this chapter that because Herod could find something nothing against him as well, that Herod himself by defact has declared him innocent as well. Pilate was happy because he thought he'd gotten rid of a mess, a moral mess that he didn't want anything to do with. Herod ended up amusing himself by his mockery of Jesus. He didn't get the satisfaction that he thought he was going to get. He was real happy to see something different. Kings get very bored. But now he's satisfied because he sees this man as meaningless. This man is worthless. He's simply a joke. And he sends him away in the mockery of kingly robes. That's our story. We can close and prayer and go home. But when we see this story, we ask ourselves, what in the world is this story here for? What did it mean? I think of several things. First of all, Luke is telling us that Jesus was legally and morally declared innocent. And therefore, his death was for something other than himself. Secondly, the powers of the world had no control over the purposes of God. God had something far greater than any of these powerful men had to offer. But thirdly and probably more important is that Jesus's presence with these men revealed their sin. These were men who thought they had no accountability to anyone. But when Jesus stood before them, the first man pilot reacted in fear. He didn't want anything to do with this man. He didn't want anything to do with this mess. And so he very selfishly manipulates the situation to get rid of Jesus. Herod is very self-focused. He wants nothing for himself, but his own needs, his hypocrisy, his wanting pure self gratification. Give me a miracle. Let me see some magic. Give me something different in life. And yet here he is wanting to be entertained when eternity itself is standing in front of him. This is his opportunity. And he misses the entire point. Look at what Jesus did. Jesus did not blame either of these men. He said nothing negative. About either man. Secondly, he chose to die for both of them. The very ones who accused him, who thought they could get him out of it but couldn't. And then what we find is that Jesus is living for a far greater kingdom. Because he tells pilot later, my kingdom is not of this world. It is far greater than anything you could imagine. What does this mean then for us? As we think about this passage, I think at least three things. Jesus, when brought into our presence, will always expose our self-centeredness. He will always expose our motives. We desire to get miracles for our own end. Isn't it interesting when something good happens to us from God? We always want more. When something bad happens to us from God, we want it to be different. But we're looking at the circumstances. We're not looking at the Christ. He always exposes what's in our heart. Our desire to get rid of a problem rather than to trust him and walk through it. Secondly, Jesus offers us all the power of the cross. Cross was offered to both of these men. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Jesus very honestly offers it. They are no different sinners than we are. But probably very interestingly, Herod did something that was quite unique. He gave Jesus something, but he gave it to him for the wrong reasons. He gave him robes of royalty. And what does Jesus do by dying on the cross? He turns and gives us robes of righteousness, robes of real royalty, robes that will be ours forever. You see, when you doubt, when you fear, when you want to manipulate your circumstances, when you want them to be different, when you want miracles, when you want things to be different. Jesus, your way, my way. We find a Christ who offers us His way, which is the cross, and beyond the cross, robes of righteousness. Amazing, amazing. Wow. This is what our Easter is all about. We come to delight in a Christ. Who does not blame us, who accepts us just like we are, and provides everything we need for now and for eternity.