Are You the King of the Jews?

 

 Then the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate.  And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King."  Then Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  He answered him and said, "It is as you say."  So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no fault in this Man."  But they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place."  

 

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.  And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at this time.  Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.  Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.  And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.  Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate.  That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.

 

- Luke 23:1–12 

 

Yesterday we read that, after Christ's betrayal and arrest, the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him.  And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy!  Who is the one who struck You?"  And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.   As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, "If You are the Christ, tell us."  But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will by no means believe.  And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.  Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God."  Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?"  So He said to them, "You rightly say that I am."  and they said, "What further testimony do we need?  For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."

 

  Then the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate.  And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King."  Then Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  He answered him and said, "It is as you say."  So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no fault in this Man."  But they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place."   My study Bible tells us that the religious accusations against Jesus (Luke 22:66-71) would not be enough to justify a death sentence under Roman occupation.  So, therefore, the chief priests invent false (Luke 20:20-26) and politically charged accusations in order to persuade Pilate to put Jesus to death.  Pilate's question ("Are You the King of the Jews?") is more a mockery of the accusation itself than of Jesus.  Clearly, he doesn't take the political charges seriously ("I find no fault in this Man").  The answer Jesus gives, "It is as you say," can also be translated more ambiguously, "You say so."

 

 When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.  And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at this time.  Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.  Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.  And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.  Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate.  That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.  My study Bible comments that Herod sees Jesus as a novelty.  (Perhaps this is the way he had also viewed St. John the Baptist; see Mark 6:20.)  Christ's silence in this instance before Herod is an act of compassion.  To reveal divine mysteries in the face of such blasphemy would have brought Herod even greater condemnation.  According to St. Ambrose of Milan, says my study Bible, Herod is a figure who represents all unrighteous people who, if they don't recognize Jesus as the Christ, will never understand His words nor recognize His miracles.  

 

In terms of the "darkness" which we read about over the past few readings and those to come (see But this is your hour, and the power of darkness, Monday's reading), we see that darkness expressed in certain ways in today's reading as well.  There are first of all the deliberate falsehoods told to Pilate in order to extricate from him the death penalty for Jesus.  This is one level of darkness indeed, in which malice, spite, and envy play a great part in this devious behavior.  Note also that the chief priests and scribes offer to Herod the same false accusations.  There's the particular darkness of Pilate, who in fact can see that Jesus is innocent and that the accusations are preposterous, but who doesn't know nor understand Jesus.  And then there is the peculiar darkness of Herod, a Jew in some sense only by "training" in order to rule as tetrarch.  He knew John was a holy man, Mark's Gospel told us, and he delighted in asking questions and treating John as a sort of curiosity he had in his court for a while.  Here, Herod once again delights in being able to see Jesus, someone who is different and extraordinary, about whom we know he has heard much (Luke 9:9).  We're told that when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.  Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.  Perhaps because he's been rebuffed by Jesus, who is not a pleasing plaything or curiosity as He answers nothing, and perhaps feeling justified through the vehement accusations of the chief priests and scribes, Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate.  Luke's Gospel here witnesses the same mocking and humiliating behavior given to Jesus at His detention overnight in the home of the high priest (see yesterday's reading, above).   Jesus, responding to this kind of "darkness," which is based in a type of ignorance, answers nothing.  St. Ambrose, as noted in my study Bible, categorizes unrighteous people such as Herod as those who will never understand His words or even comprehend his miracles because they don't recognize Him as the Christ to begin with.  Perhaps it would be more clear to say that, because of their own blindness, they cannot.  There is a blindness (or darkness) which is born of not simply ignorance but a preference for a kind of brutality, a sheerly material outlook, one characterized by the kind of indulgence we can observe of Herod throughout the Gospels.  This is a man who cares for power and what he gets thereby, more interested in pleasing his men of war and his own sense of "honor" before them than the things which are God's.  It's a very interesting note that Luke adds for us to this passage: that very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.  Those familiar with any sort of hierarchy or bureaucracy can recognize such a friendship, based as it is on a kind of complement or courtesy of power, in that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod in what might be interpreted among the powerful as a gracious gesture of acknowledgment of his authority.  But there also might be a deeper sense here, also part of the darkness of the time, in that shared guilt or responsibility for injustice also seems to act as a kind of bind, even enslavement between people, a pact that ensures conspiracy when desired.  There are plenty of public scandals today which testify to this phenomenon at work among the powerful.  But let us consider here the grace of Jesus which stands alone among this darkness, mockery, lies, and injustice.  We -- especially in the modern Western world -- may be conditioned by our secular political perspectives to believe that it is always proper to speak out.  But Jesus knows something different, something better, and a deeper truth.  That not only would revealing more of the truth about Himself deliver an even greater condemnation to these men when they reject it, as they are bound to do (for it is judgment that is at work, the Judge who is standing before them), but that there is no purpose in delivering truth to those who cannot and will not see.  As He tried so hard to save Judas by any means available, so no doubt He would also try to save these others, if it were at all possible.  He gives us this touch -- a hint of wisdom, if we can but see it -- that there are times when it is proper not to speak, but to withdraw.  And so He does.  Midst the indignities, He holds His dignity, but the ignorant, in their darkness, cannot likely see it.  And so, this also explains His answer to Pilate, which might be translated, "You say so."   There is no point to answer what will not be clearly understood.  Perhaps it is Christ's humble demeanor which Pilate can easily read, for he's a shrewd man who's reached a position of authority in the Roman hierarchy.  Let us consider the time, and consider also what we might see around us in our own.