Luke 23:1 - Meaning and Application

Our Lord Jesus was condemned as a blasphemer in the religious court, but that showed how weak their hatred was. Once they had condemned him, they knew they could not legally put him to death, so they tried another way. They accused him before Pilate, the Roman governor. The whole crowd rose up when they saw they could go no farther in their own court, and they led him to Pilate.

They were not asking Pilate to judge him as a blasphemer, because that was not a charge Pilate would consider. Instead, they tried to make him look like an enemy of the Roman government, even though they themselves did not truly care about that charge. If it was a crime, they were far more guilty of it than Jesus was. Still, it suited their hatred. What they only pretended was Jesus’ crime became, in time, the very crime for which the Romans destroyed them.

Here is the charge they brought against him in Luke 23:2. They acted as if they were zealous for Caesar, the Roman emperor, hoping to win Pilate’s favor. But it was all malice against Christ. They misrepresented him in two ways. First, they claimed he was turning the people against Caesar. Pilate knew there was already a general unrest among the people under Roman rule, and they wanted him to believe Jesus was stirring it up. Yet it was they who were really fueling that discontent. They said, “We found this man misleading the nation,” as if leading people to God’s rule were the same as rebelling against civil rule. In truth, nothing makes people better subjects than making them faithful followers of Christ.

Jesus had clearly taught that people should give tribute to Caesar, even though he knew some would take offense at that teaching. Yet here he was falsely accused of forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar. Innocence does not protect a person from slander.

Second, they accused him of claiming to be a rival king to Caesar, even though this was one reason they had rejected him in the first place. They would not accept him as the Messiah because he did not come in worldly splendor or earthly power. He had not set himself up as a political ruler, nor had he done anything against Caesar. Still, they charged him with saying that he was Christ, a king. He did say he was the Christ, and if so, then he was king, but not in any way that threatened Caesar. When his followers once wanted to make him king (John 6:15), he withdrew from them. And by the many miracles he did, he showed that if he had chosen to compete with Caesar, he would have been more than a match for him.

Pilate then questioned him directly, asking, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (Luke 23:3). Jesus answered, “You say so.” That is, “It is as you say that I have the right to rule over the Jewish nation.” But Christ’s kingdom was spiritual. He was not competing with the scribes and Pharisees as rulers over religion, and he was not competing with Caesar over civil government. His kingdom would not interfere with Caesar’s authority. Jesus’ words could also mean, “You say so, but can you prove it? What evidence do you have?” Everyone who knew him knew the charge was false. He had never claimed to be king in opposition to Caesar or the rulers sent by him.

Pilate then declared Jesus innocent. He said to the chief priests and to the people who had joined them in the case, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4). In other words, “I am not here to decide whether he has broken your law, but I do not find anything proved against him that makes him guilty in my court.”

Instead of softening when Pilate said Jesus was innocent, the accusers became even more angry (Luke 23:5). They did not produce any clear facts, much less any proof. They simply pushed forward with noise and confidence, saying what they could not prove. They claimed, “He stirs up the people against Caesar, teaching throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee to here.” Jesus did stir up the people, but only toward what was good and right. He did teach, but they could not point to any teaching that threatened public peace or made the government uneasy.

Then they accused him before Herod. Pilate sent Jesus to Herod’s court. Since the accusers had mentioned Galilee, the northern part of Canaan, Pilate asked, “Is he a Galilean?” (Luke 23:6). When they said yes, he sent Jesus to Herod, who was in town and had authority in that region. Pilate was likely eager to get rid of the case, and that seems to have been his real reason. But God ordered it this way so Scripture would be fulfilled more clearly, as Acts 4:26, 4:27 says, with the words of Psalm 2:2, that “the kings of the earth and the rulers set themselves against the Lord and his Anointed.”

Herod was very glad to see Jesus (Luke 23:8), perhaps even more because he saw him as a prisoner. He had heard many things about Jesus in Galilee, where his miracles had been the talk of the whole region for a long time. He wanted to see him, not because he loved him or cared about his teaching, but out of curiosity. He hoped Jesus would perform some miracle for his amusement, something he could talk about for the rest of his life.

So Herod questioned him at length, hoping to draw out something that would let him show his power. He may have asked about hidden things, future things, or healing diseases. But Jesus answered him nothing, and he would not even give Herod the satisfaction of one miracle. The poorest beggar, asking for a miracle because he was in need, was never refused. But this proud ruler asked only to satisfy his curiosity, and he was denied. He might have seen Christ and his mighty works many times in Galilee and refused to believe. Now he wanted to see them, and he would not, because they were hidden from his eyes since he did not recognize the time of his visitation.

Herod thought that, now that Jesus was in chains, he might order a miracle. But miracles are not to be made cheap, and all-powerful God is not at the command of the greatest ruler. His accusers also came before Herod, because they were relentless in pressing the case. They stood there and kept accusing him strongly and boldly, as the word means (Luke 23:10). They wanted Herod to think that Jesus had also spread his rebellious ideas through Galilee.

This shows that it is nothing new for good people, and for true and useful servants of God, to be falsely charged as troublemakers and enemies of government. Herod then treated Jesus with great disrespect. He, along with his soldiers, attendants, officers, and nobles, mocked him and made nothing of him. What terrible evil, to make nothing of the one who made all things! They laughed at him as if he were a fool, because they knew he had worked many miracles to help others, and they wanted to know why he would not now work one for himself. Or they mocked him as if his power were gone and he had become weak like other men.

Herod, who had known John the Baptist and had some knowledge of Christ too, was more abusive to Jesus than Pilate was. Knowledge without grace only makes people more cleverly wicked. Herod dressed Christ in a bright, splendid robe, like a painted costume, to make fun of him as a false king. In doing so, he led Pilate's soldiers later to do the same shameful thing. He was the chief in that insult.

Then Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate, and this became a way for the two men to become friends, though they had been at odds before. Herod could not get Jesus to perform a miracle, but he would not condemn him as a criminal either. So he sent him back to Pilate (Luke 23:11), returning Pilate's earlier courtesy in sending the prisoner to him. The messages and favors passed between them on this matter brought them into a better understanding than they had had for some time (Luke 23:12). Their quarrel may have come from Pilate's killing of some Galileans, who were Herod's subjects (Luke 13:1), or from some other dispute that often arises between rulers and great men.

Notice how those who were angry with each other could still join together against Christ. Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, though divided among themselves, united against God's people (Psalm 83:7). Christ is the great peacemaker. Both Pilate and Herod admitted that he was innocent, and their agreement on that point healed their disagreement in other matters.