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4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” 5 But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.” 6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. ~ Luke 23:4-7
It is now Friday during the Passover Week, the day the Lord Jesus was crucified. Earlier this morning He was put through a series of three fake trials before the Jewish leaders. In yesterday's blog, we entered into the first Roman trial before Pilate. Today, we re-enter that trial.
In v.4 we read, "Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man."
To this point in time, Pilate had never had a visit from the whole seventy member Sanhedrin but they are at his door. And, they wanted Pilate to buy into the idea that the Lord Jesus was a threat to Rome. They hated the Lord Jesus for every reason, but Pilate was aware that their dominant attitude was envy. Pilate knows that they want the Lord Jesus dead because He was a threat to them. So, not wanting to get backed any further into a difficult place, "Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man."
Pilate had criminals brought before him as a regular routine, and those criminals brought before him would cry and plead and beg their case. Here was a man who was absolutely innocent of all charges and never said a word in His defense. The resolute silence of the Lord Jesus screamed at Pilate, "Not guilty!"
Even though Pilate found no guilt of a crime in the Lord Jesus, he only saw Him as "a man." If we never see the Lord Jesus as more than just a man, we will never know Him as our Savior and we will not have a personal relationship with Him. This is a very important particular in this narrative.
C. S. Lewis popularized the argument that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord. He wrote, "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a liar: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."
The Jewish religious leaders were not interested in justice, so in v.5 we read, "But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here." The religious leaders were driven by their vicious hatred of the Lord Jesus. And, Pilate knew that the Lord Jesus was innocent but he was in a tough spot. He was afraid of both the Lord Jesus and the Jews.
When we are driven by any expression of our flesh which are the evil desires within, we will experience the corruption the flesh brings with it. The Apostle Paul says it clearly in Galatians 6:8, "Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
In v.6-7, when Pilate heard the Lord Jesus was a Galilean, he decided to send Him to Herod Antipas who ruled over Galilee. And, Herod just so happened to be in Jerusalem that day. This was Pilate’s way of getting rid of this very difficult issue.
Pilate lived for the here and now. He could not see the realm that exists beyond this world. He knew nothing of the difference between being led by the Spirit or being led by the corrupt flesh.
Those who have no hope for eternity invest everything in this world. This is why people invest in politics as if it will somehow save them. The believer in Christ sees it all differently for we have a sure hope of what awaits us, because the Lord Jesus died on the cross to procure for all who would believe in Him and receive from Him the free gift of eternity with Him, the author of all that is holy and good.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples in John 14, "1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
