“And Pilate asked Him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’
And Jesus answered him, “You have said so.’”
- Luke 23:3
In chapter 22, we focused on how Jesus identifies his purpose as one who serves. This stands in stark contrast to how others view Him in chapter 23. Jesus has been arrested and brought before the religious leaders and they accuse Him of all sorts of things. Most of their accusations are false or twisted truths. They find enough reason in their own eyes to lead Jesus off to Pilate for further trial, hoping to put Jesus to death.
At Pilate’s they throw many accusations at Jesus, making all kinds of claims about who He is and what He is doing. No doubt, Pilate had heard about Jesus before this, Jesus was performing miracles all over, spreading the good news to town after town, and no one amassed thousands of people without Rome catching the wind. While Pilate may have heard about Jesus, this is his first time meeting him.
In the presence of Pilate, the religious leaders make their verbal assault on Jesus. They accuse Him of misleading the nation, expanding Jesus’ influence to the point of mounting an all-out insurrection against Rome. Further adding that Jesus teaches they don’t need to pay taxes and tributes to Caesar. Their final claim is that Jesus says He is the King.
They spew out falsehoods all to provoke the most worry they can to Pilate, which, fortunately, Pilate seems a little unphased by. They hoped to paint Jesus as a violent, insurrectionist, anti-Roman, militant king. Throughout this, Jesus is silent, until Pilate turns to Jesus and asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” To Pilate’s question Jesus makes His only verbal defense in this chapter, “You have said so.”
Despite Jesus’ truthful claim to be the King, the Christ, Pilate looks Him up and down and determines this is a waste of his time. Finding no guilt in Jesus. Yet, once he learns Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate sends Him to Herod, who ruled over Galilee.
Herod though has heard all about Jesus and has long awaited a chance to meet Jesus, perhaps in the hopes of seeing a miracle take place. Instead, Herod meets a Jesus who might as well be mute. Herod hears the same accusations against Jesus and questions Jesus relentlessly, only to be met by Jesus’ silent defense. Not a word is uttered from the lips of Jesus. Herod only has what he has heard about Jesus and the accusations being made. So Herod mocks Jesus, but then sends Him back to Pilate, finding Him innocent.
Jesus mounts no defense, no arguments, no ambushes. There was nothing. Silence was Jesus’ answer, for He knew the bigger picture going on, even as lies were said about Him. To some extent, this was working, Pilate was ready to just have Him punished and released. But the leaders and the crowds were not going to allow that to be the end of this whole trial.
The leaders stirred up the crowds to refuse Pilate’s decision. Again, he tried to release Jesus, but the crowd got louder! While Luke doesn’t reveal Pilate’s motive, Pilate changes his decision, and releases Barabbas, a known insurrectionist and murderer, while sending Jesus to the cross.
It’s hard not to notice the irony and the contrast that exist in this whole trial. The leaders and the crowds are violently loud, fully convinced in their claims against Jesus. While Jesus is deathly silent, fully knowing what is about to happen and why it needs to. The leaders claim Jesus is mounting an insurrection, yet demand the release of an insurrectionist. They send an innocent man to be murdered while freeing a murderer.
This is only the beginning of the noise too. As Jesus goes to the place of the Skull, there is mourning and lamenting amongst the women of Jerusalem. The crowds followed along, some rejoicing, some in sorrow. Mocking ensues, and Jesus only speaks up to prophecy about the fall of Jerusalem, not to defend Himself.
We finally get to Jesus on the cross, and alongside Him are two criminals. One of them joins the crowd from his cross, mocking Jesus. While Jesus is silent still, the other criminal calls out, rebuking the first criminal, and defending the innocence of Jesus. Only for Jesus to yet again not defend Himself, but serve that second criminal by saying, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Alas, the hour came for Jesus’ death, I can almost imagine the whole area falling into complete silence as Jesus raised His voice one last time, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Then the King went silent.
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