Between The Rock and a Hard Place

This investigation is going on at the time when Jesus stands before him. What he's trying to do is resolve an issue with an innocent man while at the same time avoiding a riot, because that's going to go right back to the emperor.

That's going to go into his annual report and he might just lose his job. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Jesus is the cornerstone. So when Jesus shows up here, Pilate is between the rock and a hard place.

Imagine being stuck between a rock and a hard place where no choice feels right and your own circumstances trap you. Well, that's exactly where we find two powerful men, Pilate and Herod, during the trial of Jesus. Each had the authority to release the most innocent person to ever live, but fear, politics, and pressure led them down a path of compromise. Today, we explore the decisions made by two men who thought they were in control, but were in reality standing before the King of Kings. If you ever struggle to stand up for truth, this message will help you. There's an old proverb that says, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

That's often true, isn't it? Two people who don't like each other end up getting along simply because they end up having the same dislike for someone else. Well, that's about to play out on the stage of human history as Jesus Christ stands trial. If you were with us in our last study, we watched Jesus stand trial or have three different hearings in the religious world. The third and official trial before the Supreme Court of Israel, the Sanhedrin, found a unanimous vote to put Jesus to death.

Now, there's this major obstacle in the way of the Sanhedrin. They don't have the legal authority to carry out a death sentence without permission by the local governor. The death penalty has to be carried out by the Roman authorities. So with that, we're about to be introduced to two Roman officials.

By the way, they're going to go down in history for allowing the most innocent man to ever walk the planet to be condemned to death. Take your copy of Luke's Gospel. We're in chapter 23 and this is where the Sanhedrin takes Jesus to the Roman governor, Luke chapter 23 and verse 1.

Here's what happens next. Then the whole company of them arose, that is the Sanhedrin, 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. Now let me stop here for a moment and just set the stage for this conversation between Jesus and Pilate. You know, many people read this account and tend to think of Pilate as this weak, vacillating political leader who just kind of goes along with the crowd because he wants to keep them all happy. He cares about his poll numbers. He wants the Jewish population to like him and put him back into office perhaps the next time around. The truth is very different from that. Pilate, for one thing, is not running for office.

This is not an elected office. And he's actually a man who couldn't care any less for the Jewish people. In fact, he didn't like Jewish people at all.

Pilate had been appointed to this office by the Roman Emperor Tiberius. When Pilate became governor, he immediately insulted the Jewish people by writing into Jerusalem, allowing his soldiers to carry the Roman standard, we would call that flag, a flag or the flags. And it bore the image of Caesar. And the Jewish people considered this idolatry.

They never allowed it within the city walls. And every governor before Pilate went along with that sensitivity, but not him. He couldn't care less if he offended them. So why does he cave in? Why does it seem like he's vacillating between the innocence of Jesus and this Jewish mob? Well, the answer is found again in history where Pilate, we discover, is actually under investigation by the emperor in Rome. The emperor has ordered surveillance on him. It seems to Tiberius that he has appointed the wrong man to rule this crowd, and he's not doing a very good job. This investigation is going on at the time when Jesus stands before him. What he's trying to do is resolve an issue with an innocent man while at the same time avoiding a riot, because that's going to go right back to the emperor.

That's going to go into his annual report, and he might just lose his job. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. You know, it struck me in my study that Jesus is the cornerstone. So when Jesus shows up here, Pilate is between the rock and a hard place, isn't he? Now back to the charges here in verse 2. Again, he says, here are the charges from the St. Andrew. We found this man misleading our nation, forbidding us to give tribute or taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ the King.

Well, we know that the first two charges are blatant lies. Jesus isn't misleading anybody, and he's even defended paying taxes to Caesar. Remember, Luke chapter 20. You might notice, by the way, that the charge of blasphemy that Jesus claimed to be equal with God, the very Son of God, that's missing in these accusations. And the Sanhedrin believed that that justified his death, but they don't bring that charge up here.

Why? Well, because they know Pilate doesn't care about a man claiming to be the Son of God. His own emperor claims to be the Son of God. Oh, another one.

Well, who cares? But he seizes on their twisting of this accusation. Do you notice they just sort of throw in here he claims to be a king. Oh, wait a second, a king. Is he a threat to the emperor? If anybody wants to appear incredibly loyal to the emperor at this moment, it is Pilate.

And so he seizes on that one charge. Verse 3, Pilate asked him, not, are you against paying taxes? No. Are you the king? And he clarifies, he hopes of the Jews, and Jesus answered him, you have said so.

In other words, yes. And with that, I believe Pilate breathes a sigh of relief. Jesus is not a threat to the Roman Empire or world. He's a threat to the Jewish world. If anything, Jesus is a threat to Herod. Herod considered himself to be king of the Jews. He adopted that title from his father, Herod the Great before him. And we'll get to Herod in a minute. I want to throw in John's gospel here. If you want to turn over, I'll put it on the screen, but chapter 18 and verse 37 says it. Spans on this conversation. Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king.

There's a little sarcasm there. The you is emphasized in the original language. You? You're a king? And Jesus says, you're right.

You say that I'm a king. For this purpose, notice this, I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth?

Jesus just baited the hook. You want to know about the truth? I'll tell you about the truth. See, standing before him is the way, the truth, and the life. I can talk to you about truth. Pilate doesn't bite.

How do you read that, by the way? What is truth? We're not told. Is it possible that Pilate is being relativistic, sarcastic as if to, you know, kind of snort like our world does today? There's no such thing as objective truth. What's true for you is true for you.

What's true for me is equally true. Maybe Pilate was impatient. Maybe he's saying, look, I'm trying to get to the bottom of this case against you. I don't know what the truth is. I believe that Pilate might very well be depressed, despairing. He's under investigation.

There are no doubt charges against him, he believes, are untrue. So he's saying something like, you tell me about it. Nobody's interested in the truth these days.

I'm not being treated honestly by my world either. He knew Jesus was handed over by envy, one of the Gospel writers says. Nobody cares about the truth. We don't know what that nuance, that tone was when he said that. But what we do know is what he meant by the following words back in Luke 23. He says in verse 4, then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.

Leave him alone. He's not guilty. Now if you take your pencil and you circle verse 4 and then you go down to verse 14, Pilate a second time declares, I did not find this man guilty. In fact, the end of that verse, neither did Herod.

Herod evidently won't either. Then go down to verse 22 where he says a third time, I have found in him no guilt. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Including Herod, not guilty.

Four times, including Herod's assessment. He's an innocent man. He's an innocent man. He's an innocent man. He's an innocent man. What do you do with an innocent man?

You let him go. But every time Pilate declares the innocence of Jesus, the crowd grows louder and angrier. But Pilate just picked up on something.

Luke writes here in verse 6 what he picked up on. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that Jesus, he, Jesus, belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. Now some would say here that Pilate's just passing the buck.

He's found a loophole. But from what we learn in a moment, he's not trying to put Herod in the hot seat. That would have infuriated Herod. He is offering Herod the respect of acknowledging that Herod is over that jurisdiction. Pilate knows that Herod would understand this accusation of being Christos, Messiah. Herod would know what a messianic claim was all about. Herod had married twice.

Both women were Jewish, full-blooded. Herod knew the customs of the Jews and laws. So he's acknowledging Herod, would you like to see Jesus?

And they work it out. Verse 8, when Herod eventually did see Jesus, he was very glad. For he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. He knew about the ministry. He knew about the miracles of Jesus. He's thrilled to be Jesus, but only because he wants a personal demonstration of the miraculous power of Jesus. He doesn't care about Jesus. He just wants to see a miracle. He's curious about Jesus. He thinks he's got a private audience with, you know, a first century Houdini.

I think it's time for a little showtime. That's what he's thinking. I think Jesus should have given Herod a miracle, like setting his sandals on fire or something, you know, obvious like that. Obviously not Jesus. By the way, this is the same Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. This is the same Herod who seduced his brother's wife and married her. And John said that was immoral, and Herod's new wife didn't get over that one.

Herod here is so spiritually, emotionally, morally calloused. He doesn't even care about the accusations against Jesus. He's not interested in the Messiah. So what if he's the Messiah? I want to see a trick.

Show me a little magic. Don't miss the fact that to Herod, Jesus utters not one word. Now with that, verse 12 makes this rather strange statement. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day. I think they deserved each other, frankly, but that's my commentary. For before this, they had been in enmity with each other.

Neither one of these men had any regard for Jesus for differing reasons. He was irritating to both of them. But now they're united in their dislike, their disdain. He's messing their world up to a certain degree. He's not going along with them.

And so the enemy of my enemy is going to be my friend. Now there's more drama going on, and I don't want to belabor the historical details of it, but you need to understand that Herod the Great, Herod's dad, ruled over these four provinces, Galilee, Perea, Judea, and Samaria. And when he died, Jesus was a little boy, that kingdom was divided by the Roman government into those four regions, and Herod's sons gained political office, ruling over one of them.

Now one of the sons was so poorly fitted for this leadership role that eventually the emperor replaced him, and he replaced him with Pilate. And that was an insult to the family of Herod. And so for Pilate to have taken the seat of Herod Antipas' brother, well, I'm not going to like you. You've taken something that belonged to my brother, my family.

Never mind, I took your wife, you know, but you shouldn't have his seat. So this is an insult to Herod's dynasty and it had this enmity going on. But now, what did Pilate just do? He honored, he acknowledged that Herod had rule over Galilee. Jesus was a Galilean.

And so he says, you know what, this is your rule. And he acknowledges the political power and right of Herod, and that flattered Herod, no doubt. But Pilate very cleverly knew that if he could get another political leader to agree that Jesus was innocent, that's only going to help his case if this ends up back in Rome.

So they're using each other. But with that, then these two ungodly, brutal men bury the hatchet. Herod condemned John the Baptist to death, an innocent man.

Pilate condemns Jesus to death, an innocent man. And over this scene, they become reconciled as friends. Let me tell you, they may have been reconciled with one another, but the tragedy is neither one of them are reconciled with God. Today you might have friends or acquaintances. They go to class with you. They work down the hall or whatever, who find courage like these two men did in friendships with others who defy Jesus. They find support that buttresses their rebellion against God's Word. And they look for people.

The world is always looking for more people who will support them in this effort. But even still, they might mock Jesus as an imbecile, but they know he's innocent. They might think to themselves he's deluded, but at least they know that he's not dangerous. So with that, Pilate in verse 14 here comes back and he offers a compromise to the religious leaders. Look, let me punish him. Let me have him flogged and then, you know, get over it.

Let him go. The religious leaders come unglued with that offer, by the way. They rage against Pilate.

Now you've got a riot that the pot is rattling, as it were, the heat growing. It's stirring and Pilate is becoming more and more trapped here. Now somewhere around this time, something takes place that only Matthew's gospel account records over in chapter 27 in verse 19.

Here's what Matthew said. While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. Now we're not told what the dream was.

It would be great if we were given just a sentence or two on what it was. But while court is in session, her dream is so troubling to her that she writes a note, has a messenger send it up there to Pilate that basically says, don't do anything other than let this man go. Let him go. Now, he doesn't have any, you know, real context, but imagine you get a note from your wife, let the guy go. Well, now you're between a rock and a, you know, a hard place for sure. I mean, what do you do if Pilate lets Jesus go?

The Jewish people are going to riot. If he doesn't let him go, he's never going to have another home-cooked meal in his life. He's in the doghouse for Elisa. Come on. How many of you men have ever been in the doghouse recently?

Yeah. Wisely, none of you. Well, maybe one did. Raise your hand. How many of you just got out so you could come to church today?

OK. The Romans, you need to understand, are superstitious. They never were secure with their pantheon of gods. The gods were cruel. They were immoral.

You never know if you might offend one of them. Pilate's wife, Claudia, was the granddaughter of the emperor Caesar Augustus. She grew up knowing her grandfather's terror of the gods, especially the god of thunder and lightning.

So, in fact, I read so I could understand it, the biography of her grandfather, Caesar Augustus, some time ago. Caesar would carry around a little piece of seal skin because he felt like that was security against thunder and lightning. It was like a rabbit's foot. And one time he was caught in a storm, there was lightning around him. A bolt of lightning struck so closely to him that it left burn marks on his carriage. He escaped unharmed but immediately put into plan building a magnificent temple to Jupiter, the god of thunder and lightning.

And he would often go there to worship. He was scared to death. So, for Claudia to be so distressed by something that may have come from the gods about a man who seems righteous, he's evidently right with his god, whoever that god is, what you've got to make sure is that you just don't mess with him.

Do everything you can to let him go at all costs. So, he's racking his brain. He's trying to come up with a way to solve this dilemma. I have an innocent man and I've got a Jewish mob on my hands. Then he comes up with it.

Frankly, it is an administrative legal stroke of genius. That will be the subject of my next sermon because there's so much we've got to cover as we have another man introduced by the name of Barabbas. But for today, I have focused on these two men more than I have the religious leaders in the crowd. I'm really going to get back to them in our next session together. But I want to just pause for a little bit and just put an exclamation point on how these two men represent so much of our world today.

The question is, even as believers, do we act like them? Let me add this if I could because I'm going to pretty much button down comments on Pilate and Herod. But I think it's ironic that both of these men in a few years are going to experience what they put Jesus through to some degree. Herod's wife will grow jealous that Caligula, the new emperor, bestowed upon another ruler of one of those four areas the title king. And she demanded of her husband that he demand of Caligula that he be honored, Herod Antipas be honored with the title king. Well, Caligula, if you know anything about him, he had his own issues. But he was paranoid of any rival and he took this the wrong way.

Herod's political rivals used this as an opportunity to convince Caligula that Herod was over there stashing weapons and preparing to lead a rebellion. He's after your throne, Caligula. And on these trumped up charges, he's hauled into court.

He has no opportunity to defend himself. Caligula strips his power and exiles him a thousand miles away. He dies in obscurity. Just a few years after this, Pilate is in trouble again. He put down a Samaritan revolt with such brutality that the religious leaders of the Samaritans brought charges against him, exaggerated them to the emperor. With that a fair trial and all, the religious leaders win the day Pilate is deposed, stripped of his power, his financial resources. So if you can imagine that the granddaughter of the emperor, his wife, and the former governor of Judea are forced into poverty.

Now here's the irony. Both men have false charges brought against them. Both men are not believed in court. And both men are exiled to the same town in southeast Gaul, modern day France. The same little town.

I guess they have each other. Herod will die without a trace. You can't find any record anywhere or tradition of his last years. He dies in complete obscurity. Pilate unfortunately will take his own life. Two men before whom the king of kings stood. And to Pilate, Jesus offered to give him the truth. I, the king, and those who want to listen to my words are interested in the truth. Pilate was not interested in the truth. He was interested in his political career.

Don't mess with that. To Herod, Jesus offered nothing but silence because he knew Herod wasn't interested. To him, to Herod, Jesus was a joke. Who would believe in him? What a joke.

He's a curiosity at best. Can we act like them? Jesus could ruin my career if I defend him in public. I think I'd better be quiet.

I might get a lower grade in class or I won't get that promotion. Jesus says some things in his word, but I'm not sure we should take him all that literally. I think what I'm doing is fine. It seems to be right for me. I'd rather go along with the majority opinion.

I don't really want to stand alone. I'm more comfortable actually with people around me who don't take Jesus so seriously. Jesus is an interesting person. Maybe you're an unbeliever today.

That's your thought. He's interesting. He's a curiosity. But he's not a king, certainly not the king of my life. Since Jesus is effectively standing before us in his word today, what will we believe about him?

What will we do with him today? That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen called this message between the rock and a hard place. If you've ever wondered about something in the Bible, we have a tool to help. It searches Stephen's teachings instantly and gives you a trusted biblical answer. Whether your question is big or small, theological or practical, our tool provides answers in seconds. Visit wisdomonline.org forward slash ask or click on the blue icon on any page. Thanks for joining us today. Come back next time to discover more wisdom for the heart.