Transferring the case

July 4, 2025 | Read and Think About Luke 23.1-7

These trials Jesus underwent were more than what observers saw on the surface. This is a time when God released control and allowed a chain of human events to determine how His very plan of salvation was being worked out.

In the first Holy-Spirit inspired sermon after Jesus ascended to Heaven, Peter spoke to the crowd, the same crowd, in Acts 2 about “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, [whom] you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”  God, in his infinite foreknowledge, was allowing all of these oddly shaped pieces to fit together and establish the sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb of God.

It was a chain of events by which Jesus’ blood would be poured out to cleanse you and to cleanse me, that our sins might be washed away, and we might be saved.  This is the Good News, the Gospel.

We saw already that the chief priests had formed a plot, and it was now in full flower.  The previous post showed us they had condemned Jesus to death, yet had no power to execute Him.

They had to transfer the case to Pilate, the Roman governor over Judea (southern Israel). Pilate had the power to execute Jesus.

But there was one problem:  the Jewish ruling council had found Jesus guilty of a capital crime, blasphemy (severe reproach to God’s name and character, by saying He was the Son of God). But that was only under the Jewish law.  This conviction would carry no weight in the Roman system.

Now we return to the account in chapter 23 of the gospel of Luke.  He recorded the events of the three Gentile trials from the perspective of a later, non-Jewish convert to Christianity, having done a thorough investigation into the matter.

The first striking thing we see in today’s short passage is the religious leaders making up different charges.  Blasphemy is now out of the picture. It is replaced by a claim of subverting the government. They attempted to support the claim with a false statement that Jesus opposed payment of taxes to Caesar. They also acknowledged Jesus’ claim as the Christ (Messiah), a king, suggesting this was like rebellion.

Pilate then asked Jesus, “are you the king of the Jews?”  Jesus replied, “yes, it is as you say.”  To say otherwise would have been untruthful.

Pilate seems to be scratching his head at this moment.  This is not subversion.  Pilate came to his decision. By this time, he was speaking to the chief priest and the crowd, and he announced:

“I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

This would be Pilate‘s first attempt to either release Jesus or simply not deal with this case. That should have been the end of it, in his mind.  Amazingly, Pilate would try five different ways to avoid sending Jesus to the cross.

However, this first attempt did not work, because they insisted he reconsider, and argued that Jesus’ teaching stirs up the people all over Judea.

But getting people stirred up (whatever that means) also would not be considered subversion. Still, Pilate had heard enough to be concerned. He did not want a riot under his watch. His superiors in Rome would not be happy. So instead of confirming his decision, Pilate thought he could make it someone else‘s problem.  We see that punting on a controversial issue goes back at least 2000 years.

Ahh, said Pilate. So you are telling me Jesus is from Galilee (north Israel). Herod held the authority over the Galilee jurisdiction. Herod was in town at the moment.   The Galilean will be Herod‘s problem, thought Pilate.

So Pilate sent Jesus to be tried before Herod. This was Pilate‘s second attempt to uncouple himself from this local trouble brought to him by the religious leaders. But as later passages show, the pressure on Pilate was only beginning to mount.