Luke 23:8, commentary and pictures

When Pilate sent Jesus to Herod as the ruler of Galilee, Herod was exceeding glad to see Him at last after long desiring it from hearing many reports of Him and His works. His gladness was idle curiosity and desire for entertainment and spectacle, not a broken heart seeking healing or readiness to receive truth and salvation. He pressed Jesus with many questions and commanded crippled and afflicted persons to be brought in, urging Him to prove His power by healing them before the crowd and to save Himself and secure His release by a miracle. Jesus answered with complete silence and unmoved majesty, for He would not use His divine power for His own benefit or to gratify wicked curiosity, since His miracles were for the salvation of others and He would not avoid the suffering men face. He closed His lips and withheld elevating truth from a hard-hearted ruler whose heart was hardened by sin and stained with the blood of John, whose light he had rejected, and His refusal teaches those who have the truth to likewise refuse to work miracles to prove they are favored of God.

Trial Setting and Meeting

This meeting belongs to the trial before the authorities before the crucifixion, when Pilate learned Jesus was from Galilee and sent Him to Herod, the ruler of Galilee, hoping to shift responsibility for the case. He was dragged away by soldiers amid jeers and insults, passing through successive tribunals and abuses on the way to the cross. Reports of Him and His works had already reached people in power. The ordeal was one of betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and rejection by a crowd that had once welcomed Him, a sudden turn of public favor that did not wholly surprise disciples who had seen how quickly favor could change.

When He was brought before Herod amid the pressing, accusing crowd crying out charges, Herod commanded silence and had Jesus unbound so He could interrogate and question Him in person. Herod looked on Him with curiosity mingled with some pity as He stood pale, sad, exhausted, suffering, and wearied. That suffering face was still marked with deep wisdom and purity. Herod knew, as Pilate also knew from the character of the Jews, that Jesus was innocent and that malice and envy had led the Jewish leaders to condemn Him.

He submitted passively to indignity with unparalleled serenity and dignity, already lacerated by the cruel scourge. He spoke no word but what was essential and tended to glorify God, bearing Himself with dignity through the disgraceful farce of a trial from insult to renewed insult and from mockery to mockery, twice tortured by the scourge through scene after scene all night without failing. Herod found nothing in Him to condemn and dared not ratify the Jews' condemnation or pronounce sentence against Him. Yet there Jesus was mocked and insulted, crowned with thorns, and heaped with every insult before Herod sent Him back to Pilate.

Herod stands among those who mocked, insulted, and condemned Jesus. In the final judgment he sees the trial scenes again and recognizes his guilt as an actor in Christ's suffering. Jesus, rejected before Pilate and Herod, is now in the heavenly courts interceding for those who refused Him. God will call the world to judgment to avenge His death.

Herod's Curious Gladness

Herod Antipas was exceeding glad to see Jesus because for a long season he had been desirous to see Him after hearing many reports of Him and His widespread fame, hoping to see some miracle done by Him as a spectacle proved true before his eyes. His interest was idle curiosity and desire for entertainment, not readiness to receive truth, need of a broken heart seeking healing, or desire for salvation, for Christ came to heal the brokenhearted, not to gratify princes, rulers, scribes, priests, or peasants. His heart was hardened by sin and depraved, and his hands were stained with the blood of John. Though John's teaching had deeply impressed him he had not changed his life, had rejected the light received through John the prophet, and had later ordered John's death to please Herodias.

Herod pressed Jesus to prove His claims and divine power by a sign, commanding decrepit, maimed, crippled and deformed persons to be brought into His presence and ordering Him to heal them before the crowd. He urged that if He could save the sick for others He should work now for His own good to save His life and procure His release, arguing that if the reported cures were true He still had power to do the same. He promised to release Him if He performed one, hoping to prove Jesus was no impostor and to gain grounds for releasing Him. He treated His claim to be king with ridicule and demanded a miracle as proof He could save Himself. When met with silence he grew excited, repeated his own exalted position and what he had done to a prophet, and angrily threatened to intimidate Him.

His eager curiosity gave way to fear, perplexity, and conviction. Jesus' pure, pale face and silence spoke to his heart and stirred fear that He was not a common man but a god come down to earth, as He submitted passively to indignity with unparalleled serenity. Even some mockers who bowed in mockery looked into the sufferer's kinglike face and turned back ashamed of their audacity. Hardened Herod was left ill at ease, convicted in heart yet daring not to ratify the condemnation.

Christ's Silent Refusal

To Herod's many questions, demands and threats Jesus answered with complete silence and Godlike majesty, remaining as one who heard and saw not, unmoved and closed to him, with no word, look or sign that He heard. Though Herod commanded silence for interrogation and pressed Him to prove His claims, ordered decrepit and maimed persons brought in to be healed before the crowd, urged Him to work for His own good and release, promised release for a sign, and repeated his own exalted position and what he had done to a prophet to intimidate Him, Jesus gave no response. His silence stood amid demands and threats as majesty that would not be broken.

He would not perform a miracle to satisfy wicked and idle curiosity, to win the ruler's favor, or to secure His release and spare Himself suffering. Having taken human nature He would not avoid the pain and humiliation men face in such circumstances nor use His divine power for His own benefit, even when urged that if He could save the sick for others He should save His own life and prove He was no impostor. His miraculous power was for the salvation of others, not for self-preservation or display.

He came to heal the brokenhearted, not to gratify princes, rulers, scribes, priests or peasants. His deportment and silence were eloquent, withholding the precious gems of elevating truth that are not to be cast before swine from hard-hearted minds that could no more understand His pure, elevated words than brute creation and would reject and abuse them. He would not have kept silent if any word could have healed sin-sick souls and the bruises of the sin-sick, for His interest was not met by readiness to receive truth or seek salvation but by curiosity and desire for spectacle. The ear ever open to human woe had no room for Herod's words, the eyes ever resting in pitying, forgiving love on the penitent sinner had no look to bestow on Herod, and the lips ever uttering impressive truth and tenderest entreaty and ever ready to speak pardon to the most hardened sinner were closed to him.

Herod with Pilate asked from aroused curiosity, not faith, while Jesus was on trial for His life, and He worked no miracle to gratify them. His refusal means those who have the truth should likewise refuse when tempted, as Satan tempted Christ, to manifest power and work miracles to give evidence of being favored of God and having the truth.