In the name of Jesus — stricken, smitten and afflicted for your sins and mine – dear Christian friends,

Have you ever felt like a human ping-pong ball? How about when you were a kid? Maybe you ask your dad if you could go to your friend’s house. He says, “Ask your mother.” You ask your mother and she says, “Ask your father.” And you keep getting bounced from parent to parent. Or, as an adult, you go to see your family physician, and he sends you to the cardiologist, who sends you to the pulmonary doctor, who sends you back to your family physician, all with a different diagnosis of your problem. You get so frustrated, you feel like saying, “I’d just like to get all the doctors in the same room so I wouldn’t have to keep running around.”

In our lesson today, Jesus is bounced around like a ping-pong ball between two heathen rulers named Pilate and Herod Antipas. Pilate wins the serve and sends Jesus over the net as a rebel. Herod returns him as a reject. Jesus — the rebel and the reject. Certainly not titles we normally reserve for our Savior, nor does he deserve them, but that’s how we’ll see him as we travel with him on the crossroads tonight — the crossroads from Pilate to Herod and back. First of all, we see

I. From Pilate to Herod — Jesus the Rebel

That’s the way the Jewish chief priests and teachers of the law presented Jesus. At dawn, this group had assembled and found Jesus guilty of blasphemy — a crime worthy of death according to Jewish law. But there was one problem: This sunrise court didn’t have the authority to issue the death penalty. So they had to appeal to the Roman governor named Pilate, who was visiting Jerusalem to oversee the large crowds that had gathered for the Passover.

Pilate wasn’t winning any popularity polls with the Jewish people. Historians describe him as being a harsh, spiteful, and brutal man — a thug. From the time he stepped into office about five years earlier, he had antagonized the Jews. He desecrated their holy city, Jerusalem, with images of the emperor, whom the Romans worshiped as a god. He used the temple treasury to finance a new water supply to Jerusalem. He even slaughtered Jews while they were worshiping. And now with this mind-set toward Jews, you can bet he wouldn’t care in the least if Jesus broke some Jewish religious law. So the Jewish leaders who wanted to get a death warrant would have to paint a more threatening picture of Jesus if they wanted to get Pilate to see their side.

Initially the Jews levied three charges against Jesus: (1) subverting the nation, i.e., he was undermining the government; (2) opposing the payment of taxes; and (3) claiming to be a king. Based on these charges, Pilate conducted an interview with Jesus and came up empty, which is where our lesson begins. Pilate said (v 4), “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

But the chief priests and accompanying crowd wouldn’t take no for an answer, which shows their passionate hatred for Jesus. Think about it. Would you challenge someone who had a reputation of being a thug? Yet these Jews didn’t fear what Pilate would or could do to them. They simply focused on getting Jesus killed. So they emphatically insisted that Jesus was indeed a criminal – a rebel. They nagged at Pilate (v 5), “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

Listen to that charge again: “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching.” There’s an element of truth in that statement. The whole land was buzzing with heated discussions on the question of whether this Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Christ. But Jesus didn’t just stir up conversations at the office watercooler. He stirred up his listeners’ hearts. And for that he shouldn’t have been condemned. They should have been singing his praises! These people were in dire need of being stirred up out of their idolatry and spiritual slumber. Their souls needed to hear Jesus’ cry, “Repent, the kingdom of God is near.” Yet they wanted nothing of it. His heart-stirring message just infuriated them all the more.

Can’t the same be said about our world today? Can’t the same be said about us at times as well? When Jesus sounds his stern warnings through his church and stirs up our consciences, don’t we at times resent his Word? Don’t we want to haul him off and charge him with putting his nose where it doesn’t belong? Brothers and sisters, understand that Jesus’ warnings are prompted by his overflowing love for us. It’s just like the wife who notices her husband dozing at the wheel and shouts, “Watch out!” Doesn’t she love her husband? Does the husband yell back, “Let me sleep!”? No, he’s grateful that his wife loved him enough to wake him up. So too Jesus’ warnings may cause us to stir. They may cause us to jump. But if they awaken us from sin and ultimately an eternity in hell, shouldn’t we praise Jesus as our Savior rather than regard him as an agitator?

Of course. But that’s not what happened in the hearts of these Jews. The more they heard Jesus, the more provoked they were to get rid of him. Jesus’ message had stoked such a fire of hatred in their hearts that they called his work evil and cunningly charged Jesus with being a rabble-rousing Galilean. And that was the magic word to Pilate’s ears. When Pilate heard Jesus was from Galilee, he saw his way out. Galilee was out of his jurisdiction. Pilate was the governor of Judea and Samaria. The northern region of Galilee fell under the rule of Herod Antipas, who just happened to be in town for the Passover. How convenient! So Pilate sent Jesus, the rabble-rouser, to his Galilean counterpart. And Jesus walks another road, another crossroad, from Pilate to Herod.

II. From Herod to Pilate — Jesus the Reject

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, the brutal Bethlehem baby slayer who had killed all baby boys two years old and younger when the wise men had asked him about a newborn king. Herod Antipas, the ruler in our lesson, doesn’t seem to have that degree of cruelty in him. Don’t get me wrong. He was no angel either. In fact, Jesus had once referred to him as a sly fox. Herod had John the Baptist imprisoned when John confronted him about his sinful marriage to his former sister-in-law, who also happened to be his niece. And at one of his birthday parties, his wife’s daughter danced for the king. He was so pleased that he promised to give her whatever she wanted in return. When she asked for the head of the imprisoned John the Baptist on a silver platter, Herod followed through with it. So, you might say, he was not a guy you necessarily would want to meet and spend time with. But Pilate served Jesus to Herod. The ball was now in Herod’s court.

Herod wasn’t looking to necessarily harm Jesus. In fact, the Bible says (v 8), “He was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle.” Herod wanted a private magic show. It was like having David Copperfield in your living room, only better. But Jesus didn’t leave the golden streets of heaven to walk the dusty crossroads of earth as an entertainer. He came to be a Savior. Therefore, no bunnies were pulled out of hats in Herod’s living room that day. Even after Herod and his soldiers interrogated him (v 9), “Jesus gave him no answer.”

And it’s the silence of Jesus that shouts out his love to us on this crossroad. If Jesus would have pulled a few miracles out of his sleeve and entertained Herod, he might have been set free. Herod had the authority to let him go. But as a sheep before its shearers is silent, Jesus did not open his mouth, thus insuring that he would stay his course on the crossroads. And that’s what happened. Upset at Jesus’ lack of performance (v 11), “Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked [Jesus]. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.” Herod sent Jesus back on the same road, the same crossroad he had just traveled. But this time he wasn’t traveling as a rebel. Jesus was traveling as a reject. Like a little girl’s dressed-up doll, Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, allowed himself to be dressed up, ridiculed, and mocked.

As we see Jesus walking down these humiliating crossroads from Pilate to Herod and back, join me in admiring the immensity of our Savior’s love. Join me in appreciating what he was willing to endure so he could do his job. Join me in being proud of our humble Savior. He allowed himself to be falsely labeled a rebel and to be falsely portrayed as a reject. But he did it all for us! Now, because of Jesus, we’re no longer seen as rebels in the eyes of God. When it comes to entering his kingdom, we’ll no longer be rejected. Jesus has traveled the road – the crossroad – for us, bearing the punishment of our sins so that we will never have to.

Amen