Strange Bedfellows

Strange Bedfellows

“That day Herod and Pilate became friends - before this they had been enemies.” – Luke 23:12

It was not a detail that captured the attention of Matthew, Mark or John, but it struck a chord of sad wonderment for Luke. Jesus had been handed over by the Jewish priests to Pilate, the Roman governor assigned to Judea. Jesus’ accusers presented Him to the governor as a revolutionary who would be king. The charge captured Pilate’s attention, but he quickly saw through it. This Jesus was a religious irritant to the Jewish priesthood. He was no threat to Rome. Pilate already had a spotty record back in Rome for being unnecessarily brutal, so the most politically expedient thing he could do would be to hand the whole matter off to someone else.

Enter Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, who was in Jerusalem at the time (most likely for the Passover celebration). Herod was a regional king with a great deal of power, but ultimately, under the oversight and thumb of Rome. Had it not been for the Roman presence in the land (as represented by Pilate), Herod would have been a king in full standing. This may have contributed to a general tension, but the text specifically refers to the two men as “enemies”.

We cannot be certain as to why there was so much animosity between Pilate and Herod, but two specific incidents stand out as possible factors. One is alluded to in chapter 13 of this same Gospel. At some point, Pilate had slaughtered a number of Galileans while they were offering sacrifices to God, mixing their blood with that of the sacrifices. This was an affront because the Galileans were Herod’s people, and such a heinous and sacrilegious act would further incite the Jewish resentment of the Roman presence.

Another episode that would contribute to the political rivalry between Pilate and Herod is recorded in secular history. Philo tells of the incident of the Golden Shields. In the Herodian palace at Jerusalem, Pilate placed shields coated with gold and dedicated them to the Roman Emperor Augustus. This was a bit like rubbing the Roman occupation of Judea and Galilee into the faces of the Jews. A protest was made to Pilate by a delegation of Jews headed by four Herodian princes. Pilate ignored them, but they went over his head to the emperor. Augustus, no doubt weary of the perennial hot-spot that was Palestine, rebuked Pilate and ordered the shields removed. This had to have been a bit of an embarrassment to Pilate.

The hatred between Herod and Pilate is understandable, but how is it that the events surrounding the trial of a traveling preacher caused them to become friends? It has been suggested that a common hatred of Jesus, a common enemy, forged this alliance, and certainly, such unholy alliances against common foes have occurred throughout history, but it is hard to make a case that either man “hated” Jesus. Plate never wanted to execute Jesus, and to the weak, silly, hedonistic buffoon that was the historical Herod Antipas, Jesus was just an oddity. Herod just wanted to see a miracle. It seems more reasonable that the two men became friends because the highly political Pilate threw a silly local ruler a bone in order to stroke his fragile ego.

This Spring, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, has generated much controversy, particularly about the culpability of the Jews in the death of Jesus. The fear of being branded as ant-Semitic has caused many to try to explain the death of Jesus without giving any degree of attention to the evil calculations of the Jewish priests and Pharisees. That’s just silly and historically irresponsible. Vile hatred did put Jesus on the cross, but so did the pettiest kind of politics as well as the most insignificant kind of silly self-indulgence. Pilate could have been more courageous. Herod could have released Jesus when Pilate presented him with the opportunity to make the call.

While hatred was boiling in some quarters in Jerusalem, naked politics and worldly foolishness was brewing in other quarters. It COULD be said that all the sins of mankind – from the gravest to the seemingly most insignificant - contributed to the death of Christ. Of course, it could also be said that none of those sins hanged Jesus on the cross. He made that choice Himself.