Granted Authority

“And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.” - Luke 23:12

This is a detail that is here in Luke found in none of the other gospels. Pilate passes Jesus to Herod seemingly in an attempt to avoid a decision. However, a bit of bureaucratic indecision clarifies an important point: Jesus isn’t crucified because He was a threat to Rome. No less than two officials (who had previously hated each other) judged that Jesus was innocent of anything deserving death. They were in such agreement that their mutual interaction with Jesus brought peace between them. Jesus didn’t die on the cross because He accidentally made too many statements against Rome. He died on the cross because it was always the plan of God (Acts 2:23). He isn’t trying to escape the cross. Instead He is using the Roman authorities to fulfill prophecy (Isaiah 53:7) and ultimately advance His agenda. His work has always been to turn the heart of kings (Proverbs 21:1), even to turn them to be friends with each other.

Jesus’ control over this situation should bring us great comfort. His control over authorities is not lessened by chains and vehement accusations. It isn’t lessened by being within headquarters or Roman jurisdictions. Even when He is working towards His own crucifixion, He is utterly in control. This is worth our remembering when we read the news of kings. It may seem that the world is utterly unruled, but as we see from our passage, there is not an emotion in the heart of those kings that isn’t under the oversight of God.

There is one more point to make here from this passage. Within the great cosmic moves of the world, Jesus is attendant to the details. Jesus is going to the cross, yet He uses the climax of redemptive history to also reconcile two men who were enemies. He isn’t just a “Big Picture” God. He is overseeing even the smallest of details to advance His will.

The same is true of your life as well. God is attendant to every detail of your life, too, even as He moves you through the major events. We can’t always (or even usually) see and understand how every circumstance in our life fits together. We shouldn’t try to. We are called to look to His Word and be obedient to what we read. What happens after that isn’t ours to predict or figure out but trust that it is in control of a loving God down to the last detail.