We continue looking at the last days of Jesus’
life on earth. Jesus has been betrayed. He’s been arrested.
He’s been questioned by the high priest. Now, he’s been brought before
the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
A Roman governor, at that time, served at the pleasure of
the Roman emperor. In other words, the Roman emperor could appoint anyone
he wanted to serve as a governor, for any reason or no reason. And the
Roman emperor could remove any governor and appoint a different one, again for
any reason or no reason.
So, if you were a Roman
governor, one of your main concerns was to keep the emperor happy. And
what was the best way to do that. Well, two things. One, make sure
that money keeps flowing to the emperor’s treasury. In other words, make
sure all the taxes from your area that are supposed to go to Rome get to Rome.
And if you can send a little bit more than that, well, that would be
appreciated. Two, keep the peace. Keep things under control.
Don’t let there be any unrest, don’t let the people get stirred up to the
point where they try something. Don’t make Rome have to send troops to
your area to calm things down. Keep them calm yourself.
So, knowing that, what are the
two things the chief priests, the people out to get Jesus, tell Pilate?
First, they tell him Jesus opposes paying taxes to Rome. Second,
they tell him Jesus is getting the people all stirred up and things might get
out of control. The chief priests tell those things to Pilate precisely
because they know those are the things that will get Pilate’s attention.
So, you’re Pilate. You
have the chief priests telling you these things about Jesus, and you’re
concerned. But on the other hand, you’ve heard that this Jesus guy has
quite a following. If you come out too strongly against him, maybe his
followers will get even more out of control. What do you do?
Well, you’re a politician, so
you look for a way to pass the buck. And Pilate thought he’d found one.
He finds out that Jesus is from Galilee, and he says, well, I’m the
governor for Jerusalem. Herod’s the governor for Galilee. I’ll let Herod
deal with him. And that’s the part of the story I want to talk about.
Now, this is not the same Herod
the wise men talked to in the Christmas story. This Herod, we’re told,
had heard about Jesus and was eager to see him. Why? Because he was
hoping Jesus would work some sort of miracle. He wanted to see a show.
You can just imagine Herod pleading with Jesus to work a miracle,
suggesting things he might do. He had no interest in actually learning
about Jesus or following him. He was treating Jesus like a magician who
was supposed to do tricks for him. And when Jesus refused to do that,
Herod sent him back to Pilate. When he saw Jesus was not going to perform
on command, Herod lost interest.
Now, when you put it like that,
what Herod did sounds pretty crass. It sounds really disrespectful of Jesus.
How could he treat Jesus like that? How could he act like Jesus was
one of his court jesters, someone who’s only worth was to entertain Herod?
How could Herod act so arrogantly to the divine Son of God? You and
I would never do anything like that.
And yet. We’re tempted
to. We’re tempted to all the time. And sometimes we give in to that
temptation. Not in that exact way, of course. Not as obviously and
crudely as that.
But think about it. Have
you ever been in a tough spot and asked God to bail you out of it? Or,
have you ever prayed for God to do something specific, and been disappointed
when God did not do it?
Now, I’m not saying we do this
just out of a desire to see God perform a magic trick. We turn to God in
this way for lots of reasons, and sometimes they’re very good reasons, or at
least they seem that way to us. Sometimes we’re convinced that what we
want would be a good thing, not just for ourselves, but for everybody involved.
Sometimes we sincerely believe that what we want is, in fact, God’s will.
And of course, at other times, we turn to God in this way because we’re
desperate. We’re in a spot where we see no way out and have nowhere else
to turn. And of course, there can be lots of other reasons we pray this
way, too.
But for whatever reason, we
pray for God to do some specific thing. And sometimes, God does those
things. But sometimes, God does not. And so, the question is, how
do we react to that? How do we react when, maybe with nothing but the
best of intentions, we ask God to do something and God does not do it?
Well, we’re probably
disappointed. And that’s pretty natural. But what then? Once
we get over our disappointment, or at least get reconciled to it, then what?
Where do we go from there?
We saw what Herod did.
Herod completely lost interest in Jesus. Herod decided that if
Jesus was not going to do what he wanted, then he wanted nothing to do with
Jesus. He sent Jesus away and essentially decided that Jesus was never
going to be a part of his life again.
But of course, Herod never
really believed in Jesus in the first place. He was curious about him,
he’d heard some things, but he never actually believed. And in fact, it
appears that there was no chance that he ever would believe. Again, he
was not interested in faith. He wanted to see a show.
You and I, presumably, do
believe. Or at least we’re interested. I don’t know why we’d be
here, in church, if we did not. But what is it that we actually believe
in? Do we believe in a God who’s supposed to do what we want, at least if
we ask sincerely and with good intentions? Or do we believe in something
more than that?
Because here’s what makes this
hard. A lot of us have prayed for very serious and important things.
The restoration of a relationship. The healing of a loved one.
Protection and safety in a frightening situation. All sorts of
things that are very serious and very important. And again, sometimes God
does what we want. But sometimes God does not. So the question is,
can we accept that? Can we accept that God heard our sincere and
heartfelt prayer, that God considered what we asked for with the best of
intentions and with love in our hearts, and said no? Can we continue to
have faith in God when God does not do what we know God could do and what we
truly believe God should do?
We know what the answer should
be. And it’s easy to say it when we’re not faced with it. But I
know some of you have been faced with it. Some of you may be facing it
now. And if not, then at some point in your life you will. It
happens to all of us eventually, where we ask for God to do something,
something that’s very important to us, something that we believe with all our
hearts is the right and best thing, and God says no.
That’s when we find out how
real our faith is. That’s when we find out if we truly have faith in God.
When God says no to something that’s very important to us, something we
think would be the best thing not just for us but for everyone, that’s when we
find out if we have enough faith in God to trust that God’s way is better than
our way. When we’re convinced that our plan is the best plan, when we
cannot see that there could possibly be a better plan, can we still believe
that somehow, God must have a better plan? Do we trust God enough to
believe that?
Again, we know what the answer
should be. But this is not a question we can answer with our heads.
It’s a question we have to answer with our hearts. It does not
matter what we should believe. What matters is what we do
believe. It does not matter that we should have faith and that we should
trust God. What matters is whether we do have faith and do
trust God.
Now, if you struggle with this, it’s okay. This is
not an easy thing to deal with. God knows that. I have to think
there are times when it’s hard for God to say no, even when God knows that’s
the right answer. Because in these situations, God knows how we’re going
to feel when God says no. God knows how much we’re going to hurt.
God does not want us to hurt. But God knows that God’s plan is
better than what we want, even if we cannot see how it possibly could be.
And so God has to say no, even knowing the hurt it’s going to cause us.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about aligning
our hearts with God’s heart. We’ve talked a lot about doing God’s will
rather than our own. But this is where it gets real. This is where
we find out just how real our faith in God truly is. This is where we
find out if we can really mean those words we pray in the Lord’s Prayer every
Sunday: “Thy will be done”.
It’s a question each of us has to answer for ourselves.
I’ll be happy to talk with you about it, of course. If you’re
struggling with something, please contact me. I’ll do anything I can to
be there for you and help you work through this. And I’m sure there are
other people who would do that, too.
But ultimately, we each have to answer the question for
ourselves. May we get whatever help we need, and do whatever is
necessary, to keep our faith strong, even when God says no.
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