Before Pilate and Herod

But someone says, “Are these things to be understood of the Lord? Could the Lord be held prisoner by men and dragged to judgment?” The same prophet will convince you of this too. For he says, “The Lord himself will come into judgment with the elders and rulers of the people.” So, by the prophet’s testimony, the Lord is judged; and not only judged, but whipped, struck in the face with the palms of men’s hands, spat on, and made to suffer every insult and indignity for our sake. And because everyone who would hear these things preached by the apostles would be utterly amazed, the prophet speaks in their person and cries out, “Lord, who has believed our report?” For it is beyond belief that God, the Son of God, should be spoken of and preached as having suffered these things. That is why they are foretold by the prophets, so that no doubt would spring up in those who were about to believe. Christ the Lord himself, then, speaking in his own person, says, “I gave my back to the whips and my cheeks to the slaps; I did not turn my face away from shame and spitting.” [a]

This too is written among his other sufferings: that they bound him and led him away to Pilate. The prophet foretold this as well, saying, “And they bound him and took him as a gift of friendship to King Jarim.” But someone objects, “But Pilate was not a king.” Then hear what the Gospel tells next: “When Pilate heard that he was from Galilee, he sent him to Herod, who was king in Israel at that time.” And the prophet rightly adds the name “Jarim,” which means “a wild vine.” For Herod was not of the house of Israel, nor of that Israelite vine which the Lord had brought out of Egypt and “planted on a very fruitful hill.” He was a wild vine, that is, of foreign stock. So he was rightly called “a wild vine,” because he did not spring in any way from the shoots of the vine of Israel. And where the prophet used the words “a gift of friendship,” this fits as well, for “Herod and Pilate,” as the Gospel testifies, “became friends after being enemies”; and, as though in token of their reconciliation, each sent Jesus bound to the other. What does it matter, so long as Jesus, as Savior, reconciles those who were at odds, restores peace, and brings back harmony! That is why this too is written in Job: “May the Lord reconcile the hearts of the rulers of the earth.”