96
The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
Pilate, knew from his acquaintance with the character of the Jews, that
malice and envy had caused them to condemn this innocent man.
Herod urged Jesus to save his life by working a miracle that would
give evidence of his divine power. But the Saviour had no such work
to do. He had taken upon himself the nature of man, and was not to
perform a miracle to gratify the curiosity of wicked men, nor to save
himself one jot of the pain and humiliation that man would suffer under
similar circumstances. Herod urged him to prove that he was not an
impostor by demonstrating his power before the crowd. He summoned
for the purpose maimed, crippled, and deformed persons, and, in an
authoritative manner, commanded Jesus to heal these subjects in his
presence, urging that if he had really worked such remarkable cures as
were reported of him, he still had power to do like wonders, and could
now turn it to his own profit by procuring his release.
But Jesus stood calmly before the haughty ruler as one who neither
saw nor heard. Herod repeatedly urged his proposition upon Jesus,
and reiterated the fact that he had the power to release or to condemn
him. He even dared to boast of the punishment he had inflicted upon
the prophet John for presuming to reprove him. To all this, Jesus made
[137]
no answer either by word or look. Herod was irritated by the profound
silence of the prisoner, which indicated an utter indifference to the
royal personage before whom he had been summoned. Open rebuke
would have been more palatable to the vain and pompous ruler than to
be thus silently ignored.
Had Jesus desired to do so, he could have spoken words which
would have pierced the ears of the hardened king. He could have
stricken him with fear and trembling by laying before him the full
iniquity of his life, and the horror of his approaching doom. But
Jesus had no light to give one who had gone directly contrary to the
knowledge he had received from the greatest of prophets. The ears
of Christ had ever been open to the earnest plea of even the worst
sinners; but he had no ear for the commands of Herod. Those eyes,
that had ever rested with pity and forgiveness upon the penitent sinner,
however defiled and lowly, had no look to bestow upon Herod. Those
lips, that had dropped precious words of instruction, and were ever
ready to answer the questions of those who sought knowledge, and to
speak comfort and pardon to the sinful and desponding, had no words
for proud and cruel Herod. That heart, ever touched by the presence