King Herod heard of
it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer
has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in
him." But others said, "It is
Elijah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets
of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded,
has been raised." Mark 6:14-16
Being
at the top can be pretty nervous making.
So it seems was the case with Herod.
There were in fact a number of Herods like there were a number of Henrys
and Georges on the British throne. Only
this Herod was pretty unsure he could maintain the top so he had a habit of
offing people he thought might stand in his way. Even his sons he killed to protect his place. That is the definition of paranoid (perhaps
with cause) and ethically challenged all at once. It seems he married his match in Herodias and
she is schooling her daughter in the same lost set of ethics. The top is the top, enjoy it at all costs. You may not always enjoy it but you can
manufacture your own nightmares.
Herodias’ were a marriage that violated Jewish law, a prophet who spoke
his mind and the disapproval of “a higher authority”, God, a beheading that was
to get even, and people who just kept talking.
Herod
who married her was none the more comfortable. Was Jesus now John come back to haunt him? Was this the nightmare of judgment he so dreaded?
Yes, thought Herod. But no, he was a source of Godly thought and
presence that felt like John come back to pick his conscience. You cannot
off a prophet to please your lust-raising daughter and later off your sons and
expect to feel that life is fine all the time.
Someone will always arise with a deep ethic and not necessarily speak to
you, but trouble you with the choice of good living in them that you keep
missing. On your best days you can have
all sorts of entertainments that make you feel pleasure and that life is good
but there are always the opposite days…or nights…or nightmares.
I
guess every Bernie Madoff has his day. I
digress but could you have a better name as a thief?
And
if John the Baptist raised isn’t the answer and instead it is Elijah the prophet
who precedes the coming of the Messiah and the full judgment of God, well that
is no better. You are soon going to be
out of a job and meeting your maker with some eternal review before you…or just
empty nothingness for eternity. Which
would be better?
And
the surreal piece is yet to come when Herod will join in the judging of Jesus
and will help hang him on the very day he becomes friends with Pilate, another
man striving for a top place. And Herod will
find that this one does rise from the dead and good people will follow Jesus
and thus keep troubling the world of getting to the top at all costs just
because good will not die away.
Good
is meant to trouble us into better choices.
Often those better choices may trim in our striving for “the top” or
easy answers to tough choices. And even
when we look back and find that this good measures the wrong choices we have
made, Jesus stands resurrected to say, “start again.” Look over your shoulder;
acknowledge what has gone wrong and your role in it. Ask forgiveness. Make
amends, restitution if you can. Go
forward with the desire and intention to “sin no more.” Do your best and stay willing to review. Dream a kinder life into being by doing what
is good or better.
You
may still have some nightmares. This is
the psyche cleaning house. But these are seldom nightmares that walk about in
the day like your past rising to accuse you.
Yet if they are, make amends. Replace
them with daydreams of what is better. You
are worthy of forgiveness and you will be surprised how often it is waiting for
your genuine good taken up.
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