24 September 2015 - seeking to find

But Herod said, “John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”
And he kept trying to see him.

Herod's past just won't seem to stay behind him. He thought he could bury it, in a literal sense. He's perplexed but it is more than that. His guilt lingers. He knows that he should not have had John the Baptist put to death. But even with John dead the message for which he stood remains. It is embodied even more perfectly in Jesus than in John, or Elijah or the prophets. It is interesting, then, to see the curiosity of Herod. He doesn't hide from Jesus. Actually, "he kept trying to see him." This is the approach to religion which we all take at times. It is an approach what explores only so that it can excuse itself. It is not a genuine seeking which is open to being changed. It is rather a seeking that desires distraction. It seeks how it might separate these new manifestations of the supernatural ("all that was happening") from that for which it feels guilty. It is the worst sort of spiritualism. Yet we all embrace it at times.

Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses,
while this house lies in ruins?

Herod is more interested in his own house than the house of the LORD. There are cracks in his walls that are letting the winds of conscience blow and chill him. He may create much comfort. But he can never escape the insufficiency of his own resources.

You have sown much, but have brought in little;
you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated;
have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
And whoever earned wages
earned them for a bag with holes in it.

If only Herod can learn to put the house of the LORD first. If only he could learn that the pleasure and the glory of the LORD is a precondition for happiness and peace in his own life. If only we could learn it. If we could we would seek to see Jesus, not as insulation against the cold of our consciences, but sincerely. And seeking, we would find him.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (cf. Rev. 3:20).

Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. We will never fix our past on our own. But we don't have to. We struggle when the solution is so easy.

But I wipe away your sins because of who I am.
And so, I will forget the wrongs you have done (cf. Isa. 43:25).

We cannot find true joy unless we find it in the LORD. He has made us for himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in him, as Augustine reminds us.

Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.