Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening
Herod heard the same possibilities about Jesus as the disciples of Jesus quoted when Jesus asked them who they said he was. It was proof that the masses were interested in Jesus, and sensed that he was no ordinary individual. But it was also proof that one could not determine the identity of Jesus through hearsay. There was something accurate about all of these answers. But there was a greater part that was still missing. It was predicted that Elijah would appear again at the time of the messiah. In his ministry John the Baptist pointed his own disciples to Jesus, whom he called the lamb of God. Moses himself predicted that a prophet like himself would one day rise to govern the people, and that they would either listen to that prophet or be cut off from the people.
Herod was not satisfied with the answers he heard. He was unable to discern the connection between Jesus and John because he still had, probably, unresolved guilt about having John beheaded. The suggestion that John had been raised from the dead in the person of Jesus made it seem as though Jesus had come specifically to haunt him for this heinous act. But there had to be more to it than a repeat of John the Baptist. Even Herod could sense that much. Yet his mixture of guilt and curiosity was insufficient to understand Jesus, just as his curiosity was insufficient to understand John when he had him imprisoned yet liked to hear him speak.
People in our own day generally do not have a complete picture of Jesus either. They may think his existence needs to be explained somehow, just as people did in his own day. But they may be content to call him a moral teacher, or an advocate for the poor, or a spiritual leader. All of those things are true of Jesus but miss the main point of his mission. One problem is that people still tend to approach Jesus with curiosity mixed with guilt. They are curious, because they seek distraction from the condition of the world and from the condition of their hearts. They are guilty because they have a sense that Jesus came in order to condemn them for their sins, even though this is the opposite of the reason he came. But how much of this confusion about Jesus is the fault of his own disciples, past and present? Aren't they curious about him because we present him more as one who is interesting, without expressing the vital necessity of his coming for our salvation? He did work miracles and teach people how to pray. But more than that, he died for sinners like ourselves. And do people around us not feel guilty precisely because we are the ones who come against them with condemnation? Rather than being generous with the merciful abundance of God's salvation we focus on criticizing all of their faults, as if they would need to fix each of them before they could find favor in the eyes of Jesus.
And he kept trying to see him.
One blessing we can't take for granted is that even our own imperfect answers about Jesus won't satisfy other people. That means it will remain an open question, a question that requires an answer that they get, not from others, but from within themselves. Obviously there will be fewer obstacles for that if we ourselves do a better job of presenting Jesus as a merciful king and savior rather than merely the one at the top of the scale of interesting and appealing options, different from others only in degree, and not also in kind.
Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses,
while this house lies in ruins?
Perhaps we are presenting Jesus in limited ways because we ourselves are more preoccupied with other things. It is hard to tell others that he is Lord when he is clearly not the Lord of our own lives. We are supposed to be temples of his Spirit. But these temples often lie in ruins while we pursue other, lesser things. If this describes us (and it describes all of us to some degree) let us head the word of the Lord to the prophet Haggai:
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Consider your ways!
Go up into the hill country;
bring timber, and build the house
That I may take pleasure in it
and receive my glory, says the LORD.
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