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(Audio)
Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
Herod was trapped in a world of vanity, a better translation for which is vapor. Born to Herod the Great, his life was defined by cycles of violence that showed no signs of subsiding. He was taught from a young age that power had to be aggressively sought and defended. Yet power and whatever else he chased were obviously things that, like vapor, dissipated the more one tried to grasp them. His labor, if one could call it that, under the sun did in one sense profit him greatly. He wore fine clothes and lived in a palace. But for all that profit he was still obviously unsatisfied. He was unsatisfied because at the core of his being he knew that things were not as they should be. He was not as he should be. He couldn't help but listen with interest when John the Baptist spoke, even though he spoke critically of his life choices. Herod could not shake the truth of the criticism that drove him to have John the Baptist killed, even once he was dead and buried. But he did not see a possible way to escape. He thought that he was who he was, the world was what it was, and that no substantial change was possible. He found himself haunted by John and desirous of escaping his current predicament. Thus he listened with fascination when people began to spread rumors of something that truly was finally new and different.
“John has been raised from the dead”;
others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;
still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
Of course, one cannot learn the truth of Jesus merely from who others say that he is. One must address the question directly. In some sense Herod sought to do this. But he apparently never sought it any more sincerely than how he listened to John while he was imprisoned. It was more of a question of curiosity and abstract interest. It was not something he was truly open to receiving as correction.
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
Herod was trapped in a world of vanity, a better translation for which is vapor. Born to Herod the Great, his life was defined by cycles of violence that showed no signs of subsiding. He was taught from a young age that power had to be aggressively sought and defended. Yet power and whatever else he chased were obviously things that, like vapor, dissipated the more one tried to grasp them. His labor, if one could call it that, under the sun did in one sense profit him greatly. He wore fine clothes and lived in a palace. But for all that profit he was still obviously unsatisfied. He was unsatisfied because at the core of his being he knew that things were not as they should be. He was not as he should be. He couldn't help but listen with interest when John the Baptist spoke, even though he spoke critically of his life choices. Herod could not shake the truth of the criticism that drove him to have John the Baptist killed, even once he was dead and buried. But he did not see a possible way to escape. He thought that he was who he was, the world was what it was, and that no substantial change was possible. He found himself haunted by John and desirous of escaping his current predicament. Thus he listened with fascination when people began to spread rumors of something that truly was finally new and different.
“John has been raised from the dead”;
others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;
still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
Of course, one cannot learn the truth of Jesus merely from who others say that he is. One must address the question directly. In some sense Herod sought to do this. But he apparently never sought it any more sincerely than how he listened to John while he was imprisoned. It was more of a question of curiosity and abstract interest. It was not something he was truly open to receiving as correction.
John, for his part, was the boundary between the old things which had been endlessly repeated and the new thing found in the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus. So perhaps in John Herod discovered a little too much of answers which he had already previously heard but had found unsatisfying. It seemed his interest in Jesus was too directly analogous to his interest in John. On the one hand he was driven by curiosity. But on the other he hoped to silence another voice similar to John's that might suggest that he ought to change.
What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
Jesus was not a rejection of all that had come before, in the sense that he did not come to abolish the law. But he did represent something truly new. In his death and resurrection the problems of sin and death, that had previously been addressed by priests through ultimately ineffective repetition of rituals (see Hebrews 10:4), were definitively solved. Jesus, and in particular his resurrection, were the fulfillment of what God promised through Isaiah: "Behold, I am doing a new thing" (see Isaiah 43:19).
What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
Jesus was not a rejection of all that had come before, in the sense that he did not come to abolish the law. But he did represent something truly new. In his death and resurrection the problems of sin and death, that had previously been addressed by priests through ultimately ineffective repetition of rituals (see Hebrews 10:4), were definitively solved. Jesus, and in particular his resurrection, were the fulfillment of what God promised through Isaiah: "Behold, I am doing a new thing" (see Isaiah 43:19).
Most of us probably have a slightly different problem than Herod. We've grown accustomed to the radical newness that is found in Jesus Christ. We no longer really believe that through him anything is possible. Yet we are wrong to think so. Chains that have long held us can be broken. Patterns of addictive behavior can be overcome. Illnesses that have shaped our lives can be healed. If we do claim to believe it, we don't really have hope that it might apply to us. We think we've seen everything that is possible under the sun and we agree more with Qoheleth than with Jesus. But Jesus explicitly said of himself that he was one (the only one) wiser than Solomon (see Matthew 12:42). So who should we really believe? Our past? Others who tell us things can't change? Or Jesus himself who promises that they can? His demonstrated that all of our previous expectations are faulty and that there is not a single thing that is excluded when he says, "Behold, I am making all things new" (see Revelation 21:5).
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