Who is this guy?

“7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. 9 Herod said, “John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?”” (Luke 9)

Poor Herod.  He had a problem.  Y’see, he married his brother’s wife, while his brother was still alive.  I guess that didn’t jive with God’s archaic laws or something.  C’mon, God!  This is the first century!  B.C. is so last year.  Divorce is cool now. 

But it was not cool.  Not with a guy named John.  John was one of those Bible thumping fundamentalist types.  Kind of ran with the “in-your-face,” school of preaching.  A real throwback, black and white, no gray area kind of guy.  For a guy who ate nothing but honey and locusts, he wasn’t very sweet.  Must have been the locusts. 

So Herod locked him up.  Funny thing though.  That didn’t really solve Herod’s problem.  “20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.” (Mark 6)  It would seem, like Seinfeld’s Kramer, Herod thinks of John, "He is a loathsome, offensive brute, and yet I can't look away"!  It makes you want to sit in on some of their conversations doesn’t it?

So, during an episode of first century Palestine’s So You Think You Can Dance, Herod gives the winner, his stepdaughter, anything she wants up to half his kingdom as a prize.  She, being the typical teenager of the times, asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.  Hey, ipads weren’t invented yet. He being a good dad, obviously gives the poor little thing what she wants.  No one likes to see a little girl cry and you have to maintain a system of positive reinforcement once you’ve started it.  Consistency is the heart of good parenting.

So now John’s dead and all Herod’s problems are over.  Right?  I mean, sure, he’s lost his debate rival but now he and the kingdom should get some peace.  Nobody likes a fundy, always stirring people up, proponents of high moral standards no one can maintain.  Sticks in the mud.  Ruining other people’s fun.  They just can’t play nice in civilized society, no tolerance, no compromise.  They don’t quite seem to realize people are just doing the best they can and you gotta let God work at His own speed.  We’ll all get there; some are just taking different paths.

Then this Jesus guy came along… ”7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two,”… “12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.  14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”  You get the feeling, if he had read it, Herod would have understood MacBeth.  Is it guilt?  Out, out damn spot!  Or is it just confusion?  How can there be two of these guys? 

Herod feared John because he knew, KNEW, him to be a righteous and holy man.  Righteous, holy men don’t threaten folk with much more than a stern talking-to.  Why would this scare Herod unless Herod also feared God?  He didn’t fear Him enough to honor Him, no, just enough to be scared of losing what He had if he irked God too greatly.  Herod seemed to believe in a distant God who allowed men their own way and possibly didn’t pay very much attention to men like Herod as long as He didn’t do anything TOO bad to really upset Him.  Like say, kill one of His prophets?  Keep in mind, this is a man whose father was eaten by worms.  He may have not have had a healthy sense of respect for God’s laws but he had possibly seen His wrath!

So here we are.  Amidst a people very content to speak of God and spirituality but only as long as He doesn’t interfere with their own plans.  A people who do not believe in a God of law.  A God of Justice, though they do believe in Mercy, which seems odd, since without Justice, from what or for what is one receiving mercy?  They believe in Love as long as Love puts no limitations on them.  They have taken marriage, the ultimate expression of love: covenantal, life-long, exclusive, sacrificial, fruitful; and exchanged it for romanticism and sex.  They remake God in their own image and God, for the most part seems willing to let them…

But Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t play nice.  Jesus isn’t content with the status quo.  He won’t let those who come to him remake him in their image.  “18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”  He’s not just a messenger.  Not a herald.  Not an angry, wrathful god sent to punish the really, really naughty.  He’s not one of many paths.  Not fuzzy-feelgood teddy bear Jesus.  Not Rockstar healer Jesus sent to bring you peace and prosperity.  He is, “the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14)

Are you in him?  Is He in you?  Then upon these points we must not quibble.  We cannot water down who he is.  The Truth is the Truth.  The world will not like this.  The world will feel convicted by Jesus.  Where a God can be vague and fuzzy, Jesus is clear, tangible, real and disturbing.  His words are recorded by reliable witnesses.  And they are not comforting words for those who wish to have their own way, their own truth and their own life.  There is no compromise.

“23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9)

Violence is the Answer

“11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt 11)

After a year and ten days in the darkness of the ark, Noah opened the door and blinked and squinted at a brand new world.  Everything now was different.  Everything!  A year ago, they had entered into the ark as just another family of peasants in a world full of people laughing at them.  Today, they exited that same ark as kings of all they surveyed.  The flood was an obvious pivot point in history.

The greatest pivot point in all history however would have to be explained to the folk living in it or it could easily be missed!  When Jesus came everything changed forever!  “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev 21)  Everything the Law and Prophets pointed to was being fulfilled, the system God has set in place for men to approach Him was being fulfilled and now the Kingdom of Heaven had come!  The last prophet, the greatest prophet according to Jesus, had come and instead of pointing down the hazy road of history to come and saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1) he pointed across the Jordan and hollered, “There he is!  The Lamb who takes away the sins of the World!”  Talk about your awkward moments!  How silent it must have been in the crowd that day?

And yet, here we are, at the most, only two years later and Jesus has to remind the crowds of it.  ““What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts. 26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,

“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,


    who will prepare your way before you.’” (Luke 7)

Jesus has to frame it for them.  Some went to see the spectacle.  Some to hear something novel.  (Keep in mind, there were no televisions and Jews frowned on the Greek theater.  Before there was reality shows, there was reality.)  Some to ensure this new fellow wasn’t a heretic and threat to their power.  Some to ensure this new fellow wasn’t another rabble-rouser and a threat to bring Rome down on their heads.  Jesus however tells them what John was…

He was the End of the Beginning and the Beginning of the End!

And what proof does Jesus offer for his claim?  Look, he says, at what has happened since.  “16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.” (Luke 16)  The “violence” that the Kingdom suffers is the good kind!  The “violent” are the thieves, publicans, harlots, poor, ragged and ill, the demon possessed, Gentiles and yes, a couple of fishermen, the outcasts of society who had not accepted what the “pious” said about them.  They had instead crowded to Jesus.  They forced their way into see him.  Sometimes tearing holes in roofs, sometimes forcing their way through crowds on hands and knees just to touch his clothes.  Sometimes barging into a house where he was a having dinner with his disciples to plead with him.  They climbed trees.  They dragged him to their homes.  They dumped perfume on his head and cried on his feet.  They followed him night and day.  This is not the picture of passivity.  Yes.  They are weak.  Yes.  They know their need and that need is what drives them to desperate acts!  And those desperate acts when directed to Jesus’ mercy are childlike acts of faith so richly rewarded!  For they become greater than John the Baptist and great in the Kingdom of Heaven!  ““If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”” (Mark 9)  Many were receiving Jesus.  “33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” (Luke 7)

Our faith is not a passive thing.  It is not a wait-and-see thing.  It is not a sudden shower of grace falling on us while we were doing something else!  It is a violent child-like, hop-on-Pop thing!  Children have no interest in niceties.  They are not concerned with their image or public opinion or manners.  They run and jump and yell over what excites them.  They run and jump and yell to who excites them!  Who loves them!  “23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’” (Luke 13)  It is not enough to hear the teaching and like some of the words.  It is not enough to “like” Jesus’ page on Facebook.  Our faith is not going to church on Sundays!  Our faith is not a part of who we are.  We are a part of it!  We are a part of Him!  Strive to enter!  Receive Him.  Accept Him.  Abide in Him.  Never stop pressing in!  Never stop desiring Him.  Never stop serving Him.  Then see if the flood around you changing the whole world isn’t one of Grace!

“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1)