THE activities of Jesus could not be kept hidden. The report of him had been passed around, and Herod was amongst those who received the news. Herod was troubled by the news. He had a guilty conscience because he had unjustly ordered the execution of John the Baptist. So we are told in these verses that he was perplexed by the news he was hearing. In his perplexity he enquired how other people interpreted the news, and he received various opinions, all of which were wild and improbable. It was suggested to Herod that John the Baptist had come alive again, or perhaps it was a return of the prophet Elijah, or even one of the other prophets. Herod found all these solutions difficult to accept. He argued that Jesus could not be John the Baptist because he, Herod, had killed him. In his perplexity Herod was troubled, and desired to see Jesus. The question is what do these verses, and the experience of Herod, teach us?

The first lesson is the power and misery of a troubled conscience. If Herod had not felt guilty at his execution of John the Baptist he would not have been so troubled at the news he was receiving about Jesus. "There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked." (Isaiah 48: 22; 57: 21) This was true of Herod. Because he had no peace he could not rest, and so we are told that he tried to see Jesus.

This leads us into the second important lesson, which is that there is no response of Jesus to such a desire to see him. This may seem strange to us, for Jesus called people to come to him. He said that any coming to him he would not turn away, and he called people freely to come to him for rest. The truth is that there is a right gospel way to come to Jesus, and any other way is false, and will not gain a response from Jesus.

Let us analyse the desire of Herod. We are not told very much, but what is plain is that his desire to see Jesus was prompted by fear, and curiosity. If he wanted anything from Jesus it was simply to still the questions and the trouble his conscience was giving him over the death of John the Baptist, which had been stimulated to trouble him by the reports of the actions of Jesus. After all Herod had put John the Baptist into prison because John had challenged his sin in marrying his brother's wife. Now in Jesus he saw another which challenged his sinful actions in an even more serious way. If he could see Jesus Herod hoped that he would see a harmless man, and if not he could silence Jesus with his kingly authority. Herod had no sense of guilt for his sin, or any repentance for his sin and sinfulness. All Herod wanted was to cease being made unhappy and frightened by the reports he was hearing about Jesus.

Herod had no wish to leave his life of sin, nor had he anything more than a desire to be relieved of the unpleasant workings of his conscience. When Jesus opened his arms to people and said he would never reject them, and called people to come to him for rest, it was an invitation and promise to truly penitent sinners, who acknowledged that their sin deserved the judgement and punishment of God. Jesus welcomed them because they were people who had been led to see the evil in them and hate it, and wanted to be delivered from it. His promise to all such people is always that he welcomes them and will give them rest by saving them from their sin, both its guilt and its power. No person seeking mercy from Christ will ever be turned away, but will find in Jesus an all-sufficient Saviour. But those who want to see Jesus and come to him for any other reason will find no rest. When Herod eventually saw Jesus because Pilate sent Jesus to him when Jesus was on trial, Herod found no response from Jesus at all. When people come to Jesus in some sort of calamity that has overtaken them in their lives simply to be save from the fall out from that calamity, they will have no assurance that Jesus will respond to their prayer. When the Pharisees came to Jesus with their sinful questions and with the desire or criticise to cause trouble for Jesus, they found Jesus triumphing over them and shaming them, and then heard Jesus condemn them and their ways with serious woes.

The final lesson from these verses is seen in the foolish and wrong conclusions unbelievers came to about Jesus and who he was. The world in its wisdom does not know God, so Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 1 & 2. This is so true. When people come to the Bible with unbelief the result is the same. Because they can't submit to the authority of the Word of God, they either reject the truth altogether, or come out with wrong and ridiculous interpretations. This is seen in the rejection of the Biblical teaching about creation. The Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. It tells us that God is omnipotent and called matter out of nothing to create the universe. The Bible tells us that the creation is a product of the mind and action of God. God designed and then brought about his design by his limitless power. What does unbelief do? First of all it reduces God to the impotence of man, and then says that the idea he created the universe is foolish. From this, the wisdom of the world speculates that chance brought things into being, and because this presents monumental difficulties, postulates millions and millions and millions of years for each stage to take effect. Man postulates that a mindless explosion brings about life.