Consider Mr. Roberts
When we hear about someone who died and came back, we are instantly captivated. We want to know what the experience was like.
Were they really dead? Did the brain stop functioning? Could what they saw and heard have been a mere fabrication of the mind?
At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him." - Matthew 14:1-2
In today's reading we have an oddity about coming back from the dead, presented by none other than the King of Judea, Herod.
What I find fascinating about Herod's inquiry is that later on, after he had allowed the crucifixion of Jesus and the followers began proclaiming their Rabbi had been raised, what Herod believed had happened to John the Baptist, would be rejected with respect to Jesus.
Perhaps it is a matter related to a physical being.
Jesus may not have looked like John, nor did he dress and act like John, so the idea of John's return to haunt Herod was one of reincarnation.
Granted, John was only six months older than Jesus, as we have heard in the Gospels, so Herod had no logical reason to assume what he said, if logic can be applied at all.
So, perhaps we can't give any credence to what is written about Herod. Jesus, he may have felt, was picking up the mantle from John to torment Herod, like Ensign Frank Pulver in the classic movie, "Mr. Roberts."
In that tale, Pulver gets his courage at the end of the movie. He stands up to the Captain for the first time in his life, and makes a stand, not for himself, but for the men on the ship.
But I won't spoil it for you if you happen to have missed it in endless TV runs over the past 60 years since it was in theaters. Catch it if you can.
Like Captain Morgan, the crotchety dictator on the ship, Herod's perspective is skewed. He has let his ego put him in the center of the world, assuming God has nothing better to do than send a prophet, a son, himself, to haunt the old goat.
No. God had a much bigger target in mind. He was and is out to save us sinners.
As Christians, we believe God is always with us, and that is manifest in the belief that Jesus lives and is present in the world right now, making a difference, finding the ones in need, while ignoring, or letting be, those who think this world is theirs to run and control.
If we let our egos fool us the way Herod did, we will miss the point. We will spend all our time trying to figure out what the world has to offer us, rather than what we can do to help those in need.
We may not be able to be like John the Baptist or Jesus, but we can take a lesson from them, just like Doug Roberts and Frank Pulver did, standing up to authority seeking justice and fairness, putting themselves on the line for their fellow man. They were tired of wasting time doing nothing when there was work to do.
It is time to get out there and do what we are called to do, get involved, get going.
As Doug Roberts explained to Doc, "I'm sick and tired of being a lousy spectator."
More to come...
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