“Herod was delighted to see Jesus; he had heard about him and had been wanting for a long time to set eyes on him; moreover, he was hoping to see some miracle worked by him.  So he questioned him at some length; but without getting any reply” (Jerusalem Bible, Luke 23:8)

Our Lord’s trial before Herod on Good Friday seemed almost accidental.  It was when Pilate, faced with the dilemma of inflaming the Jewish leaders against him or of having an innocent man tortured to death, was seeking desperately for a way out, that he discovered that Our Lord was a Galilean.  At once he leapt at the opportunity to shift his responsibility on to King Herod Antipas in whose territory Galilee lay and who happened to be staying in Jerusalem at the time.

Herod Antipas was a very unsavoury character.  He was notorious for his low cunning – Our Lord once referred to him as “that fox” – and like his father Herod the Great before him would not stop at murder if it served his ends.  Yet, in spite of his position of power, he was a man of weak character as may be seen from the ascendancy which Herodias gained over him.

Herod was already a married man when, while on a visit to Rome, he was captivated by Herodias, the wife of one of his half brothers with whom he was staying.  He persuaded Herodias to leave her husband and marry him on the understanding that he threw over his own wife.  In due course Herod and Herodias returned together to Palestine where John the Baptist personally rebuked him.  “It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife” was what he said (Jerusalem Bible, Mark 6:18).

Herodias took this as an unforgivable insult and determined to murder him, but Herod stood in her way although, to please her, he imprisoned John in the remote mountain fortress of Machaerus perched high above the Dead Sea. (1) So in that lonely border fortress Herod reached the crisis of his life.  St Mark tells us that he had a tremendous respect for the prophet whose fearless love of justice and whose absolute integrity he could not help admiring.

The presence under his own roof of two such diverse characters as Herodias, the Lady Macbeth of the New Testament, and of the Saint who was under his protection, reduced him to a state of indecision which was increased by the long conversations he had with John in his cell.  As St Mark puts it, “When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him” (Jerusalem Bible, 6:20).

The struggle for Herod’s immortal soul was on, but the fateful issue still hung in the balance.  It is not overstating the case to say that Herod was on the threshold of conversion, but then came that ill-fated banquet and his foolish oath to Salome which her mother, Herodias, was quick to turn to her own account.  It was Herod’s weakness which tipped the scales.  Dominated at last by Herodias and anxious to maintain his prestige before his guests, who comprised his civil and military chiefs and the principal Galilean landowners, he gave way and ordered the immediate execution of John the Baptist.

From that moment Herod went steadily downhill, though his conscience remained uneasy for a time over his crime.  When he first heard of Our Lord’s miracles, he was very disturbed, thinking that John the Baptist had returned to life.  Soon, however, this superstitious dread was replaced by the fear that Our Lord’s popularity would lead to riots and, unwilling to stain his hands with the blood of another innocent man, he used threats to get Our Lord to leave his domains.

By the time, however, that Our Lord was sent to him by Pilate, Herod had passed a spiritual point of no return.  The influence of John the Baptist had brought him to the stage when he admired justice and integrity, when he enjoyed the company of a Saint, when his conscience was sufficiently tender to worry him.  But all that was now a thing of the past.  His conscience was dead and all that was left of his religious interests was a casual curiosity.  Though face to face with a greater than John the Baptist, Herod’s sole interest was to see some entertaining miracle, and when this was not forthcoming, the admiration he had shown for John was replaced with jeers and sneers.

What was Our Lord’s attitude to this man who had fallen so tragically short of the promise he had once shown?  He did not speak to him.  Herod had had his chance and he had thrown it away.  By the time Our Lord confronted him it was too late.  Where before John the Baptist had rebuked him, Jesus met him with silence.  Herod’s day of grace was over.

What a solemn warning this is to us not to disregard those religious influences and impulses which, if acted on, anchor us to God.  Many of these influences begin in our church.  Here God’s Sacraments, conveying his life and strength, are frequently administered, here God’s word is read and preached; and we have too the mutual support which fellowship in prayer and worship affords.  We cannot say that God is neglecting us.

On the other hand there are influences of a very different kind active in the world today.  The general tendency is towards the elimination of religion altogether.  Some hold it in contempt and dismiss it as childish nonsense which people in the 21st century have grown out of – although in point of fact people today are no different from those in Our Lord’s day in the first century AD.

And even within the Church itself, there is always the danger of accommodating religion to the current materialistic outlook by substituting a humanism and a programme of social work from which a personal God has been expelled.

Hand in hand with this elimination of the Christian religion, there naturally goes the general rejection of Christian moral standards.  As a result the Christian can only remain true to Christ by resisting the pressure of these influences and by refusing to run with the herd.

So today the struggle for the eternal future of the souls of men and women is being waged between these opposing influences: between the forces that are for God, and those that are hostile or indifferent to him.  But whatever the outcome, no one can dodge their own personal responsibility for the choices they make.

For whether one accepts Our Lord wholeheartedly as one’s Lord and Master, or treats him as an unwanted stranger, one does so of one’s own free will and with one’s eyes open.  And what one does, reveals what one is, just as Herod’s spiritual decline and fall was revealed by his attitude, first to John the Baptist, Christ’s herald, and finally to Christ himself.

So, when all is said and done, people become either God’s servant and disciple or pass a point of no return, and become those to whom God can never mean a thing and who, even if they have gained the whole world, end by losing their own soul.  And when that stage is reached, nothing else remains but for God to recognise and accept, however unwillingly, their freely made choice.  For through Christ, and through his Church, God has said and done everything that he can say and do.

And that was why Jesus before Herod did nothing and said nothing.

Reference

1. Josephus, F. (born 37 AD) trans Whiston, W. (1861) The antiquities of the Jews, 18, 5, 2, Halifax: Milner and Sowerby.