The life choices seen enacted in Herod are shocking. He arrests an itinerant preacher for criticizing his dubious marriage arrangements and later beheads him to please his party crowd. It is easy to think of such stories as merely extreme characters of history without considering their lessons for today.
Herod was foremost a politician who believed his own hype. Pleasing the crowd was his addiction and being rejected his greatest fear. That dynamic is alive and well in our own day. In our culture of fear of offending anyone, we go to extremes to please the crowds and demonstrate that we are totally inclusive.
Of course, some of the time that will be the right thing to do but what about those times when the crowd is against what we consider right? We need to be aware of the peril of being addicted to human approval. The radical cure given by Jesus is to become addicted instead to our heavenly Father’s approval. It is the ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ that really matters and lasts.
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