NOTES for Luk 9:7-9

As we can see, the preaching of Jesus Himself and of His disciples causes fear and bewilderment among the authorities, first of all in Herod. In principle, there is nothing surprising in this: the authorities, both local and Roman in the person of their representatives in Palestine, were generally wary in those days of all kinds of religious and religious-political movements in Palestine in general and in Judea in particular. They watched especially closely any movement, even one only beginning to emerge, in which there was the slightest hint of messianism. That is not surprising either: popular messianic ideas in those days would inevitably have transformed any messianic movement into an uprising directed both against Rome and against its local appointees, such as Herod, who had the status of a Roman ally. In this case, alliance was the historically formed shape of a more or less honorable vassalage. But Herod's fear, apparently, was not caused only by these quite rational considerations. His fear appears to have been irrational in the stricter sense.

When Herod heard about Jesus and His preaching, and then about the preaching of the apostles whom He had sent, he began rushing about feverishly, trying to understand what it all meant. Had John risen from the dead? Or had the ancient prophet Elijah come down again from heaven, the one of whom popular traditions said that, after leaving the earth in a heavenly chariot, he would return shortly before the day of the last Judgment and the coming of the Messiah? This was clearly the fear of a corrupt man and a murderer, the fear of a sinner afraid of retribution, whether from God, from the zealot "enthusiasts," or from some other force unknown even to him and therefore still more terrifying.

As we can see, the murder of John the Baptist became the last straw that stirred up in the sinful ruler's soul a real storm of fears and manias that had previously been suppressed. It is no accident that the evangelist mentions that Herod liked to talk with John, even when John was already in prison by Herod's own order. Herod hated John, feared him, and, paradoxically, still, if he did not love him, at least felt drawn to him. Communication with John was necessary for Herod.

Perhaps this contact with a righteous man restrained the powers of darkness already nesting in his heart, just as contact with David restrained them in the soul of another sinful ruler, Saul. And the execution of John, which Herod did not want at all, freed the darkness that nested in Herod's soul from the last barrier that kept it from finally taking possession of the sinful king's heart. So Herod began rushing about, foreseeing the inevitable sorrowful end. An end that came quite soon.