World’s Greatest Failure

One

Herod the Human Failure

Once there was a King named Herod. And he was more defective in more ways than perhaps any other human being in Scripture. He killed John the Baptist. He took his brother’s wife. He mocked the creator of the Universe in the person of Jesus Christ. He was a drunken, lustful, stupid oaf. 

It’s good to meditate on someone like Herod, because when we look at his failings, we may notice some similarity to our own culture and, maybe, even to ourselves. Then we can hurry to try to fix it before we become locked in the eternal human failure that is the state of hell.

Two

Herod’s Intemperance

Let’s begin with Herod’s intemperance. When does he decide to kill John the Baptist? Murder the greatest prophet of all time? When he’s eating and drinking and watching a pretty girl dance. That’s when.

The point is, if you cannot discipline your physical urges, if you cannot control your senses, your sexual desire, your desire for food and drink, you will not be able to discipline your decisions. You have to get your body under control if you want to get your soul under control. 

Herod didn’t want to kill John the Baptist. And maybe we don’t want to cheat on our spouses, or yell at our kids, or let our families fall apart, or destroy relationships left and right, or let our mass attendance slip. But if we’re not trying to discipline the lower parts of our natures, how can we do right in the higher parts of our natures?

We have to fast. We have to practice custody of the eyes. We have to be very restrained in how much alcohol we consume. Because greater goods than sex and food and drink are at stake. Ultimately, everything may be at stake.

Three

Herod’s Fearful Vanity

Why does Herod kill John the Baptist? Do you remember?

He makes a stupid promise that he’ll give the dancing girl whatever she wants. Then when she asks for the head of John the Baptist, he feels really bad about it.

Now, we know Herod doesn’t care about keeping his promises. If he cared about promises he would have respected the promise Herodias had made to his brother when she married him. It was the fact that he didn’t care about keeping vows that had caused John the Baptist to criticize him in the first place.

So if he doesn’t care about keeping vows, why does he keep this vow to a dancing girl? Do you remember? It was because he was embarrassed to go back on his promise in front of the other guests. 

That’s right. Herod kills John the Baptist because he wants to impress his entourage. His followers. He doesn’t want to lose any likes or diminish his social media presence. 

So be careful. You may say that your social media activity isn’t changing you, but are you sure? Are you sure that having people watching you, seeing what you do, reading what you post – are you sure that isn’t having some kind of controlling effect on your behavior?

Because peer pressure is one of the strongest forces known to man. If you open yourself up to it, you may find your integrity slipping away, piece by piece, until you’re doing evil things you didn’t even want to do just so that the crowd won’t think less of you.

Four

Herod’s Entertainment Addiction

For a long time, Herod wanted to meet Jesus. He’d heard so much about this Jesus. He was like a celebrity. Then one day, he got his wish. Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, hoping Herod could make some kind of decision about what to do with Him.

Herod got to meet, in person, the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of the World. Herod had the chance to be saved, to be healed, to be forgiven from all his sins, to be helped to reform, recover. To become the great man, the great king, God wanted him to be instead of the wreck that he was. But Herod didn’t want any of that. He wanted to be entertained. He wanted to see a sign. He wanted Jesus to perform a miracle, to pass the time with something big and loud and exciting.

Jesus just looked at him. Jesus just looked at this poor, broken man, this pathetic little person whom He loved, and whom He had come to save.

Herod couldn’t see that love. He wasn’t interested in it. He laughed at Jesus. He sent his salvation away.

This is our time. This is our time to find Jesus, to encounter the Lord, and to beg for His help and forgiveness. That takes some serious self-reflection, which is always hard. Always painful. So many of us prefer to entertain ourselves. To watch superhero movies or melodramas. To watch big, bright noise about nothing instead of looking for the quiet Christ who can bring us happiness.

A love for entertainment can cost you heaven. So be careful about how central a role in your life entertainment plays. 

Five

Herod’s Stupidity

One of the surprising things about Herod in St. Mark’s gospel is that Herod used to like to hear John the Baptist talk. We read that Herod didn’t ever understand anything John the Baptist was saying, but he would still regularly summon him so he could enjoy listening to him.

Do you know what that means? It means Herod enjoyed not understanding. And that means the desire for truth was dead inside him.

Herod wanted to do what he wanted to do. We’ve seen that he wanted to look important, to eat and drink and sleep with whatever woman took his fancy, and he wanted to be entertained. In order to do that, he had to let his intellectual discipline die. That way he could enjoy listening to things without trying to understand how they applied to him. Because real truth is uncomfortable, to all of us.

If the “truth” you look for is just a truth that you find pleasant to listen to, if it’s a truth that doesn’t prompt you to find out how you need to change (not how other people need to change – how you need to change) then you’re probably letting you love of truth die. And your soul will die with it.

So reflect. Reflect on God’s word and the ways in which you’re not living up to it. Then work to change it. And then maybe you’ll be spared from the utter disaster, the monstrosity, that Herod let himself degenerate into.