There was quite a lot going on in Herod the tetrarch’s world. As the son of Herod the Great, he had inherited a part of his father’s kingdom and now ruled over the regions of Galilee and Perea, exactly the areas where Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively, had been doing their work.
Herod the tetrach was also known as Herod Antipas.
John had gone to do his work, baptizing people “beyond” the Jordan River, which landed him directly in the region of Perea, within Antipas’s governance, which ultimately had placed Herod within John’s crosshairs. John’s work, his ministry, was to call the people to repentance, and of course Herod Antipas had sent away his wife Phasa’el in favor of his half-brother’s wife Herodias, wrecking both his brother’s marriage as that of his own and even going to war King Aretas because of his disloyalty to his wife.
Then, here comes John. John the Baptist now is a type of celebrity in Antipas’s world and he starts criticizing Antipas for his divorce and remarriage to Herodias, calling him out as being illegitimately married and for having sinned in doing this. Antipas throws John in prison as a result of his criticism, thinking that the problem was now solved. Yet, now what happens? Now there is suddenly a movement of people talking about a new kingdom that is about to spring up. And it is happening right under his nose!
Jesus had, of course, also been calling people to repentance, so it might have been easy to confuse John’s work with that of Jesus. Except now, it is ramping up even more. Jesus is healing people, performing miracles as he speaks about the kingdom of God so as to confirm what he is saying. A new kingdom, the kingdom of God, is coming, and now it isn’t just a localized discussion near the Jordan river or up in Galilee, but the discussion is everywhere!
Jesus’s disciples had been following him, but now Jesus sent them out to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. He sent them to heal the sick and to drive out demons. The disciples went from village to village to tell everyone about the kingdom and to heal people. And now, word was getting back to Herod Antipas:
Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
Luke 9:7-9
Antipas couldn’t figure it out. I thought I already dealt with this problem, he seems to have thought. Didn’t I already throw John into prison and cut off his head? Why do I keep hearing about this same problem?
Little did he know, it wasn’t John, but someone even greater than John had arrived, and the word was going out.
In the time of the pandemic, and even today, looking back on that time, one of the complaints that I have heard from pastors is with regard to the restrictions that were placed upon the church by governments around the world. The government said that the churches couldn’t meet and this became a problem. At the time, several of the churches complained that they were dying as a result of the restrictions.
There are several things that could be discussed related to this concern, but certainly one lesson that we could learn is that we should consider decentralizing the church. We should prepare our people to carry on the work of the church where they are such that, if the government were to come to shut down the church, the people should be able to carry on the work of Christ where they are. People within the church should continue to grow in their relationship with Christ because they are equipped to be able to do so. Disciples should be made because the people in the church are equipped to make disciples. Churches should be started anew because, even though the government has closed the centralized church, the Church, the individual people within each of the local churches, continue to operate within the kingdom of God.
This is how the church continues to work and grow where there is persecution. As we look to China or to Iran, or in any of the countries where the church is growing in the midst of persecution, it is because the people have been equipped. It is because disciples have been made who have carried the Gospel to others. Not from a centralized work in one or more larger churches, but the strengthening of the disciples to go and be the Church, carrying the message of the kingdom of God with them, making disciples and gathering new believers wherever they go.
This is what got Antipas’s attention. Suddenly, even after he thought that he had dealt with the situation with John by killing off this person who was critizing his actions, Jesus unleashes the disciples. Now, instead of there being one person proclaiming the kingdom of God, there are 12. And the message and the miracles are everywhere! It has become decentralized. The message and the works of God are traveling everywhere.
Herod Antipas can’t keep up. He is receiving a report from one area, and then he receives a report from another area. And another. And another. Who is this, he asks?
What Jesus did with his disciples is what we must also do today. We must make disciples here in our day, in our time, so that the message will be heard everywhere. We aren’t looking for a fight with the government. We aren’t looking to disobey, but we are looking to serve the one true king, Christ himself, and have his message taken everywhere. And there is only one way to do that: To send out the disciples who will proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom such that people will ask the same question that Antipas asked: Who is this?