Adversity

Adversity

Luke 9:7-9

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 9:7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening; and he was

greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, 8

and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old

had risen. 9 Herod said, “I myself had John beheaded; but who is this man about

whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see Him.

In Luke’s gospel chapter 9, starting on verse seven and going through nine, we have an

interesting short narrative about a man named Herod the tetrarch. Some of you might

know him by his other name, which is Herod Antipas. Let me give you a short history

of whom this man was so it’s put in perspective to Luke’s gospel. Herod Antipas was

the son of Herod the Great. He became the king of Indumea, Judea, and Galilee. He

was paranoid about losing his power, and he built several fortresses where he could

hide from enemies and architects.

Herod the Great rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem to make it even more exquisite than it

was at the time. He built a palace at a place called Masada, which in 72 CE became the

last stronghold of the Jewish revolt against the Romans. In fact, soldiers being inducted

into the Israeli army today visit Masada and take their oath to the country there.

When Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four parts. His son Herod

Antipas took control of the area of the Galilee. Since Herod Antipas was under Roman

control, that made him very nervous. He approached tasks differently from his father.

Earlier in the Gospel of Luke, we learned that John the Baptist went to visit Herod

Antipas. During that exchange, John the Baptist told Herod Antipas that he violated

God’s law by marrying his brother’s wife. That placed John the Baptist in a prophet

category. Unfortunately, history informs us that profits from God usually died when

they brought their message to the leadership of their day.

Kings like to believe that they can get away with anything on earth and that they would

just be forgiven by God. What we learned from the Bible is that’s not exactly true.

However, prophets being sent by God to these kings frequently did not make a lot of

difference and were killed for trying. And so was the case with John the Baptist.

Herod Antipas became aware of what Jesus was doing in the Galilee. He became

concerned because he saw Jesus as a threat to his authority. Herod understood as well

as the people did that when the Messiah came that he would become the king of Israel.

The Messiah would gather the lost tribes of Israel and reestablish the nation of Israel,

which existed before the kingdoms split up into two parts.

I hope you can see why Herod Antipas would have been very concerned about what

was going on with Jesus. Jesus was out there performing signs and miracles and giving

hope to the people that one day they would not be oppressed by Herod Antipas or by

Rome. This made Herod Antipas very nervous. So, he asks in this section of Luke’s

gospel about who Jesus was.

It is interesting that some people of Herod’s day believed that Jesus was John the Baptist

being reincarnated. When you think about the age of John the Baptist and Jesus, that’s

not possible. It’s not sure why Luke wrote in this section of chapter 9 that some people

thought that Jesus was John the Baptist reincarnated. The concept of reincarnation was

not generally accepted among the Jews of that day. However, this tells us that there

must’ve been some who thought it was a real thing.

Herod faced adversity in many ways. Jesus becoming known as the Messiah was a direct

adversity that he had a deal with. We will learn later in Luke’s gospel that he did not

handle this adversity well and was a part of the movement to have Jesus killed and

removed from the earth. When Jesus died on the cross, Herod Antipas did not have to

worry about him being the Messiah anymore. This also tells us that the idea of the

Messiah and what the Messiah was going to do did not correspond to what Jesus was

actually sent to do. Eventually, the followers of Jesus would come to understand that

he was not going to be the one to restore the physical kingdom, but rather he came to

reinstate the spiritual kingdom of God.

What we can learn from this passage is that we can examine ourselves and ask ourselves,

“how do I deal with adversity?” Unfortunately, adversity is going to hit you in the face