Principles Of Christian Leadership And Discipleship

Friday of the Fourth Week in Course 2025

Today’s Gospel is a reminder to us of the many pitfalls of having power, money, and an inflated ego. There are several Herods in the NT. All of them were suffragans of Rome, who granted them rights to rule others, take bribes and taxes, and surround themselves with sycophants. So they pumped up their money bins and their already amplified self-images.

The Herod of today’s reading is Herod Antipas, also known as Herod the tetrarch, ruler for the Romans of Galilee and Perea. He was a surviving son of Herod the Great, whom we last saw trying to kill the baby Jesus and deceive the Magi. I say surviving son because the elder Herod was quite paranoid and had the habit of killing his offspring if there was a whiff of rebellion about any one of them. Antipas was built with similar blueprints.

Here we see the familiar story of how John the Baptist preached against Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias, and how this Antipas was essentially tricked into having John beheaded. But today’s Scripture, from Mark’s abridgement of Matthew’s Gospel, treats the murder of John as a kind of parenthetical history. Herod Antipas heard of Jesus, and His preaching and miracles, and chose to believe that Jesus was a resurrected John. That terrified him, we can infer, and may explain why Herod wanted Jesus to appear before him, as his ruler, during the several events of Good Friday. He is pictured as exactly opposite of Jesus in leadership. For that, we turn to the first reading.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews was probably thinking of Jesus and His early community of disciples when writing this last part of his sermon. Just look at the list of characteristics recommended to the church: Philadelphia (brotherly love), philoxenia (love of strangers—hospitality to visitors), ton desmion (prisoners—perhaps persecuted Christians), kakoucheo (the ill-treated). In other words, treat those who are despised with love and assistance. Note also the importance of sexual morality to this writer. The pornos and moichos are condemned for their adultery and indulgence in sex outside marriage. Marriage is to be held in honor. With respect to property, he advises all to be content with what they have. Otherwise they will be attracted to theft and other crimes against the commandments.

The writer concludes this section with another look at leadership, and the greatest leader of all, Jesus Christ: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The outcome of good Christian leadership is union in heaven with the Blessed Trinity. He’s not looking at “outcome” as some temporal goal, because some of the leaders, including Jesus, were persecuted and killed by secular authorities. No, as always we should, it’s the ultimate end that is important. In this life, we act in love, obey the commandments, stay resolute, endure wrongs and anticipate in hope our perfection in the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.