Right or Wrong Thinking

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

RIGHT OR WRONG THINKING

Matt 14:1-5

14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 and he said to his attendants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him."

3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her." 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.

NIV

We will get to the rest of the story about John the Baptist and his demise which was orchestrated by Herodias, but for now, let us consider the thinking of Herod the tetrarch. Of course, it is the rest of the story, which is the reason for Herod’s thinking, as we know, he was forced to have John beheaded. Nevertheless, it is interesting that Herod was thinking that John had come back to life. Certainly, Herod was well aware of the name of Jesus, as he was the king at the time of the birth of Jesus and had been visited by the three Magi from the East. This Herod was alive throughout the ministry of Jesus, and, in fact, Jesus was brought before him prior to His crucifixion. This was Herod Antipas, with the title tetrarch which indicated he ruled over the fourth part of the country. This is important to the story because of what we are told about his thinking. He could not accept the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, or that He was the Messiah, however, he could accept the idea that John the Baptist came back from the dead. It is interesting how people want to see the supernatural without acknowledging His existence and His working miracles in the lives of people. This whole idea of ghosts and the hunt for paranormal activity speaks directly to the thinking of Herod. He was willing to think about paranormal activity but did not concern himself with the truth about Jesus. This is the same man who sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to have all boys under the age of two slaughtered to rid himself of this Jesus, who he was told was the king of the Jews. But now, he can only think that John had come back from the dead, that Jesus was simply a resurrected John the Baptist. Guilt works in powerful ways, influencing thought. Here, he hears reports about Jesus, who he was certain he took care of the situation years ago, so this man who had miraculous powers had to be John the Baptist, raised from the dead. We can get caught up in one or the other ways of thinking, either trying to explain the supernatural as a paranormal event or ignoring God working miracles in our lives. Of course, being a believer, we are always looking for God to do a miracle. We expect to see miracles. We never try to explain away the supernatural as anything else than God doing what God does. We are not influenced by the thinking of men like Herod, those who look for and believe in the paranormal, but we are influenced by the Spirit of God. In fact, that is one of the definitions of the Greek word translated as grace. It is the divine influence upon our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives. We can see that when God tells Paul that His grace, His divine influence in Paul’s life is enough, how much more would he need. This is our lives, having the grace of God at work in us, so our thinking is in accordance with the truth, rather than in accordance with the traditional thinking of this world. God is the only one with the power to bring someone back from the dead. In fact, death has been swallowed up in victory, and it holds not binding on us. Although this body will die someday, we will still live, we will be raised up to be with our Lord. Herod thought wrong, but we are not subject to that type of wrong thinking because we have the Spirit leading us into all truth, all true thinking.