Fear - Herod

Matthew 14:3-5 - For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodia, his brothers Phillip's wife. Because John had said it was not lawful for Herod to have her. And he wanted to kill him, and feared the crowd because they held him to be a prophet.

Herod's first two fears. He fears the power of John's voice, his authority. He wants to kill John so John cannot turn people - Rome - against him. His reaction to this fear is violence; get rid of the person causing him trouble.

His second fear is of the crowd - the ordinary people of Israel. They think of John as a prophet and they have enough power to get Herod to think twice about killing John. So he merely puts John in prison. Both are violent actions.

That is the thing about fear; it leads to violence. When our brains are overwhelmed by fear we want to flee and if that is not possible we want to fight. It is a survival mechanism, which is why we teach our children other ways to handle fearful situations. Fleeing and fighting are sometimes appropriate. Yet there are other tools. John was showing people some of those other tools. Jesus too. Herod fears the people having other tools.

In the US, we are living in an environment stoked by artificially exaggerated fears. These fears are stoked by the rich so that they can steal our rights. Bush did this for 8 years and the Republicans continue to stoke the fears of ordinary Americans for political and financial gain. In addition, we are encouraged to give in to the fear and begin to hate those not like us (white, cis, hetero, men). And it is leading to actual violence on top of the violence our police departments are showing themselves capable of. I am not sure about my ability to use those tools and I am sure that I need to learn - we all do. However, I can only control myself.
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