Lots of people admire people from a distance. They learn a few things about them, and then they form a mental picture about who they think the person is. And then they admire that mental picture. Of course the picture doesn’t even have to be an accurate picture of that person. It can leave out large chucks of reality. It can be terribly distorted. And yet it leads to admiration.
I will give you an example: Princess Diana of England. For many she is the beautiful woman walking down the wedding aisle with the world’s most beautiful wedding gown. Her image is frozen as she waves to the crowds, or holds a baby. Her charity work is all that is remembered. The affair she had, and the difficult relationship she had with the British royal family seem to get forgotten. She lived a lifestyle of contradictions. We all live lives filled with contradictions.
But people pick and choose what they want to remember and believe. This is true of everyone. We can’t remember everything that has happened and bring all the facts to the table on every topic all the time. We have to summarize and make judgments. That is life.
People made and make many judgments about Jesus. They have since His birth jumped to conclusions about who He was as what He was doing. Even those who were alive often missed the obvious.
As Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist also had people who saw him from a distance and drew conclusions. King Herod was just such a man. Even though John had pointed out his unlawful marriage to Herodias, he still wanted to have a connection with John. He protected John from his wife’s anger and desire to kill him. He feared John. John’s life was radically different from his. John lived his talk. He was a righteous and holy man, as our text states, very different from Herod’s life.
Herod had two different reactions to John: he was puzzled and he liked to listen to him. Notice that it doesn’t say that he believed what John said about life, death, or God’s Kingdom. Being puzzled by someone is not the same as faith. Admiring someone is not the same as emulating them. Observing someone from a distance is not the same as knowing them intimately.
Even today people are selective about what they want to believe about Jesus. They want to believe He was a great moral teacher, but they don’t want to obey His teaching, at least not the inconvenient parts about sin, righteousness, judgment, money, heaven, hell, obedience, sacrifice, marriage…. They want to hold Him at a distance, admire without getting to know, being selective about what they choose to believe. That way, they are in control. They can remain puzzled and say they like to listen to Him, but never accept.
The Arnold Journey 