Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

I've been reading about fear lately for a sermon I'm preparing. Seems like I'm always "preparing" a sermon. Didn't I just do that last week? It's kind of like shaving. You just have to keep doing it even though you seemed to have just finished.

Does not sound very "holy" or reverend does it? Well, this is a blog, not a sermon and if you really know me there are times I'm not very holy. I guess you might say it is one of my fears: that people will find out how really "not holy" I am.

Anyway, back to fear. There are the top ten fears. It seems that speaking in front of people is one of the top fears. No wonder I don't sleep at night sometimes. Then there is fear of flying, fear of dying, fear of crying,...maybe fear of lying, or sighing, or buying (too much), or if you are a hardshell Baptist maybe there is the fear of "frying." (You know the old Hellfire and damnation routine)

In my fear research for the sermon I encountered that scene where Jesus is told to "run for his life" because that nasty old Herod is out to get him. Herod had already relieved John the Baptizer of his head. John was pretty "hardshelled" himself and told Herod that he was persona-non-gratta for messing around with his own brother's wife. After a late night party Herod got all excited when his new wife's daughter danced around some pole and then slithered up to the old king with that "what have you done for me lately" look. Herod, who probably could have done a Viagra commercial, found himself boxed in when he told the sweet young thing that he would do anything she asked. She winked at her mom and said she wanted nasty old John's head on a platter.

Herod bit his tongue but it was too late. Since John was conveniently wasting away in Herod's dungeon John became dead man walking before the night was over.

So you can see why some well-meaning folks thought Jesus ought to run away from Herod. Jesus had a lot to fear because according to some polls Jesus was next on the list for Herod's ax. So what does Jesus say and do? He started singing, "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf." Well, that is a loose translation. Jesus said that he had work to do and he was not going to duck and run from that old "fox." He called Herod a fox...that's first cousin to a wolf.

So Jesus called his fear by name and faced up to it, which is what all this reading and study I did on fear says you have to do. Years earlier Herod's dad was told that he had "nothing to fear" from some obscure prophecy that foretold of a new king that would be born, but when he was told that the event may have happened in little old Bethlehem Herod had every child whose birthday even came close to that starry, starry night killed.

So it is no surprise that Herod's boy, Herod Jr, knew how to kill kings and prophets and would be saviors. Jesus had reason to fear.

But Jesus told those who offered him tickets to some far away place, to go tell the fox Herod that he was headed to Jerusalem and if the old scoundrel wanted a piece of him he could find him in the Holy City. Herod did eventually face Jesus in a kind of trumped up trial in which the aging king had his few minutes of stardom as he faced down Jesus and mocked him up one side and down the other.

Jesus basically said, "You can huff and you can puff but you can't blow my dad's house down." Herod and his side-kick Pilate said, "We'll show you" and hung Jesus out to dry "in the wind." So now we come upon another one of those top ten fears: fear of dying.

It seems that Jesus stepped into that fear also, right after the wind quit blowing. A few days after Herod and Pilate quit giving high fives to each other Jesus stepped around the corner of death and reminded his bewildered disciples that they still "had nothing to fear" because death was taken care of.

So fear not, or at least that's what those "sore afraid" shepherds heard that night. The truth is that we will fear. It comes with our wiring. (I found that out too in my study time) But if you wish... do as the old hymns say one way or another: "Hold on to Jesus...and let him hold on to you...He understands fear."

What or who are the "foxes" in your life? Step toward them and ask for a little help from the one who refused to run away so that we would not have to...
Bless you,
jody