He frees us all from all our gult and guilty conscience!

Luke 9:7-9

7 Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn't know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. 9 Herod said, "But I killed John-- took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?" And he looked for a chance to see him.

Food for thought!

Despite the fact that Jesus didn't do his miracles to impress people, the miracles were themselves impressive. They were so impressive that Herod learned not so much about the miracles of Jesus as about the Jesus of the miracles. And he sought to see Jesus, that is, he was anxious to see Jesus. However, Herod didn't seek to see Jesus because of what Jesus did, it was because of what Herod did.

Herod had committed murder, and because of that sin Herod's conscience was unsettled; his conscience was accusing him and there was no way of silencing it without seeing Jesus. Herod is the great proof that no one can rid himself of a guilty conscience without the intervention of Jesus. We do well to remember that there is such a thing as conscience, and, even if a man's human accuser is eliminated, like Herod did by killing John the Baptist, his divine accuser was still not silenced.

Jesus, as John himself had rightly observed, is the lamb of God that takes away our sins. (Jn 1:29-30). "John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, "Here he is, God's Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world!"

Jesus, and only Jesus, can free us from our guilt and from our guilty conscience. This is why Herod sought Jesus. And I believe that many of us, if not all of us, like Herod, ought to seek Jesus, to free us from our many guilts. Or not?

1 John 1:8

If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Are you guilty of something you did in the past? Something that bothers you? Why not take it to Jesus? He takes away the sins of the world like yours and mine.