Herod Antipas Series

First there is a birthday feast to which all his key men were invited. No doubt wine flowed freely. Eventually the daughter of Herodias (a young girl named Salome) comes in to dance before the king. The Greek indicates it was a sensual performance meant to incite and arouse his baser passions. It must have worked because this man made a remarkably stupid oath. When the girl asks for the head of John the Baptist, the king is shocked but cannot afford to lose face, so he agrees. Soon the severed head is presented to the girl who presents it to her mother.

How could such a thing have happened? There is such a thing as a “seared” conscience, which is what we have when you hear the truth over and over and do nothing about it. It is extremely dangerous to be exposed to the teaching of God’s Word without offering a personal response. Sooner or later our heart becomes hardened, our conscience is seared, and our ears are stopped up so that the truth no longer touches us. Maybe this happened to Herod?

Step #3: Guilty Fears - Mark 6:14-16- Read this

The moral of this sad story comes not at the end but at the beginning. When word spreads of Jesus’ miracle-working power, many different ideas of who Jesus was. But Herod came to his own strange conclusion: “But when Herod heard this, he said, ‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!’” (Mark 6:16). He was convinced that John was a holy man and he knew John spoke the truth. Looking back, he deeply regretted his foolish oath that led to the death of the man of God. Now the blood of a righteous man is on his hands. His true guilt had led to irrational fears—that the man he beheaded has come back to haunt him once more.

Let us learn from this a sad and solemn truth: Light received leads to more light. Light rejected leads to darkness!

Step #4: Evil Plans - Luke 13:31-33

As Jesus’ fame spreads, Herod wants to meet him as he once met with John the Baptist. Jesus refuses. At length Herod’s mood changes and he determines that Jesus is a dangerous nuisance who must be put to death. When the Pharisees warn Jesus to leave the region for his own safety, the Lord replies with the only words he will ever direct to Herod personally: Read Luke 13:31-34. In Jewish thinking, to call someone a “fox” meant they were clever, crafty, sly, tricky, stealthy and deceitful. Jesus saw through Herod’s interest and discerned the evil buried underneath. His message to “that fox” is simple: “You will never kill me no matter how hard you try. I have come to do God’s will and no one will stop me until my work is done.”

Why did Herod want to kill Jesus? The answer is not hard to find. What we cannot control, we fear. What we fear, we try to destroy. The stage is now set for one final showdown.

Step #5: Frivolous Curiosity - Luke 23:8-9

In Luke 23:5-7 we again see Pilate, the shrewd politician. He knew the motives of the Jewish leaders, saw right through their hypocrisy. He also knows that Jesus’ case is full of trouble. He does not want to handle it. When he hears that Jesus is from Galilee he sends Jesus to Herod Antipas to see how he would decide about this case. Pilate is the superior official but he humbles himself and send Jesus to Herod. If Herod finds him guilty, Herod can have Jesus executed. In the back of his mind, Pilate feels that Herod Antipas will decide much the same as he in the case. Either way, Pilate scores some browny points with a fellow ruler. From what we know from Luke 23:12 these two were at odds with each other. Probably from an incident when Pilate first came to Palestine where Herod Antipas got Pilate into some trouble with Emperor Tiberius. Pilate is saying lets let bygones by bygones. It worked for Pilate.