Mom Said: Off With His Head!

MOM SAID: “OFF WITH HIS HEAD!”

MATTHEW 14:1-12

#MothersDay

VIDEO INTRODUCTION… https://youtu.be/P3YmUx1rM8M [45secs]

INTRODUCTION… theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/apr/04/off-with-their-heads-the-10-greatest-quotes-from-alice-in-wonderland [adapted]

Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, is 159 this year because it was written in 1865. In the United States, 1865 was a pivotal year in American History with the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Alice in Wonderland was first published in 1865 in England and was inspired by a boat trip that author Lewis Carroll took with some family friends, the Liddell children, down the River Thames in Oxford. He told the youngest daughter, Alice, a story as they rowed along and she begged him to write it down. When he got home that evening he began right away.

For a century and a half, it has delighted and puzzled us equally. We have fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice, taken tea with her and the Mad Hatter, been maddened by the Cheshire Cat and had to convince the Queen of Hearts that we didn’t steal her tarts!

The book, and its sequel ‘Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There,’ have been translated into at least 65 languages and have countless film and theatre adaptations. There are many great quotes from the book and adapted movies that stick in our minds:

* “Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.”

* “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the cat. “We’re all mad here.”

* The Queen of Hearts said: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

* “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

* “No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.”

* “I give myself good advice, but I seldom follow it.”

* Alice meets the caterpillar: “You used to be much more...muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.”

* “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

* “Off with their heads!”

TRANSITION

Yes! Today is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is a secular holiday that we also loosely observe in the church because it is not a bad thing to focus on motherhood, encourage thankfulness of mothers and women who have influenced us, and even challenge mothers in their important task. I was reading passages about motherhood and looking at different mothers in the Bible and came upon a passage in Matthew 14 about a mother that piqued my interest and immediately the scenes and quote from Alice in Wonderland: “off with his head!” popped into my mind.

Let’s read from Matthew 14 today:

READ MATTHEW 14:1-12 (ESV)

At that time Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, 2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” 3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, 4 because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 6 But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. 10 He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

TRANSITION

This scene in the Bible that feels a little bit like the Kardashians meets Game of Thrones meets 20/20 Investigates focuses on four people.

THE KING’S SIN (verses 1-12)

The first person is a man named Herod Antipas or Herod the Tetrarch is one of the major focuses of this passage. We should note that this King Herod is not the same one that was king when Jesus was born, but rather was that king’s son. This king is called “the tetrarch” or Herod Antipas and ruled in Galilee and Perea in Jesus’ time and shared ruling responsibilities with others. Both men called Herod were rulers and both had questionable character and were terrible men.

Here is what happened leading up to this particular birthday event: