Because of a minor infraction, a sailor aboard the USS Reeves, bound for Japan, was busted one rank, fined and given extra duty for three weeks. He was looking forward to celebrating his 21st birthday on July 22, and so he consoled himself every night during his extra duty by reciting this phrase to himself, "They can bust me, they can fine me -- but they can’t take away my birthday", and as July 22 approached, his excitement increased. When he went to bed on July 21, he happily repeated his self encouraging phrase, "They can bust me, they can fine me -- but they can’t take away my birthday." The next morning when he awoke, he found out that the ship had crossed the international date line -- and it was July 23.
Birthdays can be a big deal, some people just love them. It is a time to celebrate, to have a get together with loved ones and thank God for his grace an d mercy in your life. Why do folks like birthdays so much? I think there are a variety of reasons some noble and some very self centered – a neighborhood kid expressed it well, when on her birthday this summer you could hear her shouting at the other kids in the neighborhood, “You have to do everything I say, because today is my birthday!” – This sounds like a birthday in the Herod household.
Mark takes a quick detour from Jesus’ ministry to explain what had happened to Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. On the surface in this passage, we see soap opera like intrigue culminating in the wrongful death of an innocent man. At the root of these dysfunctional lives, we see a deep sin that blinds this family to the evil they are involved in to the point that they will sacrifice dignity, reputation and life to continue their sin. In fact we see one of the family members even listening and enjoying teaching from God’s word but, to no effect upon their lives. This passage is not just about a morbid ancient birthday party, no, it is about you and I, it is a warning of how the sin we hold onto blind us to the validity of God’s word. In fact we can fool ourselves, because like Herod, we hear God’s Word often, we discuss it, we analyze it and are fascinated by it, but all those things do not in of themselves constitute belief. They constitute interest.
Greg graduated with me from Seminary with his Masters and went on to a major University to work on his PhD in theology. Greg is a very gifted and intelligent man and he did extremely well in his studies, pretty much at the top of his class in every area of study. So he was taken by surprise when he was called into his supervisors office to be told that he was being removed from the program. Greg wasn’t being removed because of his academics, his academics were excellent, in fact better than most. The professor explained to Greg that he was on a different “wavelength” than the rest of the students and also the professors. The professor had received so many complaints, that for the peace of the department he had to ask Greg to leave. For the life of him, Greg couldn’t, understand exactly what the difficulty could be. and so he pressed the professor, “What exactly do you mean”? “Well”, said the professor, “the problem is you actually belief this stuff. You take the contents of the bible as true and really believe everything in it about Jesus.” Greg pushed even further, “Of course I believe I’m a Christian, why is that a problem”? It turns out that both the professors and the others students didn’t want to have to deal with a believer.
These men and women at this university that studies with Greg, found Scripture very interesting and Christian theology fascinating, so much so that they dedicated their life to studying it – but with all the love for Scripture when it came right down to it – they still could not believe a word of it. In other words the Seminary was seen as another department of philosophy or sociology. They were comfortable with the theoretical, but not the practical. What that really means is this: To read about the bible, to hear about the bible and discuss the bible is one thing, but to put what the bible says into practice is quit another. This is Herod, and this could easily be any one of us.
Now the New Testament speaks of several individuals called Herod, so hold on to your seat, because this is unbelievably confusing. First there was Herod the Great. He was King when Jesus was born. He is the one who massacred the young children of Bethlehem as he sought to kill the Jesus. Herod the Great had several marriages and had produced had a number of sons. Among them were: Antipater who was executed, Aristobulus and Archelaus who were murdered, and also, Herod Philip and Herod Atipas, the Herod in our passage. These men were all half-brothers. One of the half brothers Aristobulus had a daughter named Herodias. Herodias married Herod Philip. Herodias, was in fact, Philip’s niece. So Herod Philip had married his own niece. They had a daughter whose name was Salome. So within these complicated relationships, Herod Antipas then, creates more confusion.
On a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas met his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. They hit it off and the next thing you know Herodias divorces Herod Philip and marries Herod Antipas. So in effect, Herod Antipas also marries his niece, who was his brother’s wife.
It gets worse. To marry Herodias, Herod Antipas had to repudiate his first wife. His first wife was the daughter of Aretas IV of the very powerful and dangerous Nabatean kingdom, this is where the city of Petra is today.
In comes John the Baptist. John openly denounced this whole thing saying that Herod’s marriage to Herodias was scandalous and something needs to be done about it. Leviticus 18:16 prohibits marriage to a brother’s wife while the brother was still alive. So of course Herodias hates John the Baptist – but not just because she is embarrassed at being ridiculed in public, but also as Josephus indicates, an insurrection from the Nabateans might be at hand. John’s repeated proclamation of the unlawfulness of Herod’s marriage might incite the Nabateans to insurrection – something Rome would not take well at all.
Understand that this is a very real and very serious threat. The Nabateans were never conquered by the Romans. They remained quite powerful for some time having a strong army and Herodias is the last person who wants to be blamed for a potential conflict in the region. So verse 19 we see that she presses her husband to kill John the Baptist.
Herod does not kill John, he only has him arrested at placed in prison. Herod in fact protects John. If we look at verse 20 we see that Herod sees John as a righteous and holy man. To Herod this is the perfect compromise, John is alive but quiet, the Nabatean forces are held at bay and he gets his wife off his back.
The heart of this whole matter is found in verse 20 “because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.”
It turns out that Herod would go to the fortress of Machaerus where John was most likely held and visit with him to hear his forceful teaching. At first this may sound quite curious, why would such an rotten man be so drawn to righteous and holy man? Well, it was clear that John the Baptist was quite the powerful speaker, probably one of the best in his day, he certainly must have been fascinating to listen too.
Amazing isn’t it? Here is a man, John the Baptist, who whole crowds would turn in repentance after hearing John, even the religious authorities with cold hearts were moved to repentance after hearing this man – Herod, he is puzzled. No repentance, no belief, no real understanding, just great interest. Perhaps you know someone like this, They come to church week after week hearing the message of the Gospel and it is great stuff, but somehow, someway….and they can’t put their finger on it, there is something that is not there for them. Still, something drives them to come back. What is going on here?
Herod Antipas has come from a morally permissive family. His father Herod the great establishes this moral permissiveness with his multiple marriages, to which his sons follow to a greater degree by two of the brothers marrying their niece. For both Herodias and Herod Antipas the jump to divorcing one brother to marry another brother and marrying a close family relation isn’t much of a step next to all the lax morality they have grown up with. The family that that have grown up in has taught them that this is a perfectly fine arraignment. Still, they know it is a sin. Still they are aware that it is wrong. Even though they have seen similar morally lax situations growing up, and even though this relationship is something they both have a great desire for, and even though they could come up with a long list of justifications for what they were doing – they still knew it was sin. Why do you think Herodias was so upset with John the Baptist?
The children of a well-to-do family decided to give their father as a birthday present a book containing their family’s history. They commissioned a professional biographer to write the book, carefully cautioning him about the family’s “black sheep”—their Uncle George who had been executed in the electric chair for murder. The children made it clear that they expected the biographer to “handle” this situation.
The day arrived when the finished book was presented to the father who was overjoyed. As he flipped through the book he came across the entry for Uncle George, the children all held their breath while he read the entry. It read: Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest ties, and his death came as a real shock.”
Understand that this type of marriage which Herod and Herodias were involved in was looked down upon by many in the Roman Empire, they had to know that a move like this would make life…complicated. Still they jump into it. So, there is this sin that they are involved in, in reality, committed to, and they will do whatever it takes to protect their sin and to continue their sin, even if it turns heads at the highest places.
These two are so committed to their sin that they are willing to risk everything to keep it intact. They are willing to risk shame on their family, losing face with the local population and even war with the Nabateans. I think it is this commitment to sustaining this sin is what holds back Herod when he is listening to John the Baptist. Herod was unable to follow what John had been teaching him, he did not have the strength to grab a hold of the truth, but still, he is fascinated by the truth.
See, for Herod to allow the teaching of John to affect his life, Herod would have to give up his sinful relationship with Herodias. Remember, John’s ministry was one of repentance. You can be sure that every time Herod heard John, John spoke of repentance, and Herod listened and then, went on with his life. This sin was so precious to him, that he could not move beyond it. You know, Herod knew what he was doing was wrong, he knew he was in sin – why do you think he protected John? I believe Herod wanted to change, He knew he should change…maybe one more visit with John the Baptist might give him what he needed.
Then his birthday arrived.
Herod throws himself a birthday party. Both the military commanders of the region and those of substance who may travel with Herod are invited. The fact is, most in the room would have known of John the Baptist or even went to see him with Herod. During the feast a fair amount of wine would be consumed and so when his step daughter Salome is sent by Herodias to dance in front of the guests, Herod is probably somewhat drunk. Salome was about 16 years old and the dance she performs would have had heavy sexual overtones. Her style of dance is popluar in several shady "institutions" that we have here in town, you know what I mean. Understand that though this girl is young, she is not tricked into lewd dancing, she walks into the situation with eyes wide open. To her, there is nothing strange about this, she has grown up in a morally lax environment, what’s the big deal?
For Herodias would encourage her own daughter to act lewd in front of a group of older men shows the intensity of her love for her sin. You see in her mind anything was worth sacrificing so she could continue in her sin. She knows the lust of her current husband. She knows a little drink and a young woman dancing in front of him made him easy prey. The daughter dances and Herodias has him. Remember, Herodias could have asked for any number of favors from her husband, but because she is so caught by her own sin she asks for a favor to ensure the protection of her sin.
Understand that this “oath” that Herod makes is not something he is obligated to carry out. His step daughter knew very well that Herod is making an exaggerated boast saying in verse 23 “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”. Herod just did not have the power to give away parts of his kingdom, but saying such a thing might impress his guests. Herod could have said no. Herod did not have to say yes. But he is drunk and even weaker in dealing with his sin than when he is sober. Herod has one last chance to repent and say no I will not kill this man, but he loves his sin so much, it is not a difficult decision.
Notice that the ok is given, the step daughter leaves and for Herod and those at the birthday party that is the end of the matter. They never see the head of John the Baptist. They continue to celebrate. John’s head is given to Salome and then to Herod’s wife Herodias. Now they are free to continue to protect their sin and continue on with their lives without interruption.
Though we see in verse 14 that Herod Antipas is called King Herod, that is only a local custom to call him king, Herod Antipas was never a king, Caesar Augustus refused to bestow upon Herod the royal title of king upon him, perhaps his sinful relationship had something to do with that decision. Eventually, Herod was removed from office for continually requesting the title of king. His wife Herodias insisted he push for the title king. Ultimately, it was this relationship that he held so dear that was his downfall.
Last week we saw that if we do not place ourselves under the authority of Jesus we will miss many blessings because we are blinded by our sin. This week we see something similar, but more intense, we can love a sin so much that we will do almost anything to keep it in our lives. In fact, we can sit in this sanctuary week after week hearing the Word of God, but somehow missing it, and we miss it because we don’t want to let go of our sin.
Let me assure you, that if this is what you are experiencing, eventually it will be your downfall.
This morning put a stop to this in your life.
Pray with me a short prayer of repentance and start today, this very hour, to let go of that sin you love so much and receive the healing that Jesus has reserved for you for this very time.
Let us pray,
Lord Jesus, I’m tired of living to protect my sin. I’m tired of holding back on you because I love this thing so much. I now repent, I turn away from my sin, and I turn toward you. I ask for your full, complete and miraculous healing in this area. Give me the strength to say no. Give me the power to overcome. Give me the blessing of the Holy Spirit to guide me through with wisdom and a steadfast will.
We ask this all in the powerful name of Jesus, who was, who is and who ever shall be.
Amen.
