A MAN CAUGHT IN A WEB
Mark 6:14-29
Can you visualize anything more breathtaking than a dew covered spider web glistening in the early morning sunlight?
A spider’s web is remarkable even without the woven words of Charlotte’s Web, “Some Pig” embroidered in it.
It is made of silk woven from a liquid manufactured within the glands located on the abdomen of the spider.
The strands of a spider’s web are very fine, frequently measuring 1/100,000 of an inch in diameter.
They are so thin that in the past they were often used as line markers in the lenses of certain optical instruments.
We can also find a spider webs to be a nuisance.
They make the corners of our rooms look unsightly.
Everyone knows there is nothing more appalling than walking through a web and getting it all tangled in our hair.
But the spider’s web is necessary if the spider is going to survive.
The web serves as a net to capture food for the spider to eat.
Along comes an unsuspecting insect, buzzing along, minding its own business when wham! It flies into the web.
Its wings become entangled.
The insect flaps its wings; it twists and turns, desperately trying to free itself.
The more it struggles to be free, the more trapped it becomes.
When the creature is completely caught, down drops the spider and wraps the insect up with a few jets of silk, bites it to knock it out, and well—dinner is served.
In the person of King Herod Antipas, we see not a fly or an insect knotted in a web, but a human being.
Herod allowed certain things to happen that caused him to be trapped in a web of destruction.
The more he struggled to find a way out of his dilemma, the more entangled he became.
It all began with an alluring web of the forbidden.
Last week, we said that this story had more plots, more twists and turns than most mystery novels.
I wasn’t kidding!
The sin that John the Baptist was referring was Herod’s marriage to Herodias.
Why was this so scandalous?
Well, to start with, Herodias was the daughter of a man named Aristobalus who just happened to be Herod’s half-brother, which meant that Herodias was Herod’s niece.
Herod met Herodias while visiting his brother in Rome.
At the time, she was married to Philip, another one of Herod’s brothers which meant Herodias was also Herod’s sister in Law.
While there Herod seduced Herodias and persuaded her to leave her husband and marry him.
This was a deliberate act on Herod’s part.
But there was one small problem.
Herod was already married.
Therefore he had to divorce his present wife.
Thus, we find that Herodias was Herod’s niece, sister in law, and now his wife.
Have you heard the phrase, “I’m my own grandpa?”
But the web of missing the mark does not stop here.
Herod becomes even more entangled.
We are told that a banquet was being held in honor of the King’s birthday.
After the King and his chief officials were basically drunk, Salome, Herodias; daughter came out and danced.
Now we must understand that the dance she performed was not of the ballroom nature.
It was too steamy even for Dancing With the Stars.
It involved nudity, with a variety of suggestive acts.
Herod was so filled with lust for Salome—who was his niece, grand niece and now his step daughter, that he made a stupid vow to her.
He promised her anything she wanted up to half of his kingdom.
The web of sin closed tighter and tighter engulfing its victim.
We may not want to admit it but we often find ourselves entangled in a similar web.
Perhaps it is not as flagrant as Herod’s, but nevertheless it is there.
In our minds; or hidden away in a dark corner of our heart, is some secret sin that is lurking like some hidden spider.
We tell ourselves that it doesn’t affect us, or we convince ourselves that if it doesn’t hurt anyone, it should be ok.
But before we realize it – we’re trapped.
We are caught in a self defeating web.
We suddenly feel as if we are lost from God, that God is miles away from us.
Instead of letting it go – we hold onto it.
We won’t let go.
We feel like we have been tricked where we place our hand into an opening, grasp something that we long for, yet as long as we grasp it we cannot get it out.
Unconsciously we find ourselves praying the prayer of St. Augustine when it dawned upon him that as a priest he probably shouldn’t have that mistress.
Thus, he prayed: God, Take her away from me – but not yet!”
Herod was caught in a web of sin, but refused to do what was necessary to be set free.
Notice the spiraling effect of sin in this story.
It didn’t end with the actual sin. Herod suddenly found himself in a web of guilt.
This account is just oozing with guilt.
Herod is feeling guilty about his relationship with Herodias.
He realized that what John the Baptist had said was true.
That’s why he couldn’t bring himself to have John put to death.
The guilt Herod felt continued to grow.
How does this episode begin?
The discussion is about the true identity of King Herod, consumed with guilt says that Jesus was actually “John the Baptist, the man I beheaded, raised to life.”
Guilt! Herod reminds me of the hideous character of Edgar Allen Poe’s story, The Telltale Heart.
The deranged man commits a murder and hides the body sunder the floor of his house.
He is so filled with guilt that all he can hear is the constant heart beat of the man he killed.
The sound grows louder, louder, louder, until the man’s conscience could stand it no longer and he confesses to the gruesome deed.
Herod; in effect, became a man on the run from his conscience.
Some time ago a convict managed to escape from prison.
After 48 hours of liberty he was recaptured, cold, hungry, and exhausted.
He said that it was not worth it.
“I didn’t have a minute,” he said.
“Hunted, hunted all the time.
You don’t have a chance.
You can’t stop to eat.
You can’t stop to sleep.”
Haunted is perhaps the best description of the heart and mind consumed by guilt.
Always looking over your shoulder, wondering, am I about to be found out?
Did someone see me?
David expressed it well in Psalm 31:10b
“My strength fails because of my guilt and my bones grow weak.”
Can you relate to the web of guilt?
Do you feel trapped like a struggling insect?
Guilt slowly eats away at one’s spirit and life.
In Herod’s case, it all started with sin.
Herod was caught in a web of sin that lead to a web of guilt.
Herod allowed himself to be caught up in a web of pride.
When Salome came back to Herod with the demand, “Give me the head of John the Baptist on a plate.”
Herod realized he had made a mistake.
Instead of refusing it and acknowledging that he had made a stupid promise, he went through with it.
The Bible said he wanted to please his guests no matter what.
He did not want to appear weak, regardless of what the consequences involved.
We are all too familiar with the web of pride aren’t we?
Pride often prevents us from admitting we were wrong.
Pride has destroyed many relationships, including friendships and marriages.
Unbridled pride in a leader can bring a nation to its knees or into ill-advised wars.
Instead of making amends, we buck up like a pit bulldog with a determination to never back down no matter what the cost.
The Bible is straight forward in its warning: “Pride comes before a fall.”
Have you been able to follow the spiraling effect of sin throughout this story? It began with:
The sin of adultery
Lust
Guilt
Fear
Pride
Murder
Obsession with Guilt
The effects of unconfessed sin go on and on.
The tragic thing about this whole episode is that it could have been avoided.
All Herod had to do was to admit he was wrong.
He could have confessed his sin of adultery with Herodias.
He could have confessed his lust for Salome and recanted from his stupid vow.
Instead of receiving forgiveness Herod lived in a haunted horror, constantly looking over his shoulder.
I do not want to end on such a negative note.
I want to tell you the story of another king.
This king by most standards was a great king.
Through his skills as a warrior, he enabled his country to grow powerful and to receive a certain amount of respect.
One day this king was walking on the roof of his palace when he looked across the way and saw a beautiful woman taking a bath in the cool of the evening.
Filled with passion and consumed by lust, the king called his attendance and sent them to bring the woman to him.
The king soon learned that the woman was married to one of his own soldiers.
Later it was discovered that because of their midnight rendezvous, the woman was now pregnant.
What was he to do?
The scandal could ruin him.
The cunning king quickly devised a plan to bring her husband back from the front lines of battle.
We could spend the evening with his wife and the misdeed would be covered up.
But no – this loyal servant of the king refused to spend the night in his home while his comrades were on the field of battle.
What was the king to do? His sin was about to find him out.
He quickly sat down at his desk and wrote a note ordering this servant to be placed in the hottest point of battle, and then for the troops to withdraw from around him, in order that he might die.
The king folded the letter and sealed it with his own insignia.
He called the loyal soldier and had him deliver his own declaration of execution. (pause)
Word arrived at the palace, the deed had been done.
One day, a preacher much like John the Baptist, showed up on the king’s palace doorstep.
In a dramatic way, the preacher pointed out the king’s evil ways.
Here we see the difference in King Herod and this king, King David. David confessed his sin.
David has been caught up in the same spiral of sin and guilt. He cried out to God, “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”
He prayed to God this prayer in Psalm 32:3-5 (read text.)
I realized we are not guilty of some of the dreadful deeds that Herod and David were.
But we may find ourselves in the webs.
We are consumed by guilt and feel hopeless.
We have a choice.
Like Herod, we can allow our pride to prevent us from confessing our sin and have a defeated life from now on.
Or we can be like David, we can confess our sin, and be restored to a right relationship with God.
