HoHum:
The April 12, 1993, issue of Newsweek unknowingly reported the signs of the times. Bill Wyman, of The Rolling Stones, married his son’s wife’s daughter, a woman 34 years his junior. Her mother married Wyman’s son, Stephan, a man 16 years her junior. That makes Stephan his father’s son-in-law and his mother-in-law his stepmother.
Crazy but many of the Herod’s had similar affairs
WBTU:
Three facts that will help us put this part of the trials of Jesus and Herod Antipas in perspective.
1. Herod Antipas is the son of another Herod; the man history calls “Herod the Great.” His nickname more correctly should be “Herod the Butcher.” He was a cruel, vindictive, bloodthirsty man who put a low value on human life. He is the Herod who ordered the slaughter of the baby boys of Jerusalem (Matthew 2). When he died, his kingdom was divided into four parts. His son Herod Antipas ruled over one of those four parts.
2. Herod Antipas is the man who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist.
3. Jesus refused to speak to him. That last fact is the one that should catch our attention. Think for a moment. We often speak of our Lord as the friend of sinners. Let a prostitute wet his feet with her tears and he pronounces that her sins have been forgiven. Let a blind man cry out for mercy and Jesus stops his journey to heal him. Let a tax-collector crawl up a tree to watch him and Jesus not only bids him to come down, he goes to that man’s house for dinner. Yet Jesus refuses to speak to Herod. As G. Campbell Morgan puts in his book The Great Physician, this story is both solemn and appalling. We have heard of the love of Jesus. But this is a story about the wrath of the Lamb. Campbell notes that Jesus’ dealing with Herod can be summarized in three simple statements:
1) He avoided him. 2) He sent him a message of rebuke. 3) He would not speak to him.
We associate Herod Antipas with two episodes—the death of John the Baptist and the trial of Jesus a few hours before he was crucified. Taking these two incidents together, a picture emerges of Herod that contains a strange mixture of qualities. The story of Herod Antipas is a cautionary story of seven steps on the road to hell.
Thesis: 7 steps on the road to hell
For instances:
Step #1: Divided Loyalties - Mark 6:17-20- Read this
The story of Herod’s self-destruction begins not with Jesus but with John the Baptist. Here are two men who would seem to have nothing at all in common. Herod was a typical ruler—powerful, egocentric, and centered on his own personal pleasure and wealth. John the Baptist was a strange preacher who wore rough camel’s hair clothing, and ate locusts and wild honey. Great crowds flocked from all over Israel to hear him preach. Evidently one day Herod Antipas went out to hear John and from that day there was a connection between them.
Herod liked John but he had an eye for his brother’s wife—a woman named Herodias. To make matters worse, she was also his niece. Disregarding all appearance of decency, Herod took Herodias as his wife, thus committing both adultery and incest. John confronted him to his face, telling him that what he had done was wrong. And he seems to have repeated the message over and over, which would have been a sure sentence of death for anyone else, but Herod listened and considered his words. He even had John put in prison to protect him from Herodias.
Here is the very picture of a tortured, troubled, tormented soul. One part of him realizes that John speaks the truth. John was concerned about truth and righteousness. So Herod listened and listened again. The other part of him desired what God had said he could not have—a woman married to another man.
So Herod does what many men before and after him have done: He tried to have it both ways. He put John in prison so he could protect him and he took the woman as his wife to fulfill his fleshly desires. But no one can live in the middle forever. Eventually, we have to make a choice. Herod evidently knew the truth when he heard it. He made the mistake of trying to keep the truth in a little compartment where it wouldn’t bother him too much. But that never works. Truth demands a decision. What will he do now?
Step #2: Foolish Promises - Mark 6:21-28
Herod would not give up Herodias, but he would not put John to death. He is the proverbial “double-minded man,” unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). He knows the truth but will not obey it. He wants this woman but knows he should not have her. What will happen? The answer comes at a birthday party. Read Mark 6:21-28.
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.
Now at last Herod meets Jesus. But it didn’t work out the way he had expected. Read Luke 23:8-9. He is “greatly pleased” because he thinks Jesus is going to work a miracle (or two or three) for him. “Jesus, I heard you can turn water into wine. Here’s a basin of water. Show us your magic.” “They say you can walk on water. How about walking across the pool in my backyard?” On and on it went, Herod firing one question after another at Jesus. He is curious, yes, but he is not a seeker of truth. Herod is nothing but a thrill seeker. I am sure he was shocked and then annoyed when Jesus refused to speak to him. No one ever treated him like that. And his annoyance turned to embarrassment and eventually to anger.
There are times in life when silence speaks louder than words. This is one of those occasions. Jesus knew that Herod was trifling with him and that his questions did not come from an honest heart. He saw no reason to answer, and so he “opened not his mouth.” In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warned against casting pearls before swine or giving what is holy to the dogs (Matthew 7:6). Herod belonged to that class of men who are so pigheaded in their spiritual blindness and so dogged in their resistance to the truth that nothing can be said and nothing should be said.
Step #6: Public Mocking - Luke 23:10-11a
Read Luke 23:10-11a (before elegant robe) When Jesus refuses to answer him, Herod’s frivolous curiosity quickly turns to open ridicule. He and his soldiers join with the Jews in mocking the Son of God who stands silent before them. Thus does Herod reveal his true character. How quickly his mood changes when Jesus refuses to play his game.
Step #7: Convenient Cowardice - Luke 23:11b-15
One of the ironies of this story is that both Pilate and Herod knew Jesus was innocent. That fact is made clear by Pilate’s declaration when Jesus is brought back to him one final time. Read Luke 23:11-15. Herod mocks Jesus but he cannot find him guilty of any crime. Pilate clearly is puzzled by this man from Galilee and wants to find some way to release him. Neither man would come to his aid. But Herod shares the greater guilt for he knew much more than Pilate. Through John the Baptist he had been exposed to the truth. To whom much is given, much is required. In the moment when he finally met Jesus, Herod failed completely.
As we end this study, let us note for the record how eager Christ is to respond to anyone who calls out to him. He welcomes the prostitutes, the drunkards, the hated tax collectors, and the despised Samaritans. He gladly meets with a Pharisee who comes to him by night and he even answers the lawyers who try to trip him up with clever questions. Whenever Christ finds a heart that is even slightly open, he responds with grace and truth. Herod never called out to Christ and never came to him with any thing resembling an open heart. And that is why Jesus had nothing to say to him. Herod treated him as a carnival sideshow. In the end, his moral abilities were paralyzed. The silence of Jesus was his sentence of judgment on Herod.
So what?
Let me repeat again a central truth for all of us to ponder. Light received leads to more light. Light rejected leads only to the darkness. Do not say, “I’ll come to Christ later. I’ll live for him after I graduate, after I go to college, after I have some fun, after I get married. I’ll be a Christian someday when I have finally settled down.” Do not say, “I know I need to get serious about the Lord but I just want to have fun first.” Now is the right time to come to Christ. Now is the best day we’ll ever have to give our hearts to the Lord. Now is the perfect moment to get serious about following Jesus. Behold, now is the day of salvation!
It is not enough to hear the truth. It is not enough to know the truth. It is not enough to like the truth. It is not enough to listen to the truth over and over again. It is not enough to be deeply convicted about the truth. “Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”” Hebrews 4:7, NIV.
