Introduction
Lloyd J. Ogilve, in his book "Life Without Limits," tells the story of a pastor who in the space of one week heard the following comments from various people:
A woman said; “I’m under tremendous pressure from my son these days. I can’t seem to satisfy him, however hard I work. He really puts me under pressure.”
A young man said; “My parents have fantastic goals for me to take over the family business. It’s not what I want to do, but their pressure is unbearable.”
A college woman said; “I’m being pressured by my boyfriend to live with him before we are married. You know...sort of try it out…to see if we are right for each other.”
A husband said; “My wife is never satisfied. Whatever I do, however much I make, it’s never enough. Life with her is like living in a pressure cooker with the lid fastened down and the heat on high.”
A secretary said, pointing to her phone, “That little black thing is driving me silly. At the other end of the line are people who make impossible demands and think they are the only people alive.”
A middle-aged wife said; “My husband thinks my faith is silly. When I feel his resistance to Christ, I wonder if I’m wrong and confused. As a result, I’ve developed two lives: one with him and one when I’m with my Christian friends.”
An elderly woman said; “My sister thinks she has all the answers about the faith and tries to convince me of her point of view. I feel pressured to become her brand of Christian, but I keep thinking if it means being like her, I don’t want it at all. When she calls, I just put the phone on my shoulder and let her rant on while I do other things. A half-hour later, she’s still on the line blasting away, but I still feel pressure.”
A young pastor at a clergy conference said; “I hardly know who I am any more. There are so many points of view in my congregation, I can’t please them all. Everyone wants to capture me for his camp and get me to shape the church around his convictions. The pressure makes me want to leave the ministry.”
Can any of you identify with these pressures or ones similar to them? Is not life full of pressures? Let me remind you of something I hope you already know. Your faith in God-no matter how strong it is, will not take away the pressures of life. Sometimes being a Christian only increases the pressures we have to face. I hope no one ever told you that when you trusted Christ the pressures would go away.
I can relate to what most of this pastor said he had heard, for I too have people speak to me about pressures they are facing in life. I have my own pressures I face. My family has our own pressures we face. How do we handle these pressures in a way that we find success and that we please God in the process?
Herod did not do such a good job handling pressure. Herod as a leader was selfish, a murderer, immoral, and a political opportunist. There are not many people I would suppose who enjoy having their sins pointed out, especially in public. Herod certainly did not enjoy it. It seems that Herod was involved in an illegal marriage with his brother’s wife, Herodias. A man named John the Baptist came along and publicly pointed out to Herod that this was wrong.
John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus. He preached in the wilderness, and thousands of people flocked to hear him. Apparently it was no secret that he had rebuked Herod for this adulterous marriage. Herodias was particularly anxious to have John silenced. Herod’s solution to the problem was to put John in prison.
In John’s favor was the fact that Herod liked him. John was probably only one of a few people who spoke the truth to Herod. But the truth about the sin he was involved in was a bitter pill for Herod to swallow. He was between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t afford to have John continually remind the people about their leader’s sin, but he was afraid to have him killed. Pressure, however, finally forced his hand.
Now when Herod heard about Jesus, he thought he might be John come back from the dead. As a sideline, Mark tells how Herod gave into the pressure to do away with John. Herodias wanted John killed, but she couldn’t do it without Herod’s permission. Finally, the opportunity came. It was Herod’s birthday, and he gave a big party for his palace aides, army officers and the leading citizens of Galilee. While they were all there having a good time, and no doubt drunk, Herod’s daughter came in and performed what was probably a lewd dance.
Herod was so pleased, and maybe even aroused, by her performance that he promised her anything she wanted, even if it was half of his kingdom. She went to her mother for advice about what to ask for. This sealed John’s fate because she told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a tray.
Verse 26 tells how Herod gave into pressure; “Then the king was very sorry, but he was embarrassed to break his oath in front of his guests.”
DON’T GIVE IN
Now we all know this is easier said than done. Some of the pressures we face are very real and intense. So we don’t want this to sound like some religious platitude that we easily roll off our tongue. When someone comes to you and shares a real struggle they are facing, it is kind of shallow advice to simply tell them not to give in. It makes it sound as if you are better or stronger than they are.
I want us to see some of the pressures Herod was facing because we face the same ones most of the time at some point during our life. There was the pressure of being popular. Herod had to his credit the building of a city and the oversight of many other architectural projects. He ruled the region of Galilee for the Roman authorities. He faced the pressure of being popular with the Romans and the people. If the people did not like him or had it in for him, they could get him into trouble with the Romans. If the Romans did not like him, he could find himself looking for a new job.
This pressure that Herod faced is no different that any politician faces. Their livelihood depends on people electing and re-electing them. Therefore, they are going to propose and favor those things that the majority of their constituents propose and favor. No to would be to commit political suicide. They may pay attention to what their fellow politicians are doing and thinking, but they are really concerned with what their constituents are focusing on.
This is one of the major peer pressures that our children and youth face at school and extracurricular activities. It was no doubt a pressure you faced while growing up. Everyone wants to be liked, they want to be popular. Boys, after they reach a certain age, want to popular with the girls, and girls in turn want to be popular with the boys. What else explains two hours in front of the mirror decorating themselves? Young folks want to be popular in sports if they play.
I remember one of the old Brady Bunch episodes where Jan, the middle daughter, was anxious about going to high school. She was following Marsha her older sister who had been very popular in school. She was afraid she could not compare to her sister.
And many of us remember some years back when the popular ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man who tried to damage her leg. It was discovered that a fellow skater-Tonya Harding, had paid him to do this. She was afraid she would not be able to beat her in the competition. She did not want Nancy Kerrigan to be more popular than she was.
There’s the pressure to be popular at work. We want the boss to like us more than the other employees. That might mean a raise for us or that he or she will let us get away with things he won’t let others get away with. Maybe he will let us take a longer lunch hour or will work it out that we can still get paid if we are beyond our vacation or sick time. We want to be the one who comes up with a new idea that increases production or fixes some problem on a machine. Maybe we will have our picture published in the company magazine.
Now listen. It is nothing wrong with being popular. It seems to come natural to some people. When it becomes wrong is when we do unethical things or try to be someone other than who God created us to be in an effort to be popular. For Herod, it meant murdering an innocent man just to keep from losing face with those at the party.
Herod gives us a negative example with a positive lesson. Don’t do something God would not want you to do just to be popular. It’s not worth it. Be who God created you to be. That may mean that you are never popular with any great number of people, but if you use the gifts and talents God has given you, you will popular with him, and that is very important.
A second pressure Herod faced was the pressure to conform. John, his wife, the people and his daughter pressured him to conform. John pressured him to conform to God’s law. It was unlawful for him to be married to his brother’s wife. It was an adulterous relationship that he needed to get out of. This was a pressure he should have given in to but didn’t. He was pressured to conform to his wife’s wishes to do away with John. This pressure to conform he gave in to and should not have. He was pressured by his daughter to give in to his wife’s request for John the Baptist’s head. This was another pressure he should have left alone. He was pressured to conform by the people whom he made this rash oath in front of. He promised his daughter anything she wanted, and he could not go back on his word.
This pressure to conform is not foreign to us. There are so many ways that we are pressured to conform to someone else’s viewpoint, attitude, way of living, way of dressing, way of talking, political leaning, religious beliefs, cultural beliefs, traditions, etc. Sometimes this feeds off the popularity pressure. At work or school or in some organization we belong to, we pick out the person who is most popular and we say, “Now if I could be like her or him, I would be popular to.” Then we begin to arrange our beliefs and lifestyles to conform to that person’s beliefs and lifestyle.
A third pressure Herod dealt with was the pressure to accept John and Jesus’ religion. He was interested in Jesus. He was interested in John. Here was another pressure he should have given in to, but did not.
With so many cultures represented in America now, this is more of a pressure than it once was. I suppose we have always had many cultures represented in America, but for many years these different cultures practiced their religion privately or either accepted the Christian culture of America. This is not true any longer, so we-particularly our children and youth, are facing more pressure to accept different religions or at least to mix them. No longer is Christianity viewed as the only right religion.
So the word for all of us is, don’t give in. Don’t give in to the pressure to be popular to the point that you change who you are to achieve that popularity. Don’t conform to other’s ideas of who you should be, how you should act. Conform only to God’s standards. Don’t give in to the pressure to mix religions or to adhere to any other religious beliefs that are not expressed in God’s word.
When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer. And that is exactly what they did.
DON’T GIVE UP
The reason this point is needed in knowing how to handle life’s pressures is because they keep coming. Imagine the young person who is constantly tempted to cheat in school. They graduate and are so glad that pressure will no longer bother them only to find the pressure to take a short cut at the job is now confronting them. Then there is the young girl who is pressured to dress nicely so the boys will notice her. When she gets out of school she discovers to her horror that dressing a certain way might mean the difference between getting a job and not getting a job.
The pressures we read about in our scripture were certainly not the final pressures of Herod’s life. No doubt, other pressures kept confronting him.
We can’t give a sigh or relief just because we conquer one pressure. Another will come. We must prepare for it. Life is full of pressures. They don’t stop when we leave elementary school, middle school, high school, college, a job, a marriage, or the place we live. Life is saturated with pressures, so we can’t give up when we fail to conquer some pressure or when we succeed in conquering a pressure. It is a continual battle.
LOOK UP
Many of the pressures we face can be called temptations. The Bible reminds us; “And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”
Our faith is all-important when it comes to handling the pressures of life. Our faith helps us distinguish between the right and wrong of giving in to these pressures. Our faith helps us determine whether giving in to this pressure is a wise course of action. Does it matter whether or not I am popular? Does it matter whether or not I conform? Does it matter whether or not I have religion or mix religions?
We need help beyond our natural reserve of energy and intelligence to face and overcome the many pressures we face in life. This help comes from God through a relationship with his Son Jesus Christ. It is the only way to handle the pressures of life. His Word will assist us in handling the pressures. His Spirit will comfort us when we face the pressures. His Spirit will guide us in overcoming the pressures or at least dealing with them.
In the opera Faust, there is a fight to the finish between Satan and the young man Valentine. During the course of the fight, Satan breaks Valentine’s sword and he stands poised to slay him. But the young boy takes the two pieces of this sword and fashions them into a cross. Confronted with this symbol of faith, Satan becomes immobilized and Valentine is saved.
CONCLUSION
Luciano Pavarotti says, “When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song. He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college. On graduating, I asked my father, ‘Shall I be a teacher or a singer?’ ‘Luciano,’ my father replied, ‘if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.’ ‘I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book-whatever we choose-we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.”
Choose the chair that Jesus Christ sits in. Share it with him and allow him to help you deal with the pressures of life. Don’t give in, don’t give up, look up.
