Happy Fourth of July. I hope you had a fun weekend. This Sundays’ text follows last Sundays’ text. Jesus has taught at Nazareth where he has been rejected and then has sent out his disciples on their first mission trip.
V14 King Herod (Herod the Greats son) has heard of these events as Jesus’ name is starting to circulate among the people. Everyone is trying to figure out who Jesus is.
V15 Others thought maybe he was Elijah come back. They thought that Elijah would return and usher in the Messiah. While still others thought he was a prophet like those in the Old Testament. In Deut. 18:15 God had told them a new Moses would rise up so they are waiting for him. God has been silent since Malachi, it has been 400 years since a prophet has spoken to them. (Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament)
V15 Herod thought it was John the Baptist come back to life. He had executed John earlier and now was haunted by what he had done.
V17-29 These verses are a “flashback”
V17 John was arrested as he was baptizing in the Jordan River. He had spoken out against Herods’ marriage to Herodias.
V18 Herodias had been married to Herods’ half-brother Phillip. She had left Phillip for Herod. She was also the daughter of his half-brother Aristobulus, in other words his niece. There was so much inner marriage and multiple wives in that family that if you look at a family tree it looks more like a family rats nest. This had broken the Jewish law in Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21.
V19 Because John had spoken out against all of this intermarriage Herodias had a grudge against him. She would have liked to have had him killed.
V20 Apparently Herod feared John as he realized John was a holy man. He liked to listen to John. He has him imprisoned at the castle Machaerus which stood on a lonely ridge surrounded by terrible ravines on the east side of the Dead Sea. John was kept in the dungeon below the castle, chained to the wall. Herod protected John from death but not from suffering.
V21 Herod threw himself a birthday bash and invited the top brass. They were summoned to this outpost for the party. When a banquet was thrown the wine flowed and the guests got drunk.
V22 A daughter came in and entertained the guests with a dance. The pleasing of the men suggests a flaunting of the customs of the day.
V23 He offers to give her almost anything echoing Esther 5:2 and 7:2 where the Persian King makes a rash promise to Esther.
V24-25 She asks her mother what she should ask for. Herodias sees her chance to finally have John killed. No doubt she had been plotting for some time on how to accomplish this and now was her chance. Her mother wants Johns head. The girl rushed back in and made the request.
V26 Herod is deeply grieved as he doesn’t want to kill John, remember he enjoys listening to him and to kill a holy man doesn’t give one good fortune. However he wants to save face so he grants the request. He doesn’t have the moral courage to do the right thing and turn down the request. He has been rash in his drunkenness.
V27-28 Herod immediately has John killed and his head brought on a platter to the girl who gives it to her mother.
V29 When Johns disciples hear of the killing they come and collect the body for burial. John still had disciples even though some had left him to follow Jesus.
This is the flashback as to why Herod thinks John has come back to life in Jesus. Jesus seems to be continuing on the path that John had started and is doing even greater things. Herod, drunk and in a party mood, has killed an innocent man because his wife wanted him to. Do we ever do the wrong thing to save face instead of admitting our mistakes and asking for forgiveness?
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