July 12, 2015
Mark 6:14-29
Introduction
The measurement of our success should be our faithfulness to the truth, not with our popularity with people. Sometimes, our measurement of success is the approval of the powerful and the popular but not the approval of God. If this is so, then John the Baptist was a failure. We read in the Gospels that multitudes of people listened and followed him (see Matthew 3:5 and Mark 1:6). But in our Gospel reading today (Mark 6:14-29), John the Baptist refused to compromise the truth, so he was beheaded. In the eyes of men, he was a failure; but not in the eyes of God.
Exposition. In last Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mark 6:1-13), Jesus called twelve of His disciples to preach of the Kingdom of heaven, to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons (cf. Matthew 10:7-8). When Herod the tetrarch heard about Jesus, “for His name had became well known”, he thought the John the Baptist had risen from the dead (Mark 6:14).
I. Herod the Great, Founder of the Herodian Dynasty
There is a popular television series now based on a series of novels known as Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. One of the many characters there is Lannister family, a powerful and wealthy ruling family. The House Lannister is known for their incestuous relationships among each another. (For example, twins Jaime and Cersei Lannister produced a son, Joffrey Baratheon, who would sit on the Iron Throne.)
The Herodian dynasty is kind of like the Lannister family, only a lot worse. The Herod in our story is not the Herod who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16-18). The king during the time of Jesus’ birthday was the father, Herod the Great. Herod was an Idumean (i.e., Edomite) who was installed as a “client-king” of Judea by Augustus Caesar (The Wars of the Jews*, Book 1, Chapter 20). He is known for his massive infrastructure projects; such as the Temple in Jerusalem, which took forty-six years to build (see John 2:20; cf. Jewish Wars I:21). But Herod the Great was also known for his cruelty, executing his wives and children (see Jewish Wars I:22-ff.).
Herod the Great died a horrible death—the Bible mentions that Herod died (see Matthew 2:20) but not how. According to the Roman Jewish historian Josephus, Herod died at the age of seventy.
After this, the distemper seized upon his whole body, and greatly disordered all its parts with various symptoms; for there was a gentle fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of his body, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical turnouts about his feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of his privy member, that produced worms (Jewish Wars I:33.4).Even if he bathed in hot springs or had hot oil poured upon him, he could not find relief. Before he died, he decided that instead of having a single heir, his kingdom be divided into four and ruled by four of his children.
I met a certain young Roman Catholic parish priest in Ilocos Sur named Father R. His advocacy is the end of political dynasties. (Observers of Philippine politics know that certain places in the country and even positions in the national government are dominated by certain political families.) Whenever he preaches anything remotely related to political dynasties, he is summoned by the powers-that-be. And still he would not stop!
II. Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch
The Herod in our story is the son of Herod the Great and also goes by the name Herod Antipas (or Antipater). He is the governor or tetrarch of Galilee. The woman he took was Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, tetrarch of Traconitis (also known as Herod Philip II) (Mark 6:17). According to Josephus, Herod Antipas fell in love with Herodias when they in Rome. But at that time she was already the wife of Philip and he himself was married (Antiquities XVIII:5.1). To make things more complicated, Herodias is the daughter of their brother Aristobulus, making her their niece!
What was strange about Herod Antipas is that he actually enjoyed listening to John the Baptist and feared him as a man of God (Mark 6:20). (According to Josephus, if Antipas had John executed, the people might rebel against him—Antiquities XVIII:5.2; cf. Matthew 14:5) There are still people who are like Herod Antipas: they enjoy reading and listening to the Word of God yet they do not do what it says!
Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. (James 1:20, Today’s English Version)III. Herodias and Salome
They say that behind a great man is a great woman. The same thing can be said of Antipas. As we said earlier, Antipas actually feared John the Baptist, recognizing him as a just and holy man and even protected him. It was actually because of Herodias who had John the Baptist bound and thrown into prison (Mark 6:17). She wanted him executed but Antipas would not have him executed.
Women, like the ninja, have plenty of weapons up their sleeve. The “opportune” time came on Herod’s birthday, when Herodias’ daughter, traditionally identified as Salome (Antiquities XVIII:5.4), danced before Herod and his guests. When asked for what she wanted, Herodias had her daughter ask for “the head of John the Baptist on a platter” (Mark 6:25). Antipas had no choice but to have John the Baptist executed (vv. 26-30).
Conclusion: Where was Jesus?
The question now here is: Where was Jesus when all these things happened? Was He ‘too busy’ with the ministry that He had no time to save His very own cousin and loyal servant?
Josephus records the defeat of the army of Antipas when he went to war with King Aretas of Arabia Petres, whose daughter Antipas divorced so that he can marry Herodias:
Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness (Antiquities XVIII:5.2)Where was Jesus in all of this? God in his mysterious and sovereign will allows faithful servants such as John the Baptist to become martyrs (Greek μάρτυς martus) which also means ‘witness’. The death of people like John the Baptist is an example for us to hold on to the faith even until death.
Faith of our fathers, living still__________________
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’ver we hear that glorious word.
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee ‘til death.
* When citing Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews is henceforth referred to as Antiquities while The Wars of the Jews is Jewish Wars. Hence, The Wars of the Jews, Book I, Chapter 33, Paragraph 4 is cited as "Jewish Wars I:33.4".
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