2024_10_16 Insight Post- Rusty Coram
This week’s reading- Matthew 14:6-11, Mark 6:22-28
Our reading this week, reads like an episode in a horror movie. A lavish party is thrown by a wealthy and prominent figure on his own birthday, and he and his guests are entertained by the sensuous dancing of a young teen girl. The birthday boy is so enthralled by the girl’s performance that he loudly promises to give her anything she wants. It just so happens that this is the regional king who is sure he has everything and anything she could want. To make things more lurid, the girl is his stepdaughter and also his niece (he married his brother’s wife). This is already a disgusting scene, but it gets a lot worse. “She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?” Her mother told her, “Ask for the head of John the Baptist!” Mark 6:24 (NLT)
The back story is that King Herod had a complicated relationship with John. “For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herodias. She had been his brother Philip’s wife, but Herod had married her. 18 John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry your brother’s wife.” 19 So Herodias bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But without Herod’s approval she was powerless, 20 for Herod respected John; and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.” Mark 6:17–20 (NLT)
Now Herod has cooperated in getting himself backed into a corner. So many lessons are brought to light here. Herod’s sin of adultery started things. His downhill slide continued when he arrested John unlawfully just to appease his new wife. Then we see, what appears to be the effects of alcohol fueled lust which led to the fateful decision to murder John the Baptist – who had done nothing but honor God by speaking the truth.
You can never correct a bad decision without owning and repenting of it. Covering it up or ignoring it will not make it go away or magically disappear. A biblical principle here is found in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:7–8 (NIV) It may seem that some people get away with wrong, but we can know that eventually, God will enforce justice. As a mentor of mine used to say, “the longer people get away with things the bigger the splatter when the fall”.
John’s life was taken because he was seen as an irritant. Herod’s wife was a bitter and spiteful woman who orchestrated a murder. Herod was a spineless coward who chose to give in to her plot. The young girl’s life was damaged because she agreed to participate in her mother’s scheme. John’s reputation has inspired many to trust and follow Christ. Herod and his family continued to become examples of human nature at its worst.
Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor