Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
This fear Herod had of John was a strange sort of fear. It was not a worldly fear that John was somehow a threat to Herod's throne. What was it, then? Herod would not have been able to articulate it, but it was John's holiness that made him afraid. Yet this fear was not a fear of the Lord that would lead to wisdom. The proportions were all wrong for that. It did still have some aspect of wonder in it, in the sense that "he liked to listen" to John. But the overarching concern was self-protection. Rather than fear moving Herod to adapt himself to the presence of holiness, his fear motivated him to try to tame and adapt the situation to himself. He desired to measure and control where and when John could speak, to dose and titrate his words only up to the point that he desired, leaving Herod free to walk away at any moment.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
Does our own sense of the holy motivate us to humble ourselves in the presence of God? Or do we too try to tame holiness when it begins to threaten us, particularly, when it indicts our behavior as in need of change? Do we seek only the good feelings that the Word of God does in fact produce in us? Or do we allow the Word to sit in judgment over us? This is precisely what Jesus promised was meant to happen with the coming of his Spirit.
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (see John 16:8).
When we try to tame the situations in our lives such that we don't encounter too much holiness all at once the greatest risk is that we succeed. We then remain more or less unchanged by the Word, at least at a deeper level. For a while this may not seem like a big deal, as our lives proceed much the same as always. But then, when bigger temptations come we are not equipped to face them.
Herodias’ own daughter came in
and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
If we don't let holiness convict us and call us to change the world will grow more powerful in its ability to seduce and ensnare us. We, like Herod, will find ourselves giving in to temptations which were initially repulsive to us.
“I want you to give me at once
on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
Without the change John the Baptist could have guided Herod to make, Herod's lust and his pride outpaced his superficial interest in the truth. He found himself making a decision that saddened him. He was "deeply distressed". But he had already made clear his relationship to sin, righteousness, and judgment. His opportunity for freedom had been too frightening so he kept it in a cell. With only that limited venue it was unable to be any help. This king, who was apparently among the most free from a worldly point of view, found himself a slave to sin, sadly obeying as a young girl was enlisted to make a mockery of that freedom.
Brothers and sisters, there is a better way for us. We too are likely to push back when holiness convicts us and threatens our status quo. But if we recognize what is happening we can still respond well, to give it a wide birth to bring us the fullness of the revelation we need. We can avoid the temptation to try to tame the Word of God. We can resist the urge to confine it so that it can only speak to us on our terms, for instance, about matters that we imagine are specifically spiritually.
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
The example of martyrs like John the Baptist and the cross of Jesus himself have the power to wake us from our slumber of sin, to shake us out of our complacency in our palace halls. If we learn from John and not from Herod we will recognize the bridegroom and rejoice. Even though we ourselves may decrease, it will probably not be as extreme an decrease as that which John the Baptist suffered. But however extreme it may be, we can learn to have peace in the fact that Jesus himself will increase. This is the miraculous power of the cross at work, as it indeed already was in the life of John the Baptist.
my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.
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