Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
Herod was an archetypal example of the way in which sin tends to make one stupid. He knew John the Baptist to be a righteous man but put him in prison to make it easier for him to pursue his poor lifestyle choices. He liked to listen to John the Baptist speak. But the truth contained in his words could not penetrate past Herod's commitment to Herodias. At that point it was just matter of ignoring that which had the ring of truth for the sake of satisfying his emotions. But, as often happens, it got worse.
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
The sacrifices required to sustain sinful life choices often not only increase but compound. It wasn't that Herod wanted to kill John. In fact he knew better. But Herodias was even more incensed at John's condemnation of their marriage and that was not a fact tht Herod could ignore. As when, with a lie, one often must keep telling more lies to justify the first, so here, where the first sin required more and more to continue its pursuit.
His 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."
We may speculate that Herod was weakened into this sorry state where the merely sensual dance of a girl made him promise her up to half of his kingdom. If he hadn't been used to being led by his emotions but instead directed the course of his life based on truth he might have had some tolerance built up which could have prevented him from saying something he would later regret. As it was, he said it, and once he realized what the consequences would be it could not be unsaid without his pride being undermined. It was, after all, a boast stemming from pride that made him offer so much to begin with. This was merely the last in a series of things which he did not really want to do, which he in fact new better than to do, and yet did regardless because of that initial sin. He was deeply distressed, yes. But he went along with it nonetheless.
But when Herod learned of it, he said,
"It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up."
When Herod heard about the ministry of Jesus his guilty conscience made him imagine John the Baptist, whom he beheaded. But there was something more, perhaps, than psychological distress at work here. For Jesus was present within all of his persecuted saints. Just as Saul discovered that it was in fact Jesus whom he was persecuting, so too was Herod having something of that experience. And the point of an experience such as that is not merely that one is losing one's grip on reality. It contains an opportunity to repent and to recognize Jesus as Lord. Could Herod have done this, perhaps even on his deathbed? Certainly we have no biblical evidence of such a thing. But as Christians we may hope.
If we remember the confidence that we are meant to have in God and in Jesus we will be less likely to chase money or pleasure or other sinful behavior to the self-destructive degree that Herod did. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that, "he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you" (quoting Deuteronomy 31:6). If we remember this we won't give away the royal identity we have in Christ, no squander the portion of the Kingdom entrusted to our care.
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