Following the Way of Jesus Series - Matthew's Gospel (2)

The King is Among Us - And Feared!

Matthew 14:1–12 NIV84

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet. On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

Korva, an Irishman on his Quora feed explained the he “spent 27 years as a born again Christian. I was fervent in my faith and tried to do what the Bible told me to do as a Christian, I tried hard to have a relationship with Jesus, studied hard, read tons of books...But at the end of the day I did find Christianity quite boring and unfulfilling, there was no mysticism no sacred mysteries. It's sort of took the mystery out of everything . The Heaven described in the Bible and the afterlife seemed very mundane to me. On top of that, Christianity demonizes all the fun things in life! Like drinking, Cannabis, and partaking in other things, all the guilt it piles on you about doing normal human things like having sex with somebody you're not married to. Christianity outlaws all those things and makes you feel guilty!...so after a lot of consideration I decided to bail on Christianity. I'm basically an atheist and I am open to possibilities,...Christianity was a horrible fit for my life. And of course now I see it as mythology, so I'm glad to be free of it now I can indulge in all of life's mysteries and not feel guilty about being a human being...Religion oppressed me for 27 years. If you're anything like me, you're a good person, so go have fun, now you are your own boss.”

Korva has 1 follower. He follows no one. He has asked 1 question which he answered himself and he has given 76 answers to questions that no one asked but he constructed anyway ro answer because he wanted to get it out there So, why quote him?

Korva represents many people who reject Jesus because He threatens their lives or beliefs in some way or makes demands and judgments upon their lifestyles, that they resent and rebel against! This is not new and it is not uncommon but give Korva credit he was at least being honest and not trying to justify an ungogly lifestyle by still claiming to be a Christian!

It reminds me of the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 “I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

Back in AD 363, the Roman Emperor Julian, on his deathbed was said to utter the words: "You have conquered, O Galilean" with reference to Jesus.

Julian was a nephew of Emperor Constantine who back in AD 313 issued the Edict of Milan, which accepted Christianity. Ten years later, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Emperor Julian (AD361-363) had been baptised and raised as a Christian but secretly he opposed Christianity because after Constantine’s death, Constantine’s sons engaged in a bloody family fued as each struggled to become sole Emperor and their cousin Julian’s entire family were victims of infighting including his father and stepbrother who were murdered in the process. So, once he become Emperor, he publicly announced his conversion to Paganism in 361, thus acquiring the epithet “Julian the Apostate.” in his attempt to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity, but fortunately for Christians and unfortunately for him, he failed, hence the words, "You have conquered, O Galilean"

Algernon Charles Swinburne, published a poem entitled: “Hymn to Proserpine” , in his Poems and Ballads in 1866. The poem is cast in the form of a lament or a dramatic monologue put into the mouth of Julian, addressed to the goddess Proserpina,Queen of the Underworld with the heading Vicisti, Galilæe, lamenting the passing of the old Paganism of Rome and its replacement with the rise of Christianity. Lines 35 and 36 express this best:

“Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;

We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.”

(Note: Lethe, was the river of forgetfulness, one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld; the other four are Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (the river of lamentation), Phlegethon (the river of fire) and Styx (the river that separates Earth and the Underworld). Lethe bordered Elysium, the final resting place of the virtuous. Ovid wrote that the river flowed through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, where its murmuring would induce drowsiness. The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life). In other words, Christianity is a death-oriented religion that renders life pallid and joyless whilst we strive for eternal life we do not yet have, in denial of the earthly one that we have. In opposition to this idea, Paul citing the Corinthian pagans, says “Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’!

The poem carries the attack further by denigrating the Virgin Mary, comparing her to Venus/Aphrodite, the Graeco-Roman goddess of erotic love. How unexciting and restrictive this Christianity is compared to the gaiety and sensuous pleasure that chracterised the Roman paganism as well as the acceptance of the inequalities and the promotion of the cruelty of life which were carried out upon weak and helpless victims enslaved by Rome’s conquering armies and cruelly tortured to entertain Rome’s masses and their bloodlust.

Christianity on the other hand is “merciful, clothed with pity...compassionate” which he despises, believing that only brutal strength can revive Rome’s fortunes. He hates the concept of self-control and self-restraint believing them to be a definite barrier to living life to its fullest, preventing the flight of "all the wings of the Loves, and all the joy before death."

With Christ being the leader of this new religion with its gentler values, the poet declares him as the "pale Galilean" and since Christianity has become the official religion, and he was not able to reverse this as Emperor, he bitterly accepts that the "pale Galilean" has conquered.

All this to try and get at the many and complex reasons why Herod also rejected and feared Jesus...

1. Herod Feared Jesus BUT rejected Him!

a. A bit of History:

The account of Julian came to mind as I read the account of Herod’s attitude to Jesus and his previous hostility to John the Baptist!

This Herod is Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great by his fourth wife, Malthake, a Samaritan. He was a half brother of Herod Philip(Matt 14:3) the son of his father’s third wife, Mariamne the Boethusian.

Herod the Great who is best known to us as the King of the Jews(Matt 2:1) who ordered the slaying of the baby boys under two years old in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the newly born “King of the Jews”, Jesus!

The name “Herod” is a Greek name in origin; from “heros” ('ηρως) meaning “hero, warrior” and “oides” (ωιδης) meaning “ode, song”. Herod the Great, obviously thought highly of himself as the Roman appointed King of the Jews! Only problem is Herod was not a Jew, he was an Idumean; a Gentile and a descendant of Esau who also married a Samaritan, so he was despised by the Jews. He was also a wicked King. He carried out cold-blooded atrocities, such as his having all the members of the Sanhedrin put to death for daring to challenge his authority. He also executed at least one of his wives and two of his sons and then as we have noted, all the male babies of Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt to try to destroy the Messiah. This did not bode well among the Jewish religious leadership or the Jewish zealots for whom he was definitely not a hero and indeed they hated Herod and all those who collaborated with Rome.

Herod Antipas was not King of the Jews, he was a Tetrarch translated “king” often but really referring the the equivalent of a regional ruler. He used king to give the impression that he was as powerful as his illustrious father which he was not. After Herod the Great, the Kingdom was divided into three regions with Herod Philip king of the North, reigning over the provinces of Trachonitis and Iturea. Archelaus reigning in Judea and Samaria( see Matt. 2:22) and Antipas was given the area in between, which included Galilee and Perea.

b. A bit of Psychology:

Herod Antipas got to know about and became fascinated and fearful of Jesus of Nazareth.

The reason for this is Herod’s previous skirmishes with Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist who caused great offence to Herod Antipas which resulted in John’s execution.

When Jesus turns up doing miracles and wowing the crowds, Herod becomes convicned that this is John the Baptist…raised from the dead”! Herod was being stalked by a ghost! This caused Herod to greatly fear and ultimately reject, Jesus! Which explains why Matthew records this story here as part of what C. I. Scofield appropriately referred to as Matthew 14–23 as “The Ministry of the Rejected King.” Matthew is building a picture of growing opposition to Jesus, even though he had been ministering for about a year, teaching, preaching, and performing many signs and wonders—healing every kind of disease, raising the dead, and casting out demons.

If we think back to July wwe have increasingly seen this being played out in Matthew - Jesus is healing and driving our demons as well as teaching in the Synagogues and he is being icnreasingly challenged by the religious establishment who begin to accuse him of blasphemy and plot a way to kill him. The rejection begings to extend to his own home town of Nazareth where Jesus has become a prophet “without honour” among his own people (Matt 13:57) even his own family are embarrassed by him, thinking him deranged and wishing to take him back home out of the limelight. And now the political establishment are worried and want rid of Him - THE KING IS AMONG US - AND FEARED! So, like John, whom Jesus declared “the Elijah who was to come” is being rejected and like John will suffer (see Matt 17:12).

Matthew’s account here is not chronological, it acts as a flashback in time to explain to his readers why Herod Antipas turned against Jesus and why there was growing hostility from the Religious and political estabishment towards Jesus. Crazy but you see all this threatened the power and influence of the rulers who beleived they now had to take a stand against Jesus as Peter later declared in Acts 2:22 -24 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” and again in Acts 4:27 “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the peoplec of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.”

c. A bit of Drama:

Herod Antipas well deserves the aphorism of Walter Scott’s, Shakespearean sounding: “Oh what a tangeled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”(Marmion: Flodden Field).

Marmion is a historical romance in verse, published in 1808. It tells the tale of how one of Henry VIII’s courtiers, Lord Marmion, who pursues his lust for a rich woman, Clara Clare. He and his mistress, a delinquent nun, Constance De Beverley, devise a scheme to implicate Clara’s fiancé in treason. It becomes chaotic and although Marmion appears to have won, by defeating Clara’s fiancé in a duel, Clara retreats to a convent rather than endure his attentions, and Marmion loses the love of his dreams! Tragic but so Herod like!

The tangled web that Herod Antipas spun is encapsulated by this incident with John demonstrating his recklessness the rashness and cruelty of his nature. This passage looks back to Herod’s execution of John and arose because of what Herod was hearing about the growing popularity of Jesus among the masses as Mark makes clear saying, “King Herod heard’ that ‘Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him...when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”(Mark 6:12-14)

Things were disastrous politically but they were also disastrous spiritually because Antipas broke Jewish law by marrying his half-brother’s wife - “Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.”(Lev 18:16) Because both Herod and Herodias were already married, their marriage to each other was doubly not lawful. The Holy Spirit refused to recognize her as Herod’s wife and directed Matthew to refer to her as the wife of his brother Philip, although she had been divorced from Philip for a number of years. The new marriage not only was unlawful but incestuous, because Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, another half brother of Herod, making her Herod’s niece.

The disastrous spiritual dimension was encapsulated by this passage which looks back to Herod’s execution of John.

Herod’s execution of John provoked widespread disapproval, as Josephus confirms in his Antiquities of the Jews. “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 [About Feb. A.D. 32]; 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...Now when [many] others came in crowds about him; for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words; Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise rebellion: (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise:) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause; and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus; the castle...and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion, that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod; and a mark of God’s displeasure to him.”(xviii. 116–119),

For John’s popular appeal see Matt 3:5–6; Matt 11:7–9. Jesus would also be protected by the same popular reputation (Matt 21:46, a verse which deliberately echoes this, further underlining the parallel between John and Jesus).

Uncompromising John was also popular with the people as evidenced by Matt 3:5–6; Matt 11:7–9. Jesus likewise was considered to be protected by the same popular reputation as Matt 21:46, makes clear when the chief priests and Pharisees "looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.”

What is clear is that Herod Antipas thought that by executing John he would secure his Kingdom but he discovered that he could not silence his conscience - “I myself had John beheaded”; and so once Herod heard about the growing popularity of Jesus among the masses, Mark tells us that “King Herod heard’ that ‘Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him...when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”(Mark 6:12-14) of morbid curiosity “he kept trying to see Him” (Luke 9:9). I

In his guilt-ridden mind, he had decided that this Jesus was none other than John the Baptist … risen from the dead.

Note also Matt 14:9 which indicates that Herod himself was not happy about it; hence no doubt his superstitious belief in John’s ‘resurrection’. This is what guilt and fear can do to a soul!

This reads like a bad script in a soap opera - lust; intrigue; incest; deception; murder - Herod you see had gotten himself into a real mess because he could not contain his lusts and desires. He has unjustly divorcing his first wife and hooked up with his half-brother, Philip’s wife, Herodias whilst in Rome. He intended to divorce his first wife, who was daughter of King Aretas of Petra, but he had not communicated it clearly to her in time and she, though she had heard about his intention to marry Herodias, pretended that she did not know until she could arrange safe passage back to her father, by spilling the beans on Herod. This deception of Herod Antipas led King Aretas to declare war, which Herod Antipas lost! This was because the marriage of his daughter was a political and military alliance. Aretas ruled Nabatean Arabia, whose capital was the famed fortress city of Petra, located about fifty miles southeast of the Dead Sea. Aretas was so angered by the treatment of his daughter that he destroyed most of Herod’s army and would have slain the tetrarch as well, had not the Roman army intervened.

So, all was disastrous politically but it was also disastrous spiritually because Antipas broke Jewish law by marrying his half-brother’s wife - “Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.”(Lev 18:16) Just because both Herod and Herodias were already married, their marriage to each other was doubly not lawful according to the Word of God. Matthew calls her the wife of his brother Philip, although she had been divorced from Philip for a number of years because the marriage was incestuous, because Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, another half brother of Herod, making her Herod’s niece

This is what guilt and fear can do to a soul! It all reads like a bad script in a soap opera:

John was neither a compromiser nor a diplomat. His only fear was of the Lord, and he no more hesitated confronting Herod and Herodias with their wickedness than he had hesitated confronting the unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees whom he called a brood of vipers (Matt. 3:7).

This was costly for John! His protest would therefore represent orthodox Jewish opinion, and would be damaging to Antipas’ prestige among his Jewish subjects so he had him imprisoned at Machaerus, a palace located on a mountain higher even than the city of Jerusalem in a dungeon dug deep into the earth beneath, where prisoners were chained to the walls with no natural light and only dank, foul air to breathe, John was incarcerated for about a year until his execution. A. T. Robertson wrote, “It cost him his head; but it is better to have a head like John the Baptist and lose it than to have an ordinary head and keep it.”

Lust; intrigue; incest; deception; murder! Herod has gotten himself into a real mess because he could not contain his lusts and desires. His guilt-ridden mind had decided that this Jesus was none other than John the Baptist “risen from the dead” and he was terrified

Matthew shares the unedifying story, conveying the atmosphere of a licentious royal court.

Mark tells us that “Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him”(Mark 6:19-20).

Herodias was so hate-filled, vengeful, and immoral that she had no compunction about involving her daughter both in a lewd dance before her stepfather and his guests and in the ploy to have John murdered.

It is obvious that the provocative dance was planned by Herodias for the purpose of evoking just such a promise from her drunken, leering, lecherous husband.

And lest Herod change his mind after sobering up, Herodias told her daughter to ask for John’s head here on a platter “right away” (Mark 6:25).

The daughter of Herodias - From Josephus we learn that the name of this daughter was Salome, whose father was Philip, her mother’s first husband and Herod’s half brother - danced rather provocatively for her stepfather!

Salome was a mere “girl” (Matt 14:11), a term which can be used of those of marriageable age; hence at least a teenager.

Her drunken, leering, lecherous husband, lusting after his wife and brother’s daughter, rashly committed to giving Salome whatever she wanted. So, “prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” And Mark tells us the she demanded this “right away” (Mark 6:25). Matt 14:9 shows, Herod was “distressed” to kill John, “but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison.” - “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

This did not prevent Herod from osiclating between killing and protecting John. He was “wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.” but Matt 14:9 shows, Herod, “because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison.”

And there is one final thing we do well to take note of here. Mark reports that “Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him” (Mark 6:20).

The king enjoyed listening to the man he wanted to put to death! These audiences with Herod no doubt were John’s only respite from the torments of prison; but to John they were not an escape but opportunities to witness for his Lord and to try to bring his persecutor to repentance and salvation.

But Herod was a sampler of sermons. He enjoyed hearing teh Word of God but not doing what it says - James warns us against this in his letter - “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”(James 1:22-25).

Herod’s morbid fascination with John and with the miraculous and supernatural had nothing to do with genuine seeking after the truth and certainly nothing to do with seeking salvation. It was the religious curiosity of unbelief that is impregnable to God’s truth, love, or grace.

Herod was grieved, but his grief had nothing to do with remorse for sin or with genuine repentance. His was not a “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”(2 Cor 7:10).

Like Pilate—who knew Jesus was innocent and would have freed Him except for continued pressure by the Jewish leaders (Luke 23:4, 14–16, 20, 22–25; cf. John 19:12). But make no mistake, John’s execution was a miscarriage of justice because it was against Jewish law, both in that he had no trial and that he was beheaded.

Herod cowardly capitulated to what he knew was unjust and vindictive. Even drunk, he knew he had been tricked; but his pride would not let him do what was right. Instead of admitting the foolish excess of his promise, the king allowed himself to be used to commit an enormous crime—all to save a reputation he did not have. With the help of his wicked wife and unprincipled stepdaughter, his cup of iniquity was filled.

The report to Jesus indicates and his retreat to a “quiet place” shows the continuing close link between the two movements. Matthew thus underlines the relationship set out in Matt 11:2–19, where Jesus’ ministry, for all its contrasts, is seen as the legitimate sequel to that of John.

Just as John was fearful of nothing and no one except God, Herod feared almost everything and everyone but God. He not only feared the multitude, but also feared John the Baptist, his wife, and his peers (v. 9). He feared another attack by Aretas, and, as Josephus reported, he feared a rebellion by his own people—inspired by, and perhaps even led by, John the Baptist. And Herod feared the emperor might replace him with someone more in favor with Rome. That fear was well grounded, because some years after this, his jealous and scheming nephew, Agrippa (the brother of Herodias), convinced the emperor Caligula that Herod was planning a rebellion. Perhaps because Caligula did not fully trust Agrippa’s word, Herod and Herodias suffered exile to Gaul (modern France) rather than execution, which was the normal penalty for treason.

Herod’s morbid fascination with John and with the miraculous and supernatural had nothing to do with genuine seeking after the truth and certainly nothing to do with seeking salvation. It was the religious curiosity of unbelief that is impregnable to God’s truth, love, or grace.

d. A Great Tragedy!:

However, an even greater tragedy awaited Herod:

After Herod had John beheaded, he inquired about Jesus and “kept trying to see Him” (Luke 9:9). But Jesus made no effort to see Herod and would not allow Herod to see Him until it was His Father’s time. Jesus once sent a message to the king when it was reported that Herod wanted to kill Him, saying, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal’ ” (Luke 13:32). Jesus went about His mission and left the king to his unresolved fear, to his unrelenting sin, and to his doom of damnation. After His appearance before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, Jesus was sent to Herod and they saw each other for the first time. “Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.… And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate” (Luke 23:8–9, 11).

After Herod had John beheaded, he inquired about Jesus and “kept trying to see Him” (Luke 9:9). But Jesus made no effort to see Herod and would not allow Herod to see Him until it was His Father’s time.

Jesus once sent a message to the king when it was reported that Herod wanted to kill Him, saying, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal’ ” (Luke 13:32). Jesus went about His mission and left the king to his unresolved fear, to his unrelenting sin, and to his doom of damnation.

And finally, after His appearance before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, Jesus was sent to Herod and they saw each other for the first time. “Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.… And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate” (Luke 23:8–9, 11). In the greatest of irony, “Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been at enmity with each other” (23:12). Two ruthless men and former enemies now built a friendship around the common bond of crucifying the Son of God!

In the greatest of irony, “Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been at enmity with each other” (23:12). Two ruthless men and former enemies now built a friendship around the common bond of crucifying the Son of God!

“Herod rejected Christ, and Christ rejected Herod. For fear of a woman, for fear of his reputation, for fear of his peers, for fear of his throne—and for lack of fear for God—he damned his soul forever.”(MacArthur)

2. Jesus, the King is Among Us - How do you Respond?

The rejection of Jesus then - by the Chief Priests and the Pharisees; by the people of Nazareth; by his own family members and by Herod Antipas has been repeated time and again throughout the long history of the human race. It therefore begs a question, how do you respond to Jesus today?

Herod rejected Jesus because it threatened his luxurious lifestyle; confronted his immoral behaviour and refusal to examine his guilty conscience and repent of it and challenged his failure to “do justly; love mercy and walk humbly before God”(Mic 6:8).

And how often this is repeated today! Some who reject Jesus because they want to live without restraint; live without rules; do as they wish; live comfortably, selfishly, without a thought for the needs of others, who they could help and all the while, damning their souls forever!

This passage challenges us to examine ourselves; our motives; our behaviours; our conscience!

I read a poem entitled, “Myself” which comes from a work entitled “Courage - You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear”, by Jon Johnston. It reads as follows:

I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know, I want to be able, as days go by, Always to look myself straight in the eye; I don't want to stand, with the setting sun, And hate myself for the things I've done.

I don't want to keep on the closet shelf A lot of secrets about myself, And fool myself, as I come and go, Into thinking that nobody else will know The kind of a man I really am; I don't want to dress up myself in sham.

I want to go out with my head erect, I want to deserve all men's respect; But here in the struggle for fame and pelf I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.

I can never hide myself from me; I see what others may never see; I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself, and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free.

Do you remember David, after his adultery with Bathsheba, how he cried out, “Search me O God and know my heart…see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”(Psa 51).

The Psalm is that of a broken man! It’s background is recorded in 2 Sam. 12 Nathan the Prophet comes to him and tells a story “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”(2 Sam 12:1-4). David’s response is that he “burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” To which Nathan replied, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt,a the son born to you will die.”(vs 7-13).

Once his sin is exposed, he cries out to God for mercy and grace. He wants to begin again; have a new start! - “Have mercy on me, O God,according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquityand cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions,and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,so that you are proved right when you speakand justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth,sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”(Psa 51:1-7).

Let us consider it for a moment - vs8-12, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

That’s a very different response to Herod’s is it not? This is the response of a person who acknowledges and own his guilt; makes no excuse for his behaviour; repents of his sin and is now ready to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before God”(Mic 6:8).

A guilty conscience should call us to repentance!

You might have heard the name of the Swedish chemist, Alfred Nobel. He was the inventor of dynamite in 1867 believing that his invention would make war so horrible that it would never happen again because it would become so awful, so terrible, that no on in their right mind would be willing to inflict that kind of terror somebody else. Sadly, he was wrong. Instead of ending wars, dynamite made them more devastating and wide-ranging than it had ever been before. He was horrified, but also had no idea what to do. He also, it has to be sad, made a fortune from it’s sale. And then something interesting happened. One morning, around the turn of the century, he awoke to read, and get this, his own obituary, it read: “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in a war than ever before. He died a very rich man.” The newspaper had made a mistake Alfred’s older brother was the one who died, but as you could probably imagine, the obituary had a profound effect on him. He realized he didn’t want to be known primarily as the person who developed the most effective killing machine of his generation and amassed a fortune doing it. So, instead, he founded the Nobel Prize—an award for scientists and writers who foster peace. Nobel said, “Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.”

“Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.” Alfred Nobel took the opportunity to change. To choose to do good and promote goodness rather than evil. In the end he is well known for the NOBEL PREACE PRIZE but little known for creating dynamite. You can “correct” your “epitaph in midstream and write a new one” by changing your mind and heart about Jesus and your sin, turning from your sin to God!

Maybe you are hiding something? Maybe your conscience is gnawing away in the background, calling you to own it; to confess it and to have done with it!

Maybe you are wondering if you can ever recover? How can you erase the guilt? How can you find courage and strength to deal with the consequences? Has God written you off?

No, learn from David, to take responsibility for your sin; confess it and ask God for forgiveness and cleansing for your sin and then ask him for the grace to change and live for him whilst you serve others who like you have failed; but like you are searching for the grace to begin again!

When a person, accepts Jesus, rather than rejecting Him in repentance, He doesn’t abandon, He heals. But it’s not painless.

In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is a selfish boy named Eustace. He loved his treasures more than anything else, and one night he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm, so happy to have it. He transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry.

Aslan, the great lion, the Jesus figure, arrives. He offers to help Eustace remove his dragon-ness by removing the dragon skin. Eustace tries himself but to no avail. Aslan offers to help. “The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”

To repent is to be de-dragoned and to turn to Christ, teaches us to “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."(Eph 4:22-24).

In repentance, we’re asking God to be all that he promises to be to us: heart-cleanser, spirit-renewer, Holy Spirit-giver, joy-restorer, life-upholder, sin-remover. When God washes us in his grace, we’re whiter than snow. He blots out our iniquities, He keeps us and recreates us.

A broken and contrite heart is the heart of a Christian.

The heart God loves is the broken heart, the contrite heart, the honest heart. Herod did not have such a heart, John the Baptist and David did!

Jesus the King is among us! That sounds frightening until you realize that the one before whom you now are expoed was broken for you on the cross so unlike Herod when he had an opportunity to finally see Jesus and was left unimpressed and bewildered, do now look at the one crucified for you and realise that inspite of your sin and brokeness, you do not need to fall into a pit of despair, but rather fall into the ocean of God’s love, and in those deep waters, you can happily change; “all the pain had gone” said Eustace, from one degree of glory to another.