John - A Preacher Who Lost His Head!
A preacher, doctor and lawyer went
hunting. Several shots were fired and a deer fell. They couldn’t agree on whose
shot killed it. They agreed to let a farmer settle the dispute. The farmer
examined the dead animal and said, “It’s plain the preacher’s shot killed the
deer.” They asked, “How can you be so sure?” The farmer said, “Because . . .
the bullet went in one ear and out the other.” Funny story! But some people do
listen to preachers – and react. When first century preachers preached, people
didn’t always agree. But when the sermon was done, the preachers had left the
people who heard them either mad, sad, or glad – but rarely the same.
John the
Baptist is a case in point. Matthew 14:1-12 gives Matthew’s account of the
imprisonment of John at the hands of Herod the tetrarch, also known as Herod
Antipas. Antipas was a son of Herod the Great who ordered the butchering of
male babies under two years old in Matthew 2, all in an insanely jealous effort
to kill the Baby he heard was born to be king of the Jews. If there was ever a
messed-up dysfunctional family in the pages of the Bible, the Herod family was
it. Matthew chapter 14 reveals Herod had a particular reason for arresting
John. The text says in verses 3-4, “For Herod had laid hold of John and bound
him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.
For John had said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ ” The law
John accused Herod of breaking was not the law of the Supreme Court of the
Roman Empire, Roman Senate, or Roman Emperor. It was God’s law – the one in Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21
that forbade an incestuous relationship between a man and his brother’s wife.
Mark’s account of the incident reveals this was precisely what Herod had done –
“he had married her [Herodias]” (Mark 6:17b). The Jewish historian Josephus
states that Herodias was actually the daughter of Aristobulus, another brother
of the Herod in Matthew 14. Thus, when the Herod of our text divorced his own
wife to marry Herodias, he married not only his sister-in-law but also his
niece!
Sounds like
the old song, “I’m my own Grandpa!” Powerful people in high places behaving in
really low-down, immoral ways, and then treating John like he is the problem
for preaching against it! I wonder if Herodias accused the fiery preacher of
“hate speech” because he wasn’t tolerant of her and Herod’s immorality? Any of
this sound familiar? The “marriage” went swimmingly well – until, that is, the
leather-wearing, locust-eating preacher named John dared to denounce the
relationship as “unlawful.”
Mark says “Herodias
held it against John, and wanted to kill him” (Mark 6:19). She did, of course,
finally get what she wanted.
John’s sermon against the Herod /
Herodias marriage did not go in one ear and out the other. Herodias held John’s
words in her heart, and they ate her alive with anger, bitterness and a desire
for revenge. But apparently no guilt. Just a white-hot hatred for the preacher
who dared speak out against her and her illegitimate marriage with Herod. So
much for tolerance! Herodias lost her temper and John lost his head. Christians
believe that even though John lost his life he gained his soul (Matthew 16:26).
The sordid story makes us realize that preaching that pleases God won’t please
all people. Leonard Ravenhill says something that should jar us – “If Jesus
preached the same message minister’s preach today, He would have never been
crucified.” And John would never have lost his head. Something to think about,
isn’t it?
--by Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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