Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 6th Chapter of the Gospel according to St mark: Verses 14 – 29:
14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and abound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Certain names just have a way of conjuring up images of terror and death and destruction. Names like Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden and Pol Pot automatically make you think of some very evil people who did very evil things. Also, Biblical names like Cain and Judas and Jezebel transcend time as they still have the ability to conjure up very fresh and frightening images of evil. These are names used even now to brand people in a most unpleasant way.
To this day it’s most unlikely anyone names their sons Cain or Judas. It’s most unlikely anyone ever names their daughter Jezebel. It just doesn’t happen. Who would want that kind of association with our beloved children? Can you imagine if you were a school teacher looking at your new class roll? “Oh look...Adolf, Osama, Cain, Judas, and Jezebel will all be in my class this year.” And before we move on, be sure to add to this list of infamous names that nobody would want associated with their child, the name “Herod.”
King Herod...just the mere name invokes images of death and violence and wickedness! ……. It is true that there were multiple King Herods at work in the New Testament (i.e., Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa, Herod Archileus). It doesn’t matter. They were all bad. They all did some very evil, gory, terroristic things, from slaughtering baby boys, to having Jesus whipped and crucified, to putting to death the apostles, to chopping off the head of John the Baptist, and taking up with a brother’s wife (granddaughter of Herod the Great, making her his niece). Oh yes, also getting drunk and ogling his own step-daughter / grand-niece. There’s no need to split hairs. They were all truly “Herod” in their ways.
And yet...St. Mark gives us a glimpse of another side of King Herod. This Herod (Herod Antipas) was glad to hear John the Baptist preach. He didn’t necessarily like what he was hearing, but he gladly heard John the Baptist. He knew John was a good and righteous man. There was just something about him and his message that made King Herod have a bit of a soft-spot in his heart for John, enough of a soft-spot that he actually kept John safe in prison so that his wife Herodias couldn’t get to him and have him tortured and killed. Perhaps the Word of God, spoken in all its purity and fullness, was working. Perhaps it was having an effect on wicked King Herod. (Rom 10:17) “Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of Christ” and (Rom 1:16) “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe.”
But then that infamous birthday party happened. King Herod had a little too much to drink and was overcome with lustful emotion as he watched his own step – daughter (Salome) do a seductive dance for him. “Ask whatever you want and I will give it you, up to half of my kingdom!” Hmmm...let me go talk this over with mum. And when Salome, the little pawn of Herodias returned, she did exactly as mum wanted, and asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And the very next words in the text tell us that King Herod was exceedingly sorry for what he was about to do. In a quandary, but he had to ‘save face’.
Now, at this point you may not have any sympathy for King Herod. In fact, knowing what we know about him, you might even be feeling a bit of “schadenfreude”— (German; no English word with the same descriptive meaning) – that is deep satisfaction over his misery and suffering. “Good! I hope he does hurt and suffer and feel intense sorrow, the despicable man!” I get it. I do. However, I do want to share with you something very interesting about this particular Greek word that we translate as “exceedingly sorry” – perilypos.
This word is used only four other times in all of Scripture—twice to refer to how exceedingly sad the rich young man was when he found out that he would have to sell his riches and give the money to the poor before following Jesus, and twice to speak of the intense sorrow Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prepared to suffer all of His Father’s hellish wrath for the sins of the entire world. (Matt 26:38) “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death; remain here and watch with me.” And we all know how that turned out. And how much more sorrowful would Jesus be after returning three times to His closest friends whom He asked to stay awake and watch with Him only to find them fast asleep. “Could you not watch with Me even this one hour?” How’s that for salt in the sorrowful wounds?
So what? Who cares? What do these three different events; these five usages of this one word have to do with each other, or more importantly, with us today? ….. Well...how many of you felt pity and understanding for the rich young man? I’m not saying you condoned his unbelief, but you understood his sorrow, didn’t you? We’ve all been there. We know that sort of pain and anguish, and it hurts, whether you drop the sin and walk with Christ or drop Christ and walk with sin. Either way you’re losing something you don’t really want to part with. We know that sorrow. As the old saying goes, we all want our cake and we want to eat it too. Been there, done that. …. But, by the same token, we certainly choke up and lament over the fact that Christ Jesus had to endure so much agony and suffering because of us and our sin. His sorrow hurts us and grieves us, and rightly so. After all, He grieves because of what He has to endure for us. …. And yet...we hear of Herod experiencing these same feelings and we rejoice over his pain. We’re glad that he’s hurting.
What about you? I want you to put yourself in Herod’s shoes. It won’t be hard to do. In fact, we walk in these same sinful shoes all the time. I know that this may offend some who have a higher opinion of themselves and their faith, but it’s true. Put yourself in Herod’s shoes. How many of us have ever been faced with the choice of saving face or serving God? How many of us have ever struggled with loyalty to God or loyalty to the world; loyalty to our own desires? And the worst part of it all is that we often wind up doing things no different than Herod did. We side with the world. We side with popular opinion. We side with our own wants and desires and feelings. As one theologian recently said, “Feelings are notorious liars, especially in matter of faith.” But that often doesn’t stop us from going all-in and staying true and loyal to our feelings, even if it means going against God. The warm-and-fuzzy feeling we crave can sometimes be more important to us than the objective Truth that God desires for us.
But here’s the thing: I’m not interested in beating you up over your Herod- like tendencies. I’m not going to fight with you or argue with you in attempt to convince you that—yes—you are no different than Herod in many sad and sinful ways. We may not like to admit it, but our names, by nature, are every bit as synonymous with sin and evil as the names Herod, Adolf, Osama, Cain, Judas, Jezebel, and every other child of Adam. (Rom 3:23)“All have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. All have sinned, and the wage of sin is death.” The Truth is what it is.
But this is precisely the Good News I want to share with you. Yes—we are no different than any other child of Adam when it comes to our sin. But that’s just it. God doesn’t work on a sliding scale. He’s very equal-opportunity and fair across the board. Sin is sin. No one sin is greater than another in God’s eyes, and those are the eyes we need to be concerned with. “Okay...so how is this Good News?” This Truth isn’t the Good News. This Truth is the Law...the cold, hard truth of the Law. But therein lies the Good News. God Himself did something about sin...all sin. He did something about the fact that we can’t save ourselves, no matter how good we tell ourselves we are or how warm and fuzzy we make ourselves feel. God Himself took on our flesh, bone, and blood in order to take that flesh, bone, and blood to the cross as a full and complete payment for each and every sin of the entire world. It is finished, once and for all!
But the Good News doesn’t even stop there. Yes, the work of salvation is complete. Christ Jesus accomplished the entire mission with His suffering, death, and resurrection. It is finished! But that Good News doesn’t end with an empty historical look back at one Friday and one Sunday two thousand years ago. This same God and Lord brings His victory to us personally. He comes to us in the waters of His Holy Baptism to drown that old Adam corpse of sin. He comes to us in the waters of His Holy Baptism to crown us with His liquid crown of life, forgiveness, and everlasting salvation. He comes to us in the waters of Holy Baptism to make us His own; to wash away the infamous, deadly name of old Adam, and to put His name of life upon our head and our heart, marking us as His own beloved child and heir of life eternal.
Just think about that for a moment. We are a baptised child of God— presently and eternally. We bear His triune, triumphant name; a name that will never tarnish or fade or lose face. (Philip 2:10) At the name of Jesus every knee will bow. By virtue of our baptism, we bear this name. When God looks at us, He no longer sees us and our old Adam corpse of sin. He sees Christ. He sees one who is covered over in the sopping wet white robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness; a robe that has been washed in the blood of the righteous Lamb of God; the very same life-giving righteous blood of that divine Passover Lamb that He brings to us today as He feeds us with His body and His blood; His forgiveness; His victory over sin, death, and the grave.
And because of this blessed baptismal in- grafting, He knows us by name. He calls us by name. “Come, all who are weak and heavy-laden. Come, my beloved child. Take and eat. Take and drink, for the forgiveness of all your sin.” He knows us intimately...and He rejoices, for we bear His triune name of life, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and peace. He is our God and we are His beloved child, and nothing and no one can ever steal that away from us.
Rejoice and be at peace, my fellow baptised and redeemed Herods. Rejoice and be at peace, for you now bear the name of Christ. In God’s eyes you are true children of Paradise, and those are the only eyes that matter.
And may this peace, which does surpass all human understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. In His most blessed, holy, and life-giving name...AMEN.
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