Latest / Reformed Thinking / Herod’s Banquet and the Prophet’s Blood: Collision of Counterfeit Power with the Kingdom of Christ (Matthew 14:1–12)

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Herod’s Banquet and the Prophet’s Blood: Collision of Counterfeit Power with the Kingdom of Christ (Matthew 14:1–12) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. We are glad you are here with
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us. It's great to be back.
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Today we are opening up a file that reads less like a standard
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Sunday school lesson and more like the script of a high stakes
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political thriller. That's a great way to put it.
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If you look at the elements we have in the text, it is just
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startling. We have a corrupt
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administration, forbidden marriage that violates ancient
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law, a birthday banquet that goes horribly, horribly off the
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rails, and then a gruesome execution and a dungeon.
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It's all there. It is, but as we dig into this,
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we are going to see that this isn't just a grim story from
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history, it's really a theological window into a
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massive collision between two realities, the Kingdom of God
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and, well, the kingdoms of men. It really is a dark chapter, but
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it isn't necessary one. We are looking at Matthew
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chapter 14 verses one through 12.
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And you're right, when people read this, they usually focus on
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the shock value, the head on the platter, the dancing girl.
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Those are vivid images for sure. They are, but the real action is
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happening beneath the surface. It is a story about the
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conscience, about the paralyzing fear of man and, you know, the
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incredibly high cost of speaking the truth in a world that would
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much rather hear lies. The two main characters here
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just could not be more different.
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It is a study in contrasts. On one side you've got Herod
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Antipas. He's the tetrarch, he's the
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ruler. The guy with the power.
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The guy with the power, the palace and the Roman backing, we
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can call him the counterfeit king.
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And then on the other side, you have John the Baptist.
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Right. Who is in prison?
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He has no political leverage whatsoever.
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He's wearing rough clothes, eating locusts, and yet he is
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the faithful prophet. That is the central conflict,
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and our goal for this deep dive is to understand the mechanics
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of that conflict. We want to understand how the
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fear of man acts as a trap. A snare, as Proverbs says.
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Exactly. We want to see how the
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conscience functions even in the wicked, maybe especially in the
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wicked, and why the truth often comes with such a high price tag
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and. We're going to be looking at
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this text specifically through the lens of Reformed theology
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and the Westminster Confession, using some really solid
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theological essays and expository analysis to get at
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the heart of what Matthew is telling us.
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Right, we want to move past the surface level and really
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understand the doctrine at play here.
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It's a text that demands a lot from us.
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It forces us to ask who we really fear.
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Do we fear the crowd, the culture, or do we fear God?
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Yeah. So let's get into the narrative.
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Right. The passage opens with a very
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specific trigger, Matthew 14 verses one and two.
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It says at that time, Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of
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Jesus. Now let's pause and just set the
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scene a little. Jesus is out there doing
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miracles. He's healing people.
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Casting out demons. Crowds are following him.
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Word gets back to the palace. Now, you would think a ruler
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might be curious. You'd think he might want to
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meet this new teacher, or maybe he'd be skeptical and just
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dismiss it as, you know, peasant superstition.
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But Herod's reaction is bizarre. It is immediate and it is
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terrified. Herod hears about Jesus and
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instantly comes to a conclusion. He says to his servants, this is
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John the Baptist. He's been raised from the dead.
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Which is just a wild thing to say.
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It is because we have to keep in mind Herod knows John is dead.
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He knows this for a fact. He knows it because, as we will
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find out in the flashback, Herod is the one who ordered his
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execution. That's the part that jumps out
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at me. It seems completely irrational.
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I mean, John the Baptist did not do miracles when he was alive.
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The Bible never records John performing a single sign or a
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wonder he was a preacher. A powerful one, but not a
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miracle worker. Right.
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Jesus is a distinct person doing miracles, so why would Herod's
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mind immediately jump to the conclusion that this is a
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resurrected John? Historically, you are right,
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it's irrational, but psychologically it is perfectly
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rational. This is guilt talking.
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This is what we call a haunted courtroom.
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A haunted courtroom. I like that.
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In Reformed theology, and specifically if you look at
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Romans 2.1415, we understand that the conscience functions as
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an internal prosecutor. God has woven moral reality into
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the human heart. It is part of being made in the
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image of God. You can suppress the truth,
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which Herod has done repeatedly, but you cannot kill the witness
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within. So Herod is essentially seeing
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ghost. Not literally, of course, but
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his conscience is projecting his past crime onto his present
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reality. That's it exactly.
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He is condemningly awakened. And think about the theology
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Herod admits to here. Even in his terror, he is likely
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a secular man, or at least very worldly.
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He's not a devout religious observer.
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Not at all. He's a political operator.
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Exactly. Yet he admits to the
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supernatural. He says he's been raised for the
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dead. That is why these miraculous
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powers are at work in him. He believes in resurrection
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power. But notice what's missing.
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There's no repentance. 0 This is a classic example of what we
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might call radical depravity mixed with superstition.
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He is haunted by the supernatural, but he is not
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humbled by it. He fears judgement, but he does
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not seek mercy. That is a terrifying place to
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be, to know the supernatural is real, to know that death might
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not be the end, but to view it only as a threat.
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A threat to his power, A threat to his Peace of Mind.
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It reminds me of how people today might be fascinated by the
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spiritual or the paranormal. You know they'll watch ghost
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hunting shows or read their horoscopes, but they want
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nothing to do with the holy God who makes moral demands.
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That is a great parallel. It is a spirituality of fear,
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not of faith. Herod is looking at Jesus and
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seeing his own sin coming back to haunt him.
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He is not seeing a Savior. He is seeing a specter.
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Now Matthew does something really interesting with the
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storytelling structure here. He starts with this reaction,
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Herod freaking out about Jesus, and then he hits the rewind
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button. Yes, it is a flashback.
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The narrative stops moving forward and goes back in time to
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explain why Herod is so afraid. This isn't just Matthew giving
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us a history report like oh, by the way, here's some background.
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No, it's deliberate. It is an interpretive lens.
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He's showing us that Herod's current fear of Jesus is rooted
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entirely in his past sin against John.
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You cannot understand the present panic without
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understanding the past crime. It is pure cause and effect.
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So let's look at that crime. The flashback starts in verse 3.
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It tells us Herod had seized John, bound him and put him in
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prison. And the reason given is very
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specific for the sake of Herodias.
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And this brings us to the scandal at the heart of the
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court. Herodias was not just a woman
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Care took a fancy to she was his brother Phillip's wife.
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Which makes for a very, very awkward family dynamic.
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To say the least, it was an absolute mess.
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From what we know from history, Herod Antipas visited his
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brother, seduced his brother's wife and they agreed to leave
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their respective spouses and marry each other.
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But this wasn't just a personal, messy relationship.
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In the eyes of the law. This was covenantal rebellion.
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It was a direct violation of God's moral law regarding
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marriage. A flagrant violation and John
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the Baptist didn't just let it slide.
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Verse 4 says Jonathan saying to him, it is not lawful for you to
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have her. And there's a tiny grammar
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nugget there that's just huge for our understanding of the
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situation. Yes.
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The Greek verb used their elegant is in the imperfect
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tense that implies continuous repeated action.
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It means John kept saying it. Oh, so it.
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Wasn't a one time thing. He didn't just whisper it once
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in a hallway and then run away. No, absolutely not.
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It was a relentless, continuous testimony.
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John was likely preaching this publicly.
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He might have been saying it to the crowds and perhaps even said
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it to Herod's face multiple times.
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It is not lawful. It is not lawful.
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He's applying God's objective moral law directly to a civil
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ruler. Without flinching.
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That is bold. I mean, Herod has the power of
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life and death over him. Why push it?
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Why not just stick to spiritual topics?
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Why not just preach about prayer and fasting and leave the King's
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marriage alone? That seems like the safe,
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pragmatic play. Because for John and for any
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faithful preacher, God's law is not just a suggestion for
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private religious practice, it is the standard for reality.
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He is referencing Leviticus 18.1 Teen and 20.21.
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John understood that you cannot separate private morality from
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public leadership. So he rejected what we might
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call cowardly pragmatism. Cowardly pragmatism.
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That sounds like a critique of how we often handle things
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today, doesn't it? It absolutely does.
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One of our sources points out the sharp contrast between John
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the Baptist and the modern seeker sensitive movement.
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There is this pressure today to be winsome, to soften our
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rhetoric, especially on issues of sexual ethics or marriage.
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Right. The idea is that we need to
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remain relevant or we shouldn't offend the culture because if we
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offend them, they won't listen to.
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Us the idea that if we are too harsh, people will just tune out
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the gospel. We need to build a relationship
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first, earn the right to speak, and maybe gloss over the hard
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stuff until later. John didn't buy that strategy
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for a second. He didn't try to be winsome in
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that sense. He simply stated the truth.
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It is not lawful. This is the third use of the law
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in action. The law exposes sin.
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It acts as a standard for the world's rebellion, not just a
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guide for believers. And if you'd stayed silent?
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If John had stayed silent, he would have been complicit in
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Herod's rebellion against God. He would have been prioritizing
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his own safety over Herod's soul and God's honor.
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That is a challenging thought. It implies that silence isn't
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neutral if you see a violation of God's law and you say nothing
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because you want to be liked or you want to keep your platform.
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You're actually participating in the lie.
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Precisely. Silence in the face of evil is
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not neutrality, it is collaboration.
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John refused to collaborate. So John is in prison because he
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won't stop telling the truth. Now we get to the standoff in
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verse 5. Herod wants to kill John.
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He is angry. The text says he wanted to put
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him to death, but he doesn't do it.
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Why? This is where we see the true
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nature of Herod's rule. He doesn't kill John, but not
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because he fears God. There's no indication he fears
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God at all. No says explicitly he feared the
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people because they held him to be a prophet.
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He was pulling the crowd. He was running the numbers.
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Precisely. He's a puppet ruler, we call him
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a king, and he's enslaved. He is enslaved by his lust for
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Herodias, and he's enslaved by the fear of public opinion.
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This is the fear of man concept we talked about in the intro.
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He cannot act on his own desires because he's terrified of a
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riot. He is terrified of losing his
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approval rating. It is so ironic, isn't it?
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John is the one in chains. He is in a dark dungeon, likely
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cold and miserable, but he is the only one who is actually
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free. He's.
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Spiritually free. He's free to speak the truth.
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He's free to stand before God with a clear conscience.
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Herod is sitting on the throne, wearing the crown, eating the
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best food, but he's a paralyzed He can't do what he wants
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because he is terrified of what people will think.
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That is the paradox of the Kingdom of God versus the
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kingdoms of men. The world looks at the guy in
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the palace and sees power. The Bible looks at the guy in
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the palace and sees a slave to fear.
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Real freedom is the ability to do what is right regardless of
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the consequences. John had that, Herod did not.
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So the tension is just built up. John is in prison, Herod is
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paralyzed by fear, and Herodias is, I have to assume, just
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furious because John keeps calling her marriage unlawful.
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She wants him dead, and then comes the party.
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The Birthday banquet, verse 6. The Greek word is Genesia.
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This was likely held at the fortress of Makaris.
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History tells us this was a massive citadel near the Dead
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Sea. It had a beautiful palace on top
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and deep dark dungeons underneath.
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Convenience is key, I guess. You can have your enemies right
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under your feet while you feast. It creates a stark, unsettling
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setting. Upstairs, you have the central
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banquet. Our sources describe it as a
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scene of power at leisure. There's luxury.
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There's pride. There's likely a lot of
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intoxication. A feast of the flesh.
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Absolutely. The local nobles, the military
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commanders, the high Society of Galilee are all there.
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And in the middle of this, the daughter of Herodias dances.
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And it says the dance pleased Herod.
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It pleased him so much that he loses his head, metaphorically
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speaking, before John loses his. Literally in verse 7 he promises
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with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
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That seems excessive, whatever you ask.
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I mean, even for a king, that is a dangerous blank check.
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You don't hand that out to a teenager at a party.
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It is the language of intoxicated grandeur.
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He wants to impress his guests. He wants to look sovereign and
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magnanimous. One source puts it perfectly.
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He is trying to sanctify impulse with a veneer of solemnity.
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Say more about that. He uses a vow, an oath, which
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should be a serious holy thing before God, to decorate his own
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vanity. He is basically acting like he
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is the Emperor or God himself, able to grant any wish.
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He is just showing up. Look at me, I am so powerful.
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I can give you anything. It is pure ego.
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Exactly, but he is walked right into a trap.
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Verse 8 says a girl girl was prompted by her mother.
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This shows us the escalation of sin.
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It is never just one person. Sin recruits accomplices.
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It's a conspiracy. It is.
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The mother hates John, but she can't get to him directly, so
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she uses the daughter. The daughter uses the dance.
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The dance uses the King's lust and pride.
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The mother uses the daughter as a weapon.
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And the request is horrifyingly specific.
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Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.
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It is so specific here and on a platter.
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She doesn't just want him dead. She doesn't say have him
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executed tomorrow. She wants it to be a show.
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She wants it brought into the party.
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She wants public humiliation. Bitterness doesn't just seek the
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removal of the problem, it seeks triumph.
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She wants the very tongue that rebuked her to be silenced and
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paraded in front of the guests. It is a request designed to make
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John into an object. A piece of meat at the feast is
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grotesque. It turns a birthday celebration
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into a scene of horror. And this is where Herod's whole
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House of Cards just falls down. Verse 9 says the king was sorry.
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Now hold on, being sorry is usually a good thing, right?
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We teach our kids to say sorry. Is this repentance?
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That is the crucial distinction we have to make.
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This is worldly grief, not godly sorrow.
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The Apostle Paul talks about this in 2nd Corinthians 7.
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Worldly grief produces death. Godly grief produces repentance.
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So what's the difference here? Herod feels bad.
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He feels the pressure. He knows this is a bad idea.
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Mark's Gospel tells us he knew John was a holy man.
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He feels the trap closing, but he doesn't change his course.
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He is sorry about the consequences, not the sin
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itself. Why not?
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If he's the king, why not just say that is a crazy request.
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I am not killing a prophet of God at a birthday party.
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Go sit down. Ask for a pony instead.
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The text tells us exactly why. Because of his oaths and his
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guests. The guests, it all comes back to
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the people watching. Guests.
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He chose to commit murder rather than face the embarrassment of
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breaking a foolish vow in front of his peers.
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His idol was reputation. He feared the look in the eyes
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of his dinner guests more than he feared the wrath of God.
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He couldn't bear the thought of someone whispering, Oh, the king
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couldn't follow through. That hits hard.
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I think we can all relate to that pressure.
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Maybe not to the point of beheading someone, but doing
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something we know is wrong just because we don't want to look
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awkward or weak in front of a group.
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Of course we go along with the joke.
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We agree with the gossip. We sign off on the unethical
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deal at work. Absolutely.
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It is the idol of saving face. Herod would rather be a murderer
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than be thought of as inconsistent or weak.
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And so the command is given. He sacrifices his conscience on
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the altar of his ego. Verse 10 He sent and had John
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beheaded in the prison. It is so matter of fact, so
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blunt. Just one sentence.
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It is a judicial murder. And notice the location.
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It happens in the prison. It's out of sight.
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They treat righteousness like refuse, like garbage to be
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disposed of in the dark. There is no trial.
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There's no defense, just a brutal execution in the dark
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damp of the dungeon while the party rages upstairs.
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And then the presentation in verse 11, the head is brought on
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a platter given to the girl, and she gives it to her mother.
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It is just absolutely grotesque. It is the banquet of death.
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This is the definition of a counterfeit Kingdom.
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It feasts on death. It sacrifices others to protect
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its own image. You have the music, the food,
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the finery, the laughter, and in the middle of it, the severed
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head of the greatest prophet born of women.
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It exposes the utter moral rot of Herod's court.
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It shows that underneath all the silk in the wine there is just
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violence and death. It is a heavy, heavy scene, but
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the story doesn't end in the banquet hall.
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Verse 12 shifts the camera, so to speak.
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And his disciples came and took the body and buried it.
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This is such a beautiful, quiet act of defiance.
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Imagine the risk involved. John has just been executed as
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an enemy of the state. Essentially, to go and claim the
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body is to identify yourself with him.
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It puts a target right on your back.
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They didn't run away. They didn't pretend.
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They didn't know. Him they didn't.
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They showed incredible courage and reverence.
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They refused to let the state treat John as garbage.
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They gave him a proper burial. They honored the vessel that God
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had used. And then the text says something
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so simple but so critical. They went and told Jesus.
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That seems like a simple reporting of facts, but you
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think there's more to it. I think it's the narrative
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bridge. It connects this whole tragedy
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back to the true king. When the servant falls, where do
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you go? You go to the master.
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They took their grief, their confusion, their outrage and the
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news of this injustice directly to Jesus.
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They didn't form a mob. They didn't try to burn down
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Makaris. They went to Christ.
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And there's a powerful contrast here with what Jesus does next.
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A huge contrast. Look at what happens immediately
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after this in Matthew 14. Herod has just thrown a feast
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that ends in death. Jesus, upon hearing this,
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withdraws. And then what does he do?
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He feeds the 5000. The feeding of the multitude.
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Yes. Herod's banquet is for the
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elite, the rich, the powerful, and it consumes life.
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It takes life away. Jesus's banquet is for the
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hungry multitude, the poor, the common people, and it gives
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life. It creates bread in the
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wilderness. It is compassion versus
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consumption. It is the Kingdom of God versus
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the Kingdom of Herod right there in the same chapter.
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And there is another contrast from our sources regarding the
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burial. John is buried and he stays in
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the earth. That is right.
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John's the forerunner. He goes before Jesus in his
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message and he goes before Jesus in his suffering.
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But the contrast is in the resurrection.
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John's disciples bury a body that awaits the last day.
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Jesus disciples will bury a body that cannot be held by death.
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John points to the light. Jesus is the light that conquers
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the darkness. John's death is tragic.
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Jesus death is victorious. I want to zoom out a bit now.
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We've walked through the story, but we need to look at this
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through that reformed lens we promised.
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We need to dig into the theology.
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What are the big takeaways here? The first one, and maybe the
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hardest one, has to be Providence.
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We look at the Westminster Confession, chapter 5.
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It teaches that God's Providence extends to all actions, even the
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sins of men. It is a concept that is often
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hard for people to wrap their heads around.
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So God ordained this. That is a tough pill to swallow.
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People really struggle with this?
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They ask, did God want John to die?
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It is the mystery of iniquity. We have to be really precise
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with our language here. God did not make Herod's sin.
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God did not put the lust in his heart or the pride in His mind.
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Herod acted out of his own wicked desires.
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He is fully responsible for his actions.
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OK, but God in His sovereignty used Herod's wickedness to
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fulfill His own good purposes. Like Joseph in the Old
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Testament, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
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That's the classic example exactly.
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John had to decrease so that Christ could increase.
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John's death foreshadows the way the world would treat Jesus.
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It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a failure of God's
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plan. It wasn't that God looked away
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for a second and Herod sneaked in a murder.
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It was a dark chapter included in the Divine Plan.
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The cross itself is the prime example of that.
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The cross is the ultimate example.
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It was the greatest sin ever committed by men, yet it was the
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greatest act of redemption ordained by God.
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We see a mini version of that principle of play right here.
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It's hard to accept that the good guy dies and the bad guy
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keeps partying. At least for now.
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We want immediate justice. We do.
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And that brings us to the anatomy of sin.
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We need to trace how this happened.
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It didn't start with a beheading.
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It started with an unlawful desire, then an unlawful
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arrangement, then silencing the Prophet who pointed it out.
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Which didn't work. Right, so then came the rash
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oath. Then the fear of man, and
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finally murder. The slippery slope.
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It is a hardening. Herod could have stopped at any
20:07
of those points. He could have not married her.
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He could have listened to John and repented.
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He could have not made the foolish oath.
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He could have broken the oath and apologized to his guests,
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but at every turn he chose sin and his heart got harder.
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It shows us that sin is not static.
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It grows. It demands more.
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You start with lust and you end with murder.
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And this leads directly to that two kingdoms concept we have
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been talking about, this collision.
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Yes, on full display you have the counterfeit kingship of
20:35
Herod. It is driven by appetite.
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It is maintained by coercion. It is ruled by fear.
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It looks strong on the outside, but it is fundamentally weak and
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fragile. And then Christ's Kingdom.
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Then you have the true kingship of Jesus.
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It is ordered toward justice. It is driven by compassion.
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It brings life from nothing. Matthew is forcing us to choose
20:55
which king do you serve? Which banquet do you want to
20:57
attend? That is the question, and it
21:00
brings us to how this applies to us, the listeners, because most
21:02
of us aren't kings, and hopefully none of us are
21:04
planning beheadings. But the principles remain.
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They absolutely do. The first application is the
21:10
cost of truth. We have to be honest.
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Faithfulness often brings affliction.
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The prosperity gospel has no explanation for John the
21:19
Baptist. Right.
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If you believe that having enough faith means you will
21:22
always be healthy, wealthy and promoted, then this story makes
21:26
zero sense. John must have failed somewhere.
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Exactly. If the prosperity gospel were
21:31
true, John the Baptist must have had terrible faith.
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He must have been doing something wrong.
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But Jesus calls him the greatest born of women.
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So the lesson is that believers must be prepared to stand for
21:43
unpopular truth when we speak about biblical marriage or
21:46
sexual ethics or the exclusivity of Christ.
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The culture might call it hateful.
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They might cancel us. They might, depending on where
21:53
we live, imprison us. We cannot expect the world to
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applaud us when we tell them their deeds are unlawful.
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Exactly. If they hated the Forerunner and
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they hated the King, they won't love the servants.
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We need to divest ourselves of the need for the world's
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applause. That's a huge take away.
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What about the conscience? We talked about Herod's haunted
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courtroom. That is a direct warning for all
22:13
of us. Do not suppress your conscience.
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A haunted courtroom inside your head is so much worse than any
22:20
public shame. If you have a sin, you are
22:22
hiding a truth you are suppressing.
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Deal with it now. Repent.
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Don't manage the sin like Herod did.
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Kill it. Bring it into the light.
22:30
Because if you don't, it might eventually kill you, or at least
22:34
kill your peace. You don't want to be jumping at
22:37
shadows like Herod, thinking every new thing is your past
22:39
coming back to get you. And finally, there's a word of
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pastoral comfort here. For the weary, for those who
22:45
feel like they are losing. Yes, for those who look around
22:48
at the world and feel like the bad guys are winning, John's
22:51
death was not a failure. And notice what the disciples
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did. They went and told Jesus.
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That is the application. When you face injustice, grief,
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loss, you take it to Jesus. He is the only place to put that
23:02
burden. He is the only one who truly
23:04
understands. And the hope is that while the
23:06
Herods of the world eventually die and rot away, the Kingdom of
23:09
God stands forever. The Herods pass away.
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The Pilates pass away. The Caesars pass away.
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Christ remains. The gates of hell shall not
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prevail against this Church. OK, let's unpack this a little
23:20
further because I think that fear of man aspect is something
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we grapple with every single day.
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It's not usually a banquet with a separate head, but it's the
23:28
boardroom or the family dinner or the comments section on
23:31
social media. It is everywhere.
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The fear of man is a snare, as Proverbs says.
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Look at Herod again. He was the ruler, but he was
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terrified of his guests. How often do we stay silent when
23:43
we should speak because we are afraid of a slightly awkward
23:46
silence at the dinner table? Or we go along with a lie at
23:49
work because we are afraid of not being seen as a team player.
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That's the cowardly pragmatism you mentioned earlier.
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We justify it by saying, well, if I keep my job, I can have
24:00
more influence later. We tell ourselves we are being
24:02
strategic. I need to stay in the palace so
24:04
I can change it from the inside. Right, But Herod shows us that
24:08
when you stay in the palace on the palace's terms, you don't
24:10
change the palace. The palace changes you.
24:13
You end up making oaths you can't keep and, well, serving up
24:17
heads on platters. Metaphorically speaking, you
24:20
compromise piece by piece until there is nothing left of your
24:23
conviction. That is a chilling thought, the
24:26
idea that compromise doesn't lead to influence.
24:29
It leads to complicity. Complicity is the word.
24:32
Herodias daughter was complicit. The guests who sat there and
24:36
watched a murder happen without protesting were complicit.
24:39
The fear of man silences our objection to evil, and silence
24:44
in the face of clear evil is not neutrality, it is collaboration.
24:48
We have to be willing to be the awkward one.
24:51
We have to be willing to be the one who doesn't laugh at the
24:53
inappropriate joke. I want to go back to John's
24:56
message. It is not lawful.
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You mentioned that modern sensibilities really struggle
25:00
with this. We want to be winsome.
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Is there a place for winsomeness or are we supposed to be just
25:04
shouting from the dungeons? That is a great question, and
25:06
it's an important one. We should not be unnecessarily
25:09
offensive. The gospel is offensive enough
25:11
on its own. We don't need to add our own bad
25:12
personality to it. We should be gracious, but John
25:16
wasn't being rude, he was being clear.
25:18
There is a huge difference. Explain that difference.
25:21
True love warns If you see a blind man walking toward a
25:24
Cliff, the most winsome and loving thing you can do is
25:27
scream Stop. Right.
25:29
Whispering you might want to reconsider your trajectory is
25:33
not actually love, it's cowardice.
25:36
Exactly. John loved God and I would argue
25:39
he loved his people enough. He loved Herod enough to tell
25:42
him the truth. He wasn't trying to win a
25:44
popularity contest, he was trying to save souls from the
25:47
wrath to come. And sometimes love sounds like
25:51
it is not lawful. Sometimes love looks like a
25:54
rebuke. It's interesting that the text
25:56
says Herod feared John, knowing he was a righteous and holy man
25:59
and he kept him safe for a while.
26:01
Mark's gospel even says Herod heard him gladly.
26:04
Yes, that adds another layer of tragedy to the whole story.
26:07
Herod was intrigued by the truth.
26:09
He recognized the ring of authenticity in John's voice.
26:12
He knew John was the real deal compared to the sycophants and
26:15
flatterers in his court. So he liked having him around in
26:18
a way. But intrigue is not repentance.
26:21
You can listen to podcasts about theology.
26:22
You can respect a bold preacher. You can even feel gladness at
26:25
the intellectual stimulation of the word and still remain dead
26:28
in your sins. You can be a fan of the Prophet
26:31
and still cut off his head. If the prophet touches your
26:33
idol, yes. For Herod the idol was Herodias.
26:37
It was his illicit relationship. He could listen to John talk
26:41
about the coming Messiah or baptism or justice in the
26:43
abstract. But the moment John pointed a
26:46
finger at his bedroom and said that woman is not yours, the
26:50
game was over. We all have that line.
26:54
We love truth until it demands we give up our favorite sin.
26:57
That is the anatomy of sin. Again, it defends its territory
27:00
so aggressively. It does, And notice the role of
27:03
the rash oath again. He promised whatever she might
27:06
ask. He gave a blank check to evil
27:09
because he was high on his own supply, his own glory and image.
27:13
It reminds me of how we make promises to the world.
27:15
I'll do whatever it takes to get that promotion.
27:17
I'll do whatever it takes to fit in with this group.
27:19
I'll do whatever it takes to be seen as successful.
27:21
And the world will eventually cash that check.
27:23
And the price is usually your conscience.
27:25
When you write a blank check to the world, the world will fill
27:28
in a number you cannot afford to pay.
27:30
Herod found that out the hard way.
27:31
Let's talk about the burial scene again, verse 12.
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His disciples came and took the body and buried it.
27:37
You mentioned the dignity of this act.
27:39
In that culture, the body of an executed criminal was often
27:42
denied proper burial. It was part of the shame, part
27:45
of the punishment. They would often be tossed into
27:47
a common grave, or worse, left for the beast.
27:50
A. Final act of dehumanization.
27:52
It was so for the disciples to claim the body was a profound
27:55
statement. This man is not a criminal.
27:58
He is a servant of the Most High God.
28:00
It was a reclaiming of the narrative.
28:02
The state said criminal. The church said St.
28:05
And they went and told Jesus, I love that connection.
28:08
It's not just reporting to the boss, it's seeking refuge.
28:10
It is the only place to go. Where else could they go?
28:13
The Pharisees hated John, Herod just killed him.
28:16
The crowd was fickle. Jesus was the only stable
28:19
reality left in their world. And this points us to the
28:22
Christological fulfillment of this entire event.
28:25
Well, think about the parallels. John is the forerunner.
28:28
He preaches repentance. He confronts the religious and
28:31
political leaders of his day. He is arrested on false or
28:34
flimsy pretenses. He is executed by a weak ruler
28:38
who was pressured by a mob, or in this case, a group of peers.
28:41
Just like Pilot. Exactly like Pilot.
28:43
Pilot knew Jesus was innocent. He tried to find a way out, but
28:46
the crowd shouted, If you release this man, you are not
28:49
Caesar's friend. Fear of ma'am, fear of
28:52
reputation. So he handed Jesus over to be
28:54
crucified. John's death is a dress
28:57
rehearsal for Good Friday. But with a massive difference in
29:00
the result. A massive, eternal difference.
29:02
John's blood cries out from the ground like Abel's.
29:04
It testifies against the injustice of Herod.
29:07
But Jesus's blood, the book of Hebrews tells us, cries out
29:10
better things in the blood of Abel.
29:11
It testifies for us. It atones, It cleanses.
29:14
John died as a witness to the truth.
29:16
Jesus died as the sacrifice for the truth.
29:18
And the resurrection. The resurrection changes
29:21
everything. Herod thought Jesus was John,
29:23
raised in the dead, a superstitious terror born of a
29:26
guilty conscience. But Jesus actually did rise.
29:29
And because he rose, the death of John the Baptist is not the
29:32
end of the story. John will rise too, on the last
29:35
day. That is why we don't despair.
29:37
When we see the banquets of death in our world.
29:39
We know that the empty tune Trump's the platter.
29:42
That is a powerful perspective. It reframes how we look at the
29:45
news, at politics, at everything.
29:48
The winners of history aren't always the ones throwing the
29:50
parties and making the grand declarations.
29:53
The Westminster Confession remind us that God is the
29:55
supreme King. He ordains whatsoever comes to
29:58
pass. He allowed John to die, yes, but
30:00
he also ordained that this death would be recorded in Scripture
30:03
to strengthen the church for 2000 years.
30:06
Herod thought he was deleting John.
30:08
Instead, he made his testimony eternal.
30:10
That is the ultimate irony of persecution.
30:13
It amplifies the message it tries to silence.
30:15
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
30:18
Tertullian said it, and this text proves it.
30:20
You cannot kill the truth by killing the messenger.
30:23
The truth has a way of getting out.
30:24
I want to touch on the two kingdoms idea again before we
30:27
wrap up. We have Herod's Kingdom in
30:30
Christ's Kingdom. How do we live in both?
30:33
Because we are citizens of nations, but we are subjects of
30:36
Christ. It is the classic struggle for
30:38
the Christian We are to honor the king, as Peter says.
30:41
We pay our taxes. We follow the laws until the law
30:45
of the king contradicts the law of the King of Kings.
30:48
That's the John the Baptist land in the sand.
30:50
That is the line when the state says you must approve of this
30:53
sin or you must not preach this truth.
30:56
The citizen of heaven says it is not lawful.
30:59
We become conscientious objectors.
31:01
But notice we don't take up the sword like Peter tried to do in
31:04
the garden. John didn't lead a rebellion.
31:07
He didn't have an army. He just had the word.
31:09
And he was willing to suffer for it.
31:11
That is the key. That is the Christian's weapon.
31:13
We don't fight with carnal weapons.
31:15
We fight by speaking the truth and being willing to absorb the
31:18
cost. That is what wins in the end.
31:21
The cross wins by suffering, not by killing.
31:23
The resurrection follows the suffering.
31:25
That is a hard word for a culture that likes to fight back
31:28
and own the opposition. We are not called to own the
31:32
Libs or own the Conservatives. We are called to own the truth
31:36
and speak it with love and courage, even if it leads to a
31:40
prison cell or worse. This has been a heavy but
31:42
incredibly substantial discussion.
31:45
We've gone from the palace to the prison, from the banquet to
31:48
the burial. And hopefully we have gone from
31:50
the fear of man to the fear of God.
31:51
Let's just recap the central idea here one more time for
31:54
everyone. The central idea is this.
31:56
The unyielding proclamation of God's law ignites the world
32:00
hatred, but Christ is the invincible King.
32:04
You cannot have the comfort of the gospel without the
32:06
confrontation of the law. John preached the law and he
32:09
died for it. But because he pointed to
32:12
Christ, his death was not in vain.
32:14
And for us, it means we have to constantly check our own hearts.
32:17
We. Do we need to ask ourselves if
32:19
we are being ruled by the dinner guests in our lives?
32:23
Who are we trying to impress? Who are we afraid to offend?
32:25
Whose applause are we seeking? And are we suppressing A haunted
32:28
courtroom conscience? Is there a sin we're managing
32:31
instead of killing? If you are, stop running.
32:34
Do what Herod refused to do. Repent.
32:37
Run to the true king who feeds the hungry and forgives the
32:39
Sinner, not the counterfeit king who feasts on death.
32:43
So here is our final provocative thought for you to chew on as
32:47
you go about your week. It is a question based on
32:50
everything we have discussed. We saw Herod make a rash oath to
32:53
please his guests. My question to you is this, What
32:57
oaths or social contracts have you silently signed that are
33:01
keeping you from doing what is right?
33:03
Are there agreements you have made with your culture, your
33:05
workplace, or your friend group that require you to mute your
33:08
allegiance to Christ? Are you ruled by the dinner
33:11
guests or by the King? That is the question.
33:13
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Matthew 14.
33:16
It is a tough text, but a necessary for our times.
33:19
Indeed. Soli Dio Gloria.
33:21
We will see you next time on reformed thinking.