3 August 2024 Matthew 14:1-12
“’Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.’” Matthew 14:8
What kind of party is it when a dead man’s head is brought to the hostess on a platter?
What kind of party is it when a stepdaughter asks for a man to be killed because she has danced a pleasing dance?
What kind of party is it when a host thinks he must assent to all this because his guests rather expect him to? What sort of ghoulish guests would expect him to?
This wasn’t the criminal underworld. This wasn’t some sick cult. This was the son of Herod the Great, the ruler of Galilee and Peraea whose title was Tetrarch, but commonly he was called king, at a party celebrating his birthday at which the upper crust friends of the king were all in attendance. Some commentators question the historicity of this story, pointing out that it contains elements of some Middle Eastern folktales, but clearly we are meant to think this kind of depravity was customary among Herod Antipas, his family and pals.
Shake my head, right?
Of course, we live in a culture in which large pluralities consider it right and good to kill their children and their elderly. We live in a culture in which destructive, barbaric, anti-civilizational forces, which would happily carry out another and far more grotesque holocaust and have publicly said so, are loudly and criminally supported in demonstrations by thousands at prestigious institutions of higher learning like Harvard and Columbia. We live in a culture in which powerful members of the U.S. Congress snub the Prime Minister of Israel because they want to show solidarity with the terrorist forces who would like to kill him. We aren’t the criminal underworld or some sick cult. We went to college, we recycle, we go to PTA meetings.
Shake my head, right?
Herod Antipas had John the Baptist killed because he was a threat to Herod’s standing. John the Baptist called him out for something every Jew knew was true – he had seduced his brother’s wife, Herodias, and then married her. She was also his niece. Every Jew knew that this was grossly immoral on at least two levels, but as long as no one would say that out loud, Herod Antipas was secure in his position. As long as there was a conspiracy on the part of all to keep their mouths shut, as long as no one said anything even when dead men’s heads were brought to parties on platters, he would continue being a wealthy and powerful king. All that would be in danger, however, if someone publicly called him out.
And of course, Herod was right about that, because that is exactly what happened. John the Baptist called him out, and that set in motion a series of events that resulted finally in Herod being defeated in battle, stripped of his title, stripped of his wealth and power, and exiled to a city in Gaul where he died, mostly comfortable and entirely forgotten.
John the Baptist said the quiet part out loud, and before long that was the end of Herod Antipas, the King.
All John the Baptist had to do was risk his life.
Depravity prospers in all places where there is a conspiracy to keep the quiet part quiet. When enough people start saying the quiet part out loud, depravity is doomed.
Doomed, that is, if enough people are willing to take the same risk that John the Baptist did.
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