John the Baptist’s 2005th
Birthday
Pastor Joe Fuiten, June 26, 2005
Scripture
1 At
that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 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." 3 Now Herod had
arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his
brother Philip's wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: "It is not
lawful for you to have her." 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was
afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet. 6 On Herod's
birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much 7
that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her
mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the
Baptist." 9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his
dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10 and had John beheaded
in the prison. 11 His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,
who carried it to her mother. 12 John's disciples came and took his body and
buried it. Then they went and told Jesus. 13 When Jesus heard what had
happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this,
the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a
large crowd, he had compassion on
them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and
said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the
crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to
eat." 17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,"
they answered. 18 "Bring them here to me," he said. 19 And he
directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the
two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he
gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They
all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of
broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about
five thousand men, besides women and children. 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat
and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23
After he had dismissed them, he went
up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the
waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night
Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
Herod Antipas,
was tetrarch of
John the Baptist preached in a time when marriage was being made into a mockery by the supreme rulers, the Supreme Court of their day. John condemned their misuse of marriage and was imprisoned and beheaded as a result.
When Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, it was this Herod Antipas he was talking about.[1] He was also the one Jesus called that “fox.”[2] Along with Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas was the one who helped sentence Jesus to death on the cross.
Like
his father, Herod Antipas was a great builder.
Among his great accomplishments was the building of the city of
The relationship between Jesus and
John the Baptist is a curious one to me.
Their mothers were relatives, yet they seemed to have little contact in
their early lives.[3] Jesus described John as having no human
superior. John called Jesus “the lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Even though they were related and had the highest personal regard for
each other, they do not seem to have much of a personal relationship. At one
point in John’s prison cell, John wonders if Jesus really is the Messiah. Jesus sends a reassuring word through his
disciples.
As I read this story, I try to
understand how Jesus handled the news about John’s beheading. 13 When
Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary
place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When
Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he
had compassion on them and healed their sick.
He tries unsuccessfully to get away. The people see his boat leave. They hustle around the lake and arrive before he does. Jesus heals their sick, then feeds them with the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He sends his disciples on ahead and he retreats up the hillside by himself to pray.
It seems clear to me that the
prayers are related to John the Baptist’s death. From the hillside he can see the flickering
lights of Tiberius, the place where John died, or at least the place of the
How
Jesus handled that situation is a model for all those who want to follow Jesus.
Events
are significant both for the event itself and for the meaning that we assign to
it. For example, a winner may have
something bad happen to them but they assign it the meaning of something
unusual that has happened. A loser might
see the same event as symptomatic of their life. It was the same event but with very different
meanings.
The
death of John was traumatic in its own right but also as a harbinger of the
death of Jesus. The same man that killed
John would have a hand in killing Jesus.
The same jealousy would kill them both.
By reading Matthew 17:9-13 it is apparent that Jesus saw the death of
John as a prelude to his own death. The
inner circle was coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration. “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus
instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of
Man has been raised from the dead." 10 The disciples asked him, "Why
then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" 11 Jesus
replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I
tell you, Elijah has already come,
and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In
the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." 13
Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the
Baptist.
John had stood for
what was right and thereby offended the political powers that be. That was his only offense. The revolutionary message of Jesus would
speak to those same leaders and offend them as well.[4]
This
passage reveals that Jesus saw the death of John as the precursor to his own
death. They did to John what they wished
without restraint of law or ethics.
Because of his righteous life, they wanted him dead, so they killed
him. No justice, no ceremony, or no
mercy. They just killed him. His feeling was they did it to John and soon
they will do it to me.
Given
that kind of personal interpretation which was correct, the response of Jesus
is all the more impressive. First, when
he arrives on the shore, he is not angry.
Instead he has compassion for the people and heals their sick. Second, when they are hungry, he feeds
them. He doesn’t ask them to care for
him, he cares for them. He is ever the
good shepherd. Third, he gets alone with
the Father to find strength for his own soul.
Did you ever
consider that you could respond like that to the suffering of your life? Your suffering could make you sensitive to
the needs of others. With God’s grace, you will be more aware of the needs of
people. You have more of an appreciation
for hurting people when you are one of them.
It may be that the greatest mission and success of your life will be
built out of the rubble of some failure or painful situation.
[1] Mark 8:15.
[2] Luke 13: 31.
[3] Luke
1:36 Even
[4] Fearful of his great power with the people, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Perea and Galilee, had him arrested and imprisoned at Machaerus Fortress on the Dead Sea when John denounced his adultrous and incestuous marriage with Herodias, wife of his half brother Philip.