Death of John the Baptist - Matt 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 9:7-9

The account of the death of John the Baptist is sandwiched in between the departing and returning of the 12 Apostles from their missions. The IM says, “In the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist’s death is given more emphasis than his ministry. Mark recounted John’s death between accounts of the sending forth of the Twelve Apostles and their return- another ‘interrupted narrative’ like the account of the healing of Jarius’s daughter. The effect is to underscore the potential cost of being a servant of God. Since John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Messiah, his death at the hands of wicked men foreshadowed the Savior’s own impending suffering and death and illustrated the persecution and violence many of the disciples of Jesus Christ would eventually face.”

We aren’t told so much about John’s imprisonment and death, as much as we are told about Herod’s being haunted by John’s murder and fearing that Jesus was in fact John back from the dead. It’s kind of like the tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the murderer could hear the heart of the man he murdered coming up through the floor boards because of his guilt. We have discussed before that Herod had John imprisoned because John had spoken out against the adultery Herod was committing with his brother’s wife. I also recall talking about how I thought that Herodias was a very ambitious woman who set the whole thing up. I doubt that her name was Herodias when she was married to Phillip, and she knew how to manipulate people to do what she wanted. Just as background, Herod was married when he visited and fell in love with his brother Phillip’s wife, Herodias. Herod divorced his wife and Herodias left Phillip for Herod but never actually divorced him, and the two started living together as a couple. John the Baptist spoke out against this arrangement saying, “Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife,” which infuriated Herodias, who wanted John killed, “but she could not” and settled for having him imprisoned. Herod was hesitant to kill John the Baptist because “Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy man, and one who feared God and observed to worship him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.” Often, Herod would ask for and heed John’s advice, and perhaps this was what angered Herodias even more because she plotted to have him killed.

At Herod’s birthday supper, in front of all his friends, Herodias manipulated her beautiful daughter Salome to dance with Herod. My guess is that it was a provocative dance that was meant to turn Herod into a drooling idiot, and sure enough it worked. Herod promised Salome that she could have anything she wanted “unto the half of my kingdom.” First off, I don’t think that the kingdom was Herod’s to give and if she would have asked for it, the Roman Emperor probably would have had something to say about it. Second, why is it that rulers promise up to half the kingdom? I’m willing to make a sacrifice but only if I still have just as much power as you do when it’s all over? That doesn’t make any sense. Third, why would he promise her anything just for dancing for him? It seems to me that he was, at minimum, trying to entice her to do more for him than just dance. And fourth, why would Herodias, who was so angry at John for questioning her place as his wife, try to con her husband with another woman, and with her own daughter of all people? This is just a really messed up situation with really messed up people, people who really, and ironically, desperately need Jesus.

Herod makes the promise and Herodias, through Salome, asks for John’s head on a platter, and Herod, being the coward that he is, gives it to her. John the Baptist was executed with probably no warning, becoming a martyr for the cause of righteousness. The IM says, “Despite his knowledge that John was a righteous and holy man, Herod chose to order John’s execution, thereby ending the mortal life of one of God’s greatest prophets- a dreadful choice for which Herod will be held accountable by God.” The disciples of John the Baptist came and took his body and buried it “and went and told Jesus.”

Herod did not want to murder John, and he had all the power to decline the request and not lose out on any authority given to him by Rome, “yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.” He was afraid of his reputation, he was afraid of being made to look like a coward, or dishonorable, which ironically, he was both, and demonstrated himself to be both in calling for John’s execution. But we’ll see that the wisdom of God is greater than the cunning of the devil, because just like John was the forerunner for Jesus’s mortal ministry, so he was the forerunner for Jesus’s ministry in the spirit world. John had to die first so that he could prepare the way for Jesus to come and set up his kingdom when he spent 3 days in the spirit world between His execution and death.