Lust. Murder. Infidelity. Power. It's all here in this disturbing passage of Mark's gospel. Listen in as Thomas Terry breaks down the passage and examines what it means for followers of Christ.
Transcript
Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. Well, this morning, our sermon text comes to us from Mark chapter 6, and I’ll be reading verses 14 through 29 from the English Standard Version. 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. But others said, he is Elijah. And others said, he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias,
his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 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. But an opportunity came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’ 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. And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom.
And she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. 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. And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid him in a tomb. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, I want to start this morning first by making a few statements.
Our Commitment to Scripture
We at Trinity Church are a congregation that believes first and foremost that God’s word is true, that it’s divinely inspired. That means that every word we read is God breathed, that every word contained in his scripture is not only the very words of God, but that every part of it is perfectly placed with divine purpose. All of scripture is powerfully intended to point us to Jesus, to confront our sin and to grow us in godliness. So we’re also a congregation that holds to expositional verse by verse preaching. That means we carefully exegete every passage of God’s word in its historical and grammatical context while finding unique ways to apply the text to our context. And so that means we don’t pick apart certain verses to make it fit our political or social agenda. We don’t pick certain passages that are convenient for our context. That means we don’t pick only the fluffy or feel-good parts, no, we preach it all.
So when we preach through a particular book of the Bible, like Mark’s gospel, we preach the whole book because all of scripture is breathed out by God. All of it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. We preach it all. We preach the popular parts. We preach the pleasant parts. And we also preach the provocative parts because all of it is powerful. And this morning we come to one of these very provocative parts of God’s word. This passage this morning really puts the spotlight on the depravity of man. The sinfulness of man is made explicitly clear in our text this morning. In just 10 short verses, you see infidelity, seduction, divorce, sexual exploitation, revenge, and murder in perhaps the most grotesque possible form. But in the sovereign providence of God, this portion has been divinely placed in Mark’s gospel for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
So we will preach this very provocative passage this morning. But brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I will be very careful with my words this morning, especially because I know that we have young listeners. Because we are doing church at home in a very family context, I will be very careful. So I’ll also be a bit more bound to my notes because I want to be cautious with my words. But I’ll also be intentionally using language that might be a bit more above the heads of some of our younger listeners, which means parents, I would ask you this morning to use wisdom and discernment as you explain to your young listeners in a way that is appropriate to their age and maturity. And so those are my initial statements this morning. So before we dive into our passage, I want to first set some context by helping you understand
The Principal Characters
the principal characters in this narrative. So essentially you have four principal characters, four main characters. First you have Herod, Herod Antipas, who right out of the gate comes from a very dysfunctional family. He was one of the sons of Herod the Great. So he was part of this Herod dynasty. And just by way of reminder, Herod the Great, Herod’s father, was the king of Judea at the time of Jesus’s birth. He was the one who tried to trick the wise men into giving up the location of Jesus when he was born so that he could have Jesus executed. Herod the Great heard that Jesus was the newborn king and viewed Jesus as a threat. In Matthew’s gospel, you see how this whole thing played out. In Matthew chapter two, verse 16, it says, Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent
and killed all the male children in Bethlehem in all the region who were two years old and under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. So Herod the Great was so threatened by Jesus, this newborn king, that he had every male in Bethlehem executed who was two years and under. So this is the kind of family culture or context that Herod Antipas comes from. Herod Antipas here is referenced in Mark’s gospel as King Herod, but he was not a king. He desired to be a king like his father, Herod the Great, but he was not a king. In fact, what you have here is a bit of a dig on Herod. And so the Jews in the culture of Mark would have known that this was a humorous dig. It would almost be like saying, this is Herod Antipas, the one who so desperately wants
to be a king but can’t seem to figure it out. In fact, Herod was so thirsty to become the king that he was eventually banished by the emperor. So that’s Herod. But then you have Herod’s wife, Herodias. But before Herodias was Herod’s wife, she was married to Herod’s brother, Philip. So at some point when Herodias was married to Philip, Herod came to see his brother. And this is where he first saw Herodias, his brother’s wife. And he was completely captivated and infatuated by her beauty. So he starts off by having a warm and family-friendly interaction, but then it quickly turns to flirting. And then it moves into fantasy and then finally into something much more passionate, physical, and taboo. It didn’t matter that Herodias was married to his brother. The heart wants what the heart wants. So Herod felt this magnetic pull towards her, and he is overcome with lust and desire.
And he desperately wanted her. And since Herod was the type of man that usually got what he wanted, he did whatever he had to do to take Herodias from his own brother, Philip, so that he could finally have what he’d been fantasizing over. But he didn’t need to just get Herodias to leave his brother, Philip, to be his wife. Herod also needed to leave his current wife so that he could be officially married to Herodias. So this here paints the kind of picture of this man that Herod was. Someone moved by uncontrollable urges and desires. Someone easily seduced by beauty and the lust of the eyes. Someone that cared little for commitment, who totally disregarded family and the consequences of sexual passion. But this also said a lot about Herodias. It showed that she was the type of woman that was opportunistic. She was the type to seize an opportunity if and when it availed itself, if it was a more
appealing scenario for her. I mean, maybe she thought that Herod was a more powerful and successful man than Philip. Maybe she found Herod to be more physically attracted than Philip. Maybe she thought that Herod could secure for her a better future or a more comfortable life. But whatever it was, she was quick to ditch Philip and quick to marry Herod. And Herod was quick to divorce his wife to marry Herodias. So just imagine this relationship dynamic. Always wondering if the other person was going to eventually find someone else more sexually attractive or more physically appealing. Never feeling that sense of lasting commitment and faithfulness. Always wondering, will he do to me what he did to his first wife? There was never really any sense of trust or finality in this dynamic. And see, this is what happens when relationships are built on leaving someone to pursue another
someone on the basis of lust and physical attraction. And it always ends in disaster. So that’s Herodias. But then you have Herodias’ daughter. Her name was Salome. Salome would have been the biological daughter of Herodias and her first husband Philip, which would make her both Herod’s daughter-in-law and niece. So there was definitely some dysfunctional family dynamics going on in this story. In fact, the whole Herod dynasty was marked by a perpetual cycle of dysfunction. And finally, you have John the Baptist, the great prophet of God who came to point the people to Jesus. And so these are the principal characters in the narrative. And what’s interesting in terms of principal characters is that this is the only story in Mark’s gospel where Jesus is not a principal character. But just because Jesus is not a principal character in this passage doesn’t mean that this narrative doesn’t ultimately point us to Jesus.
It does. All of Scripture points us to Jesus, and we will see that as this story unfolds. Another thing that’s interesting about this passage is that Mark breaks up this passage into two sections, the present and the past. So first, Mark draws the reader into the present or the now of the narrative to explain what’s happening in the here and now. And then Mark pushes us into the past to give us some deeper context or to help you better understand or interpret what’s happening in the here and now. And so this morning, I’m going to start first by looking at the past in verses 17-29 because I think that will help us to better understand the present events in verses 14 and 16. And in the past section, in verses 17-19, I’ve broken it down into four scenes. And each scene will center on one of the principal characters.
The Boldness of John
And so in verses 17-20, we’ll look at the boldness of John the Baptist. In verses 21-23, we see the seduction of Salome. In verses 24-25, the hatred of Herodias. And finally, in verses 26-29, we’ll look at the helplessness of Herod. So let’s begin in verses 17-20 with the boldness of John the Baptist. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not. 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.
In our previous encounters in Mark’s gospel with John the Baptist, what we saw was that John boldly and powerfully proclaimed repentance. And the result of preaching or proclaiming that gospel of repentance was that thousands of Jews responded in this baptism of repentance. In fact, John’s whole ministry was to urgently call people to repent of their sins while pointing them to Jesus, the one who came to take away the sins of the world. And just a side note, if you ever wanted to know what it looked like to call someone to repentance, look no further than this verse here. John in his boldness confronts Herod and his sin and calls him to repentance. See John, like everyone else in the region, knew that Herod had taken his brother’s wife. And so John tells Herod, this is sin. You can’t do that. It’s wrong. See, according to Levitical law, it was forbidden for a man to take his brother’s wife.
In Leviticus 18 verses 16, it says,
do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife that would dishonor your brother.
— Leviticus 18
(ESV)
So John boldly confronts Herod’s sin because Herod was obviously in an adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife. Now just think about the boldness of John here for a moment. He is confronting a man who has the authority to put him to death. But that doesn’t stop John the Baptist. John does not shy away from speaking the truth. Instead, what he does is he pushes in regardless of the consequences. And listen, don’t let the pace of this story or the boldness of John mislead you. What lies underneath this whole confrontation is love. It’s John’s love for God and His righteousness. It’s John’s love for the law of God. It’s John’s love for the purity of his people. But it’s also John’s love for Herod that leads him to confront Herod with the truth.
See, this is what it looks like to speak the truth in love. I wonder how often do we shy away from people who are in sin? How often do we shy away from telling them the truth? Because we’re more concerned about how our relational fallout is than we are about their relational fallout with the Lord. If we truly love people, we should call them to repent of the sin that is crushing them and separating them from God. So no matter how it looks, it’s not loving to leave people condemned in their sin. So John lovingly called him to repentance. And look how it played out for John. John gets arrested. John gets placed in jail for speaking the truth boldly to Herod about his sin. But notice, Herod threw John in jail, not because Herod was offended, but because of his wife Herodias. She was not at all entertained by John’s comments.
She was not having it. In fact, she wanted John dead. But Herod instead placed him in prison. And listen, this here is Herod protecting John. When Herod places him in prison, it’s for John’s protection from his own wife. See Herod feared John the Baptist. Herod’s conscience was somewhat soft towards John and his message. I mean, think about it. John was bold enough and fearless enough to confront Herod about his sin. And Herod wasn’t used to that. Herod wasn’t used to that kind of boldness. He was more used to flattery and being surrounded by yes men. But John spoke with a holy authority that provoked a certain level of fear in the heart of Herod. And not only did Herod fear John, Herod was also puzzled by the things that John was talking about. And the word puzzled means to be morally at a crossroads. This means that Herod wasn’t wrestling intellectually with what John was saying.
It was that Herod was wrestling with whether or not he was willing to morally adjust or comply with John’s confrontational words. And the more that Herod talked to John, the more he received what John had to say. Herod’s conscience was soft towards John and his message. But listen, there’s a big difference in receiving what someone has to say about God and responding to what someone says about God. A lot of people are interested in hearing things about Jesus. A lot of people are interested in the claims of Jesus, but when it comes to the demands of Jesus, they are morally at a crossroads, puzzled, unwilling to choose between the sin that they love so much or the sinless savior. But listen, an unwillingness to choose is a choice. To be undecided about Jesus is to decidedly reject him. So Herod’s conscience was soft. He was open.
The Seduction of Salome
But as we’ll see, a soft conscience does not carry enough conviction to turn you from sin in pursuit of Jesus. You must be resolved to do that. You must be thoroughly convinced that Jesus is Lord to be a follower of Jesus. And if you’re convinced that Jesus is Lord of all, then all things in your life must submit under his lordship, including the way you live your life, including your morality and your obedience. And we see just how Herod’s soft conscience plays out in the next scene with the seduction of Salome in verses 21 through 23. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’ 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.
And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half my kingdom. See, Herodias saw Herod’s affinity for John. She knew Herod wouldn’t do the dirty work of killing John. So she’d have to take matters into her own hands. And being the opportunistic person she was, she finally saw an opportunity to kill John the Baptist once and for all at Herod’s birthday banquet. And see, this whole scene shows you the level of Herodias’ hateful schemes. She knew her husband. She knew the kind of man he was. She knew his weaknesses and his vulnerabilities. She knew his tendencies. And instead of being supportive and helping him to see his blind spots and having his back, instead she exploits them. She knew that behind Herod’s mask of power and success was an insecure people pleaser. She knew how Herod was when he drank, how his judgments would be significantly impaired
once he had enough wine in him. And she knew that he was completely controlled by the lust of his eyes and his sexual desires. And she saw a perfect opportunity to get what she wanted from Herod. And what did she do to secure her interests and get what she wanted? She sexually exploited her teenage daughter to arouse the men in the room with exotic dancing. Now just think about this for a second. She sent her daughter like a piece of meat into a den full of lions. She sent her teenage daughter to be objectified by drunken and lustful men. But more specifically, she sent her daughter to seduce her own father. This has got to be the most twisted and disgusting displays of parenting. Herodias sexually exploits her little girl and subjects her to all types of objectification. And for what? To get back at someone who called her out on her sin.
Herodias’ conscience was completely severed. She felt nothing about what she did. No shame, no guilt, no pause, nothing. She was so blinded by her lust for revenge against John that she was willing to take advantage of her husband, willing to take advantage of her daughter to get what she wanted. And what’s so sad about this situation is that it actually worked. This is so disgusting and so dysfunctional, but it worked exactly how Herodias planned it. Salome’s seduction pleased her father so much. He was so aroused that in a moment of sexually driven impulsivity, he said to her, tell me what you want. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you, even half my kingdom. And what a fool Herod was to be so driven by his sexual desires that he makes a statement like this in front of all of his guests. He was drunk off wine and lust and foolishly and absentmindedly speaks out loud, I promise
you, I’ll give you whatever you want. And this here is the story of so many men in our world. And it’s not just men, it’s women too. Men and women who in a moment of lust and burning passion make the most foolish and life altering decisions. Men and women who in a moment of sexual pleasure break their marriage covenants, destroying their marriage, fracturing their families, and ruining a lifetime of ministry. And listen, it’s not just with lust and adultery. This is true in all areas of sin. We rarely think beyond the moment. Many of us don’t think about what this one moment will do, how this one moment will ruin everything and everyone around us. See, the truth is, this is what sin does. This is what is so deceptive about sin. It only gives you a moment by moment perspective. It never gives you the full weight or the full scope of your sins.
It blinds you to the realities of your sins and the devastating consequences of sins. And listen, it’s never worth it. Sin parades itself in the moment as something so amazing and so satisfying, but it never produces what it promises. And so Herod in this moment of lustful intoxication makes this foolish declaration, this foolish declaration that boxes him to this unretractable consequence. And see, this is precisely why Herodias used the birthday banquet to begin her execution plan because she knew, she knew her husband would say something stupid. And if her husband said something stupid and promised in front of all these attended guests something like this, there would be no way for him to renege on his promise because Herod was such a people pleaser. She knew he would never want his people to see him back down on a promise because this would be a sign of weakness in the presence of his social, military, and political guests.
This was calculated by Herodias. So in the heat of this sinful moment, Herod offers his daughter anything she wants. And it’s here in verses 24 and 25 where we see the hatred of Herodias. And she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. 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. So after Salome’s dance of seduction, after Herod says, I’ll give you whatever you want, Salome goes straight to her mom and says, what should I ask for? And Herodias immediately says, the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And see, this scene reveals two things. First, it reveals that Salome wasn’t privy to her mother’s hateful schemes. She had no idea what her mother was planning at this banquet.
She was simply a provocative pawn in Herodias’ sick and twisted scheme. And it further pushes the reality of the kind of mother Herodias was, willing to use her daughter’s body to get what she wanted. See, her mother was no different than the drunken men at the banquet who simply saw Salome as an object for their perverse pleasure. You know, when I hear this story, my heart breaks for this teenage girl. This is the environment that she was born into. I can’t help but wonder how many times has her mother exploited Salome’s beauty and her sexuality to advance her agenda. This poor teenage girl, used by her mom and used by men. Her mother should have taught her about the value of her sexuality. Her mother should have taught her about true beauty and the dignity that comes with being a woman. But instead, she teaches her daughter, this is how you get ahead in life.
You use what you got to get ahead. Now, I can’t be sure, but I can’t help but see this request from Herodias for the head of John the Baptist as her mother giving Salome a teaching point about how you get ahead in life. It’s so backwards. It’s so dysfunctional. But secondly, this verse reveals the depths of Herodias’ hatred for John the Baptist. She hated John so much that she orchestrates this whole disgusting dance of death. She manipulates her husband. She sexually exploits her daughter, and she coerces the crowd of attenders. And of course, her hatred for John really just exposes her deep love for self. She’s only concerned about herself and her own needs. In fact, this whole scenario, all the manipulation, all the exploitation is Herodias doing everything she can to get rid of the source of her public shame. This wickedness is her attempt to protect her reputation.
The Hatred of Herodias
And of course, this only further damages her reputation. And it ultimately reveals publicly the type of person she actually is, that she’s willing to kill people to preserve her reputation. And see, this is what happens with a lot of people when they’re confronted with sin. Instead of dealing with their sin and owning it and repenting of it, they attempt to cover up their sin and oftentimes end up sinning in greater and unimaginable ways to try to conceal their sin. And when everything eventually does come to light, because God is in the business of exposing sin, you end up getting a greater perspective of the type of person they were. We’ve all seen this before. When you call people out on their sin, you would have never imagined that when you confronted that person with sin, that they would have responded the way they did. They always seem to be so pious and so humble, so holy even, but the moment you confront
them about their sin, they look totally different. You don’t even recognize the person that they were. See, the way people respond when someone is confronting them about their sin reveals a lot about the type of person they are. The way a professing Christian responds when confronted about sin reveals whether their profession is a legitimate one. So John confronting the sin of Herod and Herodias caused Herodias to become a bloodthirsty murderer. She had so much hate in her heart for John that not only did she want him dead, she wanted his head on a platter. This is not normal behavior. This is not right for any reason, for any scenario, and this is not at all what Herod wanted. Remember, Herod’s conscience was soft towards John. He would listen to John with gladness. This was the last thing Herod would have wanted. But there was nothing he could do because of his sin.
See, this is also how sin works. It entices you, then it betrays you, and then finally it leaves you helpless. It traps you. And this is where we see the helplessness of Herod in verses 29 through 29. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid him in a tomb. Herod had a soft conscience, but a soft conscience is never enough. What happened here was another crossroads of morality. Herod was again perplexed. Would he renege on his promise to Salome because he knew that John was a righteous and holy man, or would he acquiesce to Herodias to keep up the perception of power in front
of his people? Remember, Herod was a people pleaser, so his conscience was easily severed when he weighed his options. He couldn’t appear weak in the presence of his social, military, and political guests. So no, he needed to show and prove that he was in control of the whole situation. And you see the irony of this situation is that in his attempt to appear powerful in front of the people, he was completely powerless to do what he wanted to do, which was to spare the life of John the Baptist, the one who he feared. Remember, Herod wanted desperately to be a king, but what kind of king would he be? The kind of king that folds under the social and political pressure of peers? The kind that fails to speak up when he sees injustice? Herod was far from a good king. Herod was a weak man, easily manipulated by his wife, seduced by his daughter, and held
captive by the perception of his people. He would make a horrible king. And so he helplessly gives to Herodias and Salome what they asked for. He sends an executioner to behead John and they bring his head on a bloody platter and they give it to his wife and daughter. And what a horrible picture of a husband and father, willing to do such a grotesque thing to help keep up his reputation. See Herod and Herodias were in many ways the same, willing to do the unthinkable to preserve their reputations. So Herod moved from having a soft conscience concerning John the Baptist to having a guilty conscience about John the Baptist. And we see that plainly by looking now at the present section of the narrative. And so everything that just happened with this dance of seduction and the beheading of John the Baptist sets the context for what we now see in the present part of the narrative.
The Helplessness of Herod
So look back with me to verse 14. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’s name had become known. Some said John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said he is Elijah. Others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. So in this present section of the narrative, which is after John has been killed by Herod, Herod began to hear about all the things concerning Jesus. Herod began to hear about Jesus and his ministry. Jesus was growing in popularity in his region, and everybody began to hear about him and his miraculous works. But Herod was especially drawn to Jesus’s powerful and bold preaching. There was something about Jesus that was familiar to Herod.
The people that surrounded Herod began to speculate whether Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life. Some suggested Elijah or one of the prophets, but Herod, with his guilty conscience, said, it’s John. I know it’s John. The one that I beheaded, it’s John. I’ve seen and heard that boldness before. It’s a holy boldness. See, Herod was operating under superstition and thought that John had been raised from the dead to come and deal with Herod. So his conscience haunted him. Remember, he used to fear John, but now he really feared John. He was afraid of what John would do to him because he was the one that put him to death. But it wasn’t John the Baptist. It wasn’t Elijah, and it wasn’t one of the prophets of old. It was Jesus, the son of God, the one whom John the Baptist pointed to saying, there he is, the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.
In Luke’s gospel, just before Jesus’s crucifixion, when Jesus is brought before Pilate, Pilate wanted nothing to do with condemning Jesus. Pilate realizes that Jesus was from Galilee, which means that politically puts him into Herod’s jurisdiction. So Pilate sends Jesus to Herod. And in chapter 23, verse 8 and 9, we see,
when Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer.
— Luke 23
(ESV)
So here you get a perspective of Herod’s conscience in the future. Herod for a long time had thought that Jesus was John the Baptist back from the dead. For so long, Herod dreaded Jesus because he feared that he was John returning to bring judgment for what he had done to him, to judge him because he was silent when his wife and
daughter asked for his head. For so long, his conscience was guilty and haunted by that reality. But eventually, Herod realized that Jesus was not John the Baptist, and this made Herod glad to see Jesus because if Jesus was not John, then the threat was gone. And of course, what you see here is a completely severed conscience. He had long forgotten about everything John the Baptist said concerning repentance. He had long forgotten everything John said concerning Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He had long forgotten about the head of John the Baptist. Herod’s conscience was dead. So rather than seeing Jesus as the one John pointed to, rather than seeing this as a second chance to clear his conscience by repenting of his sins and appealing for mercy, Herod reduces Jesus down to a circus performer, wanting only to see some magic tricks from
Jesus. And look what the text says. It says he, that is Jesus, made no answer. Jesus was silent. And this is Jesus’s judgment of Herod. In the same way Herod remained silent concerning the injustice of John the Baptist, Jesus remained silent in the presence of Herod, exercising perfect justice and holy judgment, both for his sins against God, but also for the sins of a severed conscience and the murder of John the Baptist. See all Herod had to do was repent and turn to Jesus. This is exactly what John the Baptist called him to do. Turn from your sins and trust in the Messiah. This was the message Herod loved to hear from John when his conscience was soft. He was almost there. All he had to do was respond to his conscience. If he would only have responded to his conscience by repenting from his sins and embracing
A Soft Conscience
Jesus, he would have been spared from eternal judgment. But instead of responding to his conscience, he pursued his pleasures. He pursued his lustful passions, and he rejected Jesus, the Lamb of God, who is the only one who can take away the sins of the world. See, it didn’t matter how deep or disgusting Herod’s sins were. There is no sin of Herod that was beyond forgiveness. If he would have simply appealed to Jesus, trusted in Jesus, he would have been cleansed from all of his sins, all of them, adultery, murder, sexual perversion, people pleasing, all of them. Though Herod was a dirty man with many sins, Jesus would have saved him and made him clean if he would have only turned from his sins and embraced Jesus. But Herod’s conscience was dead. He loved his sin too much that he rejected Jesus. I wonder if you have a soft conscience this morning.
Are you sensitive to the Holy Spirit leading you to repentance? Has he placed people in your life to show you your sin, to call you to repentance, to cause for you to confess your sin that is leading you to death? If he has, if he is, then you need to respond to your conscience. The pleading and the pressing of your conscience is the kindness of God. It is his mercy to you. Respond to his kindness and embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior right now and he will save you of your sins. You are not too far gone from your sins being forgiven by Jesus. Even if your sins far exceed the sins of Herod, Jesus can and will forgive you if you trust in him and embrace him by faith. Listen, our sin deserves death. Our sin deserves death. But Jesus, the true and perfect King, laid down his innocent life to die for our sins.
He died for our sins. Jesus is the only way to find freedom and forgiveness of your sins. Trust and believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins and he will cleanse you of your sins. He will cleanse your conscience and give you everlasting life. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for this text, this sobering reality check of the wickedness of man, of a conscience that was soft but then became severed and ultimately dead. We pray, O Lord and God, that you would use this passage to sober us and awaken us to the sensitivity, to the sensitivity of the conscience. The conscience that the Holy Spirit bears down on and presses upon. I pray, O Lord and God, that you would help us to repent of our sin, to confront those sins boldly, to ask you for repentance of those sins that are crushing us. I pray, O Lord and God, that we would also see this passage as a prompting to press in
on people who are dying in their sin, that you would use us to boldly and in love call people to repentance, that they might repent of their sins and be saved. We pray, O Lord and God, that you would put a burden in our heart to be radically zealous with the gospel because the gospel is the only thing that saves people from their sins. And I pray for those, Lord, who might be watching or listening to this message whose conscience is soft towards you. Maybe they’re entertaining what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. I pray, O Lord and God, that they would trust in you right now, that they would believe upon you, that they would place their faith and trust in you and come to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus, that they would come to obey you with their life.
O God, move in a mighty and powerful way. Save, we pray, O Lord. We pray all of these things. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.