Yes,
you have the notorious figure of Judas Iscariot, whose name is synonymous with
the word betrayal, and you have Pontius Pilate, whose dirty deeds landed his
name in the Creeds of the Christian faith, but for my money in the New
Testament there is no greater rogue, villain, or pathetic buffoon than Herod
Antipas who ordered the execution of John the Baptist.
One
of multiple sons of Herod the Great, Antipas was not held in high regard even
by his father. Daddy ruled over
much of what we call the Holy Land, but when his two oldest sons were executed
and the third in line tried to poison him, Herod the Great had to choose a
successor from what was left of the litter, which apparently was not much. Dividing up his kingdom, he gave
Archelaus rule over the choice land of Judea and Jerusalem while Antipas and
Philip received control and lesser titles over more backwater regions to the north.
With
what political shrewdness he possessed, Antipas arranged to marry the daughter
of a king who ruled a region on the eastern border of his territory, thus
giving him some measure of assurance he would not be exposed to a direct attack
from that direction. That was one
of his two crowning achievements.
The other related to lavish building projects; first a royal city called
Sepphoris and then a seaside capital called Tiberius, which Antipas named after
the emperor. Both projects were
funded through extreme taxation and built by local laborers paid peasant
wages. It is likely that Jesus,
being a carpenter by trade, did work at one or both sites.
But
Antipas found ways to mess up even these few high points on his résumé. He littered his building projects with
statues and imagery that inflamed the religious passions of the local Jewish
population. That combined with
exorbitant tax rates created a highly volatile situation. But this offense was to a people with
limited ability to strike back.
What
Antipas did to his brother and his father-in-law did not carry such
impunity. Antipas fell in love
with his brother’s wife, Herodias.
He divorced his first wife in order to marry her, even though in
addition to being his sister-in-law Herodias was also his niece. When political stupidity, moral
weakness, and personal passion meet in action nothing good can follow. Antipas’ ex father-in-law sent an army
after him and you will not be surprised to learn that Philip, the ex-husband,
joins in the effort against his brother.
Antipas’ forces were soundly routed to the degree that the Emperor had
to send troops to maintain order and peace.
All
of this want and waste did not sit well with Jews being occupied by the Roman
governing apparatus. Antipas’
antics were morally indefensible, spiritually infuriating, and detrimental to
every person’s health and well being in the region. While the general populace viewed Antipas’ military defeat
as a sign of God’s judgment on the marriage, it took the fire-brand figure of
John the Baptist to say it openly and often. His approach of
tell-it-like-it-is-as-the-prophets-of-old-did won him great popularity with the
masses and incurred the deep ire of Antipas’ new wife.
You
heard the reading this morning.
She encouraged her husband to have John arrested, which he did. But for reasons unknown, he came to
like talking with John. Did they
converse about politics, morals, the ancient Hebrew texts which so greatly
informed the ministries of both John and Jesus? Or was John more like a modern day therapist who skillfully
guided Antipas through all of his hang-ups and helped him move toward
maturity? Well, this is
doubtful. The narrative does not
give us a single clue as to the gist of their conversations, but this we do know…
Herodias hated that they talked and she hated John.
You
know about the party. You know
about how a drunken Antipas and his cronies were charmed by the erotic dancing
of Herodias’ daughter. You know
about his vow and her consult with her mother. You know about Herodias’ gruesome request. And you know about one of the more
senseless, meaningless executions in the annuls of human history. What kind of man runs his personal and
professional affairs in such a manner?
Only a truly clueless, pitiful figure who was born into a position far
exceeding his capabilities.
The shockingly brutal, senseless death of
John had an extraordinary affect on Jesus. Luke’s gospel tells us that he immediately withdrew to
Bethsedia, a city on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee just over the
border from Antipas’ territory.
From our vantage point in history we might view Jesus as invincible, but
at this moment he was anything but that.
Trying to keep a low profile proved to be impossible because people by
the thousands kept flocking to his location. A group of Pharisees, perhaps from the local area, came to
Jesus and told him that Antipas planned to kill him. Jesus famously replier, “Go and tell that fox that that I am
casting out demons and healing people and on the third day I will accomplish my
purpose.”
But it was not yet the ‘third day’, so
Jesus, knowing his life was in danger this close to Antipas’ reach, journeyed
due north thirty miles to the head waters of the Jordon River, a rugged
mountainous region dotted with small villages known as Caesarea Philippi. He would emerge from this place of seclusion
with his ‘face set toward Jerusalem.’
There, once arrested, he would stand before Anitpas in silence, not
speaking a single word as he stared into the contemptible eyes of the wretched
man who ordered the execution of John, his friend, comrade, and cousin. Surely it was a gaze that could have
blistered varnish off a table; the kind of look none of us wants to experience
at the final judgment. Antipas,
for his part, has his prisoner dressed in purple robes and adorned with a
plated crown of thorns. He allows
his soldiers to prance around Jesus sarcastically hailing him as king while
they spit on him and beat him.
What can you say about such a person? How do you evaluate such a human
being? As I said at the outset, he
is the most pathetic person in the entire New Testament.
My own philosophy of preaching is that
every sermon should answer a question I call “so what?” So what does all this mean? So what should I think or do or change
because I have listened to a reading from Holy Scripture and heard a sermon on
it? In my estimation, it is not
enough to learn something from a sermon, good preaching always encourages us or
challenges us or heals us or enlightens us or redeems us. I have to tell you I have spent a
considerable amount of time pondering and praying over this reading to discern
a single worthy ‘so what’ in it and I have to confess that the answer has eluded
me. Perhaps this is a reflection
on the complete senselessness of Antipas’ act and the nature of this heartrending
story.
Here are a few of the so whats I
considered. Each is valid, but
none revolutionary. If you have
another, please feel free to share it with me after the service.
#1.
We are blessed to live in a democracy where figures like Antipas do not
automatically inherit power to abuse.
It is our responsibility – civic and religious – to be informed about
candidates running for any and every level of office, to support actively those
whom we deem worthy, and to cast informed votes. I am often guilty of doing none of these.
#2.
Moral outrage can be and often is a godly thing. Recognize that it may – perhaps always
will – come at a cost to those who proclaim it.
#3
Bad decisions and bad choices have a way of multiplying and building on
themselves. When Antipas (to use a
current phrase) hooked up with his sister-in-law he did not intend to order
John’s beheading, but, as we say, one thing led to another. Each of us faces no greater moral and
spiritual challenge than how and when to pull the plug on a process that begins
with a single failing before it ends in a total collapse. As a confessor/priest, I offer to you
God’s grace in the form of the seal of the confessional. If you sense, or if you know, you are
heading down the wrong track and need some one to help you turn it around, as a
priest in God’s church I stand ready to meet with you, to speak the truth you
most likely already know, to pray with you, and to encourage you as seek to
live a life worthy of God and all that is good.
Well, that is it. That is all I have to say about a story
so sad that I suggest we spend an extra moment or two in silent reflection
before we say the Creed.
