Villains: King Herod Antipas

Villains: Herod Antipas
Luke 23:7-8

INTRODUCTION:
Do you know anyone who always has to have the last word? Especially in a disagreement? Someone who has to be the last person to leave the room as if he or she has to be the one respected as being in charge.

It seems that so many of the people who come into Christ’s life have to be there at the very end. Maybe not every single person, but it seems that everyone who had any connection with Jesus are there at the very end: Sadducees and Pharisees, the governor, priests, high priests, disciples that were loyal and disciples that were not loyal, men who loved Jesus secretly and women who served Jesus openly.

And there’s King Herod. He lived in Galilee, in northern Palestine. This is Herod Antipas who was the son of Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus at His birth. Antipas hated the Jews. He was in an antagonistic relationship with Pilate, the governor. But he was in Jerusalem at the time Jesus was crucified, of course to try to help keep things calm between the Jews and Romans during the famous Feast of Passover.

Herod had never seen Jesus so far as we know. But, he had desired to see Jesus for some time; the verb “desired” is in the imperfect tense: “kept desiring.” But now Pilate, the astute lawyer that he was, saw an opportunity to throw Jesus’ case off on someone else. He realized Jesus was from the district of King Herod and Pilate wanted to wash his hands of this man.

Now King Herod is standing face to face with Jesus of Nazareth, the famous miracle worker. But we get insight into the soul of King Herod as he looks into the eyes of the Son of God.

A LOOK AT KING HEROD:
From a human perspective, King Herod was a man of noble birth even if he did have a dubious ancestry. We know something of Herod’s personality from the Jewish historian, Josephus. King Herod was a good speaker; when he gave a speech to the people of Tyre and Sidon in Acts 12, he wowed them with his oratory and they cried out: “The voice of a god and not of a man!” (12:22).

He loved life, as men tend to do who have people at their disposal to do for them what they want. But he did not have any strength of will or a strong mind. His strength was in his passions and he could express his anger in ways that tended to end in death for those who received his anger.

He also had a passion for women, as people tend to do who have people at their disposal to do for them as they want. He had a fine taste in music and he had an eye for color. He was a man who loved “royal apparel” (Acts 12:21).

He had a code of honor which he wrote and he generally did not break his word. We see that in the example of Salome, his wife’s daughter from her prior marriage, who danced and pleased King Herod so that he made his oath to give the girl whatever she wanted. Having been prompted by her mom, Herodias, she told her stepfather she wanted the head of John the baptist on a silver plate. Because of his oath, the text says, King Herod gave her what she asked for (Mark 6:14-28). He was a man of his word.

The country music artist Collin Raye has a song titled “Man of My Word” where he talks about making a promise to his wife that he would not remarry after her death. Most of the song talks about how he had made that promise. But then toward the end, he has a verse that says:

I'm a man of my word and it's cost me so dear
'Cause those words are a prison without you here
And I'll go to my grave with this torch held high
Bust just once I wish I had told you a lie.

King Herod should have repented of his rash vows and not put the preacher to death because he did not like his message. But that was not King Herod’s character.

I understand that King Herod belonged to the Sadducees, which were more politically astute than the Pharisees. They tended to side with the Romans and their politics. From that same context of Mark 6, we also see that King Herod was spiritually minded in the sense that he was superstitious. He thought Jesus was John the baptist risen from the dead. Spiritually minded, yes. But also superstitious.

So take a look at Herod. You will see a man who is just like people we know. Family members. Friends. Co-workers. Who are, in one word, worldly. King Herod was worldly.

Think about the man who brought Herod Antipas into the world… Herod the Great, the one who killed babies because he was afraid he would lose his throne! King Herod the Great was very paranoid. The Roman historian Macrobius recounts Caesar Augustus as saying about Herod the Great, making a play on words: “It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” This was because Herod was more than willing to kill his sons, Antipater, Alexander I, and Aristobulus, including his wife Mariamne because he was paranoid they were trying to take his throne. Well, as we say, the apple does not fall far from the tree.

GOD’S GRACE REACHES OUT TO KING HEROD:
Let us go back to this incident between King Herod and John the baptist. King Herod was afraid of John, Mark tells us in Mark 6:20. King Herod respected John. He knew John was a righteous man. He knew John was a holy man. You could not make a legitimate accusation against John for his lifestyle. King Herod respected John to such an extent that he kept him safe, the text says. Perhaps Mark means Herod kept John safe from his wife who hated John.

King Herod had been married to the daughter of King Aretas of Arabia, whom Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 11:32. But on a trip, King Herod stayed with his brother, Herod Philip, and he saw Herodias, his niece. The two fell in love, divorced their respective spouses and married each other. But John the baptist said, “You can’t do that. It’s an unscriptural marriage.”

But, look at Mark 6:20: When King Herod heard John, he was very perplexed, but he used to enjoy listening to him. Again, Mark uses an imperfect tense verb to show that Herod continued to enjoy listening to John preach the gospel to him.

That’s grace. God’s grace reached out to King Herod in the person of John the baptist. King Herod could have been saved. All he needed to do was repent of his sins and believe the gospel which John was preaching, which included being baptized for the forgiveness of his sins in anticipation of the coming Messiah.

The apostle Paul wrote in Titus 2:11 that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. He had also written in 1 Timothy 2, that God wanted all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So, God allowed John to preach to King Herod. And King Herod listened to him gladly. Just like the hearts of those in the parable of the soils in Luke 8. All four soils represent hearts that heard the word. But it was only the last soil that represented the good and honest heart. And the condition of our hearts when the word is sown makes all the difference.

King Herod’s heart is the heart of a worldly person to love the world and the things in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And those descriptions fit King Herod to a “T.”

So the grace of God sent John to talk to King Herod, the worldly minded. But John was too wise to salve Herod’s conscience with words to tickle his ears. John was too kind to whitewash the sin. He was too loving to say anything to King Herod except what God wanted him to hear: “Your marriage is unscriptural.”

John got thrown into jail. But you cannot imprison words. And our conscience can reverberate with words long after the person who spoken them has left the scene. The prison where Herod kept John was Machaerus. We see in this text that Herod had something of a conscience. Imagine King Herod not able to sleep, so he walks along the fortress wall in the still of the night, the words of this preacher echoing in his ears and trying to penetrate his heart. It is a paradox of Truth that one who has spoken the truth can sleep peacefully in prison while the man whose life has violated Truth cannot rest.

Did Herod look at the face of Herodias that night, the face of one who, like Queen Jezebel, was prideful and full of hatred and envy and wickedness? Did he curse the day he met her? Curse the day he married her?

The next morning, of course, King Herod was back to normal. We humans have an astounding way of justifying and rationalizing our behavior. The next morning, the fear is gone. The conscience has become hardened once again. Queen Herodias, you might say, is a witch. She laughs at righteousness. She is being influenced by Satan to be conniving. She does not ask King Herod for the head of John the baptist. She schemes with her daughter to do that.

While Salome is dancing, John is not in Herod’s mind. His sin is not in his mind. His conscience is not in his mind. His resolve to defend John is not in his mind anymore. Now, because of the heightened emotions of this birthday celebration, all he can think about his bragging. His kingdom is so large, he can swear to give half of it to his step-daughter.

KING HEROD AND JESUS:
So the years go on… Perhaps King Herod thought about what he did to the righteous and holy man of God. Perhaps he did not. God did not take his life at that point even if Herod deserved it. In 2 Kings 2, God sent bears to kill some young men because they mocked the man of God. But God is gracious to King Herod. Not only does God give King Herod opportunity and time to repent of his sins, but He also brings another preacher into King Herod’s sphere. This time it will be His only begotten Son…

Matthew and Mark and John do not relate the incident between Jesus and King Herod at the trial of the Messiah. Only Luke does; in Luke 23:7-8, 11-12, 15.

Again, 23:8 tells us that Herod had wanted to see Jesus for quite some time. He had heard of the dozens of miracles Jesus had performed and he wanted his own private vaudeville show. Here was Jesus, standing in front of him! And with all the time in the world, Herod threw questions at Jesus - and the Savior answered him not a word (23:9). Jesus answered him nothing! Think about that…

Jesus tried to reason with the high priest Caiaphas.
Jesus pleaded with governor Pilate.
Jesus grieved over Judas.

But before King Herod… Jesus says nothing and does nothing. Why was Jesus not more gracious? Why was Jesus not more compassionate? We cannot answer the question entirely, but Jesus did say on one occasion: “Do not cast your pearls before swine.” King Solomon had said, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly.” King Herod had questioned Jesus at some length, Luke tells us, but the one question he should have asked apparently never left his lips: “What must I do to be saved?”

In the words of Hosea the prophet: “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone” (4:17).

Here is the point I draw from King Herod: the moment of decision to respond to Christ may be one in which no word of Him, no thought of Him, and not even His name will be consciously in someone’s mind!

King Herod had never before seen the face of the Son of God. King Herod Antipas had never before heard the voice of the Good Shepherd. In that hour back at Machaerus when he fought against his conscience, in the hour when he decided to keep his wicked oath to Salome, in that hour when he made a serious decision to offend the holy nature of God and spurn the gospel of grace, King Herod made his decision about Jesus. He made that decision drawn out of pride, lust, murder.

So when he does come face to face with the Lamb of God, his own face has the fires of hell already reflecting off it. That decision that would affect his eternal destination had been made years before he looked into the eyes of Jesus. But by then, it was too late. He was not interested in that one question he ought to have asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

CONCLUSION:
Is Christ in all your thoughts?
Does the word of Christ leap into your mind when you are tempted?
When you and I make a decision for truth or against truth, for purity or against purity, for righteousness or against righteousness, we are making our decision for or against Christ.

King Herod is not the only one in human history to whom the God of heaven was stone-cold silent. We don’t have the time to go further, but God did the same thing to King Saul. Stone-cold silence.

There is no one who is in sin who cannot be saved.

But it is also true that a person can allow himself or herself to become so worldly-minded - their eyes are fat, their heart is full, his pride is stroked - that no word of Christ, no call to goodness, no call to prayer, no call to trust, no call to come to God, can ever, because of the baseness of his heart, reach his soul.

Take home message: Do not love the world; love Christ and His truth and respond every time your heart is touched.