The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

The Powerful Resist God’s Word, Again:  Mt.14:1 – 12

^14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, ² and said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ ³ For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. ⁴ For John had been saying to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ ⁵ Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded John as a prophet. ⁶ But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, ⁷ so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. ⁸ Having been prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.’ ⁹ Although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests. ¹⁰ He sent and had John beheaded in the prison. ¹¹ And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. ¹² his disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus.

A pedophile king once killed many young men in his court who turned to Jesus and then refused to have sex with him.  Mwanga, the king of Buganda (the largest of the traditional kingdoms now part of Uganda) was a relatively young man who felt that Christianity was a foreign influence; he felt threatened by colonial powers, Islam, and other African kings.  But one of the major factors in his hatred for Christian faith was that he was a pedophile.  The courageous and faith-filled young men who he used to coerce into sex refused to consent to him after they gave their lives to Christ.  Instead of yielding to the word of God, instead of receiving Jesus’ invitation to be transformed, Mwanga resisted.  Between 1885 – 87, he killed these young men by burning, dismemberment (including castration), beheading, being speared, and in one case, torn apart by wild dogs.  These were the earliest Christians among present-day Ugandans.   They remain an inspiration to Ugandan Christians today.  Uganda observes June 3rd, the day most of the early martyrs were killed, as a national holiday:  Uganda Martyrs Day.  When I went to Uganda in the summer of 2012, I learned about this story and saw that some Ugandan Christians drew inspiration from their spiritual ancestors.  Today, they are eager to share the word of God.

This is another story in Matthew’s Gospel of a powerful ruler opposing the word of God.  Sound familiar?  That’s because there’s a family connection.  This story is about Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who tried to murder the infant Jesus (Mt.2).  Herod the Great divided his kingdom upon his death in 4 BC.  Herod Antipas ruled as tetrarch (ruler of ‘a fourth’) the region called Perea (northeast of the Dead Sea) and the Galilee area under the Roman Empire.  Early in his reign, Herod Antipas married his first wife Phasaelis, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabatea, his neighbor to the east of Perea.  However, on a visit to Rome he stayed with his half-brother Herod Philip I and there fell in love with Philip’s wife, Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great and Mariamne I and therefore also Herod Antipas’ niece.  The two agreed to marry each other, after the two divorced their respective spouses.  The prophet John the Baptist, Jesus’ herald and forerunner, condemned the marriage for being both incestuous and adulterous, against Jewish law (Lev.18:16; 20:21; cf. Lev.18 and 20).

Why does Matthew include this story here?  Primarily to provide a negative example:  Jesus has just given the parable of the four soils, and other parables about how the kingdom of heaven is spreading.  How is Herod’s response to John the Baptist a negative illustration of those parables?  Recall the parable of the four soils, in Matthew 13:1 – 23.  He is certainly not good soil!  He does not receive the word into himself.  In him, the seed is choked off by desires for sex and power. 

So let’s think.  What kind of person is Herod Antipas?  How can we tell?  (1) Fearful and maybe a little superstitious, because he thinks that John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and he fears divine vengeance (14:1 – 2).  (2) Sensual and driven by his desires, because he broke his first marriage even though it was politically important and later cost his people a war;1 he chose an unlawful, incestuous marriage with his niece; he enjoyed the dancing of his stepdaughter which was probably erotic (14:3 – 6).  (3) Spontaneous and unthinking, because he made a very rash vow to give ‘whatever’ his stepdaughter wanted (14:7).  (4) People pleasing, especially people who are also sensual and spontaneous, like his wife, because he wanted to keep his vow (really a kind of dare, and a boast that he could deliver) in front of all his guests (14:9 – 10).

          What desires in you resist the word of God?  Ask Jesus to help you love him more, so much so that you and he together can break up the places of resistance in yourself.  Perhaps consider fasting from something to tame those desires.