14 When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about Jesus, ² he said to his advisers, “This must be John the Baptist raised from the dead! That is why he can do such miracles.”

³ For Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias (the former wife of Herod’s brother Philip). ⁴ John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry her.” ⁵ Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot, because all the people believed John was a prophet.

⁶ But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, ⁷ so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted. ⁸ At her mother’s urging, the girl said, “I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray!” ⁹ Then the king regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. ¹⁰ So John was beheaded in the prison, ¹¹ and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. ¹² Later, John’s disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened.

Matthe 14:1-12

Dear God, I like how you can see Matthew correcting his narrative a little. He started to tell us about Herod’s interest in Jesus, but the he had to double back and tell us about John the Baptist’s death.

Herod’s interest in Jesus was seemingly two-fold. And we’ll see it later at the Passion when he and Pilate bond over what happened to Jesus. My feeling is that they bonded over being forced into a position that even they, a couple a pretty immoral people, found reprehensible and to be avoided: the murder of a good man (although, again, they had murdered plenty of good people in their day). I think Herod was also interested because of his making a connection between Jesus and John the Baptist and wondering if Jesus was channeling John from beyond the grave. Little did he know that it was John who was channeling Elijah. I wonder why this is the only mention of this Herod that Matthew gives us. I’d have thought he was setting us up for something more in the future. Maybe he was intentionally telling us about what happened to John the Baptist.

I’ve written about Herod before and his failure when it came to John the Baptist and how his immorally-gained wife manipulated him by using their daughter. Parents continue to use children to manipulate their spouses or the child’s other parent to this day. Nothing is new under the Sun.

Father, I don’t know what I really have here this morning except it’s always good to be reminded of these stories. It’s good for me to remember to only love and raise my children and not use them. It’s good to be reminded to assuage my guilt through true repentance, and not through acting out or even carrying around the guilt and shame. It’s good to sit here and know who you are and that I love you and you love me. I give you glory for everything.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen