Matthew 14:1-12--The Death of John the Baptist

Matthew 14:1-12 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.14.1-Matt.14.12
The Death of John the Baptist
14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, 2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, 4 because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 6 But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. 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 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

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We were introduced to John the Baptist early on in the book of Matthew, even before Jesus started His ministry officially.  In fact, John the Baptist was the harbinger (the one that goes ahead of the king to announce that he is coming and to get everything ready before he gets there) that was prophesied to come in the spirit of Elijah before the Messiah would come.  John's ministry was very short, not just because the political leaders of the time were afraid of any sort of revolution, even if that was in the form of a religious revival, but because John spoke boldly and bluntly when God put words in his mouth to speak, even when that meant calling out the fake king of the Jews (Herod Antipas specifically) who was a political hack for the Roman, for marrying his brother's wife and having sexual relations with her.  I think you can easily see why John was arrested.  The last time we heard from him was just a short time ago when he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to make sure that Jesus was in fact the one they had been waiting for because John was in prison knowing that he could at least spend the rest of his natural life there or be killed at any time.  The only thing keeping him alive at the moment was the Herod had enough political sense to know that the people loved John and thought of him as a prophet and for him to kill John without cause could possible start a riot among the people.

As was common in that day, when Herod's birthday came he had a big party--the kind of party that lasts until the wine runs out, and rich people like kings had lots of wine.  He also invited all of his friends and he would have a lot to prove in front of them.  One of the things he would want to do is make a show for his family, and as other kings in the past would do, he brought out the members of his family who were beautiful to entertain his guests--in this case his step-daughter, Salome (who is only referenced as the daughter of Herodias here, but we know her name from the works of Josephus the historian).  Her dancing so pleased him (and he was so drunk) that he promised her anything that she wanted.  Salome was politically savvy herself and had been and would continue to be coached by her mother and in this case her mother used her to get rid of her political rival John the Baptist and Salome passed along the request to have John the Baptist beheaded and have his head delivered to her on a silver platter.  While Herod realized his mistake immediately he could not fail to keep his word in front of his guests and let a couple of women get the best of him and show him to be "soft," so he called for the execution of John and did as Salome asked and Salome delivered the silver platter to her mother.

We already saw earlier that John's disciples had been given access to John while he was in prison and since Herod did seem to like John, it is not surprising that he gave the body of John to his disciples to be buried.  These disciples then brought word to Jesus and while we are not told here, Jesus made it clear that He already knew and many who followed John began to follow Jesus, so God used this wicked family to bring about His plan so that people would stop following John and would start following the one that John was trying to point them to.  Jesus would say that there was no one born among men that was greater than John. He never saw the fulfillment of the words that he said prophetically, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," but we know that by faith he put his trust in that Lamb and was saved.

Follow the instructions of John today and repent and turn to Jesus.  Recognize Him for who He is and what He came to do and that He is the only way of salvation.  There is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.  Like John we need not even fear death because it has not power over us and God will not permit us to die until it is our time and our work has been completed.  John died knowing that Jesus was the Messiah and that he had pointed people to him and that there was not going to be another that John needed to put his faith in.  We have the benefit of looking back and being certain of these things that John accepted by faith.  Let us make sure that we have