Sermon. St Mary’s Evensong. 8th July 2007: Colin Hull

Bad conscience

Principle text: Mark 9: 7-29


Introduction. No one likes criticism

No one likes personal criticism and it is even worse if you are a public figure.

Imagine this as tabloid news item:
Princess divorces husband to marry uncle and brother-law
Religious leader attacks royal marriage and calls it an abomination.

And …
woman gets husband to imprison religious leader because he claimed her marriage was immoral.

This is the story of the Herod family and the martyrdom of John the Baptist. It is recorded quite incidentally in Mark to explain Herod’s reaction to Jesus in Galilee, but behind it lays a story of fear and attempts to silence the truth because it is embarrassing. This is two people’s response to being told they are wrong.


A bit of history - the Herod family

There are three Herods in the New Testament period:

First - Herod the Great was king at the time of Jesus’ birth and responsible for the massacre of all the children, up to the age of 2, in Bethlehem. He married numerous times but toward the ends of his life he became insanely suspicious and murdered member after member of his own family. Aristobulus, one of his sons, was one of the victims of these murders. Aristobulus was the father of Herodias.

Second - Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great- the subject of our story along with Herodias who became his second wife. To stop any confusion we’ll just call him Antipas.

Third - Herod Agrippa -son of Aristobulus and brother of Herodias. We meet him in the Acts of the Apostles. He had James’ brother of John executed and also imprisoned Simon Peter.

Now listen carefully because this gets tricky! Antipas first married Phasaelis, who was the daughter of Aretas 4th, king in Arabia Petrea. Later on a visit to Rome Antipas fell in love with Herodias, who was married to his half brother Herod Philip II. Now remember that Herodias was also the daughter of another half brother Aristobulus, so therefore Herodias was a half-niece to Antipas. So Herodias was both Antipas’ Sister-in-law and half niece. Get it?

For a woman to marry a brother or half brother if her husband had died was OK in Jewish law and even in some cases commended to keep the family line, but not in the case of divorce. In the case of divorce such a relationship was considered a case of lust and immoral and it was this that brought condemnation from John the Baptist who preached publicly against it. “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife”

The historian Flavius Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, says that Antipas’ marriage with Herodias brought him to ruin, for it involved him in war with his original father-in-law, in which he lost an army. Josephus also says his life was also ruined because “ what he did against John that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him” , although some scholars believe Christians later added this to the text.

As our gospel story says, Antipas was incited to behead John by Herodias his wife and her daughter, unnamed in the text but traditionally called Salome. Initially Antipas had John arrested to try and keep him quite but Herodias wanted things taken further, and probably engineered the situation in which Antipas had to kill him. Herodias’ daughter dances for Antipas at a banquet and when the girl asks her mother what to ask for Herodias gives the reply, “the head of John the Baptist”. Apparently the girl agrees to ask for this and Antipas is faced with the choice of giving in to her request or looking bad in front of his guests. (Though maybe we should ask what his guests thought about it).

Antipas is also later known for his role in the events surrounding the Passion of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel of Luke (Lk. 23:6-12) records that he was in Jerusalem at the time. Upon inquiring about Jesus' citizenship, Pilate was told that Jesus was a Galilean, thus under Antipas’jurisdiction, and so Pilate sent Jesus to him to try and get rid of his problem. Initially, Antipas was pleased to see Jesus, asking to see him perform a miracle based on what he'd heard of him, but Jesus refused to do so and remained silent, even when questioned. After mocking and ridiculing Jesus, he sent Jesus back to Pilate. This improved relations between Pilate and Antipas who had apparently been enemies previous to this occasion (presumably because Antipas wanted to rule over Judea as well as Galilee)..

None of this really did Antipas or Herodias any good. Upon several occasions, during his rule of the Galilee region Antipas appealed to Rome for extension of his territory. But his scheming and petitions were of no avail. His wife enticed him to try again with Caligula for further addition to his dominion but this was fruitless and only hastened his ruin; Caligula sent them in to exile. As Josephus records “So Herod died in Spain whither his wife had followed him"

What a family, what a couple, what a history! Let’s look at these two a bit more closely.


Herodias’ problem

Herodias was ambitious and corrupt. She was in some respects stronger and more scheming that Antipas. She hated John the Baptist for his very public denunciation of her divorcing Philip and marrying Antipas. While Antipas wanted to keep John in captivity she wanted him done away with completely. John was too vocal and too close for comfort. He reminded her all the time of many aspects of her guilt. She could not initially get Antipas to consent to kill John but later was able manipulate him in to position where he had to. Here was a woman who could not accept criticism of her wrongs and was so full of hatred that she would rather kill the critic of her wrongdoing rather than do something about her wrongness.

Antipas’ problems

Antipas was a man guided by lusts, first for his half-brother’s wife and then for her daughter (his step-daughter). Did Herodias realise his reason for asking her daughter to dance? Antipas was ambitious but in many respects insecure and weak. He should have had the authority that said “no” and to tell his step-daughter her request was vile. But no, he was too weak and manipulated by others and so does the wrong thing, caving into pressure for the quiet life instead of doing right.

Antipas had a strange fascination for John , perhaps because John was so “straight” but he was not willing to defend John against his wife’s hatred. (Well it is said that a man should seek to please his wife but that is taking “pleasing your wife” too far!)

But this was not the end of the matter and the effects lived on. Because of the death of John Antipas is haunted by Jn’s memory and what he did to him. Antipas is so worried that he wonders if John has come back to life in Jesus. It seems absurd he should think that way, but it shows the huge sense of guilt that was present.


The basic problem in this story - reactions to guilt

Herodias and Antipas were each confronted by their failings and wrong doing but were unwilling to accept it. Publicly they were unable to respond. The guilt was there but they were unable to own up to it. In Herodias case the guilt manifested itself in hatred and a desire to silence the voice that gave rise to it. In Antipas’ case the guilt was manifest in his continual fascination with John and later feeling haunted, worried that John had come back to life in Jesus. Antipas later had the opportunity to speak with Jesus. He could have sought Jesus’ counsel and forgiveness but he did not. More inclined to seek some sort of miracle from Jesus instead.

So this leads to questions for us;

How do we respond if some-one criticises us? (Assuming the criticism is right).

-Denial in public then worry and bad feelings in private, about ourselves or the person from whom the criticism came ?

-Anger at the criticism we receive, refusing to consider if it might be just and right?

Guilt can do strange things to a person!


The basic solution

The gospel and the message of the NT provides a basis for looking at criticism and feelings of guilt in a new way, instead of guilty feelings and anger.

a) God’s Acceptance

Paul Tillich was as a German theologian and philosopher who moved to America. He used the term “The Divine Acceptance” to sum up what the message of Jesus and the New Testament is. Whatever is done wrong need not be the end. We don’t have to carry around us the burden of what we have done wrong. Jesus reveals we are still acceptable and loveable, irrespective of the present or past wrong. It is right we should have sorrow and remorse for our failings, but not have unending guilt.

We can accept our own wrong doing because we are accepted by the greatest love of the Eternal God. God does not condone our wrong but neither is it forever held against us. Our acceptance that He has already paid the price of our wrong tendencies is all that is needed. We can even be thankful for the criticism and the critic who has revealed it to us! It helps us on the path to healing.

b) God’s Change

The Love and Acceptance of God then enables us to take the next step and discover the power of the Divine Change. Instead of wallowing guilt, anger at others and anger at ourselves we can discover the power in us to be different. We can face our damaged pride, our damaged self esteem and guilt. The past is healed and we can be changed. The worst we do can be remade new. If only we are prepared to face the truth about ourselves we can have the Divine therapy to set it right.

Conclusion

Poor Antipas and Herodias… they could not face the truth about themselves and hit out at the one person who did. They missed the opportunity to be better people. Instead they killed the one source of therapy for their wrongs. Later they missed the second chance in an encounter with Jesus. Missed chances to change.

I wonder, are we any better at facing the truth about ourselves?
Can we accept what we are and be changed?