One Sunday, after preaching what I realized was a fairly dry sermon, predictably no one told me he or she liked the sermon as I was greeting people at the door afterward, except, toward the end of the line, there was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.
“Father, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!” I was thrilled. “No-one has ever said anything like that about my preaching before. Tell me why.”
“Well,” the parishioner began, “it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and of the love of God because it endured forever!”
Did you really listen to the Gospel today? Other than on Good Friday, it was the most gruesome Gospel of the year. After it was read, having heard of the beheading of John the Baptist, we all responded, “Praise to you, Lord Christ!” Did you catch the irony? At least on Good Friday we don’t make a response after hearing the Gospel.
The setting is the fortress of Machaerus, in which John was imprisoned. Deep and dangerous ravines surrounded it. It was one of the loneliest and most unassailable fortresses in the world. One can still see its ruins overlooking the Dead Sea.
William Barclay states that the “marriage tangles of the Herod family are quite incredible, and their interrelations are so complicated that they become almost impossible to work out. When Jesus was born Herod the Great was king. The father of the clan I am about to tell you about, he was the one who was responsible for the massacre of the children in Bethlehem. He was married many times. Toward the end of his life he became almost insanely suspicious, and murdered member after member of his own family, until it became a Jewish saying, “It’s safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son.”
First, he married Doris, by whom he had a son, Antipater, whom he murdered. Then he married Mariamne, by whom he had two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. He murdered Aristobulus as well. Herodias, the villainess of today’s Gospel, was Aristobulus’s daughter. Herod the Great then married a different Mariamne. By her he had a son called Herod Philip. Herod Philip married Herodias, who was the daughter of his half-brother, Aristobulus, and who was therefore his own niece. By Herodias, Herod Philip had a daughter called Salome, who is the girl who danced before Herod of Galilee in our passage. Herod the Great then married Malthake, by whom he had two sons—Archelaus and Herod Antipas, who is the Herod of today’s Gospel and the ruler of Galilee. The Herod Philip who married Herodias originally, and who was the father of Salome, inherited none of Herod the Great’s dominions. He lived as a wealthy private citizen in Rome. Herod Antipas visited him in Rome. There he seduced Herodias and persuaded her to leave her husband and marry him.”
I don’t expect you to have all of this straight. Suffice it to say, Herodias was the daughter of Herod’s half-brother, Aristobulus, and therefore his niece; and she was the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip, and therefore his sister-in-law….To Complete this astounding picture, Herod the Great finally married Cleopatra of Jerusalem, by whom he had a son called Philip the Tetrarch. This Philip married Salome who is at one and the same time the daughter of Herod Philip, his half-brother, and the daughter of Herodias, who herself was the daughter of Aristobulus, another of his half-brothers. Salome was therefore at one and the same time his niece and his grand-niece and his step-daughter.
Through these marriage entanglements, Herod had broken not only Jewish law, but also had outraged the laws of decency and morality. He and his clan would have been great candidates for Jerry Springer’s show! One can only imagine the talk around town about the Herod family, but it would only have been done behind closed doors with the most trusted of friends. John the Baptist had dared to preach openly to large crowds of people about this scandalous situation. It landed him in prison, supposedly to rot until he died, because Herod was afraid to put him to death. Even though he was extremely angry at John, he still respected and feared him as a man of God.
Herod celebrated his birthday by throwing a lavish party at Machaerus and invited all of the leaders of Galilee. One assumes that everyone who was invited attended, for a faux pas against Herod could be deadly. The wine flowed, and the height of entertainment was when his beautiful stepdaughter, niece, and grandniece, all the same person, performed a shameful dance that nevertheless was so pleasing to Herod that he promised to give Salome anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. I wonder if William Congreve in the 17th century had this story in mind when he penned the famous phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Salome conferred with her mother, who, not being bound by the same scruples as her husband, and who was furious with John the Baptist for criticizing her marriage, told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. His judgment being clouded by much wine, while he was fearful still of this godly man, he was even more fearful of embarrassing himself in front of all of the leaders of Galilee by not granting to Salome the wish he had promised. Thus ended the distinguished preaching career of John the Baptist.
Who was the winner in this gruesome tale? Was it Herodias, the woman scorned who got her revenge? Or Herod, who chalked up one more murder to his name? Or Salome, whose reputation as a performer became legendary for all time? No, it was John the Baptist, who obeyed the calling of God even to his death. May we, like John, “constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.” Praise to you, Lord Christ!
The information about Herod’s family was quoted from William Barclay’s, “The Gospel of Mark.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
8th Sunday after Pentecost
15 July 2018