Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
November 23, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(262)
1901 ASV
22 and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and them that sat at meat with him; and the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.
23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
24 And she went out, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptizer.
25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou forthwith give me on a platter the head of John the Baptist.
26 And the king was exceeding sorry; but for the sake of his oaths, and of them that sat at meat, he would not reject her.
27 And straightway the king sent forth a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring his head: and he went and beheaded him in the prison,
28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the damsel; and the damsel gave it to her mother.
29 And when his disciples heard [thereof], they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
- I. Mark's Focus Upon Herod.
- A. Is entirely contained in 6:14-29 except for 8:15.
- B. Concerns Herod Antipas, one of three sons of the Herod who killed the babies of Jerusalem.
- C. Is significantly different from other gospel accounts in that Mark characterizes Herod with a bit more "complexity" than do the others: he says that Herod enjoyed listening to John.
- D. Presses his readers to consider why Herod insisted that Jesus was "John raised from the dead".
- E. Reveals the "ultimate power" of "bottom line" commitments.
- 1. The text says, "And the king, having become very sad ... was absolutely not willing to refuse her".
- 2. "Values in conflict" always produce "sadness".
- 3. When "values are in conflict" the one held most tenaciously will inevitably win out, but its "winning" will create, and not erase, the loss of joy.
- II. The Issue of "Ultimate Values".
- A. The "sadness" of Herod (the definition given by the Logos Library System).
- 1. The word translated "very sorry" in the NASB in 6:26 is a word only used in four texts of the New Testament.
- a. Both Matthew 26:38 and Mark 14:34 use it in reference to the condition of the soul of Jesus in the garden before His arrest.
- b. Luke 18:23 uses it to describe an exceedingly wealthy man who functioned as a "ruler" who asked Jesus what "good thing" he could do to obtain eternal life and was told that he would have to divest himself of all of his wealth.
- c. Mark's use in our text is in harmony with the other three: each situation described "the consequence of being forced to deny all things 'valuable' except the ultimately 'valuable' item".
- 2. Herod's "sorrow" was, etymologically, the outcome of an inescapable "loss".
- a. The word for "sorrow" is used in 14 texts of the New Testament and is always in reference to the emotional reaction of being forced to endure a very distasteful circumstance.
- b. The word used by Mark to describe Herod is the word "sorrow" with an intensifier prefix that typically means "around"; the implication being that Herod was "surrounded by" and "boxed in" by a set of circumstances from which there was no escape.
- 3. It is inevitable that "loss" is ever the reality when a "loved" entity is taken away.
- a. All value systems have a type of "crowding" at the top and the bottom that makes it very difficult to separate oneself from any of the "top" or "bottom" group.
- b. When a person is forced to "choose", "sorrow"/"sadness" is inescapable. Even the ability to retain the "highest" value does not help because that "next highest" value is rejected unto terrible loss.
- 4. The causes of the "sorrow"/"sadness" are given.
- a. "The oaths".
- 1) The word translated "oaths" is a word that carries, perhaps, the highest degree of "persuasion" that the thing promised will be given (Hebrews 6:16-17 where both oath and swear are used).
- 2) That it is plural indicates that Herod's intensification of his "promise" to the girl by means of "unto the half of my kingdom" was designed to reinforce his magnanimity (i.e., what he considered as a way to exalt himself in the eyes of those gathered).
- b. "Those reclining (at the banquet tables)".
- 1) These have been identified in 6:21.
- a) These are they who "matter" in the eyes of the king because they are the exalted ones in the culture.
- b) These are they who will "judge the king" in terms of whether they will exalt him.
- 2) These are the ones who witnessed "the oaths".
- c. Summary: Herod's "bottom line" is now laid open for all to see and it stands in direct contradiction to his intention to "save John" from his wife's desire to kill him. The problem is that, now, the highest priority is challenged by a relatively high alternate priority in a "you can't have your cake and eat it" kind of way: something has got to give. [Illustration of a man put, by threat of death, into a "choose" situation where the preservation of the highest option is only marginally good in respect to the evil of the loss.]
- B. The actions of Herod.
- 1. He "immediately" (euqus, the word we originally decided meant "the next most critical issue for our consideration) sent an executioner to bring John's head to him on a platter.
- a. There was no time to consider the issue and its alternatives.
- b. The "immediate" decision was the one which arose out of the time-critical circumstance revealing the fact that the "ultimate objective" always wins.
- 2. He played into his wife's deceitful snare and accomplished her desire against his own desire.
- III. Mark's "Point".
- A. The earlier flawed decisions only grow in power with each exercise.
- B. There is no "rescue" from that power except the power of God to change the heart.
- C. Disciples will only be able to be disciples if, at some critical point, they abjectly yield to the Love of God as Paul described this yielding in Romans 12:1-2.