Opposition and Persecution, Matthew 14:1-12
This is something of an interesting section to focus on and think
in terms of why it is included in the Scripture for us. It is always
interesting when we get into some sections of the Word where we scratch our heads
and say, "Well I don't really see how this applies". But there are
always implications and applications from every Scripture and God has revealed
these things to us for a variety of reasons. I am always impressed at how God
is a multi-tasker; He accomplishes things through one single passage of
Scripture.
So we are going to look at this section of Scripture, which is
really a flashback to something that has already happened, probably within the
previous three or four months to this event. It is a flashback to bring out
something that is significant in the flow of Matthew's argument, and that deals
with this theme of opposition to Christ and persecution. We see that evidenced
in what happens to John the Baptist, what happened to almost all of the disciples,
what happened to many of the church believers, what is happening in many areas
of the world today, and what I fear is what is going to begin to take place in
this country before too much longer. Many of us never dreamed, as we were
younger, that we would live in a time in which there may come open opposition
and persecution even from the government to those who are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We need to be prepared spiritually for that. I don't think we can
always physically prepare for that in terms of logistics and other things
because we don't know exactly where some of those attacks are going to
originate, or when they are going to originate. But we have to prepare
spiritually for those attacks.
As we have looked at our study of the layout of Matthew, Matthew
begins with the presentation of the King at the beginning of His life: His
birth, and then His presentation by John the Baptist. The first time we are
introduced to John the Baptist is in Matthew chapter four, and at that time
John came out of the wilderness and was proclaiming a message to repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. John the Baptist is a cousin of the Lord Jesus
Christ and was also the result of a miraculous birth. His mother was barren.
She was one of the six barren women that are highlighted in Scripture for a
specific purpose. God was going to give her a miraculous conception; not
miraculous in the way that Mary is going to have a miraculous virgin conception
but because she has been barren and Zacharia and Elizabeth were older God is
the one who is going to make that possible.
The angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias in the temple and tells him
that he is going to have a son. The son will fulfill prophecy; he will be the
forerunner of the Messiah. That tells us that Zacharias would understand Old
Testament teaching about the Messiah. In the Old Testament there are constant
references to the Messiah. We saw this in the passage in Mark chapter six, that
when the people saw what Jesus did (they heard His words and they saw His
works) some said He was Elijah, others that He was a prophet, and others were
saying, "Could this be the prophet?" This means they clearly
understood. There was messianic content in the Old Testament, so Zacharias knew
exactly what Gabriel's message meant.
Then we see John the Baptist come on the scene later on as a
somewhat odd prophet because he spent most of his time out camping in the
desert of Judea and had a rather unusual diet of locusts and honey, and he
dressed in a camel hair robe in a way that was going to attract attention. He
came out of the desert and began to proclaim the message, "Repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand". That is the thrust of his message but in
the process he was saying some other things. He was talking about the need to
repent, why they should repent, and so he is, as was the role of a prophet from
the time of Moses on, sitting in judgment on the government.
The principle here is: the Word of God is always the ultimate
authority when it comes to civil government. The civil government was always
under the authority of the Word of God. We see this in Samuel. When Samuel
comes on the scene he is the one who anoints the king. The king is under the
authority of God. He is not autonomous; he doesn't rule on his own basis, but
he rules under the authority of God and under the law of God. Throughout the
Old Testament prophet after prophet is coming on the scene and they are
announcing a judgment on the people because they are not obedient to the Law.
The role of a prophet was a lot like a prosecuting attorney, representing the
throne of God and accusing the people, bringing an indictment against the
people for their disobedience to the Law of God.
John the Baptist functioned that way when he told them to repent.
Even though we are not told in the Scripture what the details of his message
was he didn't just say, "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand"
over and over again; he talked about why they need to repent, what the issues
were, what repentance meant—a change of mind, a change in their
direction, a change in the way they interpreted the Law and how they applied
the Law of Moses in their lives, and the need to turn back to God, either to
trust in God as the one who would provide them with salvation, trust in the
messianic promise from the Old Testament. He also critiqued the government at
the time. We learn that from this passage because one of the reasons Herod is
willing to execute John is (verse 4) because of what John had said to him. The
verb form there is in the imperfect tense, which doesn't mean he did it once;
he did it over and over again. And he didn't say that to Herod one-on-one, he
said that in his messages when he was talking to the people. It would have
riled up the people a little bit but it was also a challenge to the morality
and ethics of the kingdom and of the rule of Herod Agrippa. So this message of
the offer of the kingdom came with a political critique of the government.
This was the message of Jesus when He
came on the scene. John the Baptist baptized Him, which was the public
presentation of the King, and His message was the same: "Repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand". Initially this was very popular. Large crowds
came out to hear Jesus and then there was a hint of opposition in Matthew
chapters six and seven. This eventually culminates in the rejection of Jesus'
claims to be the Messiah by the Pharisees in chapter twelve. That is the
centerpiece where everything shifts. Then the last part from chapter thirteen
on is dealing with Jesus' training of the twelve.
At the end of chapter thirteen we see
the rejection of Jesus at His hometown, Nazareth. Now we are going to see the
rejection of the forerunner and what happened to him. It cost him his life, as
it will cost our Lord His life at the crucifixion. So there is a sub-text
running through this that foreshadows that what happens to John the forerunner,
will happen to the Messiah as well.
We are introduced to Herod the
tetrarch. Matthew 14:1 NASB "At that time Herod the tetrarch
heard the news about Jesus." There is something about the New Testament
that really confuses people and that is when it starts talking about Herod. The
first Herod had ten wives. The first wife's name was Doris; the other nine were
simultaneous. He was, as far as we know, the only known figure with multiple
wives at that time in the first century. From these different wives he had a
number of different sons. His name was Herod. People then didn't call him Herod
the Great. It wasn't until later on that people applied "the Great"
to that because it helped to distinguish him from his sons. He had at least two
sons who were called Herod. The second son is the one we are talking about,
Herod Antipas. He is the Herod we read about throughout most of the Gospels. It
was Herod the Great at the time of the birth of Jesus but he died shortly
thereafter. Then a transition took place because of his will, and he left his
kingdom to his sons. It is split up among his sons and so they're referred to
as tetrarchs. The etymology of that word "tetrarch" means a ruler of
a force. That was the literal meaning but by this time it had just come to be a
title for someone who ruled part of a kingdom. Herod Antipas was the tetrarch
or ruler of Galilee from 4 BC to 39 AD.
Another son, Archelaus, became the
ethnarch [from ETHNOS = people or nation] and was actually given the title of
Herod. He was the ruler of Judea, Samaria and Idumea. But his name was also
Herod. Part of the confusion is that Herod had two sons that he named after
himself.
Philip marries Herodias. Then she
divorces him and marries Antipas. Under Roman law that was legitimate but it
was not under Jewish law.
Matthew 14:2 NASB "and
said to his servants, 'This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead,
and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him'.Ó He is thinking that
Jesus is the reincarnation, so to speak, of John the Baptist. This was really
strange because there is some thought that Herod held to the beliefs of the
Sadducees, and the Sadducees didn't believe in Resurrection. It shows something
about how the unbeliever's conscience works so that when he has done something
that violates his conscience, even though he tries to stuff that down into a
compartment in the basement of his soul, things are going to happen that God
brings along that are going to bring those things back to mind. The result is
that he has this overwhelming guilt complex, and when you have a guilt complex
combined with a sin nature trend toward paranoia it is a nasty combination that
can produce a lot of sorrow in the soul. But he has no way to deal with the sin
in his life because he is an unbeliever.
This is evidence of his guilt, not only
real guilt, but the guilt feelings that generate because of his sin. He thinks
Jesus is John the Baptist who has been resurrected from the dead and these
powers are at work in him. So it is very clear again that the miracles that
Jesus is performing are not doubted, not questioned, because of the nature of
the miracles and numerous eyewitnesses. But his guilt is such that he is
distorting how he is interpreting the events.
Then he goes into a flashback from
verse three down to verse twelve, and the reason for that is Matthew is
pointing out another example of opposition to and persecution of the
Gospel—at this point to the message of Jesus. Matthew 14:3 NASB
"For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison
because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip." What that is
basically saying is, because of what has happened with Herodias. Because
Herodias was his brother's wife, that made this unlawful. It violated the
Mosaic Law, which prohibited the marriage to a brother's wife unless that
marriage between brother and wife had not produced any children. Then the
exception was that if the brother died childless the brother could take his
wife in what was called a leveret marriage and produce children with his
brother's wife that would be raised as the heirs of his brother, in order to
pass on the family name and the property in the inheritance that was to stay
within the family, within the clan, as determined by the real estate divisions
that are explained in the book of Joshua.
There is debate about whether Salome,
the daughter, is Philip's or whether she belongs to an even prior marriage by
Herodias. Salome is not the child of Philip but nevertheless because Philip is
still alive this would be a violation of the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees were
clearly opposed to what had taken place and this just led to further unrest in
the kingdom.
Matthew 14:4 NASB "For
John had been saying to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her'.Ó He is
challenging the ethical foundation of the kingdom. This was a standard operating
procedure for the prophets. The Word of God stands over government. We have a
situation today that is not unlike this. We are going to find out this week the
Supreme Court decision related to the defense of marriage laws in various
states in the US. Many people believe that this particular decision is going
to go against the traditional, historical, biblical view of marriage as being
between one man and one woman. This is going to have devastating effect
culturally, because no nation has ever redefined marriage. It has been the same
definition for generations and to redefine marriage is going to have a host of
unforeseen and unintended consequences. And where do you stop once you start
changing this definition? It has never happened before, even in the most
perverse homosexual-favoring cultures like ancient Greece and Rome. They never
validated homosexual unions as marriage, and they never even projected this
upon their pantheons, the gods and goddesses. Their gods and goddesses were
incredibly immoral but they weren't homosexual. Isn't that interesting!
This is a huge culture clash that is
coming right now because once you elevate and legitimize same-sex marriage as
the inherent right of homosexuals then you are going to come into a rights
clash with the First Amendment. Do we have the right to assemble, the right to
freely teach the Word of God, even when it conflicts with what they will say
are the rights of homosexuals to marry. That is what, I think, is going to go
in a negative direction. This will null and void every tax-exempt status of
almost every religious institution in the country.
This is a full-bore frontal assault on
Christianity, which means that a week from now (the decision is to be announced
in the next week) this may create a totally new environment within the US
that has never existed. Our beliefs will be basically unconstitutional and
illegal if they make that decision. And the implications of that are
horrendous.
This is the same kind of thing that
happened with John the Baptist. He was preaching the truth and proclaiming a
biblical truth about Herod and his marriage, and when the Word of God clashes
with secular authorities the result is opposition and persecution that is going
to increase.
Matthew 14:6 NASB
"But when HerodÕs birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before
{them} and pleased HerodÉ" She is about twelve years old. Mark 6:22 NASB
"and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she
pleased Herod É" There is nothing lewd about this. Some people try to put
sexual overtones on this, but that is not the case. There have been numerous
studies that even in the ancient world this was not something that was unusual
and it was not something that had sexual overtones. "É and his dinner guests;
and the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it
to you".Ó The word there for girl is KAROSION in the Greek and it refers to a young girl of marriageable
age, probably between the age of twelve to fourteen. So she is providing
normal, acceptable entertainment for the king and those with him and he is so
pleased that he makes this rash vow.
Matthew 14:7 NASB "so
{much} that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. [8] Having
been prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me here on a platter the head of
John the Baptist'.Ó She goes to her mother. She is young; she doesn't know
quite what to ask. Her mother is just so bitter toward John the Baptist. And
this is what happens, folks, if you are standing for the truth, even if you
don't articulate it. Because people know what you believe they react in anger,
bitterness and hatred because they just don't want anyone standing out there
who might think that what they are doing is morally wrong. We see this especially
with certain categories of sin, and homosexuality is one of them. The gay
rights movement is not just trying to be treated equally under the law, they
want everyone to validate what they are doing. That is what it is about.
Herodias, just knowing that John the
Baptist is out there and that he believes and says about their marriage is
critical, wants his head. She specifically wanted his head and that is
requested in verse 8.
Matthew 14:9 NASB
"Although he was grieved, the king commanded {it} to be given because of
his oaths, and because of his dinner guests." The king was sorry. John is
criticizing his rule, but he also probably recognized that John was a messenger
from God and that he shouldn't mess with that. He had not done anything more than
put him in prison.
Matthew 14:10 NASB "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] His disciples came
and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to
Jesus."
What we see is that persecution and
opposition is something that is to be expected by believers. We have lived in a
historical bubble in the United States for the last
four hundred years where persecution of Christians has not taken place. But
opposition and subtle persecution has been increasing, especially in the
workplace. There are people who are so intimidated by their employers and by
what they think are Federal laws that they don't ever witness or talk or
mention God in the workplace. They also have to enforce a number of different
policies related to employers and equal rights that run counter to the
Scripture. They are forced suddenly to take the Scripture and put it in a
compartment in their mind so that they can maintain their job and not really
make an issue out of some of these human resource policies that have been
mandated. It is a process of gradualism so that it breaks down our views on
gender distinctions that are emphasized in the Scriptures. We have already
experienced this in a light way but we will experience more.
In Matthew 5:10-11 in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
said: ÒBlessed are those who have been
persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Notice it doesn't say "for obnoxious sake"! Some
Christians are obnoxious; they don't deal with the opposition in grace. We have
to make sure we are dealing with these issues graciously, kindly, and not in a
negative judgmental sense. [11] ÒBlessed are you when {people} insult you and
persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of
Me." We have to relax about that and put it in the hands of the Lord, and
recognize that Jesus Christ controls history. Matthew 5:12 NASB
ÒRejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way
they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
2 Timothy 3:12 NASB
"Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted." Living godly means to have spiritual maturity.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB
"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." I believe that
this was a demon that was stirring up opposition, which is what verse 10
indicates; it is not some specific illness or infirmity which is what a lot of
people suggest, it is a messenger of Satan—an ANGELOS. And what that source of temptation is, is seen in verse
10: "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for ChristÕs sake; for when I
am weak, then I am strong." Paul says that the solution for this is what
God tells him: "My grace is sufficient for you". (What happens if you
end up in prison? That just means you are going to have better health care!
Look on the bright side!)
This will give an
opportunity for growth in ways that we never imagined, and we need to have the
right mental attitude about that—to rejoice because in that God is going
to demonstrate that His grace is sufficient.