“Step, Step, Steppin’ on Herod’s Toes”
Luke 3:7-20
Luke 3:19-20 The Message): But Herod, the ruler, stung by John’s rebuke
in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, capped his long string of
evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.
N.T. Wright: Josephus
tells us that Herod regarded John as a threat.
Well, he would, wouldn’t he: a fiery prophet drawing crowds and talking
about God’s kingdom… John pointed to Jesus as the genuine king of the Jews; but
this meant confronting the claims of the existing king. How could Jesus be the king? Because Herod was a sham… The Advent hope
that God’s peace will one day rule the world enables it now to rule in our
hearts, and gives us courage to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, even when
this means challenging the kingdoms of the world.
Joan Gray, Moderator of the PC(
[prayer]
The
words of John the Baptist are not the easiest to proclaim or hear during Advent
and Christmas. This is supposed to be a
season of peace and joy. Who wants to be
called a viper? Who wants to hear about
axes of judgment being laid to unfruitful trees, or have one’s religious
integrity challenged, or chaff being burned up by the Lord’s fiery wrath? There is part of me who wants to respond to
all this by saying, “And a very Merry
Christmas to you too, Mr. Baptizer, Mr. Messenger of God’s Judgment. Can’t you see that we’re trying to celebrate
here?”
Admittedly prophets are sometimes hard to take. They tend not to be graduates of the school
of how to win friends and influence people.
They tend to be a bit rough around the edges. Their words are spoken plainly and
bluntly. They don’t pull their punches. Nor do they water down their God-given
message.
When Nathan confronted David about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder
of her husband Uriah, his words stung David deeply. But at least David didn’t kill the
messenger. He confessed and
repented. But Nathan didn’t know that
when he went in and let the chips fall where they may. He was taking a big chance.
Not all prophets were as fortunate as Nathan. Jezebel put a price on Elijah’s head. Amos was told to stop preaching and go back
home where he belonged, that he absolutely could not continue insulting the
king. Amos basically told the high
priest Amaziah what he could do with his order not to preach, and kept on
preaching. Ultimately it is believed
that Amos shut up and went home when God said it was time to do so. There is, however, a tradition that he was
stoned to death before he made it out of Dodge.
Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern for speaking God’s truth to the
king. Ezekiel was labeled insane. Daniel got thrown into a lion’s den. John the Baptist was beheaded for chastising
Herod’s evil and adulterous behavior.
Jesus, the ultimate prophet, was nailed to a cross. Nobody wants to hear words of judgment. Nobody wants his or her sins brought to light
in a public way. Nobody wants to have
his or her toes stepped on.
In today’s text some who heard John preach were highly offended and
insulted. He did call some of them
snakes. He did tell folks that their
assumptions of salvation simply because they were descended from Abraham were
false. He did speak of a coming Messiah
who would separate the wheat of humanity from the chaff.
But not everybody who heard his words was offended. Some were moved to repent and be
baptized. Some even asked John how they
could show their repentance. In response
John gave them no complicated theological formula. Nor did he lay a bunch of legalisms or
doctrinal requirements on them. He
simply instructed them in the ethics of God’s Kingdom.
“If you have more than you need and a
neighbor has less than he or she needs, share your excess with that person,” he said. Later
on Jesus would give some similar instructions to his disciples.
To the tax collectors who came to be baptized, and these were some of
the most ethically challenged people of that time and place, he said, “Don’t stop collecting taxes, but only
collect that which is really owed. I
know that you are entitled to a fair wage, but stop extorting people for
more. Earn your keep. Don’t rob people blind.”
And then to the repentant soldiers, not Roman legionnaires, but most
likely Jewish members of Herod’s little tin-pot army, he said, “Stop intimidating people into giving you
money. Herod pays you a salary. As his peace- keepers you are worthy of a
certain amount of respect. But don’t use
your office to rob and bully people.”
John the
Baptist was preaching and teaching honesty, integrity, generosity, and
compassion. In his own way he was reiterating
the basic message of the classical Old Testament prophets: a message of
justice, righteousness, and humility; a message about the pitfalls of abusing
power; a message about fearing and obeying God no matter who you are; a warning
about falsely presuming on God’s grace; the promise of a day of judgment.
Herod wanted nothing to do with any of that. He was the king; he could do as he pleased,
and no one could stop him. If he wanted
his brother’s wife, he took her. His
morality, or lack thereof, was nobody’s business but his own. He determined what was right and what was
wrong. He decided what was ethical or
not. He was the king; how dare anybody
suggest that he was unfit for office, or even worse, that the real king was on
the way?
So he had John arrested and then beheaded. He showed him who was boss. “Step
on my toes; I’ll whack off your head.
Question my lifestyle; I’ll take your life. Don’t mess with me. I have power.
I have authority. I can tell you
what you can or cannot say. Maybe you do
speak the heavenly Word of God. So what,
it’s my word that counts here on earth.”
Not much repentance there, actually no repentance at all. No sense of any authority greater than
himself. No concern, that other than the
He was wrong, of course. The
Word of God always trumps any human word.
Kill, if you will, those who faithfully speak that Word, but the Word
will live on. The
That’s bad news for sinful fools, news that can and does step on their
toes – and ours, if we choose to ignore God’s Word. But there is Good News. The One whose sandals John the Baptist felt
unworthy to even tie has come and will come again. His name is Jesus: King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. It is his birth that we will
celebrate in eight days. It is his
return for which we plead, “Come, Lord
Jesus.” It is to his Kingdom that we
are called to give our ultimate loyalty by accepting him as our only Lord and
Savior and then living out his ethical demands.
For most of us most of the time that is an experience of grace and
joy. It isn’t always easy. We never quite get it right. But we know that God loves us anyway. But through the centuries there have been
times and places in which loyal citizens of God’s Kingdom have suffered
greatly.
There have been, and continue to be, powers and principalities that
demand a trust and loyalty that we can only give to our Lord Jesus Christ, who
demand that we join them in worshiping false gods. There have been, and continue to be, kingdoms
of this world that blatantly deny and oppose the
The kings, leaders, presidents, prime ministers, and premiers of all
such kingdoms are all too often like Herod.
They don’t like having their toes stepped on, their power questioned, or
their ethics corrected. They are
threatened by those who will not deny the Lordship of Jesus.
But the message of Advent – the message of Christmas- is the hope
described by N.T. Wright: “… hope that
God’s peace will one day rule the world [that] enables it now to rule in our
hearts, and gives us the courage to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, even
when that means challenging the kingdoms of this world.” Amen.