Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
November 23, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
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Thesis: There is an inescapable consequence for being a committed prima donna: a "sadness" that never goes away.
Introduction: In our previous studies we have considered Mark's focus upon Herod as a key illustration of a very basic and primary stumbling block to would-be "disciples of Jesus". The issues that swirl around Herod are all concerned with the one basic "primary" value of Evil: the intentional pursuit of absolute sovereignty and the "glory" that accrues to those who seem to be successful in that pursuit. Mark identified him as a "king" when, in reality, he was merely a pawn of Rome's sovereignty as a tetrarch (
6:14,
22,
25,
26, and
27). This meant he was viewed as a successful pursuer of sovereignty by those around him. Mark deliberately characterized him as the savior/murderer of John the Baptizer so that his readers could see just how little sovereignty he actually had, and how his bondage to the pursuit ruined his life by placing an inescapable and heavy load of guilt upon him so that his inner life was deteriorating day by day. He also explained how it came about that he departed from his "savior" identity to his "murderer" identity and laid all of the "blame" upon his most determinedly grasp of the pursuit.
In our study this evening we are going to consider the impact of Herod's pursuit of sovereignty upon Herod, himself. In a word, it was the onset of "great sorrow" that was to grow into an eternal one. But, we need to consider how Mark drove this point home.
- I. The Back Story In Review.
- A. Herod had imprisoned John in order to "save" him from Herodias' extreme desire to kill John.
- B. Herod, himself, enjoyed occasional opportunities to listen to John even though he was perplexed by the things John said.
- C. Herod, unknowing what was developing, thought that throwing himself a grand birthday banquet with all of his key people in attendance would be an effective way to pursue his goal.
- D. Herod, when the party was in full swing, called for the daughter of Herodias to come in and dance for his great men.
- E. Herod, when the cheering, leering, and applause died down, thought to impress all present with how great he was by being "extraordinarily magnanimous" to the girl.
- II. Mark's Focus Upon How Herod Got Trapped By His Own Pursuit of Power And Glory.
- A. When Herod offered the girl up to half his kingdom, he had no idea that she would run to her mother for "what to ask the king".
- B. The mother, however, did not hesitate to send her daughter to the "king" with the request that he behead John and bring his head to the girl on a platter.
- C. At this particular point, the consequence for Herod of his pursuit set in.
- 1. The consequence was called "great sorrow"/"great sadness".
- a. This term is used in three other places in the New Testament.
- 1) In Matthew 26:38 and Mark 14:34 it is used by Matthew and Mark to characterize the emotional state of Jesus in the garden on the night he was betrayed.
- 2) In Luke 18:23 it is used of a very wealthy "ruler" who asked Jesus what he had to do to possess eternal life.
- b. These uses make these points.
- 1) "Great sorrow"/"great sadness" is a result of two, mutually exclusive, tightly held values whose "values" have only a tiny bit of difference in the heart of the one who is holding on to them.
- 2) It is the nature of the values within the "system" [the "love" of the person] that "soul" issues of the emotional condition of the person are significantly linked.
- 3) This means that it is an inescapable inevitability that if a situation develops in such a way as to put a "you can't have your cake and eat it too" reality before a person, there will be a strong clash between the "joy" of values held and succeeding and the "sorrow" of values held and defeated.
- 4) The "problem" is that the "joy" will be diminished by the "sorrow" to the degree that the values held are in proximity to each other.
- 5) And the biblical solution to this situation is "finding rest in your soul" by letting Jesus increase the joy and diminish the grief ("Come unto Me ... and you shall find rest unto your soul").
- a) The problem here is this: if a person is unwilling to come to Jesus, there will be no rest and that absence will be magnified as the days go by.
- b) Thus, Herod's "great sorrow" was just beginning and would only increase as his days played out until his being cast into Hell.
- 2. This consequence had this inevitable result: a gradual, down-line spiral, into the realities of "death" in which the bondage to the "value" held grows greater as the realization increases that the "value" is going to be finally denied.
- a. Is there anything worse than, having been defeated, realizing that the defeat is only the "beginning of sorrows"?
- b. The illustration of Paul regarding the triumphal entry of the victor is key: the smell of the crushed petals of the flowers have opposite significances for those who trample those flowers into the pavement (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).
