Mark 6:21-29 (NIV): Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Herod was a man of extravagant tastes and extravagant promises. When someone did something he liked or appreciated, he was quick to show his appreciation. But his haste to make promises held within it the possibility for disaster if the person making the request was selfish or unscrupulous.
Herodias, like her mother, was both. Herod was not her father; to her he was just the man her mother happened to be with. She had no family loyalty to Herod, and no concern for the welfare of him or his kingdom. So when Herod impulsively promised her whatever she wanted for her dance, and when her mother urged her to ask for the head of John the Baptist (the perfect opportunity to get rid of that thorn in her side), there was nothing in her that shied away from the idea.
Herod, of course, was horrified, and immediately regretted his decision. He had been manipulated by Herodias into arresting John in the first place, and now this! But Herod was more mindful of his reputation before his guests than of the wrongness of the request. If he had had said no, or begged the girl to reconsider, he would have appeared weak before his high officials, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee, who had witnessed the promise, and now wanted to see what he would do. To show weakness before men like those could easily put a king’s life at risk, showing a chink in his armor that could embolden a coup. So Herod put his respect for John behind him, and boldly sent the executioner for his head.
It was a moment of triumph for Herodias, but a moment of defeat and humiliation for the king. From that time on he lived in dread of judgment for his dishonorable act on a man that he knew to be supremely honorable. That was why, when he heard about Jesus and the miracles He was doing, his first thought was that it was John, returned from the dead (Mark 6:16), and why he kept trying to see Jesus (Luke 9:9), to see if it was true.
Father, pride and fear of men can place us in a position where we are easily manipulated into doing stupid, or even shameful, things. Lord, help us to never operate from pride, boasting about who we are and what we can do. We have nothing, are nothing, and can do nothing apart from You. And help us to never “be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” (Matthew 10:28a NIV) so that we end up promising and doing things that bring disgrace to us and shame to Your name. Instead, help us to fear You alone, and to always keep You and Your priorities topmost in our lives. Amen.