MATTHEW 14:1-12
JAMES 5:10, 11a SAYS, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.” In this tract we will behold the greatest of the prophets—John the Baptist—and will consider the blessed example of his life and especially his last hours.
One of Thomas Cranmer’s “collects” was written to be recited at the Nativity of John the Baptist, a feast day celebrated on June 24 on the Anglican Church calendar. The prayer begins with a short summary of John’s life and ministry: “Almighty God, by whose providence thy servant, John the Baptist, was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Savior, by preaching of repentance...” The prayer starts by reminding us of John’s unique birth, of his important mission as the forerunner of Jesus, and of the content of his preaching. Then the prayer shifts from God’s work in John’s life to a petition for God’s work in our lives: “Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake” (emphasis mine).
I don’t know if Cranmer had his Bible open to 14:1-12 when he wrote this prayer, but I would guess that he did, for this prayer serves as an excellent outline for this passage. This text reminds us:
1. Unlike Herod, we are to “repent according to [John’s] preaching.”
2. Following John’s example, we are exhorted to “constantly speak the truth,” which includes “boldly rebuking vice."
3. Finally, and again following John’s example, we are called to “patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.”
That We May Truly Repent
First we must practice repentance. If you remember anything from the last tract (besides all you learned about Sigmund Freud), I hope you remembered the two applications I gave in response to Herod’s two vices—not to be like Herod in acting against your conscience, and not to be like Herod in not repenting—letting sin so easily entangle you so that you cannot or will not see Jesus for who he is.
In this chapter, while we have shifted our focus from Herod the heartless king to John the headless prophet, we nevertheless begin where we left off—with repentance. The message of repentance was at the heart of John’s ministry, and it was the primary reason he was killed.
In 3:1, 2 we learn of John and of his message: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The next time Matthew mentions John he is in prison (11:2). As we learn from our current passage, he is in prison for playing again that broken record of repentance: “For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her’” (11:3, 4). In other words, “Herod, repent of your sin of marrying your brother’s wife while your brother is still alive (and your rightful wife is still alive as well). Sever this immoral, unlawful (it is directly against the laws of Leviticus), polygamous relationship. You can’t have an unlawfully divorced wife and an unlawfully wedded wife. Leave the second, and re-cleave to the first!”
The first time I led a call to worship in a service was when I was an intern at Holy Trinity Church in Chicago. I walked up to the pulpit, opened my Bible, and read, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” I closed my Bible and sat down. The music played, “Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling” or whatever song was sung. What a way to start a service!
Afterward the senior leader took me aside and gently reminded me of the purpose of a call to worship and what is usually said and done. I appreciated that, and I learned from that. But three years later a college student who had attended that service told me that my call to worship was the reason he started attending. When I got up and read what I read, at that moment he said to himself, “Wow. What kind of a church starts its service like this? What kind of a church takes sin and the need for repentance so seriously? This is the church for me!”
John began his ministry with the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and Jesus did the same. In fact, the Reformation was birthed through the same words. The first thesis of the 95 Theses is, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said ‘Repent’ [poenitentiam agite], willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” So that is our call to worship, not only in a church service, but in all of the Christian life!
That’s point one. In looking at the character and example of John, it is crucial that we first heed his message of repentance and that we get in the practice of constantly asking ourselves, “Are we continuing to bring our sin to our Savior?” We will indeed sin. So are we continually confessing our sins? And are we asking Jesus to deeply transform us by the power of his gospel? We should pray, “Jesus, help me to abide in you (that’s where the sin-breaking power of grace comes from) and rejoice in you. Help me to be grateful for all that you have given and continue to give—life, breath, salvation—for gratitude can squelch the surge of sin; it can flatten the fires of our flesh. Help me to come to you daily in dependence, like a little child clinging to his father’s strong, tall leg. Here am I, Lord, cleanse me, save me, sanctify me, and send me! I repent. I repent again. My whole earthly life is a life of perpetual repentance.”
That We May Constantly Speak the Truth
The first application we should take from the totality of John’s life is to repent. The second is to rebuke. In looking at the example of John the Baptist, we should ask God to help us to “constantly speak the truth,” as John did, especially in regard to "boldly rebuking vice.”
Years ago I took a class on British Church History with Dr. Mark Noll. When the class discussed Henry VIII, Dr. Noll, who is known for being refined and levelheaded in his judgments regarding historical figures, in an uncanny outburst said to the class, “Henry VIII was a monster!”
The same could be said of Herod. He was a monster. He was the epitome of “the doubled-minded man” James addressed in the first chapter of his epistle. While Herod had a conscience and possessed some good impulses, he was nevertheless an extremely evil man, unstable in all he did (James 1:8). In the last chapter, when I pretended to have Sigmund Freud psychoanalyze Herod, I was not embellishing on the historical facts regarding Herod or his family. Commentator James Edwards agrees that the family affairs of Herod Antipas “could supply the script for a long soap opera series” or a HBO miniseries. And everyone in John's day knew this. They knew of the widespread decadence of Herod Antipas. Through gossip, Herod’s indiscretions were as publicized as England’s royal family’s indiscretions have been through the tabloids. Everyone in John’s day had the dirt on Herod.
This being the case, what I find so incredibly courageous is that John the Baptist bothered to challenge Palestine’s earthly king and the accepted reality of his wickedness. Why rock the boat? Why fight the establishment? Why, of all people, go after “king” Herod, a man who very well could have your head on a platter? Why? Because John was a true prophet!
In Ezekiel 13 we read of the many false prophets who “misled” God’s people (Ezekiel 13:10), prophesying “from their own hearts” (Ezekiel 13:2) the message “‘Peace,’ when there is no peace” (Ezekiel 13:10); rather only divine judgment was to come. Like Ezekiel and all the faithful Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist obeyed his divine orders to offend even the king and all who refuse to heed the truth.
Because he was faithful to his calling, John spoke truthfully to Herod concerning his bad behavior. As J. C. Ryle put it, John didn’t flatter “the king’s ungodliness by using soft words to describe his offense. He told his royal hearer the plain truth regardless of all consequences,” regardless of how untimely, imprudent, and politically incorrect his words were.
In light of John’s bold witness to the truth, it struck me like a rock being thrown at my head that many of us don’t experience much persecution or we don’t have many (or any) enemies because we are cowards. We have mastered the fine art of biting our tongue all the time—not just when we should, but also when we shouldn’t. But think about this: what is one of our Lord’s most famous commands? Love your enemies. Right? Okay, so Christ calls us to love our enemies, but who in the Ecclesia has enemies to love? Although it is a terrible thing to have enemies because you have been cruel to someone, it is a blessed thing to have enemies if they have been created through “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
We often define the godly person as someone who never stirs up controversy or makes his or her opinions public, especially moral judgments. But the Bible does not. Just read the Psalms and look for the word “enemies.” The psalmists seem unable to lift a prayer without mentioning an enemy. We can try to write this off as some old-covenant mentality, some false ancient prejudice. Or we can take seriously the clear portrait of every single godly person in the Bible as one who had enemies because, like John, they constantly spoke the truth and boldly rebuked vices. I’ll put it this way: the more you are like Christ in his holiness, the more you will be like Christ in his sufferings.
Let’s bring this idea straight into our world. So, should we protest immoralities—abortion, same-sex marriages, promiscuity? Yes. So picket a clinic, write a letter, sign a petition. But more than that we should open our mouths to the immoralities around us, especially in the Ecclesia. There is enough immorality in the Ecclesia to keep us quite busy. You see, it is easier to do something about immorality from a distance (to throw stones from Fargo to Washington, Duluth to Hollywood), but what about bending down and pushing a doorstop against the sins crouching at your front door? My point is, it is not easy to confront people we know (Ecclesial members, family members, friends, neighbors, etc.) who are disobeying the commands of Christ, especially if they profess to be Christadelphians.
It is certainly easy for me (and I would imagine for you as well) to stand in front of an abortion clinic and hold up a sign that reads, “Abortion stops a beating heart.” But it is far more difficult to confront someone I know and love who is in a sexually immoral relationship and say to him or her, “You must break off this engagement” or “You must move out of this living situation; you must stop what you are doing.” That takes the bravery of a John the Baptist.
During my junior and senior years of college I lived in a campus-owned house with five other guys. Only one did not work as a youth worker until something happened in his life. He flew into Chicago one day to tell me about it. Over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie he announced to me (not gleefully but somewhat remorsefully) that he had rejected God and had begun experimenting with homosexuality. He told me to pray for him because he didn’t feel like he was in a good place.
Before I responded to this shocking news, I asked him how many Christian friends and leaders had responded to him, and he replied, “Everyone has been very understanding and loving about this whole situation." When he said that, my heart broke, for I thought to myself, No! They have been neither understanding nor loving, for this is love, my friend: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’’ Those were not the words I used in my response, but they well expressed the sentiment of my message to him. I told him he had upset me and that he had certainly angered God.
What a freedom there is in speaking the truth in love rather than speaking so-called love without truth. He wasn’t angry with my anger, but if he had been, it wouldn't have fazed me because more and more I have come to expect that the ungodly will become upset, like Herod was, when they are told the truth. And if this close friend of mine became my enemy (which he didn’t), so be it. I am called to love him even if he hates me.
That was a time I boldly spoke the truth, but there have been a thousand other times when I have cowardly bitten my tongue. Why? Because I’m afraid of what others might think. I’m afraid of making enemies! But do you know what Jesus once said about that fear? In Luke 6:26 he said to his disciples, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” You see, if one is faithfully proclaiming and living out the gospel, then it is no disgrace to have enemies. When we faithfully bear witness in word and deed against sin, the world, and evil, it is no disgrace to give offense. Rather, according to our Lord, it is a disgrace to be thought well of by everybody because we have never taken a stand on anything.
So through the testimony of John the Baptist (v. 4) God reminds us in his Word that with humility, gentleness, and love, and through careful attention to the situation and to the person we are addressing, we are called to “constantly speak the truth,” as we saw earlier from Thomas Cranmer’s words.
That We May Patiently Suffer for the Truth's Sake
We are to truly repent of our unrighteousness (point one). We are to boldly rebuke unrighteousness in others (point two). Finally, because of points one and two, we are to patiently suffer, as John did, for the sake of the truth (point three).
John the Baptist was a living beatitude. He was poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and pure in heart, and he mourned over the sins of God’s people. He brought the message of peace and reconciliation with God for those who repent. He hungered and thirsted for righteousness. He was persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
In his final beatitude our Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (5:11, 12). Throughout John’s ministry he was treated just like the prophets who went before him. He was reviled and persecuted in his life and mocked in the manner of his death. The one whom Jesus called the greatest man “born of women” (11:11) had his head chopped off and served on a platter because some foolish tetrarch made a rash vow at a lewd birthday party. Think about that. What a way to go. The only more humiliating death would be to hang upon a Roman cross.
Surely in John's death, as promised by Jesus, we are to recognize the reality of his reward. It is a glorious thing that John died the way he did. Yet here in Matthew we are not given this heavenly perspective. There is no mention of angels rejoicing, no singing of Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” There are no apostolic words of comfort: “He received his crown in heaven though he had lost his head on earth.” There is none of that. In fact, “the only act of decency in the account of John’s martyrdom is the arrival of his disciples to give his body a proper burial” (see v. 12).
In the terrible fate of John we see only the grim face of death. We see the picture of the cross John bore that foreshadows, as I mentioned, the cross of Christ. It is no coincidence that there are parallels between the two passions. As John was seized and bound, so Jesus will be seized and bound (the same words are used), and as John stands before Herod, so Jesus will stand before Pontus Pilate (both leaders wavered in moral courage and both washed their hands of the crime or tried to), and so on.
John’s martyrdom prefigures Jesus’ death; John’s “cross” points to Jesus’ cross. But it also points to the cross of Christians. That is, John’s death prefigures the death of anyone who would follow Christ. In other words, discipleship and death is our calling in Christ. “If anyone would come after me,” Jesus says, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (16:24). We are to patiently suffer for the sake of the truth.
The slogan for a popular Christian radio station is “Positive, encouraging, and safe for the whole family.” There are some very positive things we should glean from this otherwise negative passage. For example, we should be positively encouraged that Herod Antipas, though severing John’s head, could not and did not silence his message; while Herod fades into the oblivion of history, the gospel of the kingdom of heaven that John preached continues to grow to this day! Tertullian’s famous dictum is true in the case of John: “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” So too is Spren Kierkegaard’s axiom, “The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins.” It is true that the death of John the Baptist is both positive and encouraging in that it reminds us that the kingdom advances in spite of the evil and cruelty of the world. Yet it is also true that this message of the gospel is not “safe for the whole family” or for the individual. Just as there is nothing safe about befriending a lion, so there is nothing safe about befriending the Lion of Judah.
A brave Chinese Christian by the name of Watchman Nee wrote the famous book The Normal Christian Life. The book is not so much about suffering as it is about living the so-called “victorious Christian life.” Yet, to borrow his title, I will say this about how the apostles defined the normal Christian life. Peter said:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you [suffering is the normal Christian life]. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings [cp. Romans 8:17], that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed [at his return]. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:12-14)
That is what Peter has to say about the normal Christian life, and Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”—not might be persecuted, but will be persecuted. They will not necessarily have their heads cut off, but their words will be laughed at, their moral values spit upon, their ideologies scorned.
I don’t care what that radio station says; the Bible says that Christianity is not safe for the whole family! It is not safe for those who seek truly to follow Christ. Rather, the call of Christ; as Cranmer’s prayer rightly puts it, is the call to “patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.”
Two Sermons in Sum
So that’s my take on 14:1-12. We should not be like Herod, but we should be like John. We should repent, as John preached. When needed and appropriate, we should rebuke others and constantly speak the truth, even and especially boldly rebuking vice. Then, because we are willing to repent and rebuke, we should bear the weight of the consequences—suffering patiently for the truth’s sake.
Years ago I preached on Mark 6:14-29, Mark’s version on this Matthew text. When I was ready to print the tract, my printer broke. I walked down the street and asked a neighbor, who happens to be a Christian, if I could use her printer to print out my tract. She said that would be fine. Now, as she saw the top of the first page of the tract with its unusual title (I think I used the same title as in this book), “The Headless Prophet and the Heartless King,” she turned to me and asked in a very curious tone of voice, “What topic are you preaching on this Sunday?” I smiled and said, "The beheading of John the Baptist.” She paused, and with a confused expression on her face she said, “Who picks the talk topics for your church?”
While that was a humorous moment, it was also a telling moment in some ways of the standard mentality most Christians have regarding what topics or texts are good or normal. In most churches Christians have become accustomed to hearing sermons on important topics, Biblical topics, often revolving around salvation, marriage, family, children, work, evangelism, etc. But the topic of suffering for righteousness’ sake is rarely addressed. Yet, in the Gospels and in the Epistles the topic of suffering is far more normative than the topic of how a husband should treat his wife. The topic of how a husband should treat his wife is an important topic, and that is why it is addressed at least three times in the New Testament. However, the topic of suffering is also important, and that is why it is addressed on nearly every other page of the New Testament.
The suffering of the righteous may not be a popular sermon series, but it is an appropriate and important one. It is the sum of what this chapter on John the prophet says to us.
(R. Kent Hughes. and Douglas Sean O'Donnell., 2013; edited Carl Hinton., 2020)