Passage: Mark 6:14-29

The Big Idea

Hearing Jesus or seeing His works doesn’t automatically bring us to Him. Herod Antipas heard John the Baptist gladly and knew he was a holy man, yet he kept putting off the one thing John told him to deal with. Procrastination hardened his heart, pride kept him from backing down, and a moment of lust and showing off ended with John’s death. Mark tells us this story so we’ll see ourselves in Herod. The answer is simple: don’t wait. Today, if you hear His voice, run to Jesus.

Accepting or Rejecting Jesus

All through Mark we’ve been watching how different people receive Jesus. Some love and trust Him; others reject Him for various reasons. The poor, sick and needy seem to be the first to accept Him, while the rich and powerful, and those who proudly think they already know Him, keep rejecting Him.

Today we meet Herod Antipas, and Mark gives us a lot of detail about what goes into accepting or rejecting Jesus.

It’s not simply hearing Jesus or seeing Him that saves. Something has to be let go: turned away from, surrendered. We have a huge problem called sin.

When we choose sin, it blinds us to truth. When we choose Jesus, we’re set free.

The Question of the Day

Are there things in your life you know aren’t pleasing to God, but you just let them stay? Things you’re not willing to give up?

If so, that’s the road to a hard heart:

Calloused
Calcified
Bullheaded
Obstinate
Unyielding

A hard heart is a heart that doesn’t hear its conscience anymore.

God gave us a conscience. When we sin, we sense the wrongness of it. Then we either run to Jesus and receive His forgiveness, or we keep going and ignore the conscience. If we keep choosing the sin over Jesus, our hearts harden.

“Today” (Hebrews 3:12-15)

Hebrews warns us to watch out that none of us has an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Instead, encourage one another every day, as long as it’s called “Today,” so none of us is hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. For we share in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end, as it says: “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

This is what real fellowship looks like: heart-level relationships.
We openly trust each other with the things we struggle with and fail in, and we keep pointing each other to Jesus with confidence, never losing hope or turning to something else.
When do we do this? Today. Any day that’s called today.
Turn from sin and to Jesus today. Don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow. Only today.
If we hang on to our sins and let our hearts grow hard, very bad things follow.

The Eagle on the Ice

There was once a majestic eagle that hunted near Niagara Falls. He feared nothing as he soared over the land. One day he spotted an easy catch: a fish had flopped onto a block of ice floating down the river. He swooped down, sank his talons into the fish and began to feast as his floating dinner table drifted toward the falls.

The roar grew louder, but he wasn’t afraid. He knew he could fly away any time he wanted.

Right at the edge, he spread his wings as he always had. But he hadn’t realized his talons had frozen into the fish, and the fish had frozen to the ice. And he went over the falls.

Who Is Jesus? (Mark 6:14-16)

King Herod heard about Jesus, because His name had become well known. Some said John the Baptist had been raised from the dead, and that’s why these powers were at work in Him. Others said He was Elijah, or a prophet like the prophets of old. But when Herod heard, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised!”

Herod heard what Jesus was doing and had to decide who He was, just like everyone else.
Some decided Jesus was clearly the Messiah. He was checking every box.
Some decided He was just a man from God.
Some decided He was crazy and ignored Him.
Some decided He was evil and were plotting to kill Him.
Herod, with a hard heart, came up with a strange idea: Jesus was John the Baptist back from the dead.

Mark tells this story so we can learn how Herod’s heart got so hard, because the condition of our hearts determines how we respond to Jesus. The right way to read it isn’t, “That Herod was a terrible guy; glad I’m on team Jesus.” It’s, “That Herod is a lot like me sometimes.”

How It Started (Mark 6:17-18)

Herod himself had sent men to arrest John and bind him in prison, because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom Herod had married. John had been telling him, “It isn’t lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

Here’s the background behind this bizarre situation. Herod Antipas met Herodias in Rome. She was his niece, and also married to his half-brother Philip, which made her his sister-in-law too. (They weren’t very creative with names in that family!) Somehow the two of them got together, she left her husband, and they married. It was plain adultery.

It caused trouble on every side. Antipas divorced his first wife, the daughter of Aretas IV, king of neighboring Nabataea, and that became a source of political tension and eventually a costly war for Antipas.

John, preaching in Herod’s territory, told Herod the truth: this marriage was sin, and to be right with God he’d have to deal with it. Herod didn’t like being told he needed forgiveness like everyone else, so he locked John up. Pride was already at work.

The Inner Battle (Mark 6:19-20)

Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted him dead, but she couldn’t do it, because Herod feared John. He knew John was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard John, he was greatly perplexed, yet he liked listening to him.

This shows the battle going on inside Herod.
He was confused. He suspected John was right. But another voice was in his ear: Herodias.
The Spirit was speaking to him, and so was the enemy.

What was Herod doing? Procrastinating. Sitting on the ice block. He was fine with his sin for the moment, playing with fire.

And Herodias had a plan. She needed to seal the deal before Herod came around to the truth, so she would force the issue.

The enemy works the same way. He’s a master trickster, and he’ll try to lure us into trading truth for sin.

The Birthday Party (Mark 6:21-25)

An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday, when he threw a banquet for his nobles, military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, and she pleased Herod and his guests. The king told the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.” He even swore an oath to give her anything, up to half his kingdom. She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?” Her mother said, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried back and asked for John’s head on a platter, right away.

This was the moment. The plan worked. Herodias hooked Herod with lust and showing off, and now he couldn’t get out of it without being embarrassed in front of everyone who mattered to him.
His pride was too great to allow that.
The enemy plays us the same way. He gets us hooked on sin’s pleasures, and when we’ve drunk deeply, he asks us to seal the deal by silencing our conscience. It gets so hard to turn back.
But Herod could have. He could have fallen on his knees and begged God for mercy. Just like we can. But he didn’t.

Silence (Mark 6:26-29)

The king was deeply grieved, but because of his oaths and his guests, he didn’t want to refuse her. He immediately sent an executioner, who beheaded John in prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl, who gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard, they came, took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

Where there had been a living testimony of truth in Herod’s life, there was now silence.
Where there had been a chance to be forgiven, there was now guilt.

That’s what Mark wants us to see. Herod couldn’t receive who Jesus was because he had a hard heart. He wanted his sin, his fun and his pride more than he wanted to know who Jesus really was or what Jesus could do for him.

What kept Herod from repenting? Pride. He didn’t want to be embarrassed.

Don’t Wait

What does this mean for us? Don’t wait.

Don’t wait for what? To turn from self and turn to Jesus.

The longer we delay turning the right way, the harder it gets. As Scripture says, “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

If we wait, we risk a hard heart. We get confused, like Herod, and ripe for a tempting snare that silences God’s work in our lives. Like the eagle who waited too long.

Jesus said that whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Him isn’t worthy of Him (Matthew 10:38), and that anyone who wants to come after Him must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow (Luke 9:23).

But why today? Paul pleads with us not to receive God’s grace in vain. God says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).

Are we receiving God’s grace in vain? Calling ourselves Christians, yet living as if we’re our own masters, doing whatever we want?

Our mornings aren’t our own. Our evenings aren’t our own. Our lunches and breaks aren’t our own. Our work and study aren’t our own. Our lives aren’t our own. We’ve been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and that’s the best news there is, because the One who owns us loves us.

We follow Jesus or we don’t. And know this: the enemy will always provide a little “dance” to distract you from the right choice, every morning, every evening, any time.

What Should Herod Have Done?

Run to Jesus! Fall on his knees, worship Him, and receive His forgiveness and healing.

And that’s exactly what’s open to you today. There’s no sin too tangled and no heart too far gone that Jesus can’t forgive and soften. The door is open right now.

Grace Takeaway

Herod liked hearing the truth but kept putting off doing anything about it, and that delay hardened his heart until pride made him silence the very voice God sent him. Every day you have the same choice. Don’t wait, and don’t let embarrassment keep you from mercy. Today, while it’s called today, turn from self and run to Jesus. He’s ready to forgive, heal and set you free.

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