How do we know what is right and what is wrong? I remember when I was in college in the mid-70s I had just finished working a night shift around 2 am. I was on my way home and was looking for something to listen to on the radio to keep me awake. There was a call-in program on the PBS station in Chicago and the guest that night was a psychologist. As I listened a fellow called and told the psychologist that he had been raised in a strict Christian family and now he didn’t believe in that anymore. But the problem was that whenever he started doing those things that as a child he had been taught were wrong he felt guilty. And this guilt was really bothering him. Could the psychologist help him? There was a slight pause and then the psychologist told him, that he had to keep on doing those things about which he felt guilty. Just keep on doing them and after a while, the guilt feelings would go away. The caller then thanked him and hung up. The show went on, but I have often thought back on what was said that night.
That is the state we live in right now, isn’t it? People are doing things that at one point in time we as a society may have felt bad about but now we feel no guilt at all. We all have seen, heard, and read things so often on television, in the movies, and the best sellers that we do not feel bad or shocked anymore. Society regards those who have strict morals as odd and somehow out of touch. All things having to do with sex are all assumed to be OK and not just OK, good as long as the partners are adults and consenting. One can do almost anything as long as words like love, freedom, my own choice are involved.
On the one hand, it is all fine and good to have our own set of morals, but let us not try to foist these morals onto other people, right? Remember the best seller, I’m OK; You’re OK? I can do and think whatever I wish and it is OK and you can think and do whatever you wish and it is OK. I’m good and you are good. That brings us right to our Gospel lesson this morning. John the Baptizer had said to King Herod that it was not lawful for him to have Herodias as his wife because she was already your brother’s wife. What in the world was John the Baptizer thinking? What business was it of his, what Herod and Herodias did in their personal lives? Herod Antipas was not even a Jew. So was Herod interested in what the Jewish law was? Did Herod even care what the Jewish law was? What about Herodias? Did she care about what the Jewish law was or that they were breaking it? The answers are no, no, no, and no. Herod Antipas had been educated in Rome. In Rome, there was certainly not a lot of concern about sexual morality. In fact, one could say, there was no concern about that. And apparently, there was a genuine affection between Herod Antipas and Herodias. Later when he is exiled, Herodias is given the option to stay in Galilee and keep her home and possessions, but she wants to stay with Antipas and goes off into exile with him. So again, what was John the Baptizer thinking? Why did he decide to impose his morality on a couple of pagans? And they were even in love too!
What was John upset about? He said the sexual relationship between Herod and Herodias was unlawful; Herodias had been married to Herod’s younger brother Philip and apparently was still married. In John’s mind it was unlawful because God said that behavior was wrong in the Scriptures. Now it is unclear whether John simply talked about Herod and Herodias along with some other points in one of his sermons to the people by the shores of the Jordon River or whether he actually saw Herod and told him. Either way, John was extremely courageous. Those were days when life was not sacred. People could have their tongues ripped out, their eyes blinded, or their legs crippled on the whim of a ruler. Or, of course, they could be killed. So to go out of one’s way to tell a pagan ruler that he was disobeying God’s holy law was amazing. In our own day, we are shocked because what John did seems pretty rude, but if we did that kind of thing we would not expect to be killed or tortured or maimed, but John certainly could.
So why did John say anything? What was John’s motivation to get involved in Herod’s and Herodias’ personal life? Was John even right in doing so? It boils down to, are the Scriptures right? Do the Scriptures really contain God’s words to us? If in fact these are God’s words, do these words have any authority over how we as humans live? To say it another way, do the words from a book written over the course of several thousand years, several thousand years ago matter to us? And even if we decide they matter to us as Christians, should they matter to people who do not believe the Bible is God’s Word? You see this story is not an ancient story at all. This story is right up to date. We deal with the same questions.
Does the Bible have authority over us as Christians? And does it speak the truth for everyone, even those who are not Christians? First, as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we certainly have to acknowledge the authority of Scripture. Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish any Scripture but to fulfill it. He said that anyone who teaches that Scripture is not important will be least in the kingdom. No, certainly we as Christians must acknowledge the authority of Scripture. Either that or we presume to know more than Jesus. And if we presume that we know more than Jesus, we are not followers, admirers of some of what he taught perhaps, but not his followers.
Secondly, does the Bible speak truth for everyone, even those who are not Christians? The question can be looked at another way. Are there many philosophical truths? Are all religions right in their own way? Does everyone make it to God as long as they are sincere? Since we started with Jesus, the answers are fairly simple. Jesus said that He was the way the truth and life and that no comes to the Father, that is, to God, except through him. If we are following Jesus that is the conclusion to which we must come. Jesus is the only way to God.
So was John right in telling Herod and Herodias that they were sinning? He was certainly right that Herod and Herodias were sinning according to God’s Word. Now about whether he had to say anything to them, we need to remember that John was a prophet and did what God told him to do. Jesus, to our knowledge, although he was the Messiah, God’s Son, did not tell Herod and Herodias anything. So by the examples given to us we can see that sometimes we may need to speak out against the behavior of others out loud as God leads us. Other times, we do not have say anything out loud. Nonetheless by both of their examples, God’s Word stands. It is the Christian’s standard. It is the rule by which we, as Christians measure our actions and the actions of our society. It doesn’t matter what our society approves or disapproves. Our society must not be what we look to for what is right. People’s opinions, my opinion, your opinion, are certainly important and valid, but if God says something different than what we think, God is right and we are wrong.
As Christians therefore, let us follow the standards of the Scriptures in the Old and New Testament as God’s Word and make God’s Word the authority in our lives.
