Matthew 14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, "This is John the
Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in
him." 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and
bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's
wife. 4 Because John had said to him, "It is
not lawful for you to have her." 5 And
although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they
counted him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod's
birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and
pleased Herod. 7 Therefore he promised with an
oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 So she,
having been prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head
here on a platter." 9 And the king was sorry;
nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he
commanded it to be given to her. 10 So he sent and
had John beheaded in prison. 11 And his head was
brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came and took away the body and
buried it, and went and told Jesus. 13 When Jesus
heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But
when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and
He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him,
saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the
multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves
food." 16 But Jesus said to them, "They
do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17 And they said to Him, "We have here only five
loaves and two fish." 18 He said, "Bring
them here to Me." 19 Then He commanded the
multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two
fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the
disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20
So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the
fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had
eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. 22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the
boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up
on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.
We were informed in Matt 4:12 that John the Baptist had
been arrested by Herod, and this was the reason Jesus had gone to Galilee to
teach and to preach.
John, a personal hero of mine, was not one for mincing
words.
Unfortunately, as we are all aware, if you stand for
something, someone will oppose that stand. It becomes very obvious as a child
of God the only way to avoid all controversy is to avoid taking a side.
It was never in John’s nature to avoid anything. You
could lay this off as being caused by his fiery personality, but I think a more
likely cause is the fire of the Holy Spirit, which has given John an undeniable
passion for the truth, no matter where that truth may land him. (It lands him
in jail, and it lands his head on the chopping block.)
By contrast, Jesus Christ has a passion for creating a
different sort of controversy: feeding hungry people. When does feeding people
become controversial? When it is employed as a tool to distinguish who His
followers are, and exactly why they are following him. Do they follow Christ to
be fed – or do they follow Christ for the food?
-Pastor Bill
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