Scripture Reading: Mark 6:14-29
We have here at the very beginning a serious case of conscience. One would say that Herod was past having such fits of remorse, as his life was so wholly bad. But in even the worst men conscience is not apt to be entirely dead. At least Herod’s conscience was only asleep, and when He heard of Jesus gong about the country, working miracles, it seemed to him that it must be John the Baptist, whom he had so tragically beheaded, and who had been raised from the dead. Herod’s friends tried to quiet him, assuring him that it was not John returned, but a new prophet, who was doing these wonderful things. However, Herod’s fear could not be quieted, his remorse was so great. “No, it is John, whom I beheaded; he is risen.” Conscience is our best friend so long as we live right. But if we sin, it becomes a torturing fire. We may thing we can easily forget our sin, but conscience refused to forget. Lady Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s play, said that all the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten her murderous little hand. Visitors traveling in Scotland are shown a stone with a spot of blood on it which, it is said, will not wash off. If we would be surely saved from the terrors of the accusing conscience, we must live so as to have the approval of conscience in all our acts.
John the Baptist was a wonderful man. The story of his death is most tragic. It seems utterly inappropriate that a man so noble, so worthy, who had done such a good work, should be brutally killed to gratify the resentment of a wicked woman. For it was Herodias who really caused the death of the Baptist. Wicked as Herod was, he would not have killed John if it had not been for the woman, who never could forgive the preacher for reproving her sin. The part that Herodias played in this crime shows her in a most pitiful light. She was a disgrace to her sex. From the time John spoke so plainly against her sin she was determined that he should die for it. Herod protected him from her plots but she bided her time.
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