Prophets Without Honor

Matthew 13:53-14:13a

Immanuel – 8/11/24

Since October of last year, we have been slowly working through the Gospel of Matthew. And as we methodically dig through Matthew, we seek to uncover the priceless treasures that are to be found: whether they are easy to grasp or deep beneath the surface. Treasures are to be found!

Let us recall a few details from the past 13 chapters. Matthew opens declaring that Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham, born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem. In other words, Jesus is the prophesied Messiah.

Then John the Baptist, a prophet of God, proclaims this about Jesus:

I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.

-Matthew 3:11-12

John was speaking about the Messiah, prophesied millennia before, but had finally arrived in Jesus of Nazareth. Soon after, John baptized Jesus; and when he did so a voice from heaven spoke,

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” -Matthew 3:17

Jesus of Nazareth: Messiah and the Son of God! He would be the one to finally unite heaven and earth. Only a short time later Jesus began His public ministry with the announcement:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” -Matthew 4:17

Jesus then delivered the exceedingly famous Sermon on the Mount. We spent 12 weeks sifting through it. The heart of the sermon is in Christ’s following words:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” -Matthew 6:33

After the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus performs a series of powerful miracles: cleansing a leper, healing a boy on his deathbed, calming a storm, healing a paralytic, raising a dead girl to life, restoring sight to two blind men, and healing a man unable to speak.

Jesus then sends out His disciples, as sheep among the wolves, to proclaim the very same message He has been proclaiming:

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” -Matthew 10:7

Immediately following the disciples’ mission, we hear from John the Baptist again. He has been imprisoned by Herod, and he has been having doubts. If Jesus is the Messiah, and if John is the prophetic voice to announce Jesus as Messiah, then why is John rotting in Herod’s jail cell? Jesus simply assured John that He is the Messiah, and John’s doubts are assuaged.

John the Baptist is a mixture of doubt and belief, something that so many of us can relate to. Meanwhile, most people refuse to believe in Jesus and repent. Others outright reject Jesus. People were too comfortable, too selfish, too proud to let someone like Jesus into their lives.

And their sins are a reflection of our sins; for we are afflicted by the same indifferent, selfish, arrogance. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We don’t want someone telling us we are wrong. We are comfortable living without any thought of God and His ways. Jesus spoke woes over those who refused to repent, and woe to us if we refuse to repent. If separation from God is what we want, then eternally separated we shall be.

Some – like the disciples – did embrace Jesus, and they received all the benefits of the kingdom of heaven. But regardless of how people responded to Jesus, in the midst of them all, He cried out:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus offers a wholesale invitation to any and all that are exhausted from the work of life and weighed down by its burdens: just come to Him to find rest. His is a rest that no circumstances can shake, a rest that is experienced even while you work, a rest in the very depths of your being. Through a relationship with Jesus you will know you are loved by God, your heart will be filled with hope and joy, and you will know a peace that surpasses understanding. In other words, Jesus offers you a soul that is at rest. All you must do is come to Him in faith.

Over the past three weeks we unpacked the Parable Discourse of chapter 13. Jesus and the disciples were proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand – near – in their very midst; the Parable Discourse is a series of seven parables that unfold the nature of that kingdom. Through the parables, Jesus answers the following questions: How do people enter the kingdom, how does the kingdom grow, and what does it look like?

Jesus concludes with three parables revealing that the kingdom of heaven is worth everything, even if at the loss of all earthly possessions. The kingdom is a treasure worth living for, the kingdom is a treasure worth dying for! Jesus, as the King of that kingdom, is where one begins in search of such treasure. In fact, what we come to understand is that He is the treasure. Everything else follows after a person begins to trust in Him.

I highlight these specific moments in Matthew because when we come to our passage today, it is absolutely jarring. We follow Jesus into two sad collisions, and these turn into a pivot point within Matthew’s Gospel. The echoes of sorrow will only increase from here.

Read 13:53-56

A Prophet Rejected

Jesus’ base of operations has been in Capernaum. The Parable Discourse largely took place on a boat in the waters of the Sea of Galilee, right on the shores of Capernaum. But Jesus leaves the lakeside and travels inland, to the town He was raised in: Nazareth.

This is the first time Jesus has returned to Nazareth since His ministry has begun. Mark and Luke also record this event. Presumably, Jesus spent some time visiting His family. When the Sabbath day came around, Jesus taught in Nazareth’s synagogue. Of course, this is His childhood synagogue. He knew the religious leaders there, and they knew Him.

From the very beginning, it had been Jesus’ custom to teach in the local synagogues.

And [Jesus] went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So His fame spread throughout all [the region].

-Matthew 4:23-24

It was Jesus’ custom to teach in synagogues. And after the Nazareth’s religious leaders heard about what their hometown hero had been up to, they were probably eager to hear from Him on the Sabbath…at least, initially.

Matthew leaves out the content of Jesus’ teaching, but Luke tells us that Jesus, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, was teaching that He was Israel’s long awaited Messiah: that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him to proclaim good news to the poor and liberty to the captives, to give sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:16-30)

In verse 54 you will notice two things that impressed the Jews of Nazareth: His wisdom and His mighty works. They heard His wisdom firsthand, as He taught in the synagogue. They’ve heard of His mighty works as His fame spread all around Galilee.

His wisdom was expressed in revealing that He was Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. And from Luke’s account we know that the people were demanding Jesus perform mighty works just like He had done in Capernaum and elsewhere, but Jesus refused to give them a spectacle. This is the unbelief that verse 58 talks about.

Read 13:58

Jesus’ miracles were not meant to be a performance. He was not an on-demand magician. He is not a vending machine for wonders. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; His miracles were an expression of His compassion and a testimony of His identity, and both were meant for building faith.

But it was this dual dynamic – that Jesus taught His Messiahship and that He refused their demands of miracles – that the people took offense.

Look again at the series of rhetorical questions they ask: “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all His sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at Him.

The people are saying, “Jesus is from here. He used to work construction around the corner. We know His family. We can name them. We saw Him grow up. Where did He get these amazing gifts – we know nothing good comes out of Nazareth (John 1:46)!” But ultimately, all those rhetorical questions aim at one simple, closeminded, claim: Jesus is no better than us, He’s one of us.

How easy it is to tear people down when they have success beyond our own. And this is Jesus, literally God in the flesh. How quickly the people tear down their God and King, who was raised in their midst.

Read 13:57

Crowds from all over the region flock to Jesus. His fame is growing. Even in spite of people’s varied responses to Jesus, there are always those who have honored Him. But not in His hometown. Not among His family. He’s still their hometown boy, and little more.

And can’t you relate to this on some level? No matter what experiences you gain in life, no matter the achievements, you’re still just a kid when you go home. It can keep you grounded, and such humility is good. But when people are insecure and proud and sinful, they can begin to feel threatened by you. They lash out. They say foolish things. They remind you of who you were back then. Maybe it was you, resenting the person you grew up that is now successful.

If you have experienced such hometown animosity, then amplify that a hundred-fold for Jesus. Because Luke tells us that after these things happened in Nazareth’s synagogue, a riot effectively broke out. They dragged Jesus to the edge of a cliff to throw Him off. They were so offended by Him, so threatened, that they wanted to kill Him.

Again, Luke informs us that it’s right at this moment that Jesus performed a miracle. He somehow slipped through the crowd, like water in a clenched fist, and escaped the mob violence. It was not the miracle they were looking for, but it was the miracle they received.

I said we have come to a pivot point in Matthew’s gospel. From this point forward, Jesus will no longer teach in synagogues. He leaves behind the corrupt and unbelieving religious establishment and chooses to no longer operate within their parameters. He was another prophet, in a long line of prophets, that was rejected by the very people He came for.

In addition to being the Son of God and the Messiah – by Jesus’ own words in verse 57 – He was also a prophet. You might say, the Prophet of all prophets. He was without honor, they rejected Him, they tried to kill Him, yet He escaped. Now we turn to another prophet without honor, and for whom there would be no escape.

Read 14:1-2

A Prophet Martyred

Just as the people of Nazareth had heard of Jesus’ miraculous works, so also has Herod the tetrarch heard of Jesus’ fame.

Herod is a family name, much like Matlack is my family name. When the Gospel of Matthew opened, Herod the Great was in power. But in chapter 2, he died. The kingdom of Herod the great was broken up into three dominions and given to three of his sons.

Philip the tetrarch would get the northern portion of Trachonitis and Iturea – largely Gentile lands.

Herod Archelaus would get the Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria. (Archelaus would do such a poor job governing his dominion that Rome would seize it from him and install their own governor. Eventually, this territory would be given to a Roman hard-man, named Pontius Pilate.)

Herod the tetrarch in Matthew 14:1 is also known as Herod Antipas. Antipas governed the split territory of Galilee and Perea; split geographically and split between Jews and Gentiles. Antipas is the Herod that ruled Galilee for nearly all of Jesus’ life, from 4 BC to 39 AD. When the New Testament talks about Herod, it is almost always referring to Herod Antipas.

This Herod, Herod Antipas, had heard of Jesus’ fame; and how could he not? Everyone was hearing about Jesus and His miraculous works. But when Antipas hears about Jesus, he is struck with some mixture of superstitious fear and guilt. For in this superstitious delusion, Antipas believes that John the Baptist has come back; John the Baptist whom he had killed.

Then, in Matthew’s narrative, we get a flashback.

Read 14:3-11

All throughout the Bible, prophets are a confrontational bunch. They confronted people with their sins, called for repentance, and stood up for the truth. John the Baptist was no different. And we see in verse 4 that John was speaking out against Antipas, for his unlawful marriage to Herodias.

The law John claimed Herod was breaking came from Leviticus 18:16.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. - Leviticus 18:16

In other words, it was not lawful for a man to have sexual relations with his brother’s wife. That is exactly what Herod Antipas was doing.

Let’s take a moment to plunge into the spiderweb that was the Herod family. Here is a very simplified diagram of that family.

You can see that Herodias, the woman of our passage, was first married to Herod Phillip. Phillip and Herodias had a daughter together, Salome, the dancer in our passage.

Meanwhile, Herod Antipas was married to the daughter of a Nabatean king. Despite their respective marriages, Antipas and Herodias began an affair. Antipas’ wife, the princess, found out and ran off to her father. In response, the Nabateans made war with Antipas and would have wiped him out if it weren’t for Roman intervention. Afterwards, Herodias abandoned Phillip and came to live with Antipas, bringing Salome with her.

You can also see in this diagram that both Antipas and Phillip were the uncles of Herodias. And you thought your family was messed up! The Herod family was a tangled and complex web of incest, deceit, backstabbing, and broken relationships.

And living under Antipas’ rule, John the Baptist – prophet of God – could not quietly stand by! But since someone like John would hardly have access to confront Antipas personally, he spoke against Herod publicly. Eventually, Antipas had enough, and he arrested the Baptizer.

Herod maintained two palaces: one in Tiberias of Galilee and one in Machaerus of Perea. Since John’s ministry took place in the Jordan River, just north of the Dead Sea, Antipas arrested John and imprisoned John at Machaerus, the same palace where the party of Matthew 14 takes place.

Back to the party. Salome, Herodias’ daughter and Antipas’ niece, dances for a room full of drunken men. The whole scene is debauched, and I will not elaborate upon it. But whatever happened in that dance, combined with abundant wine, Antipas is so pleased that he made a foolish vow: to give Salome anything she asked for.

Apparently, Herodias has taken John’s rebukes very personally, and she hated him. She prompted her daughter to ask for the head of the prophet. Even though Antipas was afraid of the public outcry, and perhaps had a secret respect for John (as the Gospel of Mark may imply), he had backed himself into a corner. In his mind, he had no choice but to do what was demanded.

Violating every Jewish law, no trial was held. The prophet would die so Herod’s reputation would not be stained. John’s severed head was served to Salome, and ultimately Herodias, as a reward for that hedonic dance.

Read 14:12-13a

By bringing news of John’s death, the implication is that John’s disciples looked to Jesus for leadership. They saw Jesus’ ministry as a continuation of John’s. It was only natural that Jesus would become their leader. We know that Andrew and John, and perhaps Phillip, 3 of Jesus’ 12 disciples, had first been disciples of John the Baptist. The tradition already stood: the Baptizer had prepared his disciples to ultimately follow Jesus.

When Jesus heard of John’s death, He withdrew to desolate places. John was His cousin. They were just a few months apart in age and likely shared many childhood memories. As adults, they ministered together for a time. They were close. John’s death compels Jesus to withdraw, to escape the crowds and be alone, to pray, to mourn, to feel the grief.

Here again, we see the humanity of Jesus, how relatable He is, how He shares in so many of our experiences. Truly, Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).

Perhaps there was a secondary motivation for Jesus to withdraw: Herod. Had Herod Antipas, and his Machiavellian maneuvering, become a threat to Jesus’ ministry? Not sure.

But John’s death signals another change in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ home base will no longer be in Capernaum. He will become a wanderer, traveling in and out of the region of Galilee. Yes, Jesus will visit Capernaum again, but only to quickly pass through.

Jesus has been rejected in His hometown. His synagogue engagement has ended. His dear cousin has been martyred. And the man who martyred John has now cast a dangerous eye upon Him. Indeed, Jesus was a prophet without honor. It is at this point that Jesus truly becomes homeless, while the dogs of grief and persecution nip at His heels.

But even in the midst of all these experiences, and the emotions that came with them, never did Jesus give in to self-pity. He experienced the full force of those raw emotions, and He did it without sin. All the while, surely, He must have understood that John’s death was a foreshadowing of His own.

1. John spoke out against the political establishment’s adultery. Jesus spoke out against the religious establishment’s spiritual adultery.

2. As John was hated, so would Jesus be hated.

3. John was imprisoned. Jesus would be imprisoned.

4. Herod was reluctant to execute John but was manipulated into it. Pilate was reluctant to execute Jesus and was also manipulated into it.

5. John was executed without trial. Jesus was executed with a sham of a trial.

6. John’s disciples buried John’s body. Jesus’ disciples buried Jesus’ body.

The greatest similarity is that both John and Jesus were executed in shame, martyred for the God they served. But there is one big difference between these two men. In a fit of superstitious delusion, Herod only thought that John had resurrected. Jesus actually did rise from the grave! For when a few female disciples returned to the tomb of Jesus, where they had buried Him, they found only an angel:

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen.” -Matthew 28:5-6

Death was defeated the day Jesus rose from the grave. The people in His hometown couldn’t have been more wrong: Though He was one of us, He is so much more than any of us. He is God become flesh, slain for our sins, risen that we may share in His everlasting life. He is the only Lord over life and death, and this is what He says about Himself:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” -John 14:6

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

-John 11:25-26

Brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is at hand. All you must do is come to Jesus, come to Jesus in faith! He lived and died for you, so that you can live and die for Him. He lives again so that you can live with Him forevermore. Trust in Him, and you shall not be put to shame!