Matthew 14:1-12
The Daily Office
In order to satisfy his lust for Herodias, King Herod had to force a divorce between her and his brother, Philip. By doing this, Herod was guilty of incest under the Law of Moses (Leviticus 18:16). John the Baptist rightly called attention to the fact that Herod had turned his back on the only guide to truth, righteousness and justice that the people of Israel had: the Law that God had given to Moses. That much of that Law may not seem relevant to us today does not change the fact that it was the only guide that the Jews had. For Herod to reject the Law was to give his soul over to moral anarchy.
“You must not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to complete them,” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:17). Read through Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, and you will certainly read lots of rules about rituals that seem utterly pointless. But here and there, you will also notice something like this: “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard” (Exodus 22:10-11).
The Law was first and foremost about justice, in a particular time and place for a particular people. Jesus affirms this thirst for justice, in all places for all people for all time. As always, this completion of the Law must be carried under changing circumstances. But the big picture is unchanging. And today we affirm John the Baptist’s stand for justice, in his time, for which he gave his life.
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