GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 6:28
One Too Many
There’s a story about an artist who spent weeks painting a canvas. He finished down to the last brushstroke, and then he studied the painting for days. He thought it needed one more swipe of his brush, which he made. Then he continued to study the canvas and convinced himself that it needed one more stroke of his brush, which he made. Aghast, he tore the canvas apart because the last stroke of his brush ruined the picture. The actor Ben Affleck said, “Craftsman is knowing how to work. Art is knowing when to stop.”
Herodias, the purloined wife of Herod’s stepbrother Philip, never learned the art of knowing when to stop. When Herod brought Herodias back to Palestine from Rome, Herod faced the rebuke of John the Baptist for seducing his brother’s wife. While Herod listened to John, he never changed his behavior. Herodias, however, hated the preacher and sought to silence him. She schemed against John and finally found her opportunity at one of Herod’s birthday banquet when her daughter, Herod’s stepdaughter, danced for the crowd of revelers. Pleased with her dance, Herod made a silly promise to give her whatever she wanted up to half his kingdom. Herodias encouraged her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. When Herod heard the request, he was caught on the horns of a dilemma—he didn’t want to harm John, yet he didn’t want to appear vacillating before his military leaders and supporters, so he sent an executioner to decapitate John. “And he carried his head on a platter, and he gave it to the girl, and the young girl gave it to her mother.” (Mark 6:28)
Not satisfied with ridding herself of her vocal opponent, she was also unsatisfied with being the wife of a mere tetrarch; she wanted to be the wife of a king. Therefore, she goaded Herod into going to Rome and asking Emperor Caligula for the title of king. The emperor and his advisors, however, viewed the request as a threat, charged Herod with treason, and banished him to Gaul, modern France, far out on the Roman frontier. Though not condemned herself, Herodias accompanied her now-disgraced husband into exile and died obscure and in shame.
There is valuable wisdom in knowing when to stop.
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