Sticks and Stones
At that time some Pharisees said to him, “Get away from here if you want to live! Herod Antipas wants to kill you!” Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow; and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. [Luke 13:30-32 NLT]
Jesus wasn’t above calling certain people names when the situation warranted. Hypocrisy observed was such a situation. Check out Matthew chapter 23 for some fine examples. Jesus calls the Pharisees and religious teachers hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools, snakes, vipers and murderers, to name a few. He flat out lets them have it!
Jesus didn’t much like Herod Antipas and called him a name, too - for good reason. He was a weasel. Antipas was one of Herod the Great’s three sons. Herod the Great was a great builder, but he was an evil man. In addition to murdering all the babies 2 years of age and younger in Bethlehem in hopes of killing Jesus, he also executed one of his wives, sons by other wives, and many in his court whom, in his paranoia, he suspected of conspiring against him. Herod’s other two sons were Herod Archelaus and Phillip. They, along with brother Antipas, were chips off the old block. After dad’s death, the Romans allowed the 3 sons to have ‘puppet rule’ over portions of Israel – Archelaus over Jerusalem and Judea, Antipas over Galilee and Phillip over the north, including Caesarea Phillipi, a pagan town he jointly named after himself and Caesar. One thing all could do well was to ‘kiss up’ to the Romans. Archelaus lasted only a few years due to incompetence and was banished by the Romans to some remote location. Antipas seduces his brother Phillip’s wife Herodias. She leaves Phillip and marries Antipas in violation of the Law. John the Baptist points this fact out publicly and Antipas imprisons John and eventually has him beheaded as a result of a promise he made to Herodias’s daughter, also named Herodias, because her dancing greatly pleased him during a party.
Whether Antipas really said he wanted to kill Jesus because the Pharisees said so is up for debate. Some scholars believe the Pharisees said this to get Jesus to leave the area. When Pilate sent Jesus, during His trial, to Antipas because Jesus was a Galilean, it says that Antipas was thrilled because he had wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle for quite some time. That doesn’t sound like a statement that would’ve been made by someone trying to kill Jesus.
I think Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees is tremendous. The use of the term ‘fox’ to describe a person was, of course, not flattering. It meant the person was ‘worthless’ and ‘insignificant’. That’s what Jesus thought of the man who cowardly killed His kinsman, John the Baptist. One history book says that a better translation of the Greek word used for ‘fox’ is ‘jackal’ – another very unflattering term. Jesus later showed his disdain for Antipas again by refusing to answer any of his many questions posed during His trial. Antipas then mocks Him and sends Him back to Pilate. The scriptures say that Pilate and Antipas became friends that day because of that incident.
Antipas eventually met the same banishment fate as brother Archelaus and it is said he was put to death sometime afterwards. Without repentance, one eventually reaps what one sows.
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