HALF OF THE KINGDOM

In looking through some past journal notes I ran across this note that I wrote in 1995: “We often want what Herod Antipas offered the daughter of Herodias… “half the Kingdom.”

“But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”

I have to look into my own heart to see why I might want only ‘half the kingdom.’ It might be a dancing girl at a party for big shots or any number of things. Herodias’s daughter asked her mother what to ask for and she wanted the “head of John the Baptist on a platter,” sweet little mother that she was.

Seems like getting only half of the Kingdom always has terrible consequences.

“I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Jesus