John did not answer immediately but cast a glance about, noting Herodias and her daughter sitting upon their fine cushions and carpets he said, ‘I have spent a long day baptising the citizens of your country who are morally sick and in want of guidance. Now, I see why it is that they are so.’
Herod bent a smile upwards. The man has a sense of humour. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I saw the crowds on my way here. I too have come to meet the one whom they say is a great prophet to rival even Elijah…!’
The voice was restrained. ‘I am no prophet…I am only a forerunner, a messenger of the One who will come after me. It is to Him that you should go.’
Herod made a little laugh at the back of his throat, a giggle, which sounded like a nervous cluck to his own ears. He cleared his throat. ‘Then I have come to meet the messenger, to whom I wish to put a question. I seek to ask for your ratification of my forthcoming marriage to Herodias. The priests of the Sanhedrin state that my petition is unclean because Herodias is my niece…but you and I both know such a marriage is not uncommon among our people. They say you are holy and wise and so I have brought the scrolls pertaining to the subject of my suit…for your perusal.’ From his half-sitting position on the grand carpet Herod gave two scrolls to a servant.
But as the man approached the baptiser shook his head. ‘I will not soil my hands with your iniquity!’ he thundered. ‘What lives in you, Herod, seeks the gratification of two things: your lust for the pleasures of this world and your fear of the other world. But what lives in that viper…’ he pointed to Herodias, ‘is a devil, and in her he burns his purposes like a fever. She lusts for power over the souls of men! She is Jezebel reborn!’ he said.
Herod was full of excitement, for he was now certain the man was a seer, a prophet. Herodias, on the other hand, was snarling at him to act.
‘Have him seized!’ she rasped. ‘How dare that animal say such things against your future wife! Have him arrested, you fool!’
Herod ignored her. He was thinking.
Salome, for her part, stood, and prowled her way to John. She was arrayed in the most resplendent silks bordered in the finest gold thread. Jewels crowded her neck, her ears, her wrists and fingers, and her veil - a last minute attempt at modesty - now fell from her hair to the ground as she walked. Her painted eyes darted at Herod as she encircled John upon his rock. She inspected him and sniffed him and paused a moment before saying,
‘You are a stupid man!’
The Baptiser narrowed his eyes, ‘Do not come near me, Lilith, daughter of evil!’
She smiled, wide and innocent. ‘I would not stain my hands, for you are simple and uneducated, and…boring!’
When she laughed, it was like a ripple in water and her mother and their attendants laughed also and the entire entourage fell about in a flood of laughter as returned to the comfort of her cushions to braid her hair. Herod was not laughing.
He directed himself to John, ‘I have heard that you can make men lose their sins by immersing them in water…is this true? Is it also true that you can cleanse the soul, perhaps even of madness? Shall we go to that place in the river so that you can baptise me?’
John fixed him with an eye. ‘No. I cannot.’
Herod scoffed, ‘You would refuse a king? I have guards at my disposal, ready to arrest you should I but give the sign.’
‘You cannot arrest me,’ John pointed out, ‘I am not in Galilee, but in Judea, which is not your country.’
‘Then I’ll have to return to Jerusalem and petition the Sanhedrin for your arrest,’ Herod said, angry and put out.
‘Be careful Herod,’ John the Baptist said. ‘At any moment, the curses of hell are ready to pour into you…I see their wings touching your hair.’
Herod lost his temper and his voice was shrill when he said, ‘Is your task not to ready the souls of men, Baptiser? Why will you not ready mine?’
‘My task is to prepare souls to see the One Who will soon come. Some souls are not destined for seeing Him…These are vipers destined for what is prepared for the iniquitous, in this life and the next! Look to Him who comes after me. He is the saviour, not I! He will have the power to redeem the shadow of evil that pursues you, if you believe in Him.’
‘Order him killed!’ Herodias ordered Herod, ‘Do it now!’
But in Herod the creature of fear overtook the creature of anger and lust and envy, for he knew the shadow was back, flapping its wings and causing that moribund wind to fan his face. He shouted to his attendants and servants and guards to take up the rugs and the food and wine and to prepare the animals. Herodias and Salome scurried behind him to the chariot and they were soon away from that man.