The Scripture passage that we read today describes the death of John the Baptist. When the Roman Empire ruled Israel as its subjugated colony, it placed Herod as a tetrarch, and it was by Herod that John the Baptist was killed, for John had denounced Herod’s sin. King Herod had a brother named Philip, who had a wife called Herodias. When Herod took his brother’s wife and lived together, John the Baptist denounced him harshly for his unlawfulness. Herod was not pleased by this, and wanted to kill John right away, but he could not do so. At that time, people thought of John the Baptist and believed in him as one of the prophets of the Old Testament, because of this it was not easy for Herod to put John to death. So John was imprisoned instead.

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When Jesus was on this earth, He often prayed. This was because our Lord also had flesh. Although Jesus Christ is fundamentally God Himself, He was incarnated in flesh to save all the sinners of the world from all their sins. In other words, He had to come in the flesh of man to fulfill the will of God the Father. Having thus come to this earth, He had to be baptized, be crucified, shed His blood, die on the Cross, and rise from the dead. While Jesus Christ was on this earth, He had to be baptized by John the Baptist to follow the will of God and fulfill the righteousness of the Father.

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When we focus on the last part of today’s Scripture passage, we can see just how abundant grace God has bestowed on mankind. The great multitude that was following Jesus Christ had not eaten for three days, and so they were starving. It’s written here that seeing them, Jesus had so much compassion for them that He said, “I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” He then blessed seven loaves of bread and two fish and gave them to the multitude; they were then all filled and there still were seven baskets full of leftovers. Over 4,000 men were fed, besides women and children.

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