What sells magazines? One only need take a glance at the publications on offer at the checkout counter in the grocery store to answer that question. It seems to me there are three things that sell magazines…
- Royalty. One can most always see photos of the British royals on display where I shop.
- Sex. Who was in bed with whom? That is a perennial favorite.
- Religion. Though this topic is not as popular as the first two, the tabloids do take an interest in the fall of popular preachers, and Jesus makes an appearance in my grocery store at least every Christmas and Easter.
Now, if you mix these three topics together (royalty, sex & religion) then you have a bestseller on your hands. And that is precisely what we have in the next story in Mark’s Gospel. Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 6:14-29…
King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying,“John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
Others said, “He is Elijah.”
And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”
But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
The first thing I would like you to notice in this passage is Three Verdicts on Jesus.
The first verdict is that of a guilty conscience.
King Herod heard of the missionary exploits of Jesus’ disciples, and he could not help but have heard of Jesus himself, for Jesus’ words and deeds of power had become widely known. Some people were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.” In fact, Herod says the same thing in verse 16.
Herod apparently felt guilty about having John beheaded. We will look at this further in a moment. For now, it is enough to say that Herod was afraid his sins were coming back to haunt him. Herod tried to get rid of John, and his convicting sermons, but he was unsuccessful. Here was Jesus saying the same sorts of things John had said.
It just goes to show that we can never run away from ourselves. Things eventually catch up with us. Which is not to say that God wants us to feel guilty all the time. I believe God wants us to confess our sin and receive his forgiveness.
The second verdict on Jesus I see in this passage is that of the nationalist.
Others in the crowd thought Jesus was Elijah come back from the dead. Many first century Jews were keenly awaiting the coming of the Messiah. Many thought that the Messiah would be a conquering hero who would free them from Roman domination. Along with this expectation there was the thought that Elijah would come back before the Messiah. The Jews believed this because the prophet Malachi taught it, and Matthew identified John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy.
But many Jews did not recognize John as the second Elijah. Even to this day, when the Jewish people celebrate Passover, they leave an empty chair at the table for Elijah. They put a glass of wine at his place and at a certain point in the service, they fling the door wide open for Elijah to come in and announce the coming of the Messiah.
The third verdict on Jesus that I see in this passage is of the one waiting for the voice of God.
Some of the Jewish people thought that Jesus was like one of the prophets of old. For hundreds of years there had been no “word from the Lord”. The voice of the prophets had been stilled. The Jews could listen to the disputations of the rabbis. They could listen to teaching about the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogue. However, this was not the same as a prophet saying, “Thus says the Lord…” Some people in Jesus’ day were waiting, and longing, for such a prophet to come. In Jesus, some believed they were hearing such a prophet.
So, we see three verdicts on Jesus in this passage. But the key question is: what is our verdict? Jesus’ question rings down through the ages: “Who do you say that I am?”
The second major thing we see in this passage is The Drama of Herod’s Family.
First, there is the scene—the castle of Machaerus. According to the historian Josephus, this is where the execution of John the Baptist took place. William Barclay writes:
Machaerus stood on a lonely ridge, surrounded by terrible ravines, overlooking the east side of the Dead Sea. It was one of the loneliest and grimmest and most unassailable fortresses in the world. To this day the dungeons are there, and the traveler can still see the staples and the iron hooks in the wall to which John must have been bound. It was in that bleak and desolate fortress that the last act of John’s life was played out.
Next, we have a great cast of characters in this play.
First, there is Herod. This is Herod Antipas; he was one of the many sons of Herod the Great who we read about at Christmas time in Matthew 2 and Luke 1.
Herod had quite a complicated family tree. There was inter-marrying in this family. There was murder. In short, Herod’s family was one messed up bunch. All you need remember to understand our story for today is that Herod married his niece, Herodias, and stole her away from his half-brother Herod Philip. This is why John the Baptist denounced Herod Antipas; Herod had broken Jewish law by marrying his half-brother’s wife. It certainly took courage for John to speak out in this way against the very powerful Herod Antipas.
Herod, for his part, was an odd character. He could be persuaded by his wife Herodias to have John arrested because she did not like his preaching. Of course, the reason she did not like John was because his preaching veered off into meddling with her love life. At the same time, Herod Antipas was intrigued enough by John the Baptist’s preaching that he often brought him out of prison to listen to him. Herod sensed that John was a righteous and holy man, so he had him protected. However, Herod was not convicted enough to have John released. Herod Antipas was a fence-sitter if there ever was one.
Herod Antipas was also a man who acted on impulse. He made a reckless promise to Salome without thinking. He promised to give her anything she asked. Herod’s example ought to teach us to think before we act and before we speak, but often we don’t.
Herod Antipas also feared what others might say about him. That is why he kept his promise to Salome, even when she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod was afraid of what his guests might say about him if he did not keep his promise. Of course, we need to be more concerned about what God thinks of us, than what others think; but God was not on Herod’s radar at this point.
Herod is not the only character that comes off looking rather evil in this story. We also see Salome and Herodias in all their tawdriness. William Barclay says of Herodias…
The trouble with Herodias was that she wished to eliminate the one man who had the courage to confront her with her sin. She wished to do as she liked with no one to remind her of the moral law. She murdered John that she might sin in peace. She forgot that while she need no longer meet John, she still had to meet God.
And what of Salome? You can say that she is a mere girl in this scene, a pawn. However, we must ask: what kind of girl performs an erotic dance in front of her stepfather and his friends? What kind of young woman listens to and obeys her mother when her mother tells her to ask her stepfather to have a man killed? The evil we see in each of these characters is beyond most of our reckoning. Yet, we know this sort of thing happens. We need only look back to Hitler, and probably not even that far, to remember that great evil has reigned in modern times as well.
Against this backdrop stands John the Baptist. Barclay says of him…
He stands as the man of courage. He was a child of the desert and of the wide-open spaces, and to imprison him in the dark dungeons of Machaerus must have been the last refinement of torture. But John preferred death to falsehood. He lived for the truth, and he died for it. The man who brings to men the voice of God acts as a conscience. Many a man would silence his conscience if he could, and therefore the man who speaks for God must always take his life and his fortune in his hands.
The story is told of a church that before its most recent building project lacked adequate restroom facilities. One Sunday, the pastor of the church, preaching about the attributes of John the Baptist, emphatically stated: “What this church needs is more Johns.” The congregation busted out in laughter; all they had on their minds was the church restrooms.[1]
But it’s true. The church does need more Johns, that is, more people like John the Baptist!
What lessons are in this story for us today?
First, we too may have to pay the ultimate price for discipleship just as John did.
Last week we looked at six marks of a true disciple. With this story of the death of John the Baptist, Mark brings us to the lowest point in his portrayal of what it means to be a disciple. This is the lowest point in the Gospel until Jesus himself dies on the cross. Here we see John, not merely as the forerunner of Jesus, but the prototype of what it means to be a disciple. We must always remember that the Greek word for witness is martyr.
We might be tempted to think, with all the miracles that Jesus has done, that he will somehow miraculously spring his cousin John from jail. However, that is not to be. Here we see why Jesus encourages us to count the cost before choosing to follow him, because the cost may be great indeed. To be a disciple means following Jesus to the cross… and beyond.
A second lesson in this story for all of us is that faith is for dark days just as it is for sunlit times.
In telling this story, Mark may be sending a message to the first century church to which he is attached. He may be saying to them: Look, you may have to suffer martyrdom just like John. Therefore, don’t get the idea in your head that being a follower of Jesus is all about spiritual experiences on the mountaintop. You may have to walk through the valley of the shadow as well.
Certain segments of the Christian church have always laid stress on the miraculous, the exciting, or what is sometimes called “victorious living”. That is one side of the equation, but only one side. We must remember the other side too. There is a dark side to following Christ.
However, there is good news, even in this. If we are taught to believe that following Christ will always produce victory, triumph, and sunlit skies, then we will be surprised and maybe even devastated when we encounter darkness. But if we are told ahead of time to expect these things, then it will be somewhat easier to handle.
Several years ago, I read a book by Barbara Brown Taylor entitled Learning to Walk in the Dark. She says that often Christianity has focused too much on what she calls “solar spirituality”. We forget that Jesus was born in a cave and was raised from one too. Many of the great spiritual leaders of human history have spent a good part of their lives in the dark. There are lessons that can only be learned in the dungeons of life.
One of the favorite verses of victorious solar Christians is: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) This verse can be taken in one of two ways. It can be taken to mean that if I am a Christian I will always be successful, that I will always walk in the light, if I follow Christ. Or it can be taken to mean that if I am a Christ-follower then Jesus will always give me the strength I need to handle any situation, even failure, darkness, and death. I believe the latter interpretation is the correct one, especially when viewing the life of Jesus, and that of Paul, and the early Christians.
Of course, as we approach the end of the Gospel story, we will see that there is another light on the other side of the grave, for Jesus, John, and us, a light that will never end. That too is the picture at the end of the book of Revelation. In the New Jerusalem, there will be no sun, for there, the Lord will be our light. He will be the only light that we need. (Revelation 21:23)
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