Mark 6:14-29
Anyone read, or are reading George R. R. Martin's book series, "Song of Fire and Ice," or as it is more well known, The Game of Thrones? Have you gotten to the part in the third book, Storm of Swords, about "the Red Wedding"?
All along in this series, characters you really like get killed off, and characters you detest seem to escape death constantly. One of my favorite characters in the series, Jon Snow, is still alive after book five. But the next book in the series hasn't come out yet, so I'm holding my breath.
During the "Red Wedding" two families of different clans, are uniting their small empires, through a wedding. Once the ceremony was over, and the couple was ushered back to their wedding suite of the castle, the feast and dancing begins. Everything is going wonderfully. People are dancing and feasting and drinking and laughing. The political alliance, solidified by the wedding puts everyone at ease.
Then, when the orchestra begins playing a certain song as a signal, archers and soldiers suddenly appear. They begin slaughtering the members of the visiting royal family, and within a page or two, many of my favorite characters--the good guys--have been skewered by arrows or run through with broad swords.
It was almost more than I could take. I had heard nothing about this scene from other friends and family--including my daughter--who were reading the books. I was totally, and awfully surprised. So much so, that I turned off my Kindle, set it down, and decided to just let it lay and not read this book anymore.
It's just a book. It's just a fiction story. But I didn't realize how much I had gotten into the story until that awful scene unfolded, and like a Russian novel, everyone I cared about lay dead on the dance floor.
After a couple of weeks, I picked it back up again, finished book 3 and book 4 and book 5--each 800 to 1000 pages long. So I'm too invested in it now to quit.
The story of the death of John the Baptist hit me with the same intensity. You read along Mark's Gospel and everything seems to be going fine. Jesus is doing some amazing things. You get introduced to some of the disciples. You begin identifying with different ones.
Then this story about John. The hairy and almost wild John takes a hard-line moral stance against Herod Antipas and Herodias' marriage. Herodias was Herod's brother's wife. When Antipas was visiting in Rome, he fell in love with his brother's wife and stole her away from him. It also just happened that Herodias was also the daughter of one of Antipas' other brothers. So when Herod Antipas married Herodias, he was not only marrying his brothers wife, but also his niece.
As I said, John took a moral stand against Herod Antipas' marriage and relationship. John denounced Antipas publicly which angered Herodias deeply. Finally, Herodias had her way with her husband and got John thrown into prison.
As we read along in the story, we find out Herodias wants John killed, but Antipas has this kind of love/hate relationship with John. Mark tells us:
So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not because of Herod. Herod was afraid of John because he knew that John was a good and holy man, and so he kept him safe. He liked to listen to him, even though he became greatly disturbed every time he heard him.
So Herod Antipas and John had these long moral and theological conversations. The conversations seemed invigorating to Herod, but troubling nonetheless, because John would not give any moral ground concerning Herod's relationship with Herodias. So even though in prison, John had this special protected status from Herod Antipas.
Then there's a party. It's like the "red wedding." There is drinking and feasting and revelry. And dancing girls. Barely dressed, they prance around exciting all the male dignitaries and guests. One of the dancers is Salome, the daughter of Herodias from her previous marriage. Herod is so pleased with Salome's dancing, for obvious reasons, that he stops the festivities and makes an audacious promise to Salome--"Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you."
Salome ran to ask her mother for advice about what to ask for. Herodias seizes the opportunity and tells her daughter to ask for the head of John.
Wait. What!!?? The head of John? But he's protected by Herod, right?
Salome goes to Herod to make her request, and adds a bit of flourish: "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
Wait. What!!?? What did she say? The head of John the Baptist on a platter!!?? As if his head were some grizzly food served at the feast!!?? What!!?? Wait a minute; this can't be happening.
But it is. And it did. Herod can't back down from his promise made in front of all these important people. Now Herod is so sad he had opened his big mouth, and was so taken with this psychopathic beauty and her equally psychopathic mother--to whom he was married. Do you think that was a huge wake-up call about what he had done by marrying the woman? His brother back in Rome probably thew a party too, being free of that woman, Herodias.
The deed was done, and John's head is brought in on a platter. All of a sudden, one of the most morally powerful figures in the New Testament is dead. Jesus even said of John that he was greater than all the prophets who came before him. Literally a life chopped down by a capricious, random act of evil.
The happy little gospel story of Jesus and his disciples, conquering evil spirits and healing everything from withered hands to a dead 12 year old girl comes to an awful and extremely sad stand still with the story of John's death.
Almost every other day there is another story in the news about yet another victim of beheading at the hands of ISIS. The first story slapped us in the face. It was awful. It was sick. It was tragic. It caught the world's attention. Anyone could download a video of it and watch an awful, real murder happening before your eyes. And now ISIS has come up with a new money raising scheme: if you pay them a huge amount of protection money, they will not kidnap you and behead you. It is awful, the demands of evil.
Like Carrie's minute for mission, faithful and courageous Christians in other parts of the world are suffering brutality and even death because of their faith and Christian moral convictions. Just like John.
But now, if people like Carrie don't bring them to our attention, we just go about our day. Oh, another beheading? How tragic. Please pass the salt. Let's flip the channel over to the game.
Like I said, the "red wedding" was just a story. A fiction. But John the Baptist's story is real. And the innocent people held captive by ISIS and murdered are real. And the story of Pastor Saeed is real. Everything seemingly going well, then BAM! Arrest and torture. Evil is alive and well in our world. It is bold. It is brazen. It is organized.
We have it so easy here in our country. If you express your moral outrage at anyone, from the President on down, that's your right. If you take a stand based on your Christian beliefs, you may not get applauded, but you won't get arrested or thrown in prison or meet your Maker because some girl danced for the President.
Makes you wonder why people in our country are so afraid to speak out for their faith and Christ, when nothing will happen to you. But in other countries where there is the threat of imprisonment and death, people are courageously telling others about Christ.
Think about other people who, as followers of Christ, had their lives tragically ended by evil power. I'll give you one name: Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer became a part of the German resistance against Hitler. That isn't what he set out to do. He, like other Christian theologians, felt that Hitler was a moral evil, that somehow needed to be confronted. Bonhoeffer was initially a pacifist who tried to influence fellow Germans through religious action and moral persuasion in his teaching, preaching, and writing. There were others--good Christians--who were making an armed, violent resistance against the Nazi's.
But at some point, Bonhoeffer recognized his attempt at religious and theological persuasion wasn’t working. He joined the German Secret Service so he could be a double agent working against Hitler and the Nazi’s on the sly, getting intelligence information to the Allies. At the same time, Bonhoeffer was using his position to help Jews escape to freedom.
Eventually, his actions were discovered and he was arrested and imprisoned. Rather than let his prisoner status get him down, he served as a chaplain-of-sorts to the other prisoners, bringing them the encouragement and hope of Christ.
One month before Germany surrendered, he was hung. He was only 39 years old. He has been one of the most influential Christian theologians. His books titled, The Cost of Discipleship, Ethics, and, Letters and Papers from Prison have been such important works, because they aren't pie-in-the-sky theology, but Christian thought born out of oppression and concentration camp incarceration.
John had to be a young man, too. In his early thirties.
What is this story about? This story isn’t about Herod, Herodias, or the dancing daughter (Salome). I could go into the history of the Herod's and their entrenched mental illness of paranoid schizophrenia. But the story isn't about that.
We can't say this story is about Jesus. There’s no mention of Jesus in the story. So far, Mark has been hitting hard the theme of the identity of Jesus. The gospel, of course, is about Jesus. But Mark interrupts his gospel with this sad, sad story of the death of John.
This story is about John, about his life, his witness, the courage of his message, his fearlessness about confronting the sick morality of the Herods, and paying the price for taking his stand.
This story is about John and his tragic death. Mark includes it with more detail than he does most other stories in his gospel: Herod’s troubled relationship with John; Herodias’ hatred of John; the banquet; the dancing daughter; the silver plater; etc. Because of the detail, the emotional impact on the reader is huge. The impact of hearing about John's death must have been huge. John’s death must have affected Jesus and the disciples deeply.
The story is a pause, a reminder of several things. And since Peter is the one who told most of these stories to Mark, maybe it was a wake up call for him and some of the other disciples. You have to remember this story about John would have happened fairly early in the ministry of Jesus.
John's death must have been a wake up call about the dangers of being a person of God. Just because you are a believer doesn't make life any safer. In fact, it could make life scarier and more risky.
John's death would have been a wake up call to those who choose to be God's mouthpiece for morality. When you speak out against the immorality of the world, it immediately puts you at odds with that world. Make a list of all the immorality in our culture. Then begin a campaign of Christian morality against that list. You will be quickly branded as a kook, someone who is uncool and uncouth. Push too hard, and who knows what would happen.
John's death would have been a wake up call for some about the providence of God. It would make some ask questions about why John's young life, or Bonhoeffer's young life, was taken by such a capriciously evil way through a gross abuse of power. Couldn't God stop that? Shouldn't God have stopped that? Isn't God's power greater than a dancing girl's? What's God up to in these tragic deaths?
And finally, John's death would have been a wake up call for the disciples about the dangers of following a religious vocation. Jesus called all the disciples, but for what end? To end up like John? And the awful truth of the matter is, most of the disciples did. End up like John--dying awful deaths at the hands of crazy, capricious power. For what reason? Simply for following Jesus and spreading the Gospel.
So think twice about being a man or woman of God, this story is saying. If you do it well, the world just might punch you in the mouth.
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