“A Redeeming Prophecy”
Mark 6:14-29
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
7/22/18
14King
Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John
the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers
are at work in him.”
15But
others said, “It is Elijah.”
And
others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”
16But
when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
17For
Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison
on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married
her. 18For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to
have your brother’s wife.” 19And Herodias had a grudge against him,
and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John,
knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he
heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when
Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the
leaders of Galilee.
22When
his daughter Herodias 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.”
23And
he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of
my kingdom.”
24She
went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”
She
replied, “The head of John the baptizer.”
25Immediately
she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the
head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
26The
king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he
did not want to refuse her. 27Immediately the king sent a soldier of
the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the
prison, 28brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl.
Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard
about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
Mark’s prose
is normally very lean, but in chapter 6, he takes unusual pains to describe
Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great. Mark’s depiction of the younger Herod
is quite consistent with those of Josephus and other historians.1
Neither an actual king nor very great – except in his own mind – Herod
Antipas was a Roman puppet who excelled only at adultery, deceiving the public,
and, like most Roman governors, bullying the people in his territory in order
to maintain stability and control. Put all that together, and we see that Herod
had no kingdom, and what he governed wasn’t really his. So, when he offered to
give half of his kingdom to his
daughter, he offered something that didn’t even exist. Mark’s earliest readers
would have realized the absurdity of Herod’s proposition and would have made
most of them shake their heads in amused disgust.
Having said that, Herod did have
significant power. He had free rein to say and do as he pleased, so long as he
didn’t displease Rome. He could harass and even kill whomever he deemed a
political or personal threat. That’s precisely why John the Baptist was
languishing in prison. In the tradition of the prophets of old, John spoke
truth to power. When he called Herod down for adultery, he wasn’t wrong. He
just didn’t have the political clout to get away with it, especially since the
woman scorned in the process was angrier than Herod.
The story of John’s death – which
is a flashback in Mark – needs little explanation. John dies because Herod makes
a rash promise. Unwilling to look weak in front of his guests, he has to follow
through on his vow to give Herodias whatever she asks – even John the Baptist’s
head on a platter.
Power can do that. It can make people
do things, justify things, and turn blind eyes to things that normally we would
know to be inappropriate or simply wrong. This text refers to Jesus only in
passing and doesn’t even mention God, but here’s where it connects with the
life of faith. The lust for power and the lust for other things implied in the
story, are forces on which the nations often turn. That’s why God’s prophets,
new and old, repeatedly call out both kings and priests who grasp for control
and privilege.
During Herod’s governance, Jesus’
ministry has been gaining momentum. And those who hold political and religious
power are feeling the gravity of the Jesus movement. Trying to make sense of it
all, some say he’s Elijah, who was supposed to return. Some think he’s John the
Baptist come back from the dead. Some consider him another old-style prophet
that God sends out from time to time. Both Elijah and John represent that vein
of prophecy. So, if Jesus evokes images of the ancient tradition of bold action
and challenging speech, he must be doing and saying things that make the
powerful defensive and the comfortable uneasy.
John’s and Jesus’ lives also demonstrate
that when prophets are faithful to God, heads may roll, and they won’t always be
the heads of those in power. Faithfulness to God tends to put a prophet or a
prophetic community at odds with prevailing cultures of aggression and dominion,
because, contrary to popular stereotypes, prophecy isn’t about foretelling the
future. Prophecy is about stripping the veneer of convention and propriety off
of society and revealing the deadly infections of idolatry and denial lying
beneath.
Moses’ first prophecy was to tell
Pharaoh that the Hebrews should be set free. Then, for forty years, Moses had
to keep convincing the Hebrews that Yahweh had chosen to be in relationship with them on behalf of the creation.
That was both the harder prophecy and the basis for all subsequent prophecy.
Prophets remind us of who we are, whose we are, and why.
Samuel’s prophecy began with trying
to reveal the greedy lust for power and prestige behind the Israelites’ desire
for a king. They wanted to be “like the [other] nations.” When God told Samuel,
Let them have their king, Samuel’s
prophecy shifted into revealing the ways that Israel’s unfaithfulness was
destroying her identity.
Isaiah’s prophecy begins with
revealing the reasons that Israel is in exile in Babylon. When a holy community
abandons its calling in order stockpile worldly status and security, it will
sell its holy soul for those things. For Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and all
the rest, prophecy calls Israel back to relationship with God, and to living
faithfully for the sake of the creation. She can’t do that while putting her hope
in worldly power.
Isaiah’s prophecy concludes with
the promise of deliverance. And the Christian community understands Jesus of
Nazareth as God’s promised suffering servant. Jesus rises from humble
beginnings to live as a voice of fearless prophecy, a voice of advocacy for
everyone and everything that is loved by God, especially those who are abused,
exploited, and forsaken by Caesars, Herods, self-serving priests, and complicit
communities.
Both John and Jesus threaten the
likes of Caesar, Herod and Caiaphas. But there’s a difference, too. In Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, John the Baptist is depicted as almost merciless in his prophecy.
He sees and names what needs reform, but he makes his case with angry,
aggressive judgement. John’s ministry says, God’s
gonna get you! Turn or burn!
Jesus also sees and names what needs
reform, but there’s no question that he loves even those who oppose him. Jesus’
ministry says, God’s got you. Return to
the arms of grace.
John the Baptist prepares us
because he calls us to self-examination.
Jesus redeems us because he
incarnates both God, and the fullness of the prophecy of old. He embodies the call to “do justice…to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with…God.” (Micah 6:8)
Following Jesus demands more than
“being good,” and promises more than “heaven when we die.”
Following Jesus involves living
differently than the prevailing culture of fear, greed, and violence.
Following Jesus means living in
simple trust that God is real, and true, and that God alone is eternal.
Following Jesus means seeing the
fullness of God’s time even in our time, because God’s kingdom is here and now.
The prophetic vision and courage of
Jesus compelled the writers and signers of The
Barmen Declaration to say in 1934, to Hitler, the Herod of their day: “Jesus
Christ…is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust
and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine, as
though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its
proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events
and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.”2
Simply stated: Jesus is Lord, not Hitler or the Third Reich. Of those bold prophets, some
escaped into exile. Some were imprisoned. And some lost their heads.
Herod can and will do his worst.
And there will always be those who will say in one way or another, “We have no
king but Caesar.”
Nonetheless, because God has got
us, come what may, our hope and our future are in following Jesus. And
I’m sorry, but no, he doesn’t spare us from every trial and every ill. Sometimes
following Jesus means following him to the cross.
Jesus will, however, walk with us through every Friday trial and every Saturday
emptiness. And even when we lose our heads, Jesus will be there – he is
here – in the strong promise of Sunday, making you, and me, and all things new.
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