Disciple – The Murdered Prophet
“The Murdered Prophet – Sermon by Caleb Campbell, February 13, 2022
Good morning, church family. My name is Caleb and I serve as one of the pastors here. Whether you’re joining us online or in person, I’m so glad to be with you today. We’re going to continue on in a study in the Gospel of Mark. We will be in Mark chapter 6 today. If you were joining us in person, you should have that available. I think you guys get a handout with that on there, so the text we’re going to be reading is there in the handout. For those of you joining us online, if you have a print Bible, I encourage you to grab one. Again, we’ll be in Mark chapter six. If you don’t have a print Bible, no problem. Just go to bible.com. If you’re here in person and don’t have a Bible, there are some free Bibles available.
Before we get started, I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine. Allison, would you join me up here? Allison is going to share with us a little bit about a really cool ministry that she is part of. Allison, welcome. Would you tell us a little bit about who you are and how you came to Desert Springs.
“I am Alison Lefever and I found Desert Springs because two of my four kids have gone to preschool here, and now we go to church here. We love it.”
(Back to Caleb.) And you are a part of a ministry, spomethingsoworthit. Would you tell us what the ministry is?
“Yeah, so my husband and I started something about three years ago in honor of two of our sons, who have spina bifida. It’s a non-profit organization, and we help children with disabilities and their families and caregivers. We do that from the point of diagnosis, which is often when a mother Is pregnant learning that her child may live with a disability. We can relate to what that feels like through hardship, which is often hospital stays and beyond when families lose a child.”
(Caleb speaking) And so this ministry is just a few years old — yeah, three years. We just had a large event on our campus here just a few weeks ago. I’m sure some of you were there.
(Allison speaking) “It was our second annual event here at Desert Springs, and I kind of describe it as a kids craft fair open market. All of the vendors were children. We invite kids of all abilities, so about half have disabilities and half don’t, because we really want to encourage kids coming together in a positive way. All of the kids made their own products and sold them to the community and got to keep all their own money and really be featured in a positive way for their strengths and capabilities. Of course, it was really family-friendly with food trucks and musicians and mini horses. It is my favorite day of the year.”
(Caleb speaking) That’s awesome, so we’re going to be looking forward to that for next year. In the meantime, what do you have?
(Allison speaking) “We have a lot of great programs. You can go to our website somethingsoworthit.org, or we’re on Instagram and Facebook. We have monthly roundtable dinners for parents of special needs children. It’s a free dinner, and we usually have topics like diagnosis, hospital stay — or it’s a place where families can learn from one another, focus on their mental health and sort of speak a language that nobody else speaks. We also just are kicking off our first respite retreat for special needs moms. It’s an all-inclusive paid trip for moms to actually have a chance to recharge, which is very rare for them. And then our big event coming up on March 6th, just in a few weeks, is our annual fundraiser called the Great Arizona Lemonade Stand. Basically, we have stands all across the Valley. Our goal is to have 50 plus lemonade stands and it’s a way for any of us to get involved in charity from the comfort of our home and get our kids and family and neighbors involved. We bring everything to you that you need for the lemonade stand, which includes the lemonade, the signage, etc. Really all you need to have is a table and some water to mix the lemonade and a positive attitude. All of those donations and proceeds go to our charity. It’s so much fun. There’s also all that information on the website, and then if you wanted to level up your stand, we have fun ideas about that. I like to blast The Beach Boys from mine.”
(Caleb speaking) That’s awesome. So that’s March 6th. After church people will hit it up on the way home. There are over 50 locations around, and if we want to host what’s the website again?
(Allison speaking. “Somethingsoworthit.org. We still need people to sign up for lemonade stands. Or if you click on our site you can find the nearest you. It will have an interactive map with all the stands across the Valley. Click on it and it’ll give you directions. So after church you can swing on by and have lemonade.”
Caleb speaking) That’s awesome. Well thank you so much. Can we say thank you to Allison? Thanks for sharing with us. And as I am often known to do, I just want to let you know that our family is going to be hosting a lemonade stand. I just want you to know — Alison didn’t mention this, she doesn’t even know this — but there will be a ranking of who has the best lemonade stands. She won’t do it ‘cause she’s a kind, courteous person. I will be ranking and I just want you to know the Campbell household will be number one. We’ve already got it on lock, so just set your expectations appropriately for the decorations for your lemonade stand, ’cause the Campbells are going to crush it this year.
All right. What we’re going to do now is we’re going to go through Mark Chapter 6. What we’ve been doing during this series is we’ve been starting our time together with the Word and just listening to the Word. We know that the Scriptures were, by and large, artistically designed to be engaged primarily with our ears before our eyes. I love reading the Bible and encourage you guys you to do so. I think you should read the Bible a lot. But we also want to connect ourselves to this ancient tradition of hearing the Word, and so what I encourage you to do is to just listen. If closing your eyes is helpful, you can do that.
For those who joined us online, I know it is kind of weird with the screen and everything, but we’ll get through this together. I just encourage you to allow your imagination to see as you hear the words. Just be attentive to what God might be speaking to you, or even revealing to you as you hear this Word. And I do want to give a little “heads up.” This particular section of Scripture is really, really difficult. I don’t mean complicated, difficult. I mean, it’s just difficult to hear, and I think that you’ll see why here in a minute. I’m going to try to do this as pastorally as I can, but I would encourage you, even though it’s going to be difficult to hear, would you just allow yourself to receive the Word and then just be attentive to what the Spirit of God is doing? So this is Mark chapter 6.
Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished.
‘Where did this man get these things?’ they said. ‘What is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His own hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Josas and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?’ And so they took offense at Him.
Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet Is not without honor except in his hometown among his relatives and in his household.’
He was not able to do a miracle there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick and healed them. And He was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching. Then He summoned the 12 and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except for a staff. No bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.
And He said to them, ‘Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. If any place does not welcome you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.’ And so they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
King Herod heard about it because Jesus’s name had become well known. And people were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said, ‘He is Elijah.’ Still others said He was a prophet like one of the prophets from long ago.
When Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, the one I beheaded, has been raised!’ For Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife, because he had married her.
John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife’. So Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard him, he would be very perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.
An oppportune time came on his birthday when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee. And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. The King said to the girl, ‘Ask me whatever you want and I’ll give it to you.’ He promised her with an oath. ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half my Kingdom.’
She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ John the Baptist’s head, she replied. At once, she hurried to the king and said, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter immediately.’ Although the king was deeply distressed because of his oath and the guests, he did not want to refuse her.
The king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John the Baptist’s head. So that he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When the disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.”
This is the word of the Lord.
So we have a very, very difficult portion of Scripture to navigate through. What I’d like to do now is just kind of go through kind of line by line and just notice some things and see if we can discern why it is that we’ve got this, frankly, really disturbing teaching and also a really interesting structure. I don’t know if you guys heard the structure. But we went quite quickly from Jesus being denied in his hometown to Jesus sending out his disciples and then quite quickly we’re kind of on a time machine all the way back to a scene where John is beheaded.
One of the things I didn’t read that we’ll pick up in a later sermon is that immediately following this, Jesus’s disciples come back. So that John the Baptist story is sandwiched in this little space between where Jesus sends his disciples — then this kind of bizarre scene of John the Baptist — and then the disciples come back. So why is this preserved for us? Today, so let’s see if we can tease out something.
First, just notice where Jesus was. Immediately before this, if you guys were with us last week, you remember in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 5 that Jesus had healed the woman with the flow of blood. He had healed the dude who had a legion of demons. He had healed Jairus’s 12-year old daughter. And immediately after that, it picks it up here that he left where the daughter was and he came to his hometown. And his disciples did what? They followed him.
What does a disciple? do Do they follow, right? So just the most basic understanding of what a disciple is that it is someone who what follows Jesus, right? So Jesus is going back to his hometown, and they follow him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
“Where did this man get these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His hands?” Now I just want to notice — where is Jesus? He went back to his hometown. OK, so He’s back home. I want you to get in your minds that Jesus is going back home, right? He sees all of his homies from high school, right? He remembers the Tasty Freeze, right?
So Jesus is going back home to his small town and He starts teaching in the synagogue. OK, so kind of like teaching in a church, although it is different. There are a lot of nuances to it, but kind of like the same thing and He’s teaching.
What’s His hometown’s response? What is this wisdom that has been given to Him? And how are these miracles performed by His hands? They are astonished. They’re shocked to see Jesus, the dude they knew growing up. They’re kind of shocked, right?
*** TV time out ***
Oh my goodness, are you guys ready to gasp in in horror? Get yourselves ready and here’s why. I just want to catch you up to speed on my culture. Right, you refer to someone by usually two, sometimes three, names. Two names, like Caleb Campbell. Three names if you’re my mom and you’re mad at me, right? “Caleb Eugene Campbell!” With an emphasis on the middle to signify a severe beatdown that’s coming my way.
But in the old in the ancient mind, it wasn’t that way. You would often refer to somebody by their given name, right? Like Jesus. And then you would say like their dad’s name like Caleb, the son of Stephen. Especially if you were in your hometown because there might be a few Caleb’s kicking around and well, which Caleb is it you say? Well, it’s Caleb, the son of Stephen. Almost always, even in in the majority of cultures you refer to the child or the person by their dad’s name. It would have been that way in Jesus’s time – Jesus, the son of Stephen …. In fact, it might have even been offensive to refer to someone by their mom’s name. Now, do you guys remember Christmas? There’s this thing in the Christmas story where when you notice the detail that Mary is not yet married to Joseph when she gets pregnant. Now in a small town — could you imagine that? By the way, the Scripture says that she was she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you think everyone in her hometown thought, “Cool. That’s definitely what happened.” No.
OK, if you’ll pardon my French — earmuffs time — but this is in the King James and I’m going to use it technically ,and so just deal with it. They’re calling Jesus a bastard. Right? Because they’re resisting Him.
“Who is this Jesus guy here?, Jesus? We saw you playing with the cat, growing up. You can’t be bringing this teaching. Aren’t you the son of? They don’t say Joseph ’cause they remember. It was just a few years ago for them. “And don’t you have brothers — James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And aren’t his sisters here with us?”
Notice Jesus has not yet on record in his hometown done anything really offensive, right? What was he doing? He was teaching the Word of God at church and was healing people. He was casting out demons. And they are shocked and offended, right? Just notice it, right? They are offended. Another way to translate the word in in Greek would be that they stumbled over him. He was a stumbling block or a stumbling rock. They stumble. They just could not see it.
I just want to notice that not everyone who meets Jesus wants to follow Jesus. I just you guys are catching that so far. Not everybody who is introduced to Jesus wants to follow Jesus. In fact, they’re offended by Him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet …*** OK, time out.
Whenever you get a chance to read your whole Bible, one of the things that you’ll notice — if you read your whole Bible and you read it from Genesis all the way to Revelation I — is that there is this kind of this figure, or this office or this posture of a prophet. Now, what does a prophet do?
A prophet by and large will speak the truth of God to people. Usually what the prophet will do is to tell the future. They’re usually saying things like “If you don’t turn from your own way and turn back to God, you’re all going to die” Or “You’re gonna get crushed.“ “The enemies are gonna come take us over.” It’s usually that type of language.
But the primary call is the call to repentance, and a lot of us we recoil at that word. Jesus is calling us to repentance because He wants a relationship with us. If you go to anybody and you say “Hey, would you rather spend your eternity burning and an eternal flame or not?” What does everybody pick? NOT. That doesn’t mean I want to follow Jesus. Jesus doesn’t posture his call to repentance in that way. The prophets would say, “Turn back to your Father.” Or “Turn back to get it right. Turn back, prodigal son, because your Father, who is in heaven, wants a relationship with you. And if you don’t do that, it will lead to your destruction.” But the primary emphasis is on the Father wants you to turn to Him.
OK, so repentance is an over-spiritualized word in our cultural context. Here’s what repentance means. It means I’m going this way in my mind and in my actions, and repentance is turning the right way. It’s changing my mind, changing my behavior. It’s kind of an all-at-once thing. I’m turning back to God. “I’m going to turn to God.” That’s repentance.
Yeah, so we’re going to see that what the prophets would do is they would come in and usually — notice this when you read through your whole Bible. Just notice who the prophets primarily are speaking to. They are primarily speaking to the affluent and the powerful. Rarely, if ever, do the prophets target the poor and disenfranchised. In fact, they’re usually calling out the powerful because those are the people taking advantage of the poor and the disenfranchised. This is going to matter — just hang with me. I promise this is going to really matter. Just wait.
OK, here we go. So the prophets would proclaim to kings, right? Kings who would be going their own way or leading the people on their own way. Their prophets would come in, and they would say, “King or kings or affluent or powerful, turn now.” How do you think that message was generally received? If you were to go to powerful people and say “What you’re doing is anti-God or ungodly. Stop and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel.” And you kept saying it, what would end up happening to you, most likely? You would be removed. Someone would use their power to shut you up. OK, this is going to matter. Just hold just hold. Follow me, OK?
Jesus is where? This hometown, right? He hasn’t really done any prophetic work yet, at least on record in his hometown, but they’re still there. He gave them a little bit, and they’re offended. Notice Jesus’s title for Himself. He refers to himself, he tethers himself to the prophets. He is not without honor except in his hometown among His relatives and in His household. He was — now this is crazy and I’m not going to resolve the tension for us — He was not able to do a miracle there except that He laid His hands, … except that he did a miracle there, … except that He healed a few sick people and healed them. In preparing for this, I’ve engaged with a lot of different commentators, and none of their answers really made me feel like it was an answer, and my tension was resolved.
So I’m going to pass on to you my own tension. I’m not going to solve it. I’m not going to resolve it. I just want to notice that somehow Mark, in his mind, understands that Jesus is not able to do a miracle there — or a lot of miracles — there because of their resistance or the absence of faith. Perhaps it may be that Mark understands this to be a domain in which the Kingdom of darkness has a strong hold.
It may be. I just want to notice it. You can’t get away from the fact it’s right there. And how does that all work together? I’m not sure, because that’s so striking. Now I want to meet Mark one day and ask him. “You said here he couldn’t do a miracle. Then you said he did miracles. What? Why? Help me!!” But when that happens, I’ll probably be dead, so I don’t have any help for us today. If I get a time machine, though, I’ll come back and tell you.
Notice Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. These are his people. These are his own. These are his homies. These are His crew. And their unbelief is so great that Mark seems to think that He’s not able to do a miracle there. Not everyone who knows Jesus wants to follow Jesus. Not everyone who meets Jesus wants Jesus.
OK, let’s keep going. Are you guys encouraged yet? Let’s keep going. Notice we change up the pace. Then he summons the 12 and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. Notice what Jesus does. What has Jesus just experienced in his hometown? Rejection and resistance, right? They’re just not believing him. And now what does he do? He sends his disciples out.
If you’re one of Jesus disciples and you just got done with that little episode, and Jesus says, “OK, you guys. Go out.” And they think, “Can we have an encouraging moment, Jesus? Can we get a win in our column, please, before you send us out?” Notice He sends them out two by two. Mona Hooker, who’s a great theologian and New Testament scholar, points out that in that society you needed to have at least two witnesses for the claim to be valid in any sort of like legal setting. So He’s sending them out two by two likely so that they have two witnesses. He sends them out in pairs.
OK, for those of you guys who’ve been following along, what you can tell? At this point in the story, are these people ready? Are they qualified to go out and basically do what Jesus has been doing? Notice that He gives then authority over unclean spirits. He says go out and preach. Go and proclaim the good news of the gospel. Go heal people. Go cast out demons. And they’re thinking, ”We can’t even plan our own lunch.”
- Let’s get into this for a second. What is it that qualifies a person to minister in the name of Jesus? Is it a seminary degree? Decades of training? Completing some program, getting a certificate? Or is it the fact that Jesus, way before they’re ready, gives them authority? Option B, right?
For those of us who have a sense that the Spirit of God is guiding us to minister in a certain way or to lead in a certain way — but maybe we’re feeling a little bit reticent, we’re feeling a little bit like “I don’t know if I’m ready yet” — I’m going to tell you the truth as your pastor. You absolutely are not ready. But ready ain’t on the list of qualifications. What’s on the list? This already came from Jesus. So if you feel like Jesus is leading you to do the thing, go for it.
And let me just tell you how life works. I get this question. My teammates will ask me, “How do you know you’re ready for the sermon today?” I answer like this, “I’ll be ready when it’s over.” When my wife was pregnant with our first child, Michaela, people would ask me “Are you ready to have a kid?” And I I would respond with, “I think I’ll be ready when they leave the house. Because, at least in my life — especially following Jesus — I never feel ready. Do you?
In fact, I want to push a little bit here and say usually it’s in those moments where I feel ready, pride and the lack of humility start to creep in. I actually do more damage ’cause I’m going by my own strength.
I think that the Lord wants us to step out and minister and lead and serve — not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God. So follow Jesus into that space. Don’t wait for a certificate. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except for a staff. This does not mean employees. It means a walking staff. OK, no bread — which really puts teeth into the prayer that he teaches them, “Give us this day our daily bread.” No traveling bag, no money in their belts, no money. But to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt. Not even an extra shirt.
What do these disciples have to give? “The good news that the Kingdom of God is here.” They have nothing to give. They can’t even give someone a ride or a handout. Right, someone comes up and, says, I’m poor, give me some money. I have nothing to give to you. In fact, Peter actually says this in the Book of Acts. I got nothing, no silver and gold. But what I do have is the Ministry of the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Would you say yes to this? This is the worst marketing campaign I’ve ever seen in my whole life, right? Here’s our 2022 Vision campaign. Don’t take anything with you, except for a staff. (Pledge cards, everyone?)
He said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. If any place does not welcome you or listen to you when you leave there … and now, here’s this thing, here’s this little idiom … shake the dust off your feet. It’s an act. He defines it here as a testimony against them. This is very prophetic. This is how the prophets would work. Notice Jesus refers to Himself as a prophet. Then He sends out His followers to go proclaiming the good news, and then He says if people won’t have you …
Has this ever happened before in Jesus’s lifetime? Where he goes into a town and people won’t have Him and he can’t even do a miracle there? Jesus is assuming that what happened to Him will happen to His followers. So if you’re getting resistance is a Jesus follower or being faithful to Him, I just want to encourage you, that’s totally normal. It happened to Jesus. It’ll happen to His followers.
So they went out and preached that people should what? Turn.” And is that a popular message — especially for those whose lives were made quite easy by continuing to pursue our own way?
Frederick Douglass said this: “Men do not love those who remind them of their sins unless they have a mind to repent.” When you call people to repentance, when you when you speak truth to power, when you when you proclaim to somebody — “This is not right. This is an anti-God. This is not the way of the Kingdom of God. Turn from that and turn towards Jesus.” That is met only with resistance unless the Spirit is doing a work of repentance in their hearts.
So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil, and healed them. Notice this that they not only proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, but they live it. This this idea that we’re to segregate the proclamation from the living of the good news of the Gospel itself is foreign to the Gospel of Mark. There is no such command in your Scripture that says just preach the gospel. It’s always the proclamation and the life. Because the gospel is that the Kingdom is here. So I’m gonna live it now, baby. Don’t you want to do? that too? Let’s go. Here we go.
Ah, we’re introduced to a new character. One of the things that we know historically is that Herod was not actually a king, he was a tetrarch, which means that he was like an underling in the Roman hierarchy. In fact, one of the things that we know through history is that Herod actually was kicked out. He was removed from his position because he kept petitioning his authorities to call him king. This happened before Mark wrote his gospel. I think that Mark is making fun of Herod by saying King” Herod. And if you think that’s beyond the biblical authors, read your Bible all the way through today. You’ll find it all over the place.
King Herod heard about Jesus because His name had become well known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. We haven’t heard from John the Baptist since chapter one. And he’s evidently dead. Did you know that? Others said he is Elijah, which was an old guess. What Elijah was … he was like the like prophet like par excellence, the most prophetty-prophet, OK? Elijah was like the most prophet prophet, OK. Still others said he’s like one of the prophets from long ago, by the way. Do you know what usually happened to the prophets? They would come in and they would proclaim, they would speak, calling people to repentance. And a bunch of people wouldn’t like that. So guess what they would do?
You think the prophets lived a long time — at least, from the part of when their message started? They got beat up, run out of town, killed. That’s the job of a prophet. When Herod heard of it, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised. That’s interesting.”
OK, now what we’re going to do something interesting. Mary Healy, who’s a New Testament scholar, she notices something, and I’m in agreement. This is the longest portion of Mark’s Gospel that isn’t directly about Jesus. You’re now going to get a very lengthy, excursion, at least from the perspective of Mark, on the beheading of John the Baptist.
This is the longest portion in Mark’s gospel that’s not about Jesus. Or is it? Watch this now. You guys have heard of Good Friday and Easter. OK, I want you to get that in your space, right? Kind of get that in your brain.
Remember that Jesus was betrayed into the hands of not only religious leaders, but also the Roman government. There was this dude named Pilate who didn’t really want to kill Jesus. But because of the pressure of those in the community, he actually had Jesus executed because — let’s just have that in our minds right now as we watch this — because this is the longest portion of the Gospel of Mark that’s not about Jesus. But it might be about Jesus.
When Herod heard of it, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised.” For Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife. What did Herod do? He married Herodias, who used to be married to whom? His brother Philip. And from what I could tell Philip was still alive. This isn’t a widow situation. In fact, could it be possible that a person who has kingly power might just take someone for their own self. This has hints of David and Bathsheba, maybe. OK, he just takes Herodias for himself.
John the Baptist had been telling Herod what? Remember he was like the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, like a prophet. Notice, notice, notice, notice. Remember what Jesus called his own self? Prophet. OK, John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” What was the message that John was giving to Herod? “Repent.”
Why was John the Baptist in Herod’s face? It may be because John recognized that when the leadership is corrupt it propagates corruption across the entire community. So it’s interesting just to notice that John the Baptist gets directly into her face, and as though Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to cancel him. This is where cancel culture started. She wanted to kill John. She didn’t like what he said, so she’s holding a grudge and she wants to do what?
For those who were here the last couple weeks, you’ll remember there was this scene where Jesus was healing, casting out demons and then The Herodians and the Pharisees started plotting together to do what to Jesus because they did not like what? This might be about Jesus. This might be a foreshadowing.
What’s happening in John has also happened to Jesus so far, but she could not because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard him, he would be very perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him an opportune time. Opportune for whom? An opportune time came on his birthday when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee who were at the table. All powerful people, right? And, by the way, they’re all made wealthy based on Herod’s corruption.
So like the message of “Repent, Herod, repent and believe the good news of Jesus” would likely have not gone well with almost anyone at this gathering. It’s also interesting to as you read through the gospels. The poor and the marginalized almost always get it. And the wealthy and powerful almost always. almost always, not always, but almost always can’t even see it’s. It’s actually quite rare in the Gospels for that to happen, and here you’ve got all the power, right?
By the way, this is … OK, I’m a pastor so that the word is not godly. I’m going to read it out loud. I’m not gonna make a lot of commentary. Don’t use your imagination. Let’s just notice that this is not good. When Herodias’s own daughter came in and danced — this is not ballet. If you made a movie of the Bible, it would be rated R. I just want to be very clear. She pleased Herod, and this section is not in my children’s Bible. OK, she pleased Herod and his guests. The King said to the girl — so she’s obviously done something to get this king to say these words — “Ask me whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.”
Thank you, this is shocking. He promised her with an oath. Whatever you ask me, I will give you up to what? Half my … what is on offer here? This is like one of those enormous Publishers Clearing House blank checks. Yeah, anything up to half my Kingdom. Notice the bitter irony. So she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”
“John the Baptist head’s,” her mother said.. “Not like a boat? We could use a boat, mom.”
Right, you want … He’s already in prison, you know. He’s already in chains, and yet you want his head cut off. All right, cool. What’s interesting to me is the daughter is cool and she at once hurried to the king and even doubles down on the cruelty — I want you to give me, John the Baptist’s on a platter, immediately. Right, the cruelty just expanded.
Although the king was deeply distressed, because of his oath and the guests, he did not want to refuse her. So the king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John’s head. Notice that the king is afraid of a desert-dwelling, locust-eating prophet with no army nor dollar to his name. Yeah, the word of God, it’s powerful. So the executioner went and beheaded John in prison, brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. Merry Christmas. When John’s disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb. John doesn’t come out of a tomb. Jesus does. That’s the big difference. But here’s where I want to zoom in just for just for a brief moment, and then we’ll conclude.
Notice that this scene of John’s beheading immediately or quite quickly follows the rejection that Jesus experienced among his own people in Nazareth. And it’s sandwiched in between the sending out of His disciples and the return of His disciples in verse 30, I think. You guys can double check.
Right, so the sending out — then there’s this pause and you get the big, long John the Baptist section — and then you’re back to the disciples coming back and reporting everything to Jesus. Why would Mark sandwich this violent story in between the sending out and the return of the disciples? Here’s my current thinking. I’d encourage you, ’cause I think this is the portion of Scripture, I think is communicating this truth: Oftentimes following Jesus and being obedient to Jesus will be met with resistance. Speaking Jesus, the truth of God – there are those who don’t want to hear it. Especially those who have the levers of power will often meet you with resistance and sometimes even violence.
So when that day comes when the family rejects you like Jesus, right when the king orders your execution like John, when power pushes against what you’re doing, I just want to encourage you. Don’t recognize that as a failure of following Jesus. Notice that Jesus sends His disciples out and then you get this this really gory, violent, horrible story of what may happen to us if we follow Jesus. Because we’re following Him into the dark, broken and messed up spaces of the world.
So that resistance that you may be feeling as you’re trying to follow after Jesus … that may be completely normal, and here’s why. It happened to Jesus. It happened to John. It’s going to happen later in the text to His disciples. And if we’re to be a disciple of Jesus, I don’t think it’s a question of if the resistance is going to come. I think the question is how and when.
Here’s the good news. Do you remember the authority? Remember, we talked about the ready game. Are we ready for this? Are you guys ready for this? Are you guys ready for Herod? Are you ready for the people of Nazareth to deny you? Are you ready for that? No, you won’t be. But ready isn’t in the qualifications. What is? Remember that Jesus gave them authority. And for every follower of Jesus, the Spirit of the Living God dwells within us. And day by day, and moment by moment, as we follow after Jesus when that resistance comes, His spirit empowers us to continue.
And here’s the gem. Though the narrative ends with a tomb in Chapter 6, the book ends with a resurrection — which means that no matter what resistance may come our way — even if it be death –death does not have the final say, for the Kingdom of Life is here.
Let me pray for us. Lord, we love You. We give You thanks. Would You help us, by the power of Your Spirit, to walk this way as we face Herod and even our own townspeople, even our own families? Lord, would You instill within us Your Grace and Your mercy, that we might be a people of grace and mercy? Also, conviction and truth — that we would not be working by our own might and power, but by the Spirit of the Living God. So we submit ourselves to you, knowing that you love us and you’re powerful to bring these things about, Jesus. In your name we pray, amen.
Love you guys. We’ll see you next time. ###