A Bad Story in a Good Place

Mark 6: 14 – 29

(preached on July 18, 2021)

 

Today’s gospel passage, from Mark, is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible for us pastors to preach on.  For years I avoided it.  But this past Monday, as I was choosing the passage for today, I decided to take on the challenge of preaching on this passage.  It’s not a feel-good story by any stretch of the imagination, but it does impart a truth that you and I need to be reminded of.

 

The truth of the story is this: those who proclaim the gospel often suffer for it.  Those who preach the good news of God’s justice and love are often harassed, hurt, and even put to death.  That’s because of the hard reality that the powers of evil are alive and well in the world.  If we avoid that hard reality, if we only hear the feel-good news, we’re living in a never never land, a land of denial, with our heads in the sand.  The truth is that when we preach the good news we’re taking a risk.  But followers of Jesus, we affirm that the good news is still good news, even in the face of harassment, even in the face of death.  As people who serve a risen Savior, we affirm that death does not have the last word.

 

Because this story is a bit complex, here’s a brief recap.  John the Baptist was a fervent prophet and preacher.  He called all people to live by God’s ways of justice.  That included people in power.  That included the powerful King Herod.  Herod had divorced his first wife to marry Herodias.  Herodias had been married to Herod’s brother Philip.  John spoke out against this marriage, saying it was very close to adultery.  So Herodias had it in for John.  She looked for a way to get rid of him.  On Herod’s birthday, she had a chance to do just that.  At the birthday party, her teenage daughter danced for the king.  Mark doesn’t give us a lot of detail about the dance, but from Herod’s reaction we can imagine that it was a seductive, erotic dance.  Herod was enthralled.  He told the girl he would do anything for her…even give her half his kingdom.  The girl turned to her mother.  Herodias saw an opportunity to get her wish.  She told the girl, “Ask for the head of John the Baptist.” And the girl complied.  Herod was shocked, but he couldn’t back down in front of his guests.  He couldn’t lose face.  So he had John beheaded.

 

This is a gruesome story.  You and I might well ask, why this bad story at this point in Mark’s gospel?  It may seem strange, but Mark places this gruesome story here to make an important point.  He puts this account of John’s beheading right after Jesus sends the disciples out to heal the sick and preach the good news of God’s Kingdom.  And right after this gruesome story, the disciples return to report their success: the deeds of wonder they’ve performed.  In between these good stories of the disciples’ successful mission work, we get this bad story.  Preacher Tom Long describes it this way: it’s a “…gruesome account of how King Herod, after he had blown out the candles on his birthday cake, snuffed out the life of John the Baptist” (Long, Minister’s Annual Manual, 2015, p. 439).

 

You and I might well ask, as Tom Long does, “What’s a bad story like that doing in a nice place like this?” Jesus has just sent the disciples out to spread the good news.   This part of the gospel should be all about the joy of being a disciple of Christ: proclaiming God’s Kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons.  But here’s the point Mark wants to make.  With this story of Herod’s brutality, Mark says, being a disciple is not only good times.  He says there is also a cost to being a disciple.  In Mark’s time, and in our time, the powers of evil are alive and well.  Being a disciple of Christ means confronting those powers.  Tom Long writes:

 

“Mark wants us to know that when the disciples go out to do the work of the Kingdom, when the church rises up to be the church, the world rises up to be the world.  So, the disciples go out to preach the gospel [and cast out demons]… well, good.  But, [Mark reminds us], don’t forget that when John the Baptist [tried] to heal the demons that raged in Herod, it cost him his life.  Mark wants us to know that when the church rises up to be the church, the world rises up to be the world.”

 

That’s what Mark wants us to know, by telling this horrible story, this hard truth of John’s death.  But Mark doesn’t leave us with this hard truth.  There’s more to the story.  Mark wants us to know that, when the world rises up to be the world, Jesus Christ rises from the dead.  Remember as our story began, when Herod found out about the church being the church, he thought someone had been raised from the dead.  When Herod found out about the healings and wonders Jesus was performing in his ministry, his first thought was that somebody had been raised from the dead.  Herod slapped his forehead and exclaimed something like, “Hey, I thought I had that nailed down.  But somebody’s been raised from the dead!”

 

Mark wants us to know that you cannot nail down Jesus.  When the world rises up to be the world, Jesus rises from the dead.  When the world is being the world, when it looks like the powers of evil are in charge, Jesus Christ is being Lord.  As Martin Luther put it in the great hymn, A Mighty Fortress, ‘the body they may kill/God’s truth abideth still/his Kingdom is forever.’

 

So what does this mean for you and me?  Well, “my friends, God calls you and me go out this day to be the church.  As Jesus told the disciples when he sent them out, he would tell us: don’t take two coats, a bag of money, an insurance policy, or anything else you think may protect you as you do God’s work in the world.  Nothing can spare you from the evil intent of the Herods of this world.  So take only the gospel and your confident faith that, when all is said and done, all the Herods in this world will say, ‘Somebody has been raised from the dead.  The power we thought was nailed down is loose again in the world.’”

 

My friends, the hard reality is that when the church rises up to be the church, the world rises up to be the world.  Being a disciple of Christ means confronting the powers of evil in the world.  But [we proclaim the glorious truth that] when the world rises up to be the world, Jesus Christ rises from the dead.  We proclaim that death does not have the last word.  Jesus Christ is risen and alive in the world!  Alleluia!  Amen.

 

 

 

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

Pentecost 8