"A Blueprint for Violence"
Sermon Presented July 16, 2006
Mark 6:14-29
I confess that I have never heard or preached a sermon on this text, and for good reason. There's no joy or hope here. Instead of hope, it speaks anger, revenge, resentment, and death. What's more, Jesus isn't even mentioned in it, and it's a gospel text. This story is about violence - death by beheading, and for a person who freaked out when my grandmother would ring the necks of chickens for a fried chicken dinner, I'm amazed that you're hearing me preach it today. Let's begin by looking at the background.
Although Jesus isn't mentioned in this text, his story surrounds it. This is another instance where Mark sandwiches a new story in between 2 others that are linked to each other - as we saw a couple of weeks ago. Our story today is a reference to the conjectures of some that Jesus is actually John the Baptist raised from the dead, and it is placed between Jesus sending his followers out to engage in ministry and their debriefing after they return. Through its placement, the story underscores the danger that awaits those who speak out on behalf of the reign of God.
The "Herod" spoken of in the text is the Roman puppet ruler, Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great - who began to rule Galilee and Perea after his father's death in 4 BCE and ruled for 35 years. Herodias, Herod's wife, was formerly married to Herod's half-brother - also "Herod" - called Philip by Mark in another part of the gospel. Herodias has a daughter - Salome - from her marriage to Philip, and Salome is the dancer.
I'm reading from Mark 6:14-29.
Herodias is obsessed with killing John the Baptist, but Herod isn't interested because of his conflicted feelings about John. Even though Herod fears John and hates hearing his criticism, he believes John is holy and he likes listening to him. The only reason John is alive is because Herod spared him from Herodias.
As God's faithful prophet, John preaches a message of repentance for sins, and Herod and Herodias are targets. When Herodias divorced her husband Philip to marry Antipas, John called their marriage a moral outrage. Because of his boldness in attacking the throne, John went to prison. But John's imprisonment isn't enough for Herodias. She wants to see him dead.
The night of Herod's birthday party turns into a night of violence. This premier social event begins calmly enough as all of the important leaders gather to help Herod celebrate. However, after dinner when everyone is drunk, the party turns dark after Herod's young step daughter dances up a storm. As a sign of his pleasure, Herod tells her she can have anything she wants - up to half the kingdom - and he makes this promise in front of his guests.
Now I don't know about you, but if I were offered half of a thriving kingdom, I wouldn't hesitate OR ask someone else's advice. I'd take it! But this child consults her mother, who instructs her to ask for John's death. Salome rushes back into the room and demands that she be given the head of John the Baptist on a platter as the last course of the banquet. Herod, fearing he will lose face with his guests, gives the order to have John beheaded.
Let's look again at the three main characters in this story. First there's Herodias, a woman whose anger is so intense that she wants her nemesis killed in a brutal manner. Instead of working through her anger over the years, she allowed it to fester and turn to vengeance. Her anger controls her instead of the other way around.
The second person is the young teenage girl who performs a licentious dance to seduce the all-male crowd, and then relinquishes half of her stepfather's kingdom in order to please her mom. This child lives in an environment of hatred and violence and her choice of death for the prophet doesn't seem to faze her.
And now let's look at the third person in the triangle - Herod Antipas. He is the one who must bear responsibility for John's death because he has ultimate control. He is a ruler who abuses his power! And by the way, if you don't think these actions affected the guests, you've got another think coming!
Now let's consider the causes of the violence. Because of lust and envy, Herod broke up the marriage of his brother so he could marry Herodias. This act brought condemnation by John. Then on the night of the party, Herod succumbed to pride and honored an oath sworn to a teenager because he didn't want to lose face. He saw more honor in keeping his word than in saving a life. He was willing to sacrifice the life of God's prophet to maintain his honor, prestige and power. I believe that this blueprint for violence that includes envy, hatred, pride, lust and a desire for power isn't exclusive to first century Palestine, and it isn't exclusive to non-Christians. Unless we see that this story mirrors our own lives, it won't impact us.
Herod is weak, with no control over himself, his household or his political domain. His weakness allows violence to occur as he orders the beheading of an innocent man. This was a first century act of capital punishment.
Wisconsin voters will go to the polls in November in an attempt to reinstate capital punishment. I pray that the proposal will be defeated. Innocent people like John the Baptist and Jesus died at the hands of the state, and they weren't the first or the last. This isn't the way to solve society's problems.
The acts of violence at that party had consequences. First, there were consequences for Herod. How safe do you think he felt being married to a person with such a capacity for violence? I'm sure he lived in fear from that moment on - fear of God and fear of his wife. When he heard about Jesus, his first thought was that John had come back to life. He was haunted by the memories of his evil deed. We are all familiar with feelings of guilt and how these feelings affect us.
Because this violence came at the instigation of Herodias, I would guess that her capacity for violence escalated. Because violence begets violence, there were probably more evil acts to come. Herodias would command no respect - only fear.
Then there was the child. A heritage of violence was passed on to her by her mother. She was asked to dance for a party of drunken men. Then she received the head of John on a platter. She held it, looked at it, and took it to her mother. We see here a blueprint for the continuation of violence to the next generation. Here the adage "The sins of the parents are visited on the children" is a strong probability.
The violence at the party began because of an earlier resistance to the gospel message of repentance. Other contributing factors included a loss of control because of unresolved anger, vengeance, drunkenness, pride and seduction. And the results of the violence were fear, guilt, death, more violence, and in all likelihood, severe mental repercussions.
Herod recognized John as holy and sent by God, and yet he disregarded the words of the prophet and ordered him killed in deference to his promise. Through abuse of power, an innocent man died. And don't think that because we don't have Herod's power or evil spouse that we are off the hook. All of us are tempted to disregard God's prophetic words that call us to repentance, righteousness and justice. We prefer to hold and wield power, even for benevolent purposes and we presume that we are exempt from certain requirements of living in light of the gospel. We don't rule kingdoms but we do want to hold power over our own lives and probably over the lives of others. I still try to exert power over my children even though they are adults!
As most of you know I was a Southern Baptist until 12 years ago. The succession of power in the SBC was interrupted last month when someone outside of the chain of command was elected president. That person stated that people wanted a leader who was kind instead of one who was interested only in the power. Christ calls us to seek justice in a manner in which love of God and love of people are motivators.
This story gives us an insight into the destructive power of sin. The effects of sin shown in our text are felt on many different levels - personal, family, cultural, political and spiritual. Sin infects the entire world in which we live. A desire for power corrupts all human institutions and corrupted power has deadly effects on those who dare to speak out against it. Just look at what happens in governments both here and abroad to those who dare to speak out against those in power.
We see in our text that the courage to speak God's prophetic word resulted in death to the prophet. However, death isn't always physical, but can also be political, spiritual or social. So how do we understand our response to Christian prophecy? What will be our position on the justice issues we will examine at our Justice Seminar in October? Should Christian leaders speak out and risk losing their church or their positions of power in order to speak a prophetic word?
One such prophetic issue today is that of global warming. (Last night I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and I highly recommend it!) Finally, Evangelical Christian leaders are speaking out against government policies that fail to address the problem. However, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell continue to proclaim that there isn't a problem. As with other issues, Christians must discern the spirits and get the facts. Let's stop killing God's prophets.
In our text, Mark alerts his readers to the dangers awaiting not only Jesus, but them. Faithfulness to God is never easy. The road is rocky and resistance is real. Because we are human, we all have the capacity for evil. We all know what wounded pride, unresolved anger, and the desire for revenge and power can do to us. So let's listen to God's prophetic word and be willing to speak it if called to do so. The chain of sin and violence can be broken when we repent and follow God's word. That's our call as Christian disciples.
