Alice thought
it was a curious thing to do and asked the cards why they were painting
the roses. They said they had planted the white rose tree by mistake
and were hurriedly painting the blossoms before the Queen discovered
what they had done. If she found out, they would pay a terrible
price. Lewis Carroll said of the Queen: “She had only one
way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with
their head!’ she said, without even looking around.”
The Queen of
Hearts barked the order several times a day, but very few were beheaded
because while she wasn’t looking, the King of Hearts quietly
pardoned her would-be victims. Her soldiers humored her, but didn’t
carry out her orders.
Whether portrayed
in a children’s fantasy or the evening news, there’s
something about power that goes to people’s heads, and results
in others loosing theirs.
I’m not
enthused about preaching the gospel from today’s lectionary
readings. Preaching troublesome texts like this make me wish for
another line of work. We typically hear from John the Baptist during
Advent, but here he is in the middle of summer. This time, John
isn’t preaching repentance in the wilderness. His big mouth
landed him in prison and separated his head from his body. It is
a gruesome story that doesn’t lend itself to a children’s
message. You may not think it is suitable for your ears, either.
Where’s the gospel in a text like this?
The story is
a case study of what happens when truth speaks accountability to
power. Jesus said, “The truth will make you free.”
But it can also get you attacked, arrested or killed. Taking a stand
for God can be a dangerous thing.
Mark says, “King
Herod heard of it, for Jesus name had become known (6:1). The
Herod in this story is not Herod the Great who ordered the slaughter
of the innocents in Bethlehem to get rid of little King Jesus. Herod
in today’s text was Herod the Great’s son. He was also
called, Herod Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch who ruled as governor.
The “it” that paranoid Herod heard about was the successful
mission of Jesus and the disciples. He was convinced that Jesus
was really John the Baptist who had come back from the dead to haunt
him.
Mark recaps
the events leading up to John’s execution. Fidelity was Herod’s
strong suit. He took his brother Phillip’s wife and married
her. When John the Baptist caught wind of it, he spoke out about
the incestuous relationship. He told Herod to his face, “It
is not lawful for you to have your brother Phillip’s wife.”
Someone observed, “The ‘powers that be’ tolerate
religion as long as it remains a hobby.” God’s judgment
wasn’t a plaything to John. He could not sit in silence on
the sidelines.
What happened
next was the predictable result of religion confronting political
power. Herod’s new wife Herodias said, “He can’t
talk like that to us!” She demanded that Herod lock the Baptist
up in a rat-infested prison.
Last year at
a press conference in Baghdad, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes
at President Bush in anger over what has been done to his country.
His shoes became a symbol of defiance for millions of Muslims. The
Old Testament prophets used symbolic actions to tell God’s
truth and illustrate what would happen if Israel didn’t change
its ways. They paid a price for their actions. The Iraqi journalist
was jailed, allegedly severely beaten, and now awaits a possible
sentence of fifteen years in prison. The powers that be don’t
take kindly to criticism.
It had been
eight hundred years since a prophet had spoken in Israel. John prepared
people for the decisive event God was about to reveal. Herod feared
John, but there was something about John’s preaching that
intrigued him. Herod liked and didn’t like him, but he recognized
holiness when he saw it, and wanted to preserve John’s life.
Herodias, however, was out for John’s blood.
Herod threw
himself a big birthday party. He invited all of his hacks and cronies.
After he got liquored-up and everyone sang, “Happy Birthday
dear Herod,” there came a surprise. Herodias’ daughter
was a beautiful enticing young woman who performed an exotic dance
for him. Mark says she “pleased him.” It must have been
some dance. Herod got hot flashes and made a total fool of himself.
“Ask me for anything you want, darling, and it’s
yours. I’ll even give you half of my kingdom.”
She conspired
with her mother, Herodias, returned to the party and said to Herod.
“Let’s see… what DO I want? Jewelry? No. I have
enough already. A new wardrobe? No. A 2010 E class Mercedes? No…”
Then her eyes lit up. She said, “I know! I know what I want,
dear old step-Daddy—John the Baptist. Not “all”
of him-- just his head… on a silver platter… with a
floral and fruit garnish around it.”
Herod’s
blood must have run cold. He didn’t want John killed, but
he had given his word before all his guests, and he couldn’t
be seen as weak. What is it that allowed a prophet’s voice
to be silenced by a dancing girl and her mother? The same thing
that allowed God’s only begotten Son to be executed on a cross.
John wasn’t
afraid to tell the truth. If he were alive today, the exploits of
senators and governors he would give him much to say, as would the
injustices and the moral climate of our culture. The courage that
helped him to tell the truth didn’t belong to John alone.
This leads us to where the gospel is found in this awful story.
It is in verse 29. The state had silenced the preacher, but the
preacher had disciples—brave ones. They came and took the
body of their leader, an enemy of the state, and laid it in a tomb.
If it doesn’t seem like much, consider that they did for John
what Jesus’ cowardly disciples didn’t do for him.
It would take
much more than a beheading to stop the new world from exposing the
bankrupt nature of the old one. They silenced one voice, but not
the message that would continue in his disciples. They silenced
Jesus, too, but only a little while. He rose from the dead and breathed
the Holy Spirit into his wimpy disciples so they could stand tall
and speak truth to power.
Just by looking,
there is nothing to suggest that you are agents of a new world order.
When it comes to being followers of Jesus, our failures seem to
far outnumber our successes. Yet God’s power continues to
be known whenever we manage, despite ourselves, to speak out when
something is not right, and stand up to hatred and injustice because
we know that is what following Jesus requires. The truth may make
you uncomfortable, you may lose friends, you may be at odds with
the church, you may be arrested, or even lose you life, but Jesus
says you will be free.
Let me leave
you now with some spirit inspired words from Dr. Ozzie Smith, a
Chicago pastor who lays out the challenge and the promise that God’s
truth will never fail us:
“When
rejected, go tell the truth anyhow! When people, the state, or the
church won't hear it, speak it anyhow.
