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Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
So tonight we are continuing our study, the gospel according to St. Mark. We are in chapter 6, it's printed there in your worship guide. We're gonna be in chapter 6, we're gonna start chat with verse 12. But, the disciples this is where we find ourselves in chapter 6.
Jeffrey Heine:The disciples of Jesus had been sent off on mission to preach repentance, to baptize, to perform miracles, mighty acts of deliverance and healing that validate their proclamation of the kingdom of God. And that's where we find ourselves in chapter 6 tonight. The disciples are currently off on that mission in the name of Jesus, and the news of Jesus and his disciples, it's spreading like wildfire. And so we pick up, in verse 12. Mark chapter 6 beginning here in verse 12.
Jeffrey Heine:And let us listen carefully for this is God's word. So they, the disciples, went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus's name had become known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
Jeffrey Heine:But others said, he is Elijah. And others said, he is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John whom I beheaded has been raised. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh, lord. You know us better than we know ourselves. You know our every thought and every need. So will you meet us now by your spirit?
Jeffrey Heine:Will you tend to our souls and lead us to truth and empower us to do your will from obedient hearts. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Verse 14 tells us that king Herod heard of it.
Jeffrey Heine:If you were to type that verse into a word document, it would immediately be flagged unclear antecedent. In other words, what is the it? What is the it that King Herod has heard of? If we back up there into verse 12, we can connect the it to the mission and miracles of the disciples of Jesus. In Matthew's gospel account of the same event, Matthew helpfully says that Herod heard of the fame of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a beautiful picture of what it means to be a disciple, to be an ambassador for Christ. What we talked about last week with Dwight and our missions team of living a life being sent, the disciples' work increased the fame not of themselves, but Jesus. Herod didn't hear of the fame of Peter. He didn't hear of the fame of Thomas or James. He heard of the fame of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:The work that the disciples were doing, the mission that Jesus sent them on, that he empowered them to carry out was increasing the renown of Jesus, so much so that the ruler of the area of Galilee, Herod, heard about their rabbi, their mentor, their leader, Jesus of Nazareth. But when Herod heard about Jesus, he was terrified because the disciples of this rabbi leader were preaching the kingdom of Yahweh. They were calling people to repentance and baptizing them. Not only that, they to add to this testimony the of the truth of what they're preaching, they're doing remarkable acts of healing and deliverance. Some people began to say that the rabbi leader, was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:Because he was resurrected from the dead, he had powers that had been unleashed to do these miracles. But others were saying this leader must be Elijah, the prophet of old who never died, who has disappeared into heaven. He's returned. Just like the prophet Malachi had prophesied so long ago that when the messiah came, Elijah would also return. And still others were saying, this leader is a new prophet.
Jeffrey Heine:He's a he's a a new prophet like one of the old ones. There was much confusion surrounding Herod as he was trying to understand who this Jesus was. That's because he was not an Israelite. And in a display of his callousness towards the Jews, he built his capital headquarters upon a Jewish burial ground, which meant that none of the Jews could dwell there. Otherwise, they would perpetually be ceremonially unclean.
Jeffrey Heine:So he didn't have a crew of Jewish advisors to help guide his disciples, Herod fearfully discerned, as we see in verse 16, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. Saint Mark certainly knows how to pull a reader in. He gives the ending before he offers the story. Compared to Luke's gospel where Luke writes at length to tell of John the Baptist's remarkable birth story and John the evangelist in his gospel. John elegantly writes of the man sent from God, the forerunner, the herald of the coming Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Mark has said very little about the great prophet John the Baptist. Last we heard in Mark's gospel was that John had been arrested right around the same time that Jesus was beginning his public ministry in Galilee, the territory where Herod was ruler. Mark shares with us Herod's conclusion. John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead and has resumed his ministry of preaching and baptizing, and now he's raising up a battalion of followers whom he's empowered to carry out his mission. And one can assume John the Baptist is coming for his revenge.
Jeffrey Heine:As the readers of Mark's gospel, the obvious response is, wait. What happened? Beheaded? What happened to John? Have you heard this story before, this story of John the Baptist and Herod?
Jeffrey Heine:It's certainly understandable if you haven't, but there was a time when the story of John the Baptist was as wildly known and retold as Cinderella or Hercules. In the 1200, the archbishop of Genoa began collecting the stories of the saints, men and women who were followers of Jesus martyred for their faith. He gathered everything from fact to folktale, and he compiled them into a book that was written in a simple Latin called Legenda Sanctorium. That's the reading of the saints. It later became broadly known as the Golden Legend.
Jeffrey Heine:It was 153 short stories of the saints and their feast days. And because the book was shorter, it was more easily reproduced, it was in a simple Latin, these stories circulated more rapidly and therefore more broadly than the scriptures did themselves. Bibles were typically owned only by the local churches, and some wealthy few could get one. They were costly and rare. Even after the printing press was invented 300 years later, for some time, editions of the golden legend were more plentiful than editions of the Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:But a significant problem arose. These stories of the golden legend were full of fanciful, even outlandish details not found in the scriptures. The stories in the Golden Legend, including that of John the Baptist, it muddied the general public understanding of the biblical account. This shows up in a lot of paintings, a lot of art that was made during that time where things are happening in those paintings that don't happen in the scriptures. We need to recognize that the stories we read impact our reading of the biblical scenes like this.
Jeffrey Heine:I can recall, getting a children's bible as a kid and being terrified of an illustration of John's severed head. I'm in therapy. I'm doing okay. All true. How should we read this scene, this story of John's death at the hands of Herod.
Jeffrey Heine:It has elements that we can recognize from other stories that we've read before, maybe even read to us as children. There are certainly elements that read like a fairy tale, or it can even be read as a comedy. There are elements that I believe that Mark includes that are intentionally humorous, even biting satire. At the same time, it's a horrific story of the murder of an innocent man and is, without question, a tragedy. Whether we know it or not, these categories influence the way that we read and hear and process the accounts of scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:So how would one tell the story, the death of John the Baptist as a fairy tale? Well, I think we all know how that version would begin. Once upon a time, there was a bold and courageous prophet living in the woods outside of the kingdom of a wicked king. In his bravery, the prophet spoke truth to the power. He declares that the marriage of the king to his new queen is a sham.
Jeffrey Heine:It's an abomination, a sin against God's law. You see, the king already had a queen, but he saw his older brother's wife and wanted her for himself. So he convinced her to leave her husband, his brother, And the king divorced his first wife and took his brother's wife for himself. And the prophet who lived in the woods who speaks the truth from god, he calls out the king and his new queen. The new queen grew up hearing about this god, Yahweh, and she hates that this prophet is telling her that god disapproves of her new marriage.
Jeffrey Heine:So she wants the prophet dead. Even though Herod isn't convinced that John is a prophet, he still does not like the thought of killing him. The king compromises by throwing the prophet in the king's dungeon, and that's where he stays for 2 years. Then then came the king's birthday, and he throws a party, a lavish party for himself with the most prestigious guests in town. At the great birthday banquet, the king's stepdaughter dances for him and all of his guests, and the king wishes to thank the princess or at least display to his guests how gracious and benevolent he is.
Jeffrey Heine:So he offers up the girl he offers to the girl up to half of his kingdom. That's what he says. Seeing this as the chance to get what she has wanted for 2 years, the queen tells the princess to ask the king for the head of the prophet, the one who maligned her good name. So the princess asks the king for the head of the prophet on a great banquet platter. And while the king regrets his offer, he quickly agrees.
Jeffrey Heine:The prophet's head is brought on a platter and is given to the princess, and the princess gives it to the happy queen. The end. That's one way to read the story. Has all the hallmarks of a classic fairy tale, everything but the talking mice. I know that it doesn't have a happy ending, but if you read any of the classic fairy tales, you know that happily ever after was invented by Walt Disney.
Jeffrey Heine:But as I said, there are also elements of comedy in this story, elements that I believe Mark includes on purpose, to make fun of and to belittle the powerful Herod. The comedy reading goes as this. King Herod was never a king. The son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, was one of 4 sons. All 4 wanted to succeed their father as king.
Jeffrey Heine:Imagine the pressure of succession. Great is in their father's name. But when Herod the Great died, rather than giving his kingdom to 1 son, the kingdom was divided into 4 parts, and his 4 sons received a 4th to govern. And Herod Antipas wanted to be king. He wanted to be great like his father, but he wasn't.
Jeffrey Heine:He wasn't even a real king. He was a 1 fourth of a king with 1 fourth of a kingdom. Rather than a king, Herod was a tetrarch, literally a 1 fourth ruler, forced to rule alongside of his brothers. This bitter brother Herod isn't only jealous of his brother's land, he's also jealous of his older brother's wife, Herodias, who unsurprisingly is somehow also Herod's niece. It's a classic ancient family tree keeping it all in the family.
Jeffrey Heine:Herod convinces Herodias to leave his brother Philip and marry him at least as soon as he can divorce his current wife. But as soon as the happy couple wed, a wild man dressed in camel hair, who eats bugs dipped in honey, who lives in the woods with a ragtag band of followers, starts telling everyone who will listen that what Herod has done is against the law of Yahweh. The wild man of no status, no station, no authority is proclaiming the lawlessness of the one in charge of the law. But Herod doesn't believe in Yahweh. He's not an Israelite.
Jeffrey Heine:While he's intrigued with this wild man, he doesn't follow the same God, so he doesn't really care. But his new wife, Herodias, she comes from a line of Jews on her mother's side. She's a descendant of the Maccabees, those courageous Jews who fought against the Gentiles and took back the temple in Jerusalem and witnessed the miracle of that oil lamp that burned for 8 nights. So when Herodias hears that this wild prophet is speaking against her new marriage, she wants this wild man dead. She wants to silence the voice of the one living in the wilderness, the one calling her so called husband and so called king a real life sinner.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, this so called king thinks executing this wild man is just too far. He's a made up prophet serving a made up god talking about made up laws. What's the harm? So instead of execution, he throws the wild man in prison for 2 years. For 2 years, the so called queen plots and plans her revenge.
Jeffrey Heine:St. Mark says Herodias has a grudge against John. For 2 years. That's a grudge. Have you ever had someone wanting your ruin for 2 years?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, now it's 2 years later. And in what must be a sign of Herod's lack of actual friends, the king throws himself a birthday party. He invites a bunch of important men, maybe they're wives. It only mentions the men. Maybe this is the kind of party where they don't want the wives in attendance because the party turns to dancing.
Jeffrey Heine:The Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, who wrote around the time of Herod, said that for a man to dance, quote, he must be intoxicated or insane, end quote. You might agree if you've ever been to a dry wedding and looked at the dance floor. It's not great. Well, the party turns to dancing, and we assume this is debaucherous. Most scholars reading of this text for the past 2000 years have, read that the dancing was lewd, which makes the scene even more disturbing because on the occasion of her second husband's birthday, the so called queen employs the sensuality of her own daughter, the so called princess, to lure the so called king into a trap.
Jeffrey Heine:After this performance by his stepdaughter, Herod promises to grant any wish the young woman has, up to half of his so called kingdom. So one half of one fourth, if you're doing the math here. At the direction of her mother, the so called princess wishes for the head of the wild man on a banquet platter, served up like a birthday cake. And though the 1 fourth king regrets his offer to grant this wish on his birthday, he still agrees. The wild man's head appears on a platter, and it's handed to the 1 fourth princess who hands it over to a delighted 1 fourth queen.
Jeffrey Heine:The end. I think Mark calling Herod a king is an intentional jab. Matthew doesn't use king in his gospel. He uses the the reference of tetrarch, what he actually was. I think Mark is calling him a king because it's humiliating.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like calling a passed over heir apparent a CEO after they were tossed aside for another. It's especially significant because when Jesus is arrested and sent to this same so called king, Herod, Herod will dress Jesus in a purple robe and mock him for being the so called king of the Jews. Mark's account shows Herod looking weak and inept, easily fooled by a young girl and his own niece, I mean wife. But for as foolish as Herod is depicted, he's also ruthless and cruel. The story is also a tragedy.
Jeffrey Heine:It is the execution of the one whom Jesus himself said was the greatest prophet. The one, no one born of woman was as great as John, Jesus said. So the tragic reading goes like this. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great whom we know from the gospel of Luke. Herod the Great was the one who called for the murder of every firstborn son in an attempt to prevent the messiah from coming to power in Israel and taking his kingdom.
Jeffrey Heine:Herod the Great enters the scene as a vicious and violent ruler who carelessly watches the slaughter of the innocents. His son, Herod Antipas, ruled his fourth of the kingdom with little to no regard of the Jewish people that lived there. He built his capital on the graves of their people, not only disrespecting their ancestors, but making it impossible for Jews to truly join in leadership because they could not enter the capital headquarters without becoming ceremonially unclean. It was gerrymandering and political manipulation before it was mainstream. He was careless and cruel, bitter, but his kingdom was merely a fourth of his father and taking it out on everyone and fortunate enough to be under his rule.
Jeffrey Heine:Herod divorces his wife and convinces his sister-in-law to leave his brother Philip to marry him. If he can't have his brother's land, at least he can have his brother's wife. And now, as ruler of the Jews in Galilee, he could not care less about the faith of those Jews. But one prophet among them refused to let the behavior of the ruler go unchecked, uncriticized or, perhaps worse, normalized in the minds of the Israelites. Herod could not be an example to God's people.
Jeffrey Heine:They could not imitate these behaviors. The risk of sin was too great. So the great prophet John speaks out against the actions of the ruler, Herod. And somehow, these charges make their way to the ear of Herod himself, and John is brought before him. John did not relent from saying exactly what he knew to be true and saying it directly to Herod's face.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe it speaks to Herod's genuine intrigue, or maybe it speaks to his foolish carelessness, but Herod liked hearing from John. Mark records that it makes him glad. Who likes to hear how evil they are? Who delights in hearing their behavior is against God and will incur judgment. How depraved must one be to find gladness in hearing how depraved they are.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like a madman delighting in watching the news stations report their crimes. It's the maniac taunting the police, daring them to catch him. It's a smile of wicked curiosity that keeps the great prophet around so he can hear what a terrible sinner he is. And the match to this foolish ruler is an even more callous and ruthless queen. She wanted the prophet dead from the start.
Jeffrey Heine:Nothing silences the voice of a prophet like decapitation, and that's exactly what the queen demands. Some queens want rubies, others diamonds, but Queen Herodias wants the head of a prophet. But Herod is as cowardly as he is cruel, so he keeps the prophet in his jail like a mouse in a trap. That is, until his birthday, when the leading men of Galilee come for a banquet, which, in their culture, would would have typically included excessive drinking and debauchery. And of all the entertainment to offer these men, out comes his young stepdaughter.
Jeffrey Heine:And of and she dances, and and she delights Herod and his men. And in his drunken delight, he makes a promise as foolish as it is generous. He uses the idiom of the day, I'll give you up to half of my kingdom, says the man without a kingdom. The girl consults with her mother, her mother who probably devised this whole scheme from the beginning, her mother who put her own daughter out to dance before these depraved men, all to secure the death of a righteous man. Her mother tells her to ask for what she has already been refused, the head of the prophet.
Jeffrey Heine:So the young girl asks for the unthinkable, and the foolish ruler bound by his own foolish promise must deliver. Immediately, he sends for the executioner to bring the girl, the head of the great prophet, and the head is handed to the daughter who gives it to her mother. And Herodias finally gets what she's wanted for so long, the silenced tongue of the prophet, never to speak again of her sin or the words of the God she claims to follow. A fairy tale, a comedy, a tragedy. Which one is it?
Jeffrey Heine:The story of John the Baptist is much more than just this final scene. Luke's gospel begins with a story about an angelic declaration to an old priest named Zechariah. The angel Gabriel informs the priest that he and his wife Elizabeth, even in their old age, would conceive a child, a child who would be given a divine mission to prepare the way for the Messiah. The angel says that the baby will be named John, and he will be filled with the holy spirit. Luke even records the moment when the baby John is filled with the holy spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:It's when Elizabeth is visited by her much younger relative, Mary. And the tiny baby John in utero encounters the tiny baby Jesus in utero. And in Elizabeth's womb, John leaps for joy. From before John's first breath, his mission was to be a witness, a prophet, a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. John is the one who saw Jesus walking in the crowds at a distance and cried out, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:And when John's disciples see that people are no longer coming to hear John teach or to be baptized by him, and in his disciples' words, all are now going to Jesus, John responds by telling his disciples that what they are seeing is exactly why he was born. What they perceive to be a loss is John's very purpose. He says that he came preaching and baptizing that Jesus might be revealed to Israel. John says that he was sent to go before Jesus. And in seeing Jesus beginning to be revealed to the people, John says, This joy of mine is now complete.
Jeffrey Heine:He must increase, but I must decrease. A fairy tale, a comedy, a tragedy, which is it? Elements of all, surely? But ultimately, this story, this account of the ruthless murder of the greatest prophet, the forerunner of the messiah, the long promised voice crying out in the wilderness, the beloved cousin to Jesus, his death is the completion of his mission. It is the culmination of his great decreasing.
Jeffrey Heine:It's ultimately the story of his greatest joy. And how do we know that? Because what we see in verse 14, king Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. That it was the only thing that John ever cared about, and it was happening. The fame of Jesus, his renown is on the move.
Jeffrey Heine:John was sent to prepare the way for the true king, not a so called king. The true and eternal king had arrived, and John's course is complete just like his joy. When we look at our own lives, our own stories, We can tell them to ourselves and to others like fairy tales, like comedies, and like tragedies. Perhaps we most often try to project fairy tale to the masses, perfect life, perfect job, perfect finances, perfect home, perfect family. And privately, on the other side of what we project in life or on social media, we are living a tragedy.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe it's a comedy how much we try to pretend that life is a fairy tale. But when I look at John, so resolute in his calling, living in the joy of his great decreasing because of the increase of Jesus, I long for such a culmination, such a realization in my own life. In my life, I long to be so confident in delighting in the increase of Jesus that the struggles and successes of this life, the sufferings and the blessings in this world would all serve the greatest joy of the renowned, the fame of Jesus, that his fame would be my deepest desire. There's one one moment in the story of John the Baptist that I think we should look back at before we close. It's one scene that helps me understand and remember that John was a finite human just like you and me.
Jeffrey Heine:During those 2 years in Herod's prison, while he waited, not knowing if he would ever be released, he sent word to Jesus asking him if he really was the messiah, if he really was who he said he was. 2 years stuck in prison. Surely, John was wondering if Jesus was truly the Christ or not because wouldn't he be taking power by now? Or wouldn't Herod and Pilate and all these other leaders be put in their place by now? Wouldn't things be better if Jesus is who he says he is?
Jeffrey Heine:This moment for John, this question that he asks, it's not out of a bitter weakness, but humble honesty. It's not calloused doubt. It's heartbreakingly honest, and it's one that's familiar to me and perhaps to you too. Jesus, are you really who you say you are? Because if you are, shouldn't things be better?
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus does not dismiss John's question. He tells the disciples of John to go back to the prison and tell John everything that they've seen, tell John of the wonders, the miracles, the healing, the power, the greatness of Jesus that they have beheld with their own eyes. And we too, each one of us, we need to hear from one another what we have seen of Jesus. I need you to tell me again that he is who he says he is. Tell me again how he has met you in your pain and in your joy, in your sorrow, in your delight, in your darkness.
Jeffrey Heine:Tell me how you've seen his light. Tell me how you've seen his kindness, how you've known his presence, how you've heard him call your name. Tell me again so we might press on together, knowing the great joy that comes from his increasing and our decreasing. This is not just a fairy tale. It's too broken and too messy, and it can't just be a comedy because the good guy ends up with his head on a platter.
Jeffrey Heine:But it can't just be a tragedy because ultimately, this so called King Herod has no power to stop what is truly unfolding. He cannot stop the sovereign plan or the steadfast promises of God. This is a story of blessing. It's a story of the greatest joy complete because John got to be the blessed first. He got to be the one who first prepared the way of the Lord and to lay everything down to point to the lamb who has taken away the sin of us all.
Jeffrey Heine:And the charge to us all is to join John in that same great decreasing, that our lives would also testify to the great increasing of the renown of Jesus, our savior and true king. Let's go to him now in prayer. Oh, spirit, would you do what you so delight in doing, and that is help us to see Jesus in this moment. Help us to behold Jesus. Help us to take stock of our own lives.
Jeffrey Heine:If we are followers of Jesus, would you help us to surrender, to trust, to love, and to obey? For those here who might not consider themselves to be a follower of Jesus' spirit, would you meet with them? Would you speak tenderly to them? Call them to yourself, oh father, through the great and powerful work and name and glory of Jesus alone. We pray these things in his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.