Sermon for 7th Sunday after Pentecost – Mark 6:14-29

The gospel of the Lord? Really? Herod sends a soldier to chop off the head of John the Baptizer. They bury his body. The end. What a messed up story! But Herod’s involved, so we shouldn’t be surprised. Let’s remember who Herod is. This is Herod Antipas (AN-ti-puhs). His dad was Herod the Great. Dad’s ruthless, murderous, paranoid. When Jesus was born, he hears a rumor that the king of the Jews has come into the world. But HE’S supposed to be the king of the Jews. This is a threat! So he orders the slaughter of all the male infants in the kingdom. What kind of maniac does that? Daddy. When that’s your parental role model, do you think you might have a few issues? Here’s another. One day, this Herod, the son, goes off to Rome to visit his brother Philip, wife Herodias, and daughter Salome. He likes what he sees and steals Herodias away to be his wife. But he takes Salome too, because family values.

Now, here comes John the Baptist. He’s a prophet. That means he’s all about speaking truth to power. His mouth gets him in trouble. But he doesn’t know when to shut up. He goes and tells Herod like it is – you stole your brother’s wife. You’re breaking God’s law. Herod should be furious, right? But get this – Herod still likes John anyway! “When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.” Go figure. Herodias on the other hand, she wants John dead. John’s message REALLY gets under her skin. So if we read between the lines, maybe she didn’t exactly MIND Herod stealing her away. Now, imagine the bedroom fight. Herodias wants John dead, Herod wants John alive. But Herod’s smart. Put John in prison. It’ll get Herodias off his back AND keep John around. Mission accomplished! Maybe he even thinks John should be thankful. At least he doesn’t have to eat locusts in the desert anymore, right?

Then comes Herod’s birthday. He throws his OWN party. You know it’s going to be swank. Powerful and famous guests. Like politicians and CEOs and even a few church leaders. That’s not controversial at all! So they’re cavorting and out comes Salome who does a little dance for him and all his guests (you know they’ll all be powerful men), and they’re all so…. PLEASED… with her. Euphemism, anyone? Herod’s really excited. “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” That’s creepy. Now, Salome’s not a little girl, but she’s young and naive. Herod makes the offer and Salome immediately realizes she’s in way over her head. She runs to mommy dearest for advice. Want to guess where the dance idea came from? The daughter says, “What should I ask for?” Herodias knows exactly what to ask for – John’s head on a silver platter, like a Manchurian Candidate moment. She tells Herod. “The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.” The end.

What’s the lesson here? Don’t make big promises that we can’t deliver? Don’t murder people? No, we already knew that. So, what if the point of the story isn’t what not to do, but just to show us how we’re more like Herod that we realize? Here’s the thing. This birthday party story is a flashback. Right before our reading, Jesus sends his disciples to heal and cast out demons and preach repentance. They tell about Jesus and rumors spread. He’s a prophet. He’s Elijah come back. Word gets to Herod and what’s his first thought? Oh no…. “this is John. I beheaded him and now he’s raised from the dead.” And he starts re-living this birthday party in his mind like a nightmare.

You know what that is? That’s a guilty conscience. Herod may be a villain, but he’s not soulless. He knew it was wrong but he did it anyway, because he’s dying to impress all his guests and he makes a grandiose promise to show off just how powerful he is. But now he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. He can’t back down because then he wouldn’t be man of his word. How much guilt and regret is he feeling? Don’t we all know what that feels like? The big promises we’d give anything to take back. The times we failed to act when it counted. Every time we didn’t have the courage to speak up like John because we just wanted to be accepted. But we can’t change the past. It’s done. And we never really forget it. It nags us. It’s a weight we carry. But since we can’t escape, we figure if we get honest and admit to the past it’ll make us stronger. Maybe that’s why deep-down we actually like fire and brimstone preaching. Maybe that’s why Herod liked John. We think strength is some kind of salvation. But the problem is that we never find release. We just learn how to carry heavy baggage for the rest of our lives, while we keep adding to the load.

Is that good news? No, there’s no good news in this story. It’s also the only story in Mark’s gospel where Jesus never shows up. Maybe the point is for us to notice that. The only thing good about this story is that it’s not the end of the story. What comes next is where Jesus feeds the 5000 with a few loaves and fish. It’s impossible, but Jesus doesn’t show off or make a big speech. He just does it. And has leftovers. That’s Jesus’s only story. And Jesus makes it our story. For every time we ever felt stuck between a rock and a hard place, like Herod. Because Jesus knows what it feels like to be stuck. How did he feel when he took the weight of our sin upon himself? How did he feel when they nailed him to a cross to die? But even this was not the end. This was only the beginning, by his resurrection. By death turned to life everlasting. We need a literally resurrected Jesus because we need to know that the impossible is literally possible especially when we can’t see how.

And it’s not just a story. It’s real. It happens every time we forgive each other in the midst of a world that doesn’t know true forgiveness. How can we explain that impossible change in our hearts? Uttering that word we never thought could come out of our mouths? But it does, and it’s no tame word. John the Baptizer knew that. It’s an act of defiance, that says nothing is unforgiveable. It says no when everyone else demands retribution. It stands against hatred and says the unjust system MUST be torn apart. It can get us killed, but even this is not the end. By the power of the Spirit we’ll know that heaven and earth have moved and we’ll never regret that.

Of course, we’ll still have a few regrets. We’re still going to make promises we can’t keep. We’re still going to show off. We’re still going to fall down. But there’s grace in this. Jesus lets us fall, because there’s nothing left for us to do. Just fall. And when we do hit bottom, we know Jesus will be there waiting for us. To forgive us. To call us his own. To feed us with bread and wine, his body and blood, because that’s the only thing that will make us whole. Not our successes, not meeting others’ expectations, definitely not our strength. Let all of that die. Let it be only Jesus, the one who was and is and is coming very soon, for you and for me.