Sermon for July 14, 2024 - The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
The events that take place in our gospel today always catch me by surprise. We haven’t heard about John the Baptist since he was arrested back in chapter one, and yet here we are many chapters later hearing the details of his execution. Right in the middle of Jesus’ ministry, we are pulled back to his cousin and the realities of speaking truth to power.
The way our lectionary breaks up the texts we hear each week, it seems like John’s death is a stand-alone event, but this is not the case. As we have seen before, Mark uses sandwiches, if you will, as rhetorical devices to tell us about the life of Jesus. While everything Mark includes in the Gospel is important, whatever is in the center of the sandwich is typically most important. John the Baptist’s death is the center of a sandwich, the edges of which we did not hear today.
The first edge piece we heard last week, when Jesus was rejected in his hometown and then sent the disciples out two by two. The second edge piece is when the disciples return to Jesus to continue his ministry as a group.
By placing this account between the commission and the return of the twelve disciples during the heart of the expansion of the Jesus movement, we see a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own death by the hands of a political, though sympathetic, figure. Mark chose this opportunity, after Jesus sent out his disciples on their first formal mission, to report the death of John the Baptist because John’s death is significant to the expansion of Jesus’ mission.
At the beginning of our gospel today, Mark tells us Herod’s views of the Jesus movement. Unlike others who thought that Jesus was a prophet, Herod thought that Jesus was a resurrected John. Herod’s assessment made a close link between the missions of Jesus and John.
The length and detail of this account are also significant. The Gospel of Matthew abbreviates this story, and the Gospel of Luke leaves it out altogether. This is one of the few instances where Mark’s version is filled with more detail and intrigue than the other gospels. There is one difference between Matthew and Mark’s accounting of John’s death that stands out to me. In Matthew, Herod wants John killed but is afraid that the people will riot if he kills the prophet. In Mark, Herod likes to listen to John, but fears him because John is a righteous and holy man. This difference leads me to wonder if Herod would have ever killed John if it were not for the public oath he made to his daughter to give her anything she asked for.
-- Let’s pause for a moment and take a look at Mark’s portrayal of women in this chapter. Mark’s more sympathetic depiction of Herod does not carry over to Herodias. She has a fierce grudge against John and is finally able to get what she wants by having her daughter provide entertainment. Can’t you just picture Herodias (the mother) just outside of the scene, maybe behind a curtain, telling Herodias (the daughter) exactly what to do and what to ask for? While most women in the Gospel of Mark are unnamed, this woman of high standing is known by name, as well as her “prize” on a platter. Yet, her reward halted the work of the messenger sent by God, leaving both Herodias the mother and the daughter in a negative light without any further details about their lives. Thankfully we don’t have to look far before we find positive female characters on either side of today’s story: the hemorrhaging woman whose faith in Jesus heals her and the Syrophoenician woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. I don’t have an idea as to why the women in Mark’s gospel with negative portrayals have names and many of the women with positive portrayals do not, but it is a wonderment that I have. This is why it is important for us to ask questions of scripture and examine women in the Bible through our own lenses and not just rely on what tradition may have taught us about Mary Magdalene or other countless women since often women are used to perpetuate the patriarchy of the church. --
Now back to the main event - John’s message of repentance and the Kingdom of God met with political obstacles, this is true for Jesus’ and his followers too. Hearing the description of John’s death at this exact point in the gospel, when Jesus is coming into the height of his popularity tells us one thing for certain: agents of God who challenge those in power usually suffer significant consequences. Taking risks that challenge the powers that be result in risks to your own survival.
Essential to Mark’s Gospel, is that the presence of Jesus exposes the duplicity, hypocrisy, one-upmanship, of the kingdoms and empires to which we are supposed to participate in. Here is a story that reveals just how dysfunctional and distorted perceived power can be. It’s an important warning at this point in the Gospel. After all, we are over halfway through Jesus’ public ministry. Now is the time and place to know the truth -- that what Jesus has come to challenge and upend is those persons and those empires who rule by and uphold values that are opposite to the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom.
It’s hard to find good news in our gospel story today. When repentance is preached to this world’s princes, we should not expect them to relinquish their power, however conflicted some may be. The good news in our gospel today is that even in the face of his cousin’s execution, Jesus did not stop doing God’s work. Jesus did not shy away from continuing to speak truth to power. He did not stop preaching, healing, or hanging out with those deemed to be undesirable. He continued to use his divine power for the life of the world. Jesus continued to teach about the Kingdom of God.
The spreading of the message of the gospel by us, the followers of Jesus, has risks. The more we speak truth to those in power, the more pushback we will receive by calling them out like John the Baptist called out Herod. The more we define who we are and what we stand for, the more the powers of this world, and the dangers of structural evil, push back.
But we are not alone. We have basic and powerful tools, bread and wine, welcome and community, and each other, to hold us together, to bring about the Kingdom of God here and now. So, let us dine at the table of the Lord, and share in the Bread of Heaven. Let us continue to carry out into the world the loving, liberating, and life-giving way of Jesus.
Amen.
