“Not the Head on the Platter, Please”

(Mark 6:14-29) 

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known.  Some were saying, “John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.”  But others said, “It is Elijah.”  And others said, “It 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.”

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.  For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”  And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him.  But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him.  When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.  But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.  When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.  And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.”  She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”  She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.”  Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”  The king was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.  Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head.  He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl.  Then the girl gave it to her mother.  When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

            Well, this is a grisly story, right?  When talking to my clergywomen friends, no one was interested in preaching on this rough text.  I do admit that I was ready to choose something else, but none of the other lectionary choices got me excited either, so I gave the John the Baptist beheading another look, so to speak.  Now, you may think I’m being a bit careless with such a serious story.  But how else can one handle this odd, ugly story in which the women are the perpetrators of this ghastly deed while the man who was the king was so weak that he couldn’t say no to their horrible request?

            Well, the way I want to approach it is to look at John the Baptist’s life before his death.  This was a human being whose birth was completely unlikely.  His parents, Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth and her aged husband, Zechariah, were unlikely to have a child.  And yet, the story tells us that Elizabeth became pregnant, as the angel predicted to Zechariah.  Zechariah was struck mute because he doubted that God could make this happen.  He regained his voice after the baby John was born.   And, when Mary walked in to visit Elizabeth, the child who would be John the Baptizer leapt in his mother’s womb. 

Now, John made quite a reputation for himself as a prophet, baptizer, preacher and just an odd kind of fellow.  He was unafraid to speak truth to power, fearless, even.  He had, in fact, offended Herod and the wife he had taken from his brother, by calling him out for making Herodius his wife, saying it was unlawful.  Hence, John landed in jail. 

            But Herod was left with mixed feelings because we’re told that, even though he had put him in jail, he liked to listen to John.  Still, he felt confused when he did.  And we’re told he feared John because John was a holy and righteous guy.  He simply could not figure John out. 

            Then foolish Herod, trying to sound like the blowhard that he was, offered anything to his daughter who had danced at his birthday party.  After consulting with her mom who hated John, she IMMEDIATELY told Herod she wanted John’s head on a platter AT ONCE.  Notice those two qualifiers: immediately and at once.  These are words in the Gospel of Mark that point to the importance of the moment.  They turn up fairly frequently.  But, really, could that request have been any more graphic and gross AND memorable AND movie worthy all the way into the 20^th century? 

            So, old Herod is backed into a corner.  This weak, people-pleasing, fearful monarch didn’t know what to do other than acquiesce to the manipulative daughter, his angry wife and the crowd. 

            Now I’m not one to speculate about what ancient Biblical characters thought or felt, but I do have some ideas about Herod.  He had enough of a moral character that caused him to recognize John the Baptist as a prophet.  In addition, Herod must have secretly admired John for being completely fearless.  And, yet, he gave the order for the only guy who spoke truth to him, to be brutally and publicly murdered. 

            So, I bring this question (easily answered) to you today: who is the brave one in this story?  The King who wielded much power and supposedly did what he wanted?  Or John the Baptizer who looked like a poor man wearing crude clothing?  The guy who cared not for appearances, lived in the desert, bravely said whatever God gave him to say?  Who is the courageous one? 

            …Well, I’m thinking we need a guy like John today.  One who doesn’t ever back down, who won’t be silenced, who calls all of us on our cowardly moments, who demands we walk our talk, who says to us, “Yeah, you’re all about telling us about that guy’s wrongdoing but won’t look at your own failings.”

            This is, of course, a good question for those in positions of power, those hypocrites that we observe every day of the week, those who will say anything that will get them some votes or will do anything that will get their base energized.  They need people who will call them on their behavior, they do!  We need someone like John the Baptist.  We need this in our world today for sure.

            And we all need someone or someones who will tell us the truth about ourselves.  Otherwise, we go along thinking we are just fine.  We need someone who will push back when the push is needed.  Someone whom we trust and listen to, someone who is fearless.  We need someone who is outside our echo chamber, you know, where we live today in our 24 hour news cycles.  We need someone in our social media worlds in which so many exist constantly.  We need someone who will challenge us in our churches, where we imagine that everyone thinks the same way “we” do.

            …We need a John the Baptist, the undomesticated prophet who won’t be silenced but, rather, who breaks through our defenses to direct our vision toward Christ, the one who not only speaks the truth but embodies it, the one who will help us in our fear and our unbelief.

            I know I’ve told this story before, but you’ll forgive me if you’ve heard it already.  Many years ago, once upon a time, when the Richfield Coliseum still stood at the top of the hill on route 303.  Now, when there was a rock concert playing at the Coliseum there would be a lot of traffic through Peninsula.  When there was a Blossom rock concert on the same night, well, let’s just say it was a regional traffic jam.  We residents dared not go anywhere. 

One of the biggest events was when the Grateful Dead came to town.  This happened on a regular basis, but what was unusual about this particular group was that the Grateful Dead had very loyal followers who went from one venue to another to see their rock gods.  They were called the Deadheads, essentially the next generation of hippies (this from a person who might have been one of the first generation, minus the weed, of course!).

            In one particular year, the Dead concert was in the winter which prevented the concert goers from parking their cars anywhere along the way and sleeping right there.  This time there was a big, slippery snowstorm (back when we had those).  This must have been the mid-‘90s.  We were tucked in at our Peninsula home with a fire in the fireplace, hosting a baby shower for anyone who could walk to our house (the guests of honor were unable to get there).  We were blissfully unaware of the chaos out on 303. 

            The next day was a beautiful sunshiny Sunday, and a few people were able to make it over the roads to worship.  As I recall, I was preaching on the Matthew text wherein Jesus calls the sheep and says, “Come on.  You’re blessed.  When I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.  I was sick and in prison and you visited me and comforted me.”  They wondered when they had done that, and Jesus answered that “when you looked out for one of these members of my family, you did it for me.”  It was a short sermon kind of congratulatory to the congregation for all the ways that we reached out in mission.  When I was winding it up, there was a voice from the back that asked, “Where were you last night?”  After being set back a bit, I engaged him in conversation, and it turns out there were some concert goers who were worshiping with us that morning.  They continued to ask where we were the night before when they were stuck in traffic, cold and unable to find lodging or bathrooms or food. 

It was a John the Baptist moment in which we got told the truth about what it means to be in ministry.  We had missed that opportunity to serve some of our human family members.  Essentially, we had dropped the ball.  We were confronted with the truth, that it’s really easy to tell ourselves how really good we are as compared to others, but missing the log that’s in our own eyes—or the head that is before us on the platter.

            Let’s not pretend that such a thing is to be ignored or that it points up the truth about how we fearfully don’t stand up for what is right because we are people pleasing or taking the path of least resistance or trying to keep peace in our families or our church families. 

            …So we must continually allow John the Baptist to be that prophetic voice in our lives, the precursor to his cousin, Jesus, the guys who will always point us to our true north, who will steer us in the direction of the Gospel truth.  Amen.