Mark 6:14-29

Rev. Lisa M. Day

Swarthmore Presbyterian Church

July 12, 2009

Let us begin by remembering where we are in the lectionary journey with Mark.  Last week, Jesus sent the disciples out two by two on their first missionary journeys.  They traveled with only a staff from town to town, bringing healing, casting out demons and anointing many with oil for healing.  We turn to the next paragraph expecting to hear a report of their doings, to hear about their “well done good and faithful servants” reunion with Jesus – be instead, we get this flashback.

Listen with me for God’s word to us this morning:

Mark 6:14-29

Meanwhile, back at the palace … So, my friends, where is the gospel in this text?  The good news?  Let’s look together, shall we?  At first blush, it seems we’ll be looking hard.  Not a lot of gospel, but there sure is a lot of drama!  This story has intrigued artists down through the ages – aside from the passion, it is one of the most depicted events in the New Testament, from lurid paintings, lush Hollywood movie scenes,  and bloody operas.  Sex and power, palace intrigue, tabloid tales; sounds too familiar, doesn’t it?

But Mark seems not to tell the story very well.  He destroys all this drama by giving it away in Herod’s first line – “John, whom I beheaded….”

Lots of drama, but where is the good news?  Let’s look at the characters.  They don’t seem as unfamiliar as we might hope they would.

Herod —  For a Biblical character, he feels pretty modern.  It is a rare thing when the Bible gives us insight into the psychological depths or emotions of a person.  Here, Mark gives us a portrait of a man with complex mixed motivations.  Herod is a little player on a big stage, grasping for power, titillated by entertainments and distractions.  Marriage to his brother’s wife – we don’t know whether it was motivated by politics, power, love or passion.  We don’t know, but we do know that according to Biblical mores, it was wrong and a chief sermon topic for John.

Although Herod seems to be the one with the power, he has little.  He is manipulated, subject to his own desires, to the intrigues of others.  He saves John for a time, his own captive prophet, like the sore tooth you can’t avoid poking.  He is not numb to John’s entreaties, not above toying with the idea of change, flirting with repentance, wondering what a new life might look like – until the decision really matters.  Then, he is carried along by the currents of his present life – by trying to save face and maintain power. 

Lots of drama, no good news.  What about Herodias and her daughter?

Herodias – not introduced as Herod’s wife – but his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.”  Whether married for passion or power – it seems now she has little of either.  This prophet is constantly needling Herod – who is strangely fascinated with him.  If her marriage to this man of power is her only security, she must do whatever she can to protect it.  Just nursing a grudge, willing to use anyone to get even.  Biding her time.

Herodias the daughter, in other places called Salome, has no power which is her own.  There is sexual power and desirability, but it is not hers to control.  Her body becomes a tool for others to use.  Her power is co-opted, her innocence corrupted.

Or the crowd?  Is there good news there?  They sure do like a good party, like a good show.  They enjoy the spectacle and the gossip.  But then they just sit aside, or even delight a little, and then say nothing when sacrifices are demanded. 

Lots of drama, still no good news.  What if we looked at the “good guys” in Mark’s story?

John -- Called to speak the truth to power, to call for repentance, to help those in power to count the costs – whatever the cost to him.  He has such a clear vision of his call, but he knows too well the price that prophets like him have paid in the past. And what of John’s disciples?  They find themselves half way through a shared journey – and then they are alone.  Burying him, and their hopes and dreams, in a dark tomb.

The drama continues today, in our headlines and our homes.  Is the drama not so much about this old, old story, but the fact that we can still find our leaders in it today?  Or that we can find ourselves?  Are you here in this story?

Do you long for a word of honestly spoken truth that can bring your life back to a place of light and lightness?   Do you live with shame, shame which you feel when your body has been used by another with more power, shame which really belongs to another, but which you cannot shake off?  Do you feel like a weak pawn in someone else’s power game, with no choice but to make alliances, seek counsel, or try to fly low?  Do you keep a grudge alive, feeding it until there is so much of bitterness and so little of joy in your life?  Are you working so hard to please others, you have forgotten the way of life for you?  Do you laugh with delight at the latest hometown gossip, or keep silence when you feel called to speak a word of healing or a word of truth at a board meeting, around a cafeteria lunch table, or to your congressperson in the national healthcare debate?  Do you find yourself at midlife, or freshly graduated, having pinned your hopes to a vocational dream, hitched your wagon to a star or a partner, and find the dream dissolving, the partner gone, and the star no more substantial than moonlight?  It’s not that hard for me to find myself here in this drama, more than once.

So, there is drama here, no doubt.  But where is the good news?  Perhaps it is right where the drama really is in this story – because as Mark writes it, the drama is not all this long aside – but the question that begins it.  As Jesus and the disciples have gone about preaching repentance, healing, casting out demons – the question has arisen?  Who is this Jesus?  And by what power does he do these things?  Herod’s answer:  ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’ 

The real drama is, Who is this Jesus?  What is his power? And how much power does he really have when we have done the worst thing we can think of – the thing that grieves us most and shames us most?  Or, when the worst we can think of has been done to us?  When our bodies and spirits have been used by others with more power?  When we have sat quietly enjoying the feast while the unspeakable happens?

Who is this Jesus?  Is he the King of glory?  And what does glory mean?  Is it power as practiced in a palace?  Or is glory a God who is willing to get his hands dirty, and his feet dusty, and his body broken to usher in a kingdom and a power and a glory that is life giving?  A kingdom and a power and a glory that can wipe away this bloody spectacle of palace intrigue and power plays and grasping at security and using and being used? 

Is it glory that shines a light on all that, that calls for repentance from all that, that burns away the dross of that, and illumines another Way?

Who is this Jesus?  And can he show us another way than ours where power is? Another way than ours where glory is?

In Mark’s gospel – it goes like this.  Jesus preaches and teaches and heals, he casts out demons and restores relationships and life.  He brings a message of love and the in-breaking of God’s kingdom.  He calls forth a new family of faith.  This is the way of power and the way of glory.  It is the way of sacrificial love and hard truths.

In Mark’s gospel – it ends like this.  He is arrested.  He is reviled.  A reluctant ruler, one captivated by his words, allows him to be put to death. He is abandoned by his disciples, mocked by those crucified with him, and laid in a tomb.  And the one who can finally answer “Who is this Jesus?” with the true words, the right answer at the end is a Roman Centurion who may do so with a touch of irony – “Truly this man was God’s son!”

Mark’s gospel, the good news according to this gospel:  A total failure of every human power and every human glory.  But when they came to the tomb, it was empty.  A testimony to another power and another glory.  Another kingdom.

And where Mark’s gospel ends is where our work as the church begins, where our true discipleship begins – one that is not blind to the cost.  But a discipleship that is inspired by the power and the glory that is the way of truth and the way of love.

That is good news, indeed.

For God’s is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever.  Amen.