Imagine a middle-sized company or organization who had an upper manager who was soon going to retire. This person’s position would need to be replaced. There were workers in the back shop and office areas who would very much like to be considered for this opening position. One particular employee had put in much time and effort in his spare time — even off the clock — to be considered for this position. It was a raise in pay and the worker had been loyal to the company for a number of years. The worker had earned the respect of the fellow workers. This person had gone out of his way to attend seminars and to learn the product as well as the inner operations of the company — from when the product entered the door to when it left on the shipping dock. This person had worked meticulously to learn this position that soon would be vacated. It had taken years, but they believed their time had arrived to move up into a more responsible and higher paying position was due.
At the retirement party of the outgoing manager, the president of the company had a surprise announcement to make. While he knew the person in the company had worked very hard to be considered for the vacant position, he had decided to go in a different direction. His daughter was dating a young man who just graduated from a nearby university. They were engaged to get married. The new position would go to his future son-in-law. The person who had been working hard to earn this promotion may be asked to train this young man for the vacant position.
The worker who had wanted the job decided to speak truth to power. First, this hiring practice used to be called “nepotism,” which was unethical. Second, the knowledge of the products and company operations should be the criterion for the new person considered for an upper management position. Third, the workers and other staff would have to get to know this young man who got the job, simply because he was dating the boss’ daughter. This lowered the morale in the company because workers realize it was “who you know, not what you know” to get ahead in the company. The seasoned worker who trained for the job did not back down nor apologize for making these arguments. There was tension and friction in the air for the rest of the afternoon.
On Monday morning, this same person was prevented from entering the front door of the company. They were asked to surrender their company ID badge. Their job was terminated! The boss’ daughter and her fiancée peeked outside the window to make sure there were no incidents that would entail in calling law enforcement. Life is not fair. Following the rules does not always work. Good people do get hurt for standing up for what they believe to be right. This is also the world in our gospel lesson of the Mark 6 today, as it relates to John the Baptist.
This particular passage is another example of Mark the evangelist “sandwiching” one story within another one. The initial story was Jesus sending out the twelve disciples to do ministry. While they were gone, this account is inserted into Mark, chapter 6. After the story of John the Baptist, the return of the twelve disciples’ missionary work was resumed. What point did Mark wish to make here? I believe Mark wanted to challenge us during this season of Pentecost or the church to ask, which kingdom do we serve?
Officially in office, King Herod was the monarch over the people of Judah, though the nation was under Roman Empire occupation. Did Herod serve the kingdom of God instead of the Roman Empire? Secular historian Flavius Josephus wrote in both of his “Antiquities’ and Jewish War books that the family of King Herod was very deceptive, dysfunctional, and would literally backstab, or kill anyone even within their own bloodline to gain power or monetary advantage. It is contested as to whom in particular King Herod was in this text, but he was a relative of the one who killed the baby boys in Matthew 2.
Herod had married his half-brother’s wife Herodias. This was forbidden in Leviticus 18:16. Since he was the monarch over Judah and should have been a role model for living out the Torah, John the Baptist called the king out on this indiscretion. Herod realized that John was probably correct, and also knew the crowds admired John the Baptist. He feared revolution if he took too aggressive a stance in retaliating against John. The crowds realized that John the Baptist was probably the voice in the wilderness spoken of in Malachi 4. Herodias, the wife of Herod, did not like John as he was a possible threat for her quest for power. This was not the first time such a power grab had been attempted in scripture.
All of the commentaries consulted refer to King Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel in 1 Kings 17-18. She tried to promote her false gods of Baal. Elijah the prophet called out both Ahab and Jezebel about this idolatry. Here again was a monarch who was willing to be manipulated by a wife whose intentions were not that of the kingdom of the God of Israel, but for personal gain.
As the story goes in Mark 6, Herod had a wedding banquet and Herodias’ daughter entertained the king and his party with a dance. There have been questions about the exact name of this girl. Josephus names her “Salome” and some biblical commentators believe she was named after her mother. She was a product of her mother’s first marriage. Her age has been estimated from about twelve to nineteen years old. Her dance impressed Herod so much that he pledged to grant her a promise of her choice. Whether her dance was erotic in nature remains contested but it is not out of the question. Herod had probably had a lot of alcohol to drink and was not making the best judgment calls at that point.
Rather than coming up with a wish on her own in response to King Herod, she went to the side and asked her mother Herodias what would be a good wish. Herodias, still feeling threatened by John the Baptist, who was now imprisoned, told her daughter to request John the Baptist’s head on a platter. Before one gets too judgmental of this request, it was common among many army warriors of that time to behead their deceased enemies and plant the head on the fence outside of their homes to indicate their victory.
Another footnote here might be found as far back as in 1 Samuel 17, where young David the shepherd boy cut off the head of Goliath the Philistine upon knocking the giant to the ground with stones from his sling. As this relates to the Mark 6 text, Herodias was now victorious over John the Baptist, the prophet sent from God. John played by the rules. He did what prophets did by confronting the king, and it cost him his life. John chose to serve the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of Herod’s Rome.
In this season of Pentecost what are we as a congregation willing to take risks — even if it means our death? In Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist’s death would foreshadow Jesus’ death on the cross for the sins of humanity. But this kingdom would live beyond any grave and unto eternity. There is new life after every death. This is the good news of the Christian church. Before we take costly risks, we should ask ourselves which kingdom we are serving? The twelve disciples also would soon find out.
When the disciples returned with positive reports of ministry well done, Mark the gospel writer also wanted to warn readers that both Jesus and his disciples of a similar untimely death as that of John the Baptist. This includes us here in our church today. Which kingdom do we serve and to what extent are we willing confront power forces that would threaten our lives as Christians and as a community of faith? Do we serve a kingdom in which it is worth risking and giving our lives? This is a very real and cutting edge question in North America these days when a growing number of people believe they can be spiritual without being associated with any community of faith. Many simply abandon church and organized religion altogether! The kingdom of God that Jesus is ushering in was a threat to so many powerful people in Mark’s gospel. Where does this kingdom fit into our priorities? Before we fall into a self-guilt response, let us consider Jesus’ disciples in Mark.
Besides following Jesus and carrying out this mission in Mark 6, the disciple grows worse and worse in Mark’s gospel. They do not want to believe Jesus when he makes his passion predictions about dying on the cross and rising from the grave three days later (Mark 9:30-32). They really prefer a Messiah of glory, if truth be told. When Jesus was arrested and crucified, all of his disciples abandoned him! Nobody stayed at the foot of the cross. Nobody visited with Jesus on the cross asking him to remember them in his kingdom as Luke’s gospel reported. Jesus died alone and did indeed proclaim, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It felt as if God had also forsaken Jesus. Jesus knew what it meant to experience total loneliness, and even the absence of the hand of God.
This same Jesus knows how we feel when we do the right things, and still get abused, suffer the loss of a job, or are abandoned by people whom we thought were our companions. His own disciples had no desire to follow him to the cross! Later in Mark 16:8 during the report of the empty tomb, the women — Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the Mother of James — saw the young man who told them Jesus had risen and to go tell the disciples, yet “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” Mark 16:8(RSV). What is the good news here?
The open-ended conclusion of Mark’s gospel allows us to write our own chapter ending of our discipleship journey. Will we meet Jesus to do more mission wherever we identify a Galilee or will we simply live in fear? The good news is God gives us many second chances, even if we fail like the disciples did in Mark’s gospel. The other good news is that the Herodias’ and King Herod’s need not have the last word in our lives if we serve the kingdom of God that John and Jesus preached. In modern terms being told, “You’re fired!” need not be the final chapter in our lives. Mark’s gospel allows us to write our own endings to the book in our lives.
The fired person in the opening illustration went on to find other employment in another community as a manager. Now he comes to work with his head held high. There is integrity in standing up for what one believes in and taking both the positive and negative consequences for such a thought out position. As workers from the former place of employment grew discontent, they too applied for a position at the company who hired the discharged worker. Mark’s gospel provides the choice of either remaining afraid or going on to do mission or ministry elsewhere. This is the kingdom of God we serve on this seventh Sunday after Pentecost.
Amen.
1. M. Eugene Boring, New Testament Library: Mark, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006).
2. Stephen Carter, Integrity, (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996).
3. Adela Yarbro Collins, Hermeneia: Mark, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007).
4. Morna Hooker, Black’s New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel of St. Mark, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991).