Tough truths and people-pleasers
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He 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 it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’s daughter 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 to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Mark 6:14–29 (ESV)
Every now and again, you get a reading in church that makes you wonder why it would be picked out for a worship service. Out of context, they can even seem a bit pointless or at the very least, confusing. Today’s gospel reading is one of those.
What can we possibly learn from such a damaged family, a terrible king, and how he corners himself into beheading one of the greatest prophets to have ever lived? Where is the good news in any of that? This reading’s awkwardness is why it would be wrong to just ignore it and preach on one of the other readings.
So, after several hours of reading and research this week, here are the three points we can take from today’s gospel:
Some truths are too hard to accept
It is far more tempting to please people over God
The consequences for our sin are laid on Christ
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.
Lord, sanctify us in your truth. Your word is truth. Amen.
Herod Antipas (let’s call him little Herod) is part of a messed-up family. He is the son of Herod the Great, but the Roman empire doesn’t recognise him as a king. Mark uses the word “king” here, but Matthew and Luke go for the technically correct term, “tetrarch”. So, Herod is desperate to prove his worth to those in positions of power.
Now, Herodias is central to the story today. She is granddaughter to Herod the Great, but she was also married to Philip, little Herod’s brother. And we discover here that little Herod was married Herodias. So, that means both of Herodias’ husbands are also her uncles.
Even further, both little Herod and Herodias had divorced their previous spouses in order to marry. So, basically, they were breaking every rule in the book.
Along comes John the Baptist, the crazy desert-preacher, and calls them out.
For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Mark 6:18 (ESV)
Understandably, Herodias isn’t too happy about her behaviour being both called out and publicised. She holds a grudge against John, we read. She just wants him silenced and removed. How would corrupt royalty like these people go about silencing someone like that? Death.
Some truths are too hard to accept
We can understand Herodias’ grudge against John because we can react the same way to hard truths. If someone calls you out on something and you know they’re right, but you also know how people will see you if the truth gets out, all we want is for them to stop. We may not go to the length of having them killed, but we’ll probably try to silence them somehow.
We can silence the truth by denying it ourselves. If we refuse to listen to the truth in the first place, we can just get on with life how we want to live it. We supress the truth in our own conscience. This puts us on edge because the truth can never be completely silenced—there will always be a smidge of guilt under all the denial. Herodias held her grudge against John because she was trying to deny the truth.
We can twist the truth to make it seem acceptable. Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that, but I was just being true to myself. Yeah, I yelled at them, but I was just trying to be transparent and honest.
We can also silence the truth by making excuses for it. They started it. I didn’t know those words would hurt their feelings. I was brought up that way.
Truth is a funny word these days because the world refuses to acknowledge an objective truth, a truth that is outside of ourselves and cannot be changed or influenced. Instead, truth is subjective. People talk about “their truth” rather than “the truth”.
We believe in an objective, unchangeable, unshakable truth. That truth is contained in the Word of God. Hebrews 4 describes this word as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12)
The truth, God’s truth, pierces the soul. It cuts through all our denial, our excuses, our attempts to twist it. It is plain for all to see. Worse, it is plain for God to see.
John was simply stating the truth as he had learnt it from God’s Word: “it is wrong to behave this way.” That truth pierced Herodias’ soul and it hurt, so she did everything she could to get rid of that pain except the only thing that works: repentance.
We can twist and turn all we like, but when the truth pierces us and triggers our guilty conscience, repentance is the only thing that will free us.
Even when Herodias had John’s head on a platter, the truth would still have been there. And then she would have another sin to deny and suppress. Some truths are just too hard for us to accept, so we need the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us and give us the faith to repent.
It is far more tempting to please people over God
What about little Herod?
Mark tells us that Herod feared John. He knew that John was a man of God, so Herod imprisoned him to protect him (or, so he thought). Herod actually quite liked listening to what John had to say. He was a deeply troubled man, but he was curious.
Herod’s birthday presented an opportunity for Herodias to get rid of John. There was only one thing that made Herod vulnerable: he was a desperate people-pleaser. He had all the important people at his birthday party: high officials, military commanders, leaders of Galilee.
When Herodias’ daughter dances and pleases the crowd, Herod ends up making a promise that he can’t even keep. “I’ll give you whatever you want, even half my kingdom.” Remember, this guy isn’t even a recognized king. Herodias’ daughter rushes to her mum—it seems she was aware of the plan to get rid of John and the truth he was preaching.
She returns with the request for John’s head and Herod instantly realizes what he has done. From his perspective, he has no choice but to stay true to the flippant promise he made in front of all the important people. Herod allows the body to be buried properly, as if that will make things better.
So, Herod has lost a person he feared and liked hearing from, and in a gruesome way, all because he cornered himself for no reason other than to please the crowd. He may have become popular with his guests for entertaining them, but that’s all. That kind of thing doesn’t earn respect—just surface level popularity. But that popularity and approval is what Herod craved so deeply.
Herod’s actions reveal something else about human nature. It is so easy to trap ourselves into situations where we feel we have no choice but to turn away from our faith and our call as disciples. We don’t live in a nation where being a professing Christian might cost us our lives, but it can cost us other things.
Public opinion is saying more and more that religion is the cause of all wars, religion is good for nothing, or that Christianity is a belief in a fake story of a dead God. You might even know people that talk this way. It’s more likely that you know someone who thinks this way.
Our Christian faith, and the objective truth we believe in, are not always popular and they rarely please the crowd. We are afraid to talk too loudly about what Scripture says is good and what isn’t, particularly on the contentious issues like sexuality, but even our belief that humans are not inherently good, but in fact “born in bondage to sin”. Yes, even cute babies are sinful and unclean. Why else would we baptize children before they can even speak?
It is far more tempting to please people over God and we often do. Just as we need the Spirit’s help to reveal the hard truth to us, we also need His strength to prioritise a holy and God-pleasing life, especially when it costs us.
The consequences of sin are laid on Christ
Even in a weird gospel reading like this one, good news can be found.
Herod knew John to be a godly man and he valued what John had to say. In the end, John died because of Herod’s worthless promise, but John was only in that situation in the first place because he preached the truth. The truth is what cost John his life and there was nothing Herod could do to protect him from that.
We fear Jesus Christ and acknowledge Him as our Lord. Yet, in the end, it was our sin, our shortcomings, our errors before God, our lack of faith, that cost Jesus His life.
If we were without sin, Jesus would have entered the world with trumpets and ascended to His throne without complaint. But that’s not how it went and it’s not why Jesus came. It was our sin that caused Jesus to come into this world to save us from it.
There is nothing we can do to stop Jesus from giving His life for us. He went to the cross to bear the consequence for our sin.
John’s story ended there, but we know that death is not the end of the story for Jesus. Because of what He accomplished in the grave, it’s not the end of the story for us, either.
Because of what Jesus has done for us, our repentance is met with forgiveness. Restoration is possible because the consequences have been dealt with. Despite our constant desire to please the world and our attempts to silence the truth, nothing can change the fact that forgiveness has been won for you.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:7, 13–14 (ESV)
We belong to God because Christ has claimed us as His own, forgiving our sin and reconciling us to Himself. For that, we give Him our thanks and praise.
May the peace which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.