The Fearless Faith of John the Baptist

Mark 6:14-29

Transcript

 King Herod heard 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's 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' daughter came in and danced,
she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, ask me 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 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. Let's
take a moment and we'll pray. Father, thank you for the gift it is to be able to
gather together in worship and to open up your word together. Thank you that you
give us your word and we pray in this moment that we would be good hearers and
that your spirit would work among us as we look at this scripture. So we welcome
your spirit to work in us, help us to be alert and to be obedient and to receive
these as your very words. In Jesus' name, amen. At the end of Mark chapter
eight, we hear Jesus' call to discipleship. So skipping forward slightly, we
hear Jesus' call to discipleship in Mark chapter eight. This is when he starts
foretelling his death and his resurrection and he starts explaining what it
means to follow him. And he says in Mark eight, 37 through 38, Jesus says, what
can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my
words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also
be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And I
want us to look at today's passage, which we just read in Mark six, with Jesus'
call to discipleship in mind. Because in today's passage, we have a contrast
between two men, Herod the king and John the Baptist. One man is part of the
adulterous and sinful generation that Jesus talked about. He's afraid of
everything and will be unprepared for the day that he sees Jesus. One man is
unafraid. He's an example to us of fearless and unashamed faith. So almost
immediately in Mark's gospel, we get introduced to John the Baptist. He appears
in the second verse, Mark one, two. He's the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. He's the
preacher of repentance and people come out to him to get baptized in the Jordan
River as an example of their repentance, confessing their sins. John's the one
who baptizes Jesus. And then after that, John completely disappears from the
narrative and all the focus shifts to Jesus. We know from Luke's gospel that
John is a miracle baby. He was born to parents who were aging and barren. We
know that he and Jesus were cousins. They're born only months apart. And we know
that Jesus said this about his cousin in Matthew 11. He says in Matthew 11, 11,
truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater
than John the Baptist. But in Mark's gospel, we don't hear anything about John
after the baptism up until we get to this gruesome story. John getting his head
cut off seems like kind of a break from the overall flow of Mark. It seems like
kind of a digression because we're getting away from Jesus and his disciples and
their activity. It's actually foreshadowing, pointing ahead to Jesus' suffering
and death. Chapter six has this theme of rejection which Micah brought up last
week. Jesus was rejected in his hometown. The disciples start doing ministry and
they're rejected by some as they go out. And now today we see an even greater
example of this rejected prophet. So we need to understand this story of Herod
and John the Baptist in light of Jesus' call to discipleship. There's a very
deliberate contrast being made between these two characters. We see the fear of
Herod and we see the fearless faith of John the Baptist. We see the contrast of
their convictions and ultimately we see the contrast of their destinies. There's
two movements in these stories. They're pretty simple. First there's the
conflict and then there's the resolution. So Mark sets up this conflict in
chapter six, verse 14. Let me read that. "'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 seen and 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's 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.'"
So King Herod hears about the growing fame of Jesus and his disciples. The word
gets to the palace. Verse 14 tells us Jesus' name had become known. And there's
a variety of public theories floating around about who Jesus is. We see this
discussed again in chapter eight, when Jesus asks his disciples, who do people
say that I am? Then he makes the question more personal, who do you say that I
am? And some say, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, that's why
these miraculous powers are at work in him. As readers, this is the first time
we hear John's not alive. But others say, he's Elijah. If you recall Elijah's
story and go back and read 2 Kings chapter two, Elijah is caught up to heaven.
There's a Jewish expectation that he might return to earth. And others said,
he's a prophet. Like one of the prophets of old. The Israelites had been
expecting a great prophet, someone in the line of Moses. Well, what does Herod
think as these reports about Jesus' activity start to circulate? And who's
Herod? Herod is serving as tetrarch over Galilee. He's not technically a king,
but he is ruler of this region. He's not Roman, but he's ruling over Galilee as
a Roman administrator. He's got delegated Roman authority. And when he hears
about Jesus and the healings and exercises that are taking place through his
disciples, Herod superstitiously thinks John the Baptist is back from the dead.
And again, as readers, we're supposed to think, what happened to John? So Mark
explains the backstory of this conflict. You know how there are probably people
in your life that both know you, but you hope that they never have to meet each
other? Sometimes you know beforehand that there are two people that if they ever
meet, there's going to be fireworks? Because their personalities and their
values are so different that conflict is inevitable. Well, when you think about
who John was, you think about who Herod was, that's what's going on here. That's
the conflict, the conflict is inevitable. John is this intense, holy, righteous
man. He's a preacher of repentance. He wore camel's hair. He ate locusts. He ate
honey. John was a prophet. Herod was royalty. John lived in a desert. Herod
lived in a palace. John was simple. Herod liked to party. We know that when
people came to John to be baptized in the Jordan River as an act of repentance
from sin, that the Pharisees and Sadducees came as they would to sort of report
and give their official religious opinion about what's going on. And John, when
he saw them, saw right through their insincere and he said, you brood of vipers,
who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And you think, if that's what
John said to the religious people, what's he gonna say when he runs into Herod?
Well, the conflict comes because Herod has stolen his brother, Philip's wife,
Herodias. Philip was Herod's half-brother. And Herodias was the daughter of
another one of Herod's half-brothers. So to give you an idea of how twisted this
is, Herod is stealing someone else's wife, who is also his niece and his sister-
in-law. And John the Baptist does not beat around the bush. He just confronts
Herod about his immorality and says, very simply, it's not lawful for you to
have your brother's wife. Now, Herod's not Jewish. It's not like Herod is some
student of the Torah, that he, or he reads the Mosaic law. John doesn't come up
to him and say, you know the 10 Commandments, you just violated the seventh one.
You shall not commit adultery. It's very interesting, it's powerful that John
recognizes there's a universal moral law and God gives people a conscience.
We're responsible for that. He gives us a conscience. And John is a preacher of
God's holiness, so he confronts Herod about his sin. Now, Herodias, as you would
expect, does not care for this. Verse 17 says, for it was Herod who went and
seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother
Philip's wife, because he'd married her. So John gets placed in a dungeon by
Herod, who does not want to upset his new wife. This dungeon fortress is in
Jordan. You can still visit this site today. We have a picture of it up on the
screen. Cody, if you want to put that up. Jawad and I talked about it this week.
This is about 20 miles from where he grew up. So you can still see the ruins of
that today, but Herod's wife, Herodias, holds a grudge against John and wants
him killed. But she couldn't get it done, which is very interesting, because
Herod is afraid of John. He actually respects him. In fact, there's this kind of
fascinating relationship that develops between John the Baptist and Herod while
John is stuck in that dungeon. Verse 20 says, for Herod feared John, knowing he
was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. John has like a non-
ignorable presence. You know what it feels like when you encounter a man or a
woman with absolute integrity? There's a moral force to that person's presence.
Herod's fascinated by it. And despite John's imprisonment, the two men start to
talk to each other. They develop a relationship. The text indicates that there
were multiple, maybe even many conversations. When he heard him, he was greatly
perplexed. And yet, he heard him gladly. There's like some escalating tension
that Mark is creating here. And I want us to consider Herod's situation. When
Herod spoke with John, he didn't get it. He was greatly perplexed. And yet, he
had a conscience, like all of us do. John confronted him and appealed to him on
the basis of that conscience and that innate sense of right and wrong. Herod
ignored that warning and threw him in prison. So now, think about Herod. Now,
Herod is in the middle of this sinful, sexual relationship, which he enjoys and
wants to continue. And yet, Herod respects John. He keeps him safe. He wants him
around. He wants to talk to him. He is interested in spiritual matters. See,
moral clarity is compelling and confusing. When Herod took Herodias as his wife,
we don't read that anyone else said anything. Seems like everyone else didn't
think it was their business. Just live and let live. Who are we to judge?
They're both adults. It's what they want to do. But there's this little bit of
wakefulness. Herod is intrigued. Maybe his conscience is awakened on some level.
Since he listens to John. And I want you to take Herod's perspective for a
moment. Because this can be us. You might be living in a way that you know deep
in your heart is sinful. And you can try and justify it. And maybe nobody else
is pushing this on you. But you know. But you are also attached to that thing.
And do not want to give it up. And yet, at the same time, you're still willing
to place yourself in an environment where you hear God's word. And maybe you
think you can pick up some good ideas. And maybe you can improve some things
about your life. And maybe you don't disagree with everything that the preacher
says. And maybe at some later date, you will do something about that thing in
your life. Well there's something going on in the heart of the king. And as
readers we're supposed to think how is this going to be resolved? Herod probably
thought he could continue fence sitting for a while longer. Keep protecting
John. Keep talking to him. And it turns out he doesn't have that kind of time.
Because the moment of decision is coming. So Mark sets up the back story in the
conflict and now he moves towards the resolution. Look at verse 21. But an
opportunity came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for all the nobles
and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. The opportunity refers
to an opportunity for Herodias. She's still holding a grudge against John. And
at the birthday banquet, all the important men of the region are in attendance
to celebrate Herod. Herodias knows perfectly well what these parties are like.
And as the party progresses, she makes her move. She sends out her daughter to
dance before all the men. So Herod's influence by Rome, first century Rome is
legendary for its sensuality. We don't need a ton of imagination to figure out
what the scene would have been like. So Siloam, the daughter of Herodias,
provides the male entertainment and it says she pleased the guests. They pleased
Herod and the guests. They're enjoying themselves. And Herod says to the girl,
probably she's under the influence of more than a few drinks, he says, ask me
whatever you wish and I'll give it to you. He vowed to her, whatever you ask me,
I will give it to you, up to half my kingdom. It's a figure of speech more than
it's an actual literal promise. It's a callback to Artaxerxes and Queen Esther.
But in his stupor and in his desire to please his guests, Herod puts himself out
there with this rash vow. And of course it's got to be entertaining for all the
guests. They're sitting back, what's this extravagant thing that Siloam's going
to ask for? She doesn't know what to do with the request. So she goes out to
consult with her mother. And that's where Herodias makes her move. She knows
exactly what she wants and she sends her daughter back to Herod. 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. So Herod gets put into a bind by
the schemes of his wife. And look at verse 26. And the king was exceedingly
sorry. He didn't want to kill John. He respected him. He was afraid of him. He
knew that he was not deserving of death. That phrase, exceedingly sorry, only
gets used one other time in the New Testament. It's eight chapters later in
Mark, when Jesus says, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. That's the
intensity of Herod's feelings at that moment. He is feeling real, genuine,
emotional distress at the weight of the situation. Because his conscience has
been awakened by these conversations with John. But he's put in a bind and the
question now is, who does he really fear? Is it God and his law or is it the
people around him? He thought he had more time than he did. And the decision has
to happen right now. His wife said, I want you to give me his head immediately.
She wants to see something right now. And we quickly hear the resolution. As
much as Herod feels bad, as much as he's sorry, he thinks I can't do anything
about it. He's exceedingly sorry. But because of his oaths and his guests, he
did not want to break his word to her. Imagine if he had to go through the
embarrassment of changing his mind in front of all his guests. Everyone's having
a good time. And they'd have to sober up because Herod would have to say, I'm
sorry, Salome, I can't do that. That would be wrong. Imagine these important
officials at the party, they have to go home and the stories that they would
tell, they're already going home saying, you're not gonna believe what happened
at Herod's party. He can't let word be getting back to Rome, that he went soft.
In those moments of conversing with John, his conscience was genuinely pricked.
But in the moment of decision, he cares more about what other people think of
him than he does about the judgment of God. And in our text, this gets presented
in very stark terms to us as readers. This is like, for Mark's original readers,
they are tiny Christian minority, living mostly in Rome, in like the 50s or 60s
AD. We really get a choice in this life, whether we will fear God or whether we
will fear man. And for those of us that struggle with people pleasing, which I
think is probably most of us, it's very sobering to consider. You could make the
biggest decisions in your life, you're really just worried about what other
people are thinking about you. Your career choices, your conversations, the way
you act around certain people, the way you spend your money, the way that you
talk, it could be all just based on what other people think of you. That's
called the fear of man. The Bible says it brings a snare. Think about this. How
many times have you felt the Holy Spirit awaken your conscience, but you subdued
it in fear of what other people might think of you? You could lose eternal life
with God because you are afraid of what other people think of you. Well, here's
how our story resolves, verse 27 through 29. 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. So John keeps his integrity and loses his head. And
the one who Jesus said is greater than any other man born of a woman gets his
head cut off by a cowardly man. And it's common for us when we think of John the
Baptist to think of him as the forerunner. Until I studied the text this week, I
always thought of that simply in terms of the fulfillment, the forerunner, the
fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. John prepared the way of the Lord. John's also
the forerunner in helping us understand Jesus' call to discipleship. He's the
forerunner to show us that following Jesus is going to involve rejection and
suffering. He's the forerunner to lose his life for the sake of the gospel and
to find eternal life. He lost his life at the hands of a cowardly man who knew
in that exact moment exactly what he was doing and he knew that it was wrong.
And in many ways, John's death foreshadows Jesus' death. When Jesus stands on
trial before Pilate, once again we see a cowardly man who recognizes perfectly
well that the man standing before him is innocent. And Pilate in that moment
tried to protest to the crowds but was unable to withstand their pressure. Like
Herod, he was afraid. Like Herod, he wanted the people around him to be
satisfied and Mark says that Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, delivered
Jesus to be crucified. John really did prepare the way of the Lord and he shows
us that we have a choice in this life, to fear God or to fear man. And John's
reward was not in this life. It's in the life to come. Herod also resurfaces in
the gospels around the time of Jesus' death. And when Jesus stands before
Pilate, initially Pilate wants to avoid the responsibility and knows this is a
Jewish situation so he actually shuttles Jesus over to Herod. Luke reports this
in Luke 23. The Pilate sent Jesus to Herod. And when Herod, this is Luke 23,
eight through 11, when Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad for he had long desired
to see him because he had heard about him and was hoping to see some sign done
by him. So he questioned him at some length but he made no answer. The chief
priests and the scribes stood by vehemently accusing him and Herod with his
soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then arraying him in splendid
clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. So finally, Herod comes face to face with
Jesus after hearing so much about him. But there's no sense of awakening now
because his conscience has long since been seared. The only thing that Herod
hoped for at this time was to see some sign. You know, he'd heard reports Jesus
can do some cool things. He wanted to hear some sign done by Jesus. He has no
interest in a conversation about his soul with Jesus. He'd already had those
with John. And just as sobering, Jesus has nothing to say to Herod. Herod and
Pilate both had opportunities to intervene on behalf of innocent men, both well
aware of the innocence of their victims, but they lived in fear of what other
people might think. And Luke inserts this very fascinating editorial comment in
Luke 23, 12 that after that, the two men trauma bonded with each other over
their shared experience of executing these innocent men. Luke 23, 12 says Herod
and Pilate became friends with each other that very day. For before this, they
had been at enmity with each other. Let's look at the contrast between these two
men again. Herod lives crippled by the fear of man. He lives in royalty and he
loses his soul. And look at everyone that Herod's afraid of in this text. He's
afraid of his wife, Herodias. He's afraid of John himself. He fears John. He's
afraid of what all his friends will think. And at the end of the story, he's
still afraid because he's afraid of John's ghost. He thinks John came back from
the dead to haunt him. John lives with fearless faith. And he points us to
Jesus. He loses his life for the sake of Jesus and his gospel. But according to
Jesus, that's actually how you find real life. There's no guarantee of earthly
reward. We don't control that. But there's eternal life forever with Jesus. So
the text just confronts us very simply with how we're going to live. With
fearless faith or will we fear man? Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank
you for your words of scripture. We thank you for the example of John the
Baptist for us and the way he points us forward to Christ. Lord, I pray that we
would see that example and instead of self-protection or fear of man or grasping
onto our own life, but we would learn to follow you by losing our lives,
trusting in you completely. Lord, we pray for this. We pray for the faith to do
that in whatever our context or situation might be. Lord, we pray that you would
strengthen us to live for your honor and glory unashamed. In Jesus' name, amen.