A couple of weeks ago we had a small memorial service here in the sanctuary for the mother of a Bethany friend. Before the service started, three of the woman’s granddaughters were doing what kids love to do in an unfamiliar, large place - which is explore everything. The girls ranged in age, I think, from about 4 up to 10. Hallways, Fellowship Hall…they asked if they could go up in the balcony, I said “Of course.”

Then, just a couple minutes before we were going to start the service, I was standing back in the narthex area. The doors for the main aisle were closed. And the girls tromped down the steps from the balcony and as they started to head through the doors to go sit with their family, the very grown-up ten-year old stopped the others, stood in front of the door and said: “Listen! It is now time to act appropriately. When I open these doors…everything is different!”

That’s how I feel when we open the Bible sometimes. It’s not magic. It’s riddled with questions and difficult interpretations. And yet, in a unique way God uses it to consistently show Himself to us. We come as faithfully as we can, and we crack open this book…and things are different. We have life breathed into us.

Before we look at today’s text, we need to put on our historian hats for a few minutes. Most of today’s reading is one story, and most of that story is a flashback. It really reads like a short play. And we need to make sure we know the characters:

1. John the Baptist. We haven’t seen John since the very beginning of the gospel, when he had a dynamite ministry going in the Judean countryside, calling people to repent and baptizing them, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, pointing towards the coming of Jesus “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And John then baptizes Jesus. Not long after we are told, “John was arrested.” And that’s all we know until chapter 6.

2.“King Herod.” Now, understand, there are a lot of Herods running around. This is not “King Herod the Great,” who was the king of Palestine when Jesus was born, whom the wisemen tricked and who killed the children of Bethlehem in an insane attempt to protect his throne. That Herod, Herod the Great died decades earlier. His family was a disaster worthy of a soap opera. He had a number of children by at least five different wives. He actually killed off a number of his own wives and kids. But a few of his sons stayed in favor, and before he died Herod split up the rulership of the area, and named his sons “Tetrarchs, ” a word that means “one of four rulers.” A tetrarch was not actually a king or independent ruler at all, but really an employee of Rome, someone they allowed to rule for them in remote provinces like Palestine.

So the Herod in our story is one of these sons of Herod the Great, the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, who appears most often in the New Testament. In copying his father, this Herod was also rather ruthless and his family tree is another confusing mess. It would have been well known to the writer Mark, and to the early readers of Mark’s gospel…that this Herod was not a king. He was a puppet, a servant of Rome. He had no power that Rome did not give him, had no power to give away lands or honors. And in fact, later in Herod’s life he goes to Rome to speak to Caesar and ask to be named an actual King, a strategy which totally backfires and he is sent off to exile for the rest of his days.

3. Herod’s wife, Herodias (still Herod name!). It gets rather complicated. Herodias is actually a niece of Herod’s. She also was married to Herod’s brother, another of the tetrarchs, conveniently called Herod Philip. In order to steal Herodias from his brother and marry her, Herod had to dump his current wife, which he gladly did…though he ended up losing an army over it in an attack by his ex-wife’s father, but that’s another story.

4. The daughter that Herodias brought to the marriage, the girl Salome. The Bible doesn’t actually doesn’t supply the girl’s name, but the Jewish historian Josephus does.

So, we’re almost ready to read. Last week we started chapter 6, and we read about Jesus sending his twelve closest followers out on a mission trip. He called on them to have great faith, to trust by taking very little with them on the road…except the power that he Himself gave them. The section ended with the amazing results of that mission trip: the twelve went out and preached. They called people to repentance. They cast out demons, and healed many people who were sick.

Our passage follows this immediately, beginning with Mark 6:14, if you will stand with me for the reading of the gospel.

Reading: Mark 6:14-29

“Thanks be to God,” you say? It’s not what I said when I read this story and realized I had assigned this text to myself for a sermon! The pattern of this gospel goes something like this: Jesus-Jesus-Jesus-Jesus-Jesus---John the Baptist shoots his mouth off-there’s a belly dance-John gets his head sliced off---Jesus-Jesus-Jesus-Jesus-Jesus. So on the one hand, it seems to be a total anomaly. On the other hand, if we’re even the least bit curious…why does Mark include it?! There must be a reason. I have four ideas for you:

1) Mark uses this story to introduce a new player into the Jesus story- the political power of Rome. Even though Herod is not a native Roman, he was a Roman citizen, educated in Rome and mainly serving the wishes of Caesar and the Roman oppressors who occupy Palestine.

Up to this point in Mark’s story, we have seen Jesus interact with ordinary people, both Jewish and Gentile or non-Jewish, religious and non-religious. We have seen him clash with religious authorities, like scribes and Pharisees. But until now there has been no interaction with the oppressive political power. Now that changes. Mark is warning us: “Jesus is now on their radar.” Herod had heard of Jesus, and was curious. And this is important, because in the end everybody is against Jesus and it is Rome that will actually execute him.

2) Mark uses this story to continue asking a question that has popped up over and over- WHO IS JESUS?

-It was asked in chapter 1 in Capernaum, when Jesus drove out an unclean spirit from a man, the people were amazed- “what is this? who is this?”

- It was asked in chapter 2 when Jesus forgives the sin of man lowered down through the roof, and the religious leaders say- “who does he think he is? who can forgive sins but God alone? “

- It was asked again in chapter 3, when Jesus’ own family was concerned by his ministry and the attention- “who is this? (thought they knew him).”

- It was asked in chapter 4 by his disciples, when Jesus calmed the storm on the sea - “who is this?”

- And it was asked in chapter 5 in the story of the demoniac and the herd of pigs, and the local people were essentially saying “who is this?”

Finally here in Mark 6, we find out how some people are now answering this question. Some said:

• Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead. He’s come back, and doing miracles greater than he ever did before.
• OT prophet Elijah, the one who also had to deal with a weak king (Ahab) and a plotting Queen (Jezebel). And the one that the book of Malachi says will return as a sign of the approach of the great Day of the Lord.
• some other prophet like those of old, that used to speak God’s Word to the people.

[Note: Please file this away for the very important passage in a month or so that is really the hinge, maybe the central point of the whole Gospel, when Peter declares who Jesus is. That passage starts with Jesus asking “Who do people say I am?” And the answers he receives are exactly these: John, Elijah, or a Prophet.]

Herod chooses “a.” He was very familiar with John the Baptist. He was intrigued by him. He was perplexed, yet he liked to listen to John. He was afraid that John’s influence could damage him politically. Herod liked John, and he feared John. Herod also liked his wife, Herodias, and he feared his wife. And so he found himself caught between a rock and a hard place when John began to carry out that irritating role that prophets often ended up with: calling people in authority to accountability.

John criticized Herod for stealing his brother’s wife and divorcing his own. Herodias resented the conversation and wanted John executed. Herod was intrigued and wouldn’t do that, but did put him in prison. And so the birthday party. And so the dance. It doesn’t say so, but I think it is presumed that Salome’s dance which pleased her stepfather and his guests was…provocative. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a waltz!

By persisting in asking this question, Mark forces us to keep it in front of us as well. Who is Jesus? As I talk with people who are not Christians, this is a primary question - who exactly is Jesus? A miracle man? A historical religious leader? A teacher? I won’t give my life to any of those things. Just remember, every time Mark asks the question “Who is Jesus?” he is also answering it: “No, Jesus is more than that. More than you thought. More than you think.”

3) Mark uses this story to foreshadow the death of Jesus. In some senses the disciples (and by implication, WE) are prepared for death of Jesus by the death of John. Mark would want us to notice the similarities: John and Jesus both will be murdered by political tyrants, Herod and Pilate. Both rulers are reluctant to do so but in the end cave into pressures. Both see their prisoners as innocent but throw their hands up. Both John and Jesus remain silent. Both are innocent. Both are seen as righteous men. Both are brutally slain. Both are buried by disciples.

There are many similarities. But these also highlight the differences between John and Jesus that Mark will take us to by the end of the book. John points, Jesus redeems. John the Prophet speaks the word of God, Jesus the Savior IS the Word of God. John’s ministry is snuffed out at death. Jesus’ in many ways begins at death. John’s is temporal, Jesus’ is eternal.

4) We’ve said all along that the Gospel of Mark is about what it means to follow Jesus. Mark uses this story of John’s death to communicate that to follow Jesus is no easy thing. The gospel of Mark was very likely written to people in danger of persecution by Rome for simply being Christians. His early readers knew: Discipleship is costly. It was in the first century, when John lost his head. It is in the 21 st century.

It’s a funny thing, that though Jesus said “you will be reviled and persecuted and have all kinds of evil uttered against you falsely on my account…and you will be hated by all for my name…and I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…”

Despite all of these warnings that to follow Jesus will mean trouble, we spend an inordinate amount of time striving to fit in, not stir up the waters, sometimes at the cost of not bearing testimony to Jesus. The early history of the church is filled with martyrs, not just John the Baptist.

Jerry Sittser, a friend of Bethany and professor at Whitworth has a new book out called “Water from a Deep Well.” It’s a historical look at the ways Christians have practiced their faith, and it begins interestingly enough with martyrdom, people who lost their lives because of their insistence on testifying to Jesus. Martyrs were not people who sought death, or who took others down with them, unlike modern-day extremists. They were people who chose to follow Christ and then suffered death as a consequence.

Sittser re-tells the story, for instance, of Perpetua, from the second century.

She was a daughter in a prominent family and a young mother when she was thrown into prison. All that the Roman government under the Emperor Severus required was that people deny being Christians and make a sacrifice to the emperor and the gods. That was all. Perpetua’s own father pleaded with her to do so, for his sake, for the sake of her child. All she would say was “I am a Christian.” She was executed for her faith.

Or the elderly Bishop Polycarp, a respected leader in Asia Minor in 155, who was hunted down and brought before the government and pressured to deny Christ and swear to Caesar. Polycarp is reported to have said “For 86 years I have been His servant, and He has never done me wrong: how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” Polycarp also was executed.

Sometimes in those days Christians were offered leniency- they could still believe in Christ, but just as one of a pantheon of gods, one god among many (Do you hear the Who is Jesus? question?). But some would still not renounce that Jesus was THE Lord and Savior, and were executed.

I can tell by the looks on your faces, that sounds a long way off, doesn’t it? People are not normally executed in our country over naming the name of Jesus. But they are in a number of places in the world. No matter whose statistics you read, there are thousands, probably tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand people killed every year for the crime of being Christians. This week I read accounts of murders in India (March) and Sri Lanka (February) that were committed because people were Christians. I read of 10 students arrested and imprisoned in North Korea for reading a Bible. A few years ago I sat with dozens of people in meetings with the underground church in China who had been arrested, beaten, tortured because of their faith.

Not all Christians will face death on account of their faith, be it like John the Baptist or more modern day people who will forever be nameless to us. Most of us probably will not face that. But what we will all be faced with, on a continual basis, is choosing between faithfulness to Christ and faithfulness to other things. The question for us, at least right now, is not “will I die for my faith?” as much as it is “will I live for my Lord?”

The choices seem far smaller, the costs far less. Will I stick up for moral integrity in a work decision? Will I talk openly about life with Christ in my relationships? Will I pass on a job promotion because it will dominate my life? Will I tell the truth? Will I use my time to care for people who desperately need it? If someone walked into Starbucks and said loudly “Is anyone here a Christian?” Would you say yes? If someone looked at your life, would they see Jesus?

Jesus never intended or pretended that following him would be easy. It is no easy thing. But here we Christians are in America, trying to fit in and not be noticed, or avoid being embarrassed that we are different, or following after a faith that it sounds like just being happy or choosing a style of worship or getting what we want. To all of that, this story of John’s death is a sobering reminder: Following Jesus is no easy thing.

Well, we crack open the scripture, and like the little gals at the memorial service…we pause at the door. As soon as we open it, everything is different. Opposition to Jesus, identity of Jesus, death of Jesus, cost of following Jesus - the story of John the Baptist helps us with all these. Following Jesus is no easy thing. But once we’ve opened the door, we can no longer stand quietly by. I think that’s what the gospel writer Mark intended. I think it’s what Jesus intends.