Mark 6:14-32.  Yesterday’s reading ended with Jesus sending out the twelve to tell others about him.  Along with telling people about Jesus they did many miracles.  At the end of today’s reading we see the apostles (this is talking about the twelve guys Jesus sent out in verse 7, the Greek word “apostelo” from which we get our word “apostle” means “sent ones”) coming back to Jesus and reporting on what they had been teaching and doing.  So verse 30 seems like it should come after verse 13 but it doesn’t, Mark sticks in the story of John the Baptist’s death.  Remember Mark is writing this history of Jesus life to a group of believers living in the capital city of Rome about 60 AD.  From other books in the New Testament we know that the believers had been having trouble with the Jewish people.  In the early days of Christianity it was considered a part of Judaism by the government and was given special consideration as part of it.  As Christianity became more obviously separate from Judaism it started to have more problems with the government.  The hostility of the Jewish people toward “Christians” caused the trouble with the government to grow.  The society in general also disliked “Christians” because they would not worship all of the false gods of their neighbors.  Certainly this dislike of the Christians was more intense in a city like Rome where the government would have been much more of an influence.  Just a few years after writing this book for the church a new emperor, Nero (64 AD), began to rule and he openly persecuted the believers in Rome.  The way Mark arranges the story of Jesus is influenced by his reason for writing it, and at least a part of that reason would have been to help the believers in Rome deal with the struggles they were facing.  This book is not just a history book it is a history with a purpose.

In Mark 6:12-13 we see that the twelve were proclaiming Jesus and doing many miracles.  Mark transitions to the story about John the Baptist by telling the readers (the Christians in Rome in 60 AD, and now us) that King Herod had heard about what was going on.  A lot of people were talking about Jesus and some were saying that John the Baptist had been resurrected, while others though Elijah (a very important Old Testament prophet) had come back to life, still others thought Jesus was a new prophet but with the kind of power the Old Testament prophets had.  Herod thought John the Baptist had come back to life.  The fact that he mentions having John’s head cut off shows he is bothered by the though of John coming back to life, he clearly doesn’t have a clear conscious about his actions.  These rulers loved their power and were kind of paranoid.  It was not a good thing to have a guy like Herod to be thinking about you.

Herod is called a king.  The Roman Empire was divided up into different types of smaller territories.  Those territories in turn were divided up into even smaller territories.  Some times we talk about the “South-West” meaning Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Maybe Nevada.  But that “part” of the United States contains those states or parts of states.  We also have states in the United States and in the states we have counties.  In the Roman Empire they had a “state” or territory that contained much of what had been Israel at the time of David (about 1100 BC) they called the territory Palestine after the earlier inhabitants the Philistines.  Palestine was divided into several smaller area including Galilee, Judea, Perea, and Samaria, to name a few.  The Herod in this story was Herod Antipas.  His father was Herod the Great, the guy from the Christmas story (Matthew 2).  And in Acts 12 there is another Herod (Agrippa 1) who ruled much of Palestine after the Herod of our story.  The Herod of our story today ruled part of the region, Galilee and Perea.  His technical title was Tetrarch, which means “ruler of ¼, it was used to mean ruler of a part of a territory.  He was technically not a king but because of the power of these men they were often seen as kings.

The family of which Herod was a part held various positions of power in Palestine for several decades.  They were particularly corrupt.  The picture of Herod Antipas that we get from this story is not a very flattering one.  An ancient Jewish historian from the time, Josephus, also tells this story and he says that Herod had John killed because he though the people were going to rebel because of him.  Mark paints a much more complicated picture of Herod’s actions.  Herod had a brother named Philip.  Philip was married to Herodius.  Herodius was the daughter of Herod’s uncle, Aristobulus (and Philip’s uncle too I suppose), so she was Herod’s niece.  Herod was also married at the time to the daughter of another rule to the south-east of his territory, Aretus IV.  Herod “fell in love” with his brother’s wife and convinced her to divorce her husband.  He also divorced his wife (resulting in a war with Aretus) and married Herodius.  The various Herod’s went along with some of the Jewish religion as rulers of the region so  John the Baptist confronted Herod about his actions (Leviticus 18:16; 20:21) and this made Herodius angry.  She was so angry she wanted John dead, but of course she didn’t have the power to have him killed, not legally anyway.  According to Mark Herod knew of Herodius hatred of John and arrested him to protect him.  We also learn that Herod liked listening to John but that John’s words confused him.  It is clear that Herod had many reasons for doing what he did and that his motives were influenced from many directions.

The next part of the story really shows Herod’s weakness as a leader.  At a party the daughter of his new wife dances for him and his guests.  The most polite way I can say this is that the dance must have been “nasty” because all of the men there were so impressed that Herod offered the girl “up to half of his kingdom”.  This reminds me of the story of Esther where the Persian king Xerxes (Ahasuerus) offers Ester up to half of his kingdom because of a banquet she gave him.  Xerxes was a brutal ruler who also loved power.  It seems to me that Herod was on the same kind of ego trip, but this story doesn’t end as well as Xerxes’ and Esther’s did.  The girl asks her mother what to wish for and mom tells her to get the head of John the Baptist on a platter.  In verse 26 Mark tells us that Herod didn’t want to do it but because he had promised in front of all of his leaders he had john executed.  Clearly Herod was a weak man driven by power and lust.

Today’s reading ends with the follow up to the apostles going out and preaching and doing miracles.  They returned back to Jesus and told him of all the great things that had happened.  And people kept coming looking for miracles (and hopefully answers too), so Jesus took his guys away to rest for a while.

From the point of view of the believers in Rome, I think this story would have been important for two reasons.  First we see that God’s servants can and will suffer.  John brought God’s word into Herod’s life and wound up being executed because of it.  But we also see the power of God in the miracles and changed lives.  We see people wanting to have their lives fixed but they also seemed to want to hear too, at least partially.  Even Herod liked to hear what John had to say.  So for those early believers there was assurance that they were on the right side, the side with real power.  But the reality was that it might cost them in the short run.  Remember, too, that the two stories Mark gave us just before this one were about Jesus not being honored among his friends and family and about Jesus bringing a girl back to life from the dead.  Those stories also carry meaning into today’s reading.  Believers are going to be rejected and worse but we are on God’s side, the side with power, even power to bring back to life.  And according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 we will all eventually be brought back from death.  Because of that Paul told the believers in Corinth to keep up the good work of living for God (1 Corinthians 15:58), they would not be disappointed.  Certainly the Roman believers of Mark’s day needed that same sort of encouragement, which today’s reading should have given them.  They would suffer but they also were on the winning team.

God thank you for being honest.  Thank you fir showing us that we will have trouble in the world.  Thank you for also being there with us all along the way.  Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.  Let my life make many people want to come to you.  Thank you for being concerned about my well-being (Giving rest when I need it).  Thank you for the ultimate victory, a new forever life with you in eternity.  Help me live for you today and not worry about the trouble that may come.  Let me be faithful.