to return to your place in the text.To read endnotes, click on the the note number, then click on the
Then there is this one from a youngster who sees all the
misery in the world and wonders: "Dear God, I have doubts about
you sometimes. Sometimes I really believe. Like when I was four
and I hurt my arm and you healed it up fast. But my question is,
if you could do this why don't you stop all the bad in the world?
Like war. Like diseases. Like famine. Like drugs. And there
are problems in other people's neighborhoods too. I'll try to
believe more. Ian (age 10)"
Is there any of young Ian in you? If you are honest,
probably. Undoubtedly, there was some Ian in John the Baptist.
But more about that as we get into this horrible story.
And it IS a horrible story. The foolish murder of a good
man whose only "crime" was speaking out about immorality in high
places.
John the Baptist is a fascinating character. Scripture
introduces him before he is even born.(2) His father, Zechariah, a
priest in the hill country of Judea, and his mother Elizabeth,
also of a priestly family. They had prayed for years for a
child. Now suddenly, after almost all hope was gone through the
passing of time and the ticking of the biological clock, the
angel Gabriel meets Zechariah as he is offering incense in the
sanctuary: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been
heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will
name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will
rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the
Lord."
And he was. Unusual, to say the least. A man of the
wilderness, dressed in homespun - camels' hair with a wide
leather belt around his waist. A diet of locusts and wild honey.
Hair and beard uncut, somewhat unkempt. Fierce, burning eyes.
His message was a call to repentance and righteous living
before God. His was the voice that the prophet Isaiah said would
be crying in the wilderness, saying "Prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley
shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the
uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people
shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."(3) THE KING IS COMING.
It would be nice to say that the world responded unanimously
to John's call, but we know better. John the Baptist spoke out
once too often. His preaching was bold enough to breach the
palace walls, falling on the ears of a government that did not
want to hear, challenging a sinful king who refused to be
confronted. Herod had him arrested.
A word here about this king. The New Testament speaks of
several Herods. The man we meet in our lesson was NOT Herod the
Great, the one who was king when Jesus was born, the one
responsible for the massacre of the baby boys in Bethlehem
following the visit of the Wise Men. THIS man was Herod Antipas,
one of Herod the Great's sons, one of the lucky ones as it turns
out, because Herod the Daddy was totally paranoid, insanely
suspicious and, near the end of his life became well-known for
murdering, not only the innocents in Bethlehem, but his own
offspring as well. (Even Caesar in Rome is reported to have said
it was safer to be Herod's pig than Herod's son.) Another who
survived was Herod Philip, Antipas' half-brother. Another half-brother was Aristobulus. Aristobulus had a daughter named
Herodias. She married Herod Philip. They, in turn, had a
daughter whose name was Salome. Clear so far?
Now things get sticky and we find a near-eastern version of
some steamy soap opera. On a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas met
brother Philip's wife, Herodias - Aristobulus' daughter,
remember, which meant that Philip had married his own niece.
Herodias was a deceitful and ambitious woman who saw in Antipas a
ticket to power and influence. So the two of them deserted
Philip and headed back to Galilee. This was OK as far as Roman
law was concerned, but not Jewish law,(4) and Galilee was a Jewish
land.
Enter John the Baptist. Not one to mince words - he was
more than content to call his wilderness congregation a pack of
snakes - he thundered against this incestuous relationship: "It
is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Herodias was
incensed, angry enough to want this wild-eyed prophet dead. But,
as much as Herod wanted to please his new wife, he begged off on
this one. As the text says, "For Herod feared John, knowing that
he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he
heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen
to him." Hmm.
Meanwhile, the ministry of John's cousin, Jesus of Nazareth,
was becoming well-known. His fame was spreading - there were
stories of incredible crowds and miraculous healings. But here
was John sitting in a dungeon. If Jesus were the promised
Messiah, as in many ways he appeared to be, why did he not get
his relative out of jail? Why do YOU think? John got word to
some of those who had been faithful followers during the days
before his arrest: "Go and ask Jesus, 'Are you the one who is to
come, or are we to wait for another?'"(5) Sounds a bit like young
Ian in that letter to God we read earlier.
Jesus sent word back. "Go and tell John what you have seen
and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor
have good news brought to them." Uh-huh. But John still sits in
that cell.
Suddenly, Herodias had her chance. Birthday party. All the
high hats of town and country at the palace. Wine, women and
song, and plenty of each. Daughter Salome dances. The story
says, "she pleased Herod and his guests," and we are left to make
of that phrase whatever our fertile, over-sexed imaginations
will. Probably half in a bag, Herod says to her, "Ask me for
whatever you wish and I will give you." The king's good ol'
boys, by now three sheets to the wind themselves, hear the
promise and start laughing and cheering and clapping and yelling
"More, More!" Salome does not know what to do. Herod ups the
ante: "Whatever you ask me, I will give you; even half of my
kingdom." And the good ol' boys start laughing, cheering and
clapping all the louder.
Salome runs out of the room to find her mother (because this
would have been a stag party except for the entertainers). "What
should I ask for?"
BINGO! "The head of John the Baptizer."
So Salome goes back to Herod. "I want you to give me at
once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
Ever make a promise that you regret? As the text says, "The
king was deeply grieved." But a promise is a promise, and in
front of all the guys, at that.
We know the rest. The end of the lesson grimly reports,
"When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body,
and laid it in a tomb."
Chalk up another victory for evil. There seem to be lots of
those, don't there. Not only back then but day to day throughout
history on down to the present moment. Countless millions have
suffered horribly, violently and senselessly. In the name of
religion, in the name of racial purity, in the name of greed or
lust or anger and often for no reason at all. Evil wins again.
Some would say this story of revenge -- a person who has
access to government and policy decisions and misuses them for
their own dark purpose - is one more reason to say with young Ian
in his letter, and perhaps even John as his head was laid on that
executioner's block, "Dear God, I have doubts about you
sometimes."
What can we says when evil wins? Perhaps the answer is in
the way Mark's gospel record is presented. As you Bible scholars
know, Mark's first reference to John's arrest is right in the
beginning of the book - chapter 1. We hear nothing more about it
until we encounter it in our lesson for the day, and it is
presented in retrospect. We get the sordid details only because
Herod is worried about what he is hearing concerning Jesus.
Something powerful is happening, and everyone is talking about
it. No one quite understands it - some are saying Jesus is
Elijah reincarnate. That would mean the Messiah was about to
arrive, because Jewish legend said Elijah would come back to
announce the coming conqueror. Others were saying it was John
the Baptist come back to life, and Herod is convinced of it - his
tormentor has returned. Then we hear the sad story of John's
return from what.
Amazing. Mark well may have inserted this story for
precisely young Ian...and maybe you and me as well when we see so
much wrong with this world and start wondering about God. Are
you there, God? Do you care, God?
If you want the answer to those questions, ask and answer a
couple of other questions. First, whom is Mark's gospel all
about? Jesus, of course. As Mark goes through Jesus' story,
does he indicate any difficulties, any stumbling blocks, any
apparent victories for the other side, any moments when it
appears that evil wins? Certainly. The conflicts with the
establishment, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the
miserable death. Is that the end of the story? No way, José!
It ends with the resurrection, and some dumbfounded disciples.
Does evil finally win? Certainly not. Now ask those questions
again. Are you there, God? Do you care, God?
Now, return to our lesson - right out of the pages of an
ancient world's National Enquirer, a sordid story of the excesses
of the rich and famous. But it is surrounded by the ministry of
Jesus. Mark's message in telling it right here and right now is
that nothing in this world, not even the palaces of the powerful,
are beyond the reach and impact of the gospel.
Yes, there are times with young Ian that we wonder about
God. It is true there is horrible evil out there. There are
evil people - the sociopaths, the mass murders, the vicious child
and spouse abusers. There are evil moments when otherwise good
people are drawn in - that scene played over and over on TV this
week of a dozen police officers beating and kicking a wounded
suspect. There are evil systems in which we all participate -
people going without food and shelter in a nation of abundance,
people not getting medical care because of no other reason than
lack of money. There are even evils born of sheer stupidity,
like the stupid promise Herod made to Salome. Do you remember
the novelist William Burroughs? Burroughs died at age 83 just
about three years ago. During a drunken party in Mexico one
night in 1951, he undertook to play William Tell - he used a
pistol to shoot a glass off his wife's head. He missed...and put
a bullet in her brain instead.(6) How stupid. How evil. Yes, it
often seems that the evil wins.
But the message of our faith says that evil does not have
the last word. Listen, Ian, and all who ever wonder about God.
Herod does not win. Herodias does not win. Hitler does not win.
EVIL DOES NOT WIN! With joy we can shout out that God's world
does not end with either the whimper of a starving child or the
blast of a nuclear bomb; it ends with the Lamb upon the throne
and the victorious song of a massive choir singing perhaps words
we have come to love: "The kingdoms of this world shall become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, And he shall reign
forever and ever." HALLELUJAH!
Amen!
1. Bantam, 1987 2. Luke 1:5 passim 3. Isaiah 40:3-5 4. Leviticus 18:16; 20:21 5. Matthew 11:3ff.; Luke 7:19ff. 6. The Washington Post, August 4, 1997
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