- King Herod, like all the characters in Mark's gospel, is trying to figure out who Jesus is. Herod's fear is that John the Baptist, who Herod had unjustly killed, has come back to life in the person of Jesus. Other people claim that Jesus is Elijah or another prophet of old come back to life. Later in Mark's gospel Jesus actually asks his disciples who they think he is. In Mark 8:29, Jesus says, "Who do you say I am?" This is the question that Jesus continues to pose across time and space to each and every one of us that reads the gospel stories. "Who do you say I am?"
- Herod's intense fear that John the Baptist has come back to life in Jesus is a manifestation of his guilty conscience. Herod had committed one wrong by taking his brother's wife, which John confronted him about, and tried to commit a second wrong, killing John, to cover up the first. By killing John, Herod hopes to be free of that voice persistently reminding him that he is breaking Jewish law. Out of sight and out of mind. Unfortunately Herod's conscience begins to work on him and he starts being "haunted" by John's "ghost," fearing that he is alive and active despite Herod's attempts to silence him. This story reminds us that people often think they can get away with injustices and cover up wrongdoings, but they forget about the powerful effect of the human conscience.
- When John confronted Herod, it was over a Jewish religious law from the Torah. It wasn't a Roman law. Most people would probably agree that you shouldn't steal a sibling's spouse, but it isn't against secular law. So John is confronting him specifically on religious law, which John seems to expect him to obey. This raises a good question. Would John have confronted a Roman ruler or official for the same behavior? I tend to doubt it. When he confronts Herod, he is confronting someone would should be responsibly expected to follow the Jewish law. Christians today might learn something from this. Too many of us believe we are society's moral police. We don't care if other people believe what we do or not--we just want to to act like us and play by our moral rules. I don't think John would have shared the same mindset. As Christians, we shouldn't expect non-believers to adhere to Christian morality and we should stop attempting to force our Christian morality on people who shouldn't be expected to follow it in the first place. We do, however, have a duty to hold one another accountable to following God's Law, as John did with Herod.
- Herod, like many political leaders throughout history, decides that he is "above the law" and ignores John's moral reprimand. Herod believes himself to be an "extraordinary individual" who cannot be bound by commonplace morality. If you are familiar with the novel Crime and Punishment, Herod and the central character from that story, Raskolnikov, share a similar moral sentiment--they don't believe the rules apply to them because they are "extraordinary individuals." If we are honest with ourselves, though, we all tend to think the same way at one time or another. When the rules aren't convenient for us, we start rationalizing ways around them and decide that the rules don't fully apply to us. It's not just the nature of rulers and authories to believe themselves above the law; it's human nature.
- This story also reminds us of the costly nature of discipleship. Following Jesus and preaching the Kingdom of God may require one to pay the ultimate price. Last week we talked about how Jesus isn't safe and comfy. Neither is discipleship. Being a disciple is a radical and costly thing.
- To close we went back and talked about the issue of the human conscience, and I tried to share some good news. In this story, Herod thinks he can free himself from his previous sins by committing more sins (a lot like King David with Bathsheba). Seems like a strange idea, but it is something most of us buy into if we are honest with ourselves. We make messes of life, try to cover it up, and, in the process, make an even bigger mess of things. We cannot free ourselves from the tyranny of our consciences, only Christ can. This is what Hebrews 9:14 says: "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" Rather than trying to cover up the mistakes of our pasts, let us turn to Christ who can cleanse us of all sin and enable us to walk on a new path, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward into new life. Amen.
Jarrett
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