7th Sunday after Trinity. Year B.
Readings: Ephesians 1:3-14 & Mark 6:14-29.
John the Baptist always seems to be a rather marginal figure in the modern church given how prominent he is in the gospels.
We probably know more about him than any other figure apart from Jesus.
Unlike the disciples, we get an account of his miraculous birth and parentage, we get constant updates on his provocative and impactful mission, and we get an account of his death.
Born only a few months before Jesus himself, he obviously hits the ground running in order to fulfil his scriptural role as the voice crying in the wilderness.
By the time Jesus is ready to undertake his ministry, John already has a large and dedicated following for his message of repentance symbolised by a ritual of baptism.
Indeed, it seems like Jesus is waiting for John to lay that ground work, to make smooth the way of the Lord.
One of his first actions after all is to go to John and undergo this ritual of baptism that John has been using. No, surely, to wash away his sins, but more to show that he is building upon the foundations that John has laid.
Not that this stops John’s followers from remaining a distinct and at times antagonistic group from those following Jesus.
The message that John was giving was obviously distinctive enough that disagreements like this could break out.
John was a prophet in the great tradition of old testament prophets.
A biblical prophet is not someone who predicts the future – that is a more modern usage of the word. A biblical prophet is someone who publicly declares God’s truth. Often this does involve speaking of the future, but normally only of immediate consequences of anticipated, current or past actions, not grandiose predictions of the end of the world.
The important thing that a prophet is doing is warning people that their actions are not righteous, not in accordance with the way we should be behaving if we want to be true to God.
And often prophets are warning those in power. Prophets are the antidote to the corrupting influence of unchallenged power.
A particularly apposite example from the old testament is the prophet Nathan, who lived in the reign of King David. When David sleeps with Bathsheeba and then has Uriah the Hittite killed, in order to be able to marry her, Nathan is on hand, using a parable, to get David to admit that what he has done is wrong. It is to David’s credit that he doesn’t punish Nathan for his truthfulness.
John is in a similar position with Herod.
This is not the Herod of the nativity – who was Herod the Great.
This is Herod Antipas, one of his many sons, who ended up as ruler or Tetrarch of Galilee. It’s the same Herod that Jesus is sent to by Pilate, presumably because, coming from Galilee, he is one of Herod’s subjects.
The Herod who executes James and imprisons Peter is yet another Herod – Herod Agrippa, who was his step-nephew, and brother of Herodias.
And this was the nub of John’s problem – Herod had married Herodias who was both his step-niece, and also his step-brother’s ex-wife. And not because his step-brother was dead – this was no levirate marriage where a brother marries his brother’s widow in order to provide for her. That would have been fine under the law. No, the brother, also confusingly called Herod, was still alive.
So John very publicly called out Herod for marrying Herodias on two counts – she was his niece and his still-living brother’s divorced wife. Unlike Nathan, he doesn’t seem to have done it with a subtle parable, but then he wasn’t a court prophet so probably didn’t have the level of access that Nathan had to David. No, he has done it publicly, and Herod has had him thrown in jail for it.
Herod though seems to be content to stop at this though – he recognises that John is a prophet, and righteous and holy. It is an interesting observation that he enjoys his sermons, even if he doesn’t understand them. It feels like Herod is guilty mainly of falling in love with someone that he shouldn’t have, although that is a failing in someone in a position of authority like Herod, and if you want to go and read more of the history of the period, you will see that his love for and marriage to Herodias is the root of events that lead to his downfall, and probably a lot of grief for his subjects as well.
Herod feels like he was a weak ruler – wanting to rule wisely and well, but not able to do so because he couldn’t control his passions, and maybe wasn’t as clever as his father, although also not as cruel as well. Certainly he gets trapped into making rash promises and then isn’t strong enough to refuse to honour them when they lead to the execution of an innocent man.
Herodias his wife emerges as the villain of the piece, maybe in an echo of the relationship between Ahab and Jezebel. It is she who wants John to die for what he has said. Is this the action of a cruel and vindictive woman, or is it someone who is constrained by her time and culture, someone who despite her royal upbringing is fated to be defined by who she is married to, and therefore for whom the validity of her marriage is core to her existence? By criticising this marriage, is John striking at her very sense of being? Is this why she is so vehement that he should die? Do her motives come from a place of weakness rather than cruel strength? We will never know.
Whatever the motivations, the outcome though is very definite – John’s speaking of truth to power leads to the ultimate sanction for a prophet – his own death. Speaking truth is dangerous, both in biblical times, and in modern times, as the modern prophets and martyrs Janani Luwum and Oscar Romero could testify, along with many others.
Speaking these truths is what we are all called upon to do as Christians, wherever we find ourselves. In every interaction we have, in our families, amongst our friends, in our workplaces, even, or most especially here in church, we can always be aware of behaviour that is wrong, where people are abusing their positions of privilege and power to take advantage of others, or demean them, or aggrandize themselves. To behave in a way that is not kingdom-affirming, that doesn’t conform to the gospel message of love, harmony and equality before God. And we can take that opportunity to remind people gently, calmly, lovingly, that there is another way, a better way, a way that affirms the God-given dignity of all human beings. And filled with the Spirit, our words will be heard. Maybe not acted upon today. Maybe not for years. But those words will be heard.
Amen