NL 225: Death of John the Baptist

image: “Salome receiving the Head of Saint John the Baptist” by Andrea Vaccaro and Nicola Vaccaro

Mark 6:1-29

Initial Thoughts

  • Jesus’ family. Brothers James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, and unnamed sisters. Calling him ‘Mary’s son’ implies Joseph is probably dead (never mentioned in Mark). Mary is only mentioned here as Jesus’ mother. Mary, mother of James and Joses is named at the Cross. 

  • Most Protestants would have no problem with the idea of Jesus having siblings, but many may still be surprised - especially by the number.

  • Cue the Game of Thrones music

  • “The Silver Platters” Brady Bunch Band

  • Reminiscent of Mark 8 - “Who do you say that I am?”

  • Not the death of John the Baptist, but a recollection of John’s death

  • Context: Not Herod the Great, but his sons

    • Mark 3 has the Pharisees consorting with the Herodians- we have now graduated to Herod himself

  • Herod’s response to Jesus’ ministry and especially the ministry of his followers

  • Also in context of a Mark Sandwich:

    • Jesus sends out the apostles

    • Recall the death of JBap

    • Apostles return to Jesus, crowds gather

    • “It is interjected between the sending out of the disciples on the journey through the surrounding villages and their report to Jesus of the successful mission. It is another example of Mark’s ‘sandwiching’ technique. In the midst of a positive account of the disciples exorcisms, healings, and preaching comes the jolting description of the slaying of ‘a righteous and holy man’ who had provoked political authorities by speaking the truth.” (Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 427)

Bible Study

  • Connection to Mark 1 and 3 - “Generative Seam” (Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man)

    • Structure:

      • Rejection in the Synagogue (1:21-28; 3:1-6)

      • Withdrawal (1:29; 3:7)

      • Calling/Naming/Commissioning of the Disciples (1:16-20; 3:13-16)

    • Despite opposition the mission of Christ can and will regroup, re-focus and continue

    • Preparation for the end of the story - which sets up the need to regroup, refocus and continue the mission despite the pinnacle conflict: crucifixion

  • v. 1-6 Jesus rejected at home

    • Isn’t his Mary’s son

      • Accusation of the elder son economically abandoning his widowed mother

      • Insult hinting at his illegitimacy (not Joseph’s son, but Mary’s)

      • Luke’s Gospel: Joseph’s son

    • Jesus said to them, "Prophets are honored everywhere except in their own hometowns, among their relatives, and in their own households."

      • Jesus is without honor, homeland, tribe or family

      • Luke: Jesus says,  “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

    • This is the fourth rejection since calling the 12

      • 3:12 Calls the 12

      • 3:20 Crowd gathers, and family says that “he is out of his mind.”

      • 3:22 Legal experts claim he is from Beelzebul

      • 5:16 People on other side of lake plead with Jesus to leave.

    • v. 4 “He was unable to do miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them.”

      • There are other places in Mark where faith precedes healing. Just last week, Jairus and hemorrhaging woman each had faith before being healed, and Jesus called upon that faith as the reason for their healing.

      • That faith is needed for healing though, is oversimplification  as other stories include healing without faith.

      • An inability to participate in the new Kingdom, makes the healings and uniting power of the new Kingdom inaccessible

  • v. 7-13 Jesus sends out the 12

    • Hospitality

      • Like Jesus, the disciples are sent out to rely completely on the hospitality of others

      • They are given the means to travel but not sustenance

      • They are told to stay in place for a time indicating they are not the revolutionary guerrillas who have to eat and run covertly, but are open about their presence.

    • In between calling the 12 and sending the 12, Jesus is rejected by his family, legal experts, foreign people across the lake, and his hometown.

    • Jesus rejected four times, and so he warns the 12 of what do when they are rejected.

    • Jesus knows what it feels like to share with someone the Good News, but have it fall on deaf - even hostile - ears.

    • Jesus gives the disciples precious little instruction, but allows them a cloak and a staff (more than what they get in the other Gospels).

    • Told to go to households - clearly things weren’t going well for Jesus in the synagogues and with typical religious authorities 

    • Despite their apparent lack of instruction, they were successful. Passage closes with the disciples preaching repentance, healing the sick, and anointing with oil.

  • The whole story is in the context of: Who is Jesus? 

    • Jesus and the Church by Willi Marxsen

      • First of 2 times this litany of “who is Jesus” appears in Mark. The other being Mark 8 where Jesus questions his disciples.

      • When people encountered Jesus - they encountered the divine and did not know how to resposo they used the language at hand to interpret what they were experiencing: John the Baptist, Elijah, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, etc.

    • Resurrection of John the Baptist?

      • Pheme Perkins (NIB vol. 8) suggests not bodily resurrection but taps into traditional Jewish martyr literature in which the martyred righteous one comes back to torment their oppressor/executor. Very possible considering v. 20

  • Death of John the Baptist

    • Differs a lot from the account of ancient historian Josephus

      • John was taken prisoner because of his popularity with the common people

      • John was Executed by Herod at Herod’s fortress, Machaerus, on the Eastern shore of Galilee

    • Why the difference? Ties John to a long tradition of persecuted prophets:

      • Ahab, Jezebel and Elijah (1 Kings 21)

      • Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11:29-40)

      • Esther stealing half the Kingdom

      • Judith beheading Holofernes (Judith 13:1-10)

    • Who asks for John’s head, Herodias’ daughter, Salome in tradition

    • Herod is more concerned with keeping his drunken and lusty oaths given to party guests and his own image than with preserving the servants of God. (His Grief does not keep him from killing the innocent and righteous)

      • Karen Yust quote on daily life’s “Herod-like personal and spiritual dilemmas” from, Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost: “Daily life also presents a series of Herod-like personal and spiritual dilemmas for persons to negotiate. For a harried mother of a toddler, there is the question of how best to love and parent a child in the face of a defiant "No!" and a full-fledged temper tantrum in aisle 6 of the grocery store at the end of a long day. For a father of three, it is the struggle to explain the importance of rearranging travel plans for a work trip so he can attend a Little League playoff game. A corporate executive wonders how her announcement of a long-awaited pregnancy will affect her employees' perceptions of her as an effective boss. A stay-at-home dad wrestles with the whispers of former colleagues that he just couldn't handle the pressures of work. Teenagers experience the angst of competing for acceptance in desirable social cliques, of serial broken hearts in the complex world of adolescent dating, of familial tensions over privileges and responsibilities. Younger children long for popular toys advertised on television, worry about parental fights and the potential (or actual) breakup of their families, and wonder if the trouble they have learning multiplication tables or basic grammar means they are stupid. Across the lifespan, persons question who they are and how they should act as life pushes and pulls them in conflicting directions. And as in the story of Herod's struggle, there are lives at stake as they decide which actions they will take.”

  • Foreshadowing of Jesus’ own death

    • Speaking truth to power does not end well for most prophets

    • Powers that be would rather kill the innocent than be embarrassed

  • No good news in this story - no Jesus, really. Simply presents the way the world operates.

    • Good news is implied that in the midst of this, the apostles are out spreading the word, healing people, and casting out demons.

    • Juxtaposition of the apostles sent out and John murdered by a foolish King shows the way of Jesus.

    • Yes, there is devastation. Yes, there are ruthless rulers. Yes, innocent men are murdered for speaking the truth. Yes, Jesus too will suffer a similar fate. AND Yes, there is good news because there is another way.

    • David Lose, Workingpreacher.org: “Jesus came so that there could be a better ending to our stories and the story of the world than we can imagine or construct on our own.

And when the Temple has just been destroyed, or your marriage is ending, or you've lost your job, or you fear your child will never speak to you again, or you're pretty sure your friend has betrayed you, or you think you may just have screwed up the one relationship that meant something to you...then the possibility of another ending -- a good ending -- is, indeed, not just good news, but the best news you can imagine.”

Thoughts and Questions

  • How is your church raising up leaders? Do our communities of faith recognize and value the ministry of their own? Do we raise up and nurture new leaders? How many new leaders do we dismiss because of their lack of lineage or status? 

  • Joseph not being mentioned is important. Was he dismissed because he was raised by a single mother? When churches say that they are interested in attracting families, the important question is: What kind of families? What would a single mother, four boys, and at least two girls look like? How would they be treated if they walked into the door today?

  • What if these two stories are meant to remind us that we have a role to play. We are taught over and over that we are justified by faith alone. But what if God’s work also needs us to take some initiative? Is it works righteousness to declare that God needs us? Yet if it were not so, why call on 12 in the first place?

  • How do we, like Herod, allow our own images or reputations or foolish promises to keep us from following the Gospel of love?

  • How often do we (as both individuals and churches) prefer status quo and social stability over prophetic truth-telling?

  • Herod is responding to the works done in Jesus’ name. How often do we do good works in Jesus’ name instead of trying to own it ourselves? How much more vital could our ministry be if we remove ourselves, our church, our denomination from the equation and simply act in the name of Jesus?

  • Mark is presenting in a clear and concise way the way of the world. Mark presents the cultural context of what political power can do. He is writing in the wake of the destruction of the Temple, and has no qualms about telling the truth about Kingly power. The good news of Jesus is that there is another kind of power. There is another way of living. There is another way that the story may end.

Year 2Eric FistlerMarkComment