In a few weeks, I will
direct a summer session at Camp McDowell where the campers will build the story
of the Bible using Lego bricks. Not surprisingly, today’s gospel lesson is not
on the agenda. However, I couldn’t resist the temptation to make one of my own
Lego creations to depict today’s story (show Lego creation). No matter how you
but it, today’s lesson from Mark is strange – beyond the pale even.
In
addition, I find it curious that of all the gospels, Mark’s account is the most
detailed when it comes to telling about the death of John the Baptist. If you
remember the exegesis on Mark, then you know that Mark spares a lot of details
to get to the point. His gospel is the shortest and leaves out details the
other gospel writers fill in for us – but not this time.
So, why was Mark, who
usually doesn’t get caught up in the details, so interested in this story? Was
he deliberately trying to distract us with this grotesque and unusual story? Or
did Mark simply like to write gory thriller novels on the side? Whatever the
case, these questions cause me to reflect on how easily distracted we are. So
often we are attracted to the provocative details and miss the point.
If we pull back from the gory
details a little bit, what we see in this gospel text is nothing that we don’t already
experience today. Here we have a political leader who is blinded by lust,
power, and greed. Here we have a political leader who is willing to sacrifice
the truth just to keep his place atop the power pyramid. Here we have a young
woman, who is still basically a child, being used as a pawn in the political
system. Here we have a constituency who is blind to the truth because they are
so in love with their political leader.
The only difference is
that today we are a little more discrete in how we go about serving John the
Baptist’s head up on a platter, in how we go about sacrificing the truth in
favor of maintaining power and control.
While this scene from
Mark’s gospel gives us insight to the perverse and corrupt nature of King
Herod’s reign, the underlying theme speaks to how earthly power makes us human
beings weak. As Churchill famously said, “power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts completely.” Even our favorite earthly king in our biblical texts,
King David, couldn’t resist the temptation power breeds.
However, the difference
between David and Herod is that David repents. David does not send for his
guards to behead the prophet Nathan after Nathan convicts David of his sins.
Likewise, Nathan is a little more gracious in how he confronts David with his
sin. Instead of rebuking him in public, like John the Baptist does to Herod,
Nathan pulls David aside in private and tells a parable that allows David to
confess his own sin.
Ultimately, for all of
us, the question that begs to be asked is, “Am I more interested in
self-preservation or God’s transformation?” Am I more interested serving the
kingdoms of this world, kingdoms that call us to serve me and my needs, or the
kingdom of God, a kingdom that calls us to serve them and their needs? If we
are honest in how we answer these questions, then I’d imagine we’d all have a
lot to confess when we are called to repent in just a few minutes.
Now that John the Baptist
is decidedly out of the picture, Jesus can come onto the scene more fully. If
you remember back, John the Baptist struck fear in our hearts when he announced
the coming of Jesus. John described Jesus as the one who will come with
winnowing fork in hand and clear the threshing floor and burn the grain with an
unquenchable fire. However, in the next few verses in Mark’s gospel, we see a
different Jesus – or at least John’s metaphor is misleading. If I had to pick a
different metaphor for Jesus, I’d say – sounds like a lion, looks like a lamb.
We see a Jesus who leads
with compassion because he sees a people who are like sheep without a shepherd.
We see a Jesus who blesses the little we have and makes more than enough for
everyone. We see a Jesus who calms the storms of our lives. We see a Jesus who
touches and heals the lame and broken hearted. Finally, we see a Jesus who
rules by the law of love – not the law of religion.
It’s not what’s on the
outside that counts – its what’s on the inside. Jesus wants your heart – not
your rigid attention to the details that so often distract us from the purpose
of God, a purpose that is enacted by loving God and loving neighbor
indiscriminately for that is how Jesus loves us.
Unlike John and John’s
prediction of Jesus, Jesus convicts us of our fallen nature through his loving
kindness toward us. This is the detail of the gospel that we can’t afford to
miss. St. Paul pleads with the Romans not to miss this detail, he asks, “Do you
not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
Today’s gospel lesson not
only sheds light on Herod’s unwillingness to repent but also on the failure of
John the Baptist to convict Herod of his sin and call him to repentance. While
John the Baptist is a pivotal player in making way for the gospel of Jesus
Christ, John has done all that he can do. His life was as grizzly as his death.
He has drawn enough attention to Jesus – to do anymore would be a distraction
to the true message of the gospel.
The threat of hell, fire,
and brimstone might strike fear in our hearts but only the loving kindness of
Jesus can call us to true repentance, transform our hearts, and make in us
something new. The hell, fire, and brimstone churches of the world might
describe, in provocative detail, the sinful nature of humanity but that kind of
witness doesn’t leave room for the loving kindness of Jesus to leads us to new
life.
Opening this month in
theaters is a documentary on Fred Rogers called Won’t you be my neighbor? The
documentary sheds light on the genius of Mr. Rogers and his ability to proclaim
the gospel message to children on public television. When the government
threatened to cut funding to the program in 1969, Fred appeared before a senate
committee to advocate for the program.
After Fred read his
powerful statement, the toughest senator of them all replied, “I’m supposed to
be a pretty tough guy but this is the first time I’ve had goosebumps in two
days. Looks like you just earned your $20 million.” In the end, Fred’s loving
kindness won the senator over just like his loving kindness won over millions
of children in the years and decades to come.
A part of Fred’s genius
was his ability to make people want to change not by demanding they be
different, but by claiming they were already different. After every show, he
sang, “You’ve made this day a special day, by just your being you. There’s no
person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are.”
Likewise, when we are
baptized as infants, we are affirmed as children of God not because of our
accomplishments, but because in Christ we are made worthy of love and value.
And the provocative nature of the gospel tells us that nothing can change our
worth in Christ Jesus – nothing can separate us from the love of God.
And when we are reminded
of this declaration of God’s unchanging love toward us in Christ, how can we
not immediately feel that we have fallen short of God’s glory, how can we not
immediately feel that we are not who God says we are in Christ? Again,
remembering the words of St. Paul, “Do you not realize that God’s kindness is
meant to lead you to repentance?”
Like Mr. Roger’s does in
his show, the Church, by Jesus’ command, doesn’t call us to internalize and
suppress these feelings until they explode into destructive behaviors. The
Church does a disservice to the gospel when it shames those who have sinned.
For as St. Paul also
said, “Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others;
for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the
judge, are doing the very same things.”
Instead of internalizing our sin, instead of
denying the weakness of our flesh, instead of being distracted by the sins of
others, we are called to name our feelings of unworthiness and anger and
sadness and fear through the gift of the confession. The loving kindness of
Jesus calls us to our knees and invites us to be vulnerable and name our
weaknesses before a God whose property is always to have mercy.
And when we find the
courage to fall to our knees, we discover where true power comes from. We
discover true power is found when we are set free from the burden of not only
our sins but the sins of others. We discover true power is found when we are
set free from allowing the inevitability of sin and death control our lives.
The power God gives us in
Christ Jesus binds us to something stronger than sin and death. The power God
gives us in Christ binds us to a life where the truth will set us a free, to a life
that makes clear the most essential detail of the gospel of Jesus Christ – a
detail summed up in the prayer of the psalmist, “mercy and truth have met
together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Amen.
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