7/12/20 Mark 6:14-29 “Saving Face or Saving Grace!”

10 Jul 7/12/20 Mark 6:14-29 “Saving Face or Saving Grace!”

7/12/20 Mark 6:14-29   “Saving Face or Saving Grace!”

Some of you may already know this but I am a pretty strange guy.  I am one of these people who reads a story for the sake of the story.  I have read hundreds of books in my life and for the most part I couldn’t tell you one thing about most of them.  This is because I read them for entertainment.  For the most part if you give me a book and want me to find the deep meaning of the writer, you have given the book to the wrong person.  I love mystery stories and westerns and I read them most nights before going to bed.  I don’t read them for anything other than the story.  I think that I can safely say that I have not watched many movies that are better than the book.  There is just something about the printed word and my imagination.  In today’s reading we have Mark giving us an account of the death of John the Baptist.  It is a story we all know and it is easy to just move on and dismiss it as just a good story.  However, I would like us to take a little closer look at what happened and see if we can find ourselves in the midst of these characters.

Mark Connelly tells the story of a brilliant kid in his high school class in New Jersey.  Plus, he was one of the really good kids in school.  He graduated and went on to get a great education and a fantastic job.  It wasn’t too long before he was climbing the ladder of success at his company and he finally became the Chief Financial Officer of his corporation.  He would eventually become one of the most powerful businessmen in America.

But somewhere along the line in all this success he had to learn to cheat a bit.  Mark doesn’t think that this man started out by cheating but somewhere along the line he decided to negotiate his sin rather that eradicate it.  In the end he had spun one of the greatest webs of sin that corporate America has ever seen.  The name of this classmate was Andy Fastow and you may have heard of him because he was the CFO of Enron.  He was indicted on 78 counts of fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.  You see when you try to negotiate sin or try to work your way within sin, the web that you weave will ensnare you.  Sin is always a bad thing and never a good thing.  When you have to choose between the lesser of two sins, you should be refusing to choose at all.

As we begin today, we are talking about King Herod.  This is Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great who had all the babies in Bethlehem killed.  As a matter of fact, Herod the Great had many of his sons killed for various reasons.  He had also married many times.  So, this was the role model for our Herod in today’s story.

We also need to know that this Herod had a half brother named Herod Phillip.  They both had another half brother named Aristobulus.  Aristobulus had a daughter named Herodias.  She became the wife of Phillip.  Therefore, Phillip had married his own niece.  They had a daughter named Salome, who is in our reading.

I just want to give you a little history of what was going on here before we look at the lesson.  Antipas went to Rome and he met Herodias and Phillip.  Herodias was a deceitful woman who wanted power so she set out to win Anitpas and she succeeded.  They returned to Israel and wed so now Anitpas is also married to his niece and brother’s wife.  Does this sound like a convoluted mess or what?  It sounds like the story line for half of the television’s shows aired today which are garbage.  Some people have had their senses dummied down so badly that they might not think that this is so bad after all.  However, I think that most of us can see that these were some terrible acts.  Sin is sin and should never be celebrated!

So that is the history of what was happening to this point.  The first bit of deception in this passage comes from the first line, King Herod.  Herod was not a king.  Only Caesar could proclaim him to be king and he hadn’t done this.  But Herod liked to think of himself as a great king.  He would later be removed from office and sent to exile where he and Herodias died.  So now we have a king who is no king at all who had been raised by a barbaric father who passed his sense of no moral values on to his son!

Herod hears about Jesus.  He hears of all the wonderful things and miracles that Jesus has done.  Herod figures that Jesus had to be John the Baptist returning from the dead.  Or at least he had to be some great prophet returning from the dead.  I think that it is sad just how superstitious these people were.  They actually believed that people could be returned from the dead.  I know that in today’s world we would never think like this.  We would never say that Elvis is still alive and living somewhere in seclusion.  We would never think that John Lennon never died either.  And I’m sure that there are not these wild stories about Michael Jackson or Prince.  I’m so glad we are immune from this.  (pause)

Now we have a flashback.  Herod remembers John the Baptist.  John had come to this so-called king and told him that it was unlawful to marry his brother’s wife.  He told the most powerful man in Israel that he was committing adultery.  Now I don’t know about you, but you have to have some sort of guts to do something like this.

Just a few years ago, we had a president of this country in a similar situation.  His behavior was totally immoral.  And the more evidence that came out the more he denied it.  This man thought that he was powerful enough so that whatever he said was the truth.  I personally think that this was a very disgusting time in our history and it also told us a lot about where our morals were heading in this country.  It explains many of today’s immoral politicians!

Anyway, back to our story.  Herodias was furious about this as this would upset her whole scheme for power.  So, Herod protects John because he kind of likes him, from her by having him arrested.  He was a real buddy.  Now John had not done anything wrong but he was arrested.  Herod continues on his sinful ways.  But Herod is a rather funny man.  He is highly superstitious and also curious.  He wants to know what John has to say.  This is the same curiosity that he would show to Jesus a little later.

Then comes the part of the story we all know.  Herod decides to throw a birthday party for himself and all the high-ranking officials.  And of course, things get a little crazy and his step daughter does some sort of crazy dance.  After this Herod says he would give the girl anything up to half his kingdom.  Well the girl is probably not much more than 14 or so and she has to consult with her mother as to what to do.  Then she goes and asks Herod for the head of John the Baptist.

Now we come to the point where Herod could have stopped this whole thing if he had the desire to do it.  I remember reading about this type of thing in other places in the Bible.  We are led to believe that the king cannot change his mind.  However, if he is the king, then he can change his mind and do whatever he wants.  The only thing that this king and others that we have read about will lose is a little face.  He will lose a little of his pride.  He might not be held in such a high esteem.

This was a huge problem then and it is just as huge today.  I believe that we have had many presidents of this country who have done evil things.  They continued to do these things because if they stopped, they would have to admit they were wrong.  And because they are president, they can do no wrong.

It is not just the leaders who have trouble here, we all have this problem.  No one likes to be told that they are wrong.  I don’t like to be told I am wrong.  The difference between us and the president or politician is that we don’t have nearly as much to lose.  Although some of us might even debate this.

Peter Loughman tells this great story of saving face and the distance we will go to save face.  It seems that there was this well to do family who wanted to give their father a gift that contained their family history.  They hired a professional biographer to write it and they cautioned him about their black sheep, Uncle George, who was executed in the electric chair for murder.  The biographer was instructed to handle this situation.  He finished the book and it was presented to the father who was overjoyed.  He was paging through it when he came upon the entry for Uncle George.  It read: ‘Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution.  He was attached to his position by the strongest ties, and his death came as a real shock.’  We will do anything to cover up the truth.

This is all the wrong kind of thinking.  Just about everything that Herod did here was wrong.  He finally finds himself in a position where he feels that he has no way out except to murder an innocent man.  This is exactly what he did and his conscious bothers him when he sees Jesus.  His conscious tells him that Jesus is the risen John the Baptist.  Whether we like it or not, one of the things about Herod is that he isn’t a lot different than many of us.

We like to think and act like we are far more important than we actually are in this world.  Once we have made up our minds on something it is often times very hard for us to change.  And this may lead us to do things that we don’t want to do.  It is kind of like when you tell a lie.  Then you need to tell two more lies to cover the first one and 4 more to cover those 2.  It isn’t long before all that you say is a lie.  This is what was going on for Herod.  If this is the way that your life is going, then listen up because here comes the good news.

Jesus Christ is in town.  Herod had heard of him and he chooses to ignore him.  How many people do you know like this?  There are many, many people in this world, in this country that know of Jesus and yet they refuse to accept Him.  There is a bit of good news in this passage because we find that Herod will get another chance when he meets Jesus face to face during the trial of Jesus.  But we also know how that story plays out as Herod will once again reject Jesus.  Jesus Christ is a wonderful God.  He is a great God.  And He is a loving God.  But He is also a God of only so many chances.  Time will run out on people if they do not turn to Jesus.

Luis Paulau tells a tragic story of a young man or woman, I don’t remember which, who came to one of his crusades in Mexico City if I remember right.  Anyway, Luis told the crowd of thousands of people the way to salvation.  He told them that this was the night to make the decision.  Many came forward and received the saving grace from Jesus that night.  However, this one person couldn’t make up their mind and didn’t come forward and didn’t receive Jesus.  When the crusade was over, this person left and right in front of the stadium of the crusade, a car hit this person and he/she was killed.  This is a sad and tragic story and unfortunately, this story plays out all over the world every day.

Just as sadly, there are those who feel that church is not the place to bring things like this up.  They feel that we should only talk of things that are good and make us feel good.  I agree.  We should talk about that stuff.  But we should also talk about all the bad things that make us feel terrible when we do them, in other words, sin.  Then we will have that much more incentive to listen to Jesus.  This whole passage was about us.  We are all Herods.  We all get caught in this web of sin and unbelief.

When you notice things like this happening, don’t give up.  Jesus will always be there for you.  If you don’t know Jesus yet, then ask Him into your heart so that you too may have this wonderful feeling of acceptance under all circumstances.  When these things happen, don’t give up; look up!  Jesus is there waiting for you to ask Him for help.  Go to Him.

I would like to close with a story from Martin Wiles about Luciano Pavarotti.  Pavarotti said that when he was a boy his father, who was a baker, introduced him to the wonderful magic of music.  A local tenor in Italy took him on as a voice student.  He also enrolled in a nearby teacher’s college.  When he graduated, he asked his father, “Shall I be a teacher or a singer?”  His father replied, “If you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them.  For life, you must choose one chair.”  Pavarotti chose one chair.  It took him seven years of study and frustration before he finally made his first professional appearance.  It took another seven years to reach the Metropolitan Opera.  He reminds us that no matter what we do in life, whether it is laying bricks or writing books, choose one chair and stick to it.  Commitment is the key.

The same thing can be said about a life in Jesus.  Choose Jesus.  Make Jesus your chair.  Think of all the broken people in the Bible who did not choose Jesus.  Think about all of your friends, your family who have not chosen Jesus.  There is a mission field out there in your own community.  Help us to carry the message to all our neighbors whether it is by our actions or our words.  Jesus wants everyone to be a part of His eternity.  You can help even if it is in very small ways.  Jesus wants to give you all that He has.  I ask you to take His hand and accept this wonderful gift of love that you don’t deserve.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.