29 Jun 7/12/26 Mark 6:14-29 “We, the Cast Down Sheep!”
7/12/26 Mark 6:14-29 “We, the Cast Down Sheep!”
I’m sure that you have all noticed that you are called upon every day to make decisions of some sort. Some are very important and others are not so important. Some may be wondering what time I will ever be done so you can decide what you are going to do for lunch. This isn’t such a big deal as I also have to decide this. We are always coming up on an election year where we have to make a little larger decision but once again it probably isn’t that huge to you. Speaking of elections especially in the last 30 years or so, I wonder how many times we can elect the same types of politicians and expect different results. Actually, I think that is the definition of insanity. Others might have to make a decision on some health issue which becomes a very important decision. However, any time we make a decision we should try to surround ourselves with truth as much as possible. I don’t think we would make very good decisions based on lies and yet the father of all lies wants us to do just that. Today, we are going to continue our look into Mark as we look at the decisions going into the death of John the Baptist. Let’s see if we ever make these same mistakes.
Now I know where to find the truth for all situations. My job is to show other people in such a way that they believe the truth. You see, all truth begins in the Bible. Everything you read in the Bible is the truth. There are no exceptions. Nothing can be skipped over or omitted. As Christians we have a tough time accepting this because we belong more and more to this world. In other words we are becoming less and less Christian all the time. Just because we say we are Christian, doesn’t make it so. President Lincoln once asked his supporters, “How many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg?” They quickly answered, “Five!” The President then said, “No, it would only have four legs. Calling a tail a leg does not make it one.”
We have trouble with the truth today. We have strayed so far from God that we think we can make our own truth. I read a study not too long ago that said, 67% of adults agree that there is no such thing as absolute truth. People, Jesus always has been and always will be the absolute truth. He can be no other way. It also said that 52% of born again Christians think truth is relative. In other words if you think it is true then it is true. This is about as self-centered as it gets. Just remember, life is not about you. It never has been and it never will be. It is about God and God only. To go along with the first stat, it said that over 75% of professing Christians reject the idea of absolute truth. In other words, ¾ of us listening today don’t think that Jesus is telling the truth if we have a better idea than Him. I don’t know how reliable these statistics are but they do point to one thing. We are in big trouble as far as a nation is concerned. But we don’t want to sit here wringing our hands in anguish because the country is so far from the truth. We are to get out and do something about it. One thing we can do is bring someone to church this week. If 75% of the people in the area are eternally wrong, then you should be safe to bring just about anyone.
Ok, let’s get back to our reading. Mark uses a flashback type of narrative here. John the Baptist has been dead quite for a while. Jesus has been doing all sorts of good things as we have been reading about in study of Mark. We also need to know that these people were superstitious. They believed in spirits and ghosts and all sorts of super natural beings. Even the kings and authorities believed like this.
Then Jesus comes along doing all these miracles. Naturally there has to be an explanation other than Jesus being God. It’s just like today where no one believes in miracles. I mean there has to be a logical or scientific explanation for everything. If there isn’t then we make something up and that is just what these ancients were doing. The funny part of this is that Herod was a Sadducee. He didn’t believe that we could be resurrected. Therefore, it is a little strange that he believes that Jesus is John the Baptist who has come back from the dead.
They all knew that John had been a great prophet. So some felt that Jesus was John the Baptist coming back from the dead. Others said that Jesus was Elijah who had come back. Mark tells us that still others said Jesus was one of the other great prophets coming back. I would guess that Elisha was a name that was kicked around a bit also because he too did many miracles. Anyway, I think that the real problem was that Herod suffered from a guilty conscience.
The first thing we have here is that John the Baptist was being the voice of the Law. He was citing Herod’s sins back to him. You see, Herod was an admirer of John the Baptist. There was just something about the way John carried himself covered with animal skins and munching on wild honey that Herod liked. He had a real odd way of showing this when he had John arrested. So we have John in jail.
Prior to this John had been saying that Herod was a huge sinner. He had married his brother’s wife, Herodias, which was definitely against the Jewish Law. John kept reminding Herod of this and would not back down. He was right in the eyes of God even if he was wrong in the eyes of their society. John the Baptist was the moralist for Herod and Herod didn’t like it.
We have the same thing happening in this country today. Do you think anyone in the government or society wants to hear from someone like me telling them they are in big trouble because of sin? Come on people! Sin! Sin doesn’t matter anymore as long as our courts say everything is ok. Come on, sin is a joke in today’s world.
75 years ago, people would not think of living together before marriage. They considered divorce to be a real no-no. I could go on naming lots of things our evil society considers to be good today but are totally against the word of God. Don’t get me wrong. Divorce happens but it isn’t something we should strive for. You can go around all you want calling sin ok but it will never make it right!
So John the Baptist was the conscience of Herod. He didn’t like being told this although he kind of liked John. John was also the voice of conscience for Herodias. Herodias, on the other hand, hated John for causing trouble. This is the kind of hate that we are developing between different factions of our society as more and more people are coming to hate Christians. She knew she could not do anything about it so she bides her time, waiting for the right opportunity. Now, she knows her husband is a lost cause when it comes to lewd dancing. So Herodias enlists the help of the daughter to do the lewd dance. When she gets done Herod promises her anything. With the help of her wicked mother, she asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. This is one of the most disgusting stories in Bible. It has greed, treachery, jealousy, murder, adultery and I’m sure I missed a few.
We have a tendency to read this story and not think about it. This is the same thing that is going on in the Middle East today. They are beheading people for sinful reasons like greed, jealousy etc. Then we have our government and segments of our society who are saying that we have to be tolerant of these people. We are supposed to be tolerant of a religion that wants to cut off our heads? Besides that, they are greedy, they stifle all women’s rights and the list goes on and on with sinful behavior. They want us to accept their human version of their truth and forget about Jesus Christ. As far as I’m concerned this is all blasphemy! It’s about time we stand up for our rights that are put forth in the Bible.
This is where people will quit listening to me. Do not get me wrong on this. We have to do what the Bible tells us and love these people even though they are so terribly wrong. We have to love all the people who are against the Bible even though this is very hard to do. And this can be done gently but effectively. I will never promote hating anyone. But you know what? If I preached this in 20 years from now, I will probably be arrested unless things change. People will be arrested for disagreeing with the government and telling the truth.
Anyway, enough of that! The most important part of this passage is where John gets his authority. What is his source of the truth? The lesson tells us that Herod knows that John is a righteous man. He knew he was a holy man even if he disagreed with him. All John’s authority comes from God and the Scriptures. John has already told us that he is not worthy of shining Jesus’ sandals. He is nothing compared to the one to come. God tells us that there would be a fore runner to Jesus but he wouldn’t be God. John is that man. He is that prophet.
One of the problems that Herod had and many leaders have this problem, is that he was out of touch with his people. He knew about John the Baptist but he had never met him or heard him personally until now. Then instead of learning all he could from John, he gets tricked into murdering him by a very lowly wife and daughter. It is now sometime later and Herod still has a guilty conscience about this so he comes up with this weird scenario of Jesus being John the Baptist coming back to life. If he had just listened, he would know who Jesus was. He would have known that Jesus was the very son of God Himself.
One of the things that we should take from this is how sin distorts our perspective. Herod is half crazy with guilt but he really can’t afford to admit it. I do not think that we are far from this either. We start to listen to people who are evil. It almost seems to me that we are expected to cheat on our taxes and that is ok. We are expected to tell little white lies when the occasion presents itself and that is a good thing. We feel we do not have to tithe to our church because we have too many other bills and that is better than ok. People, there are many so-called little sins that are an everyday part of our life. I’m sure you can think of many other things where you might sin just a little bit.
The reason God put all these supposedly lessor sins in place is so that we do not do the greater sins. When you enter into the world of sin is when you start down a slippery slope that you might not get out of in one piece. When you do one sin, then it is much easier to do the next one. That is why we think it is great when two people live together without marriage today as opposed to in the 1950’s. We have gradually come to this conclusion. And by the way, the divorce rate for people who have lived together before marriage is much higher than for those who do not. Once again, God shows us His wisdom if we would just pay attention.
This whole story is about how when we have guilty consciences like Herod, we would be wise to turn to God. There are a lot of people in the world like Herodias and the daughter who have no concept of God. Just think what might have happened if Herod had a little backbone to stand up for what was right. He not only would have been saved from this episode that happened way later than the execution, but also saved from all the wear and tear of feeling guilty. John was right there to help him but Herod either refused or did not see it.
I’ve have preached on this many times and here it is again. Jesus did not come to this world to make it hard on us. He came to love us and show us what love can do. Anytime you commit a sin, you make it hard on yourself. You make it hard on yourself! Jesus tells us that we cannot do it by ourselves. Therefore when you sin, go to Jesus immediately and confess. Ask Him what you should be doing next. Ask Him why you keep sinning. Ask Him anything that comes to your mind. All He wants for you is that you can have an easy yoke which comes from Him.
Jesus is always gentle with His people. It’s no wonder He is the great shepherd and we are the dumb sheep. Phillip Keller tells about what a shepherd does to get a sheep back on its feet if it accidently falls and turns on its back. A sheep cannot move from being on its back and will soon die unless it has help getting back up. First off, the legs go numb. Then stomach gets hard with gas and it will suffocate. This is called a cast down sheep and it takes time to get it going again. First of all the shepherd has to message the legs and he does this while gently talking to the sheep as we might for a dog or cat. He reassures the scared sheep. Then he gently turns the sheep over and lifts it up because it cannot stand on its own yet. He holds the animal in an upright position while the sheep slowly regains its equilibrium and stability. Only when the shepherd is sure the sheep can stand on its own does he let it go. Then he will lovingly tell the sheep to follow him home.
This is what the Great Shepherd will do for you. He will massage you and help you get back on your feet and then He will walk with you home. What a great picture! We have talked about a lot of nasty things today that are happening and are going to happen around us. Please remember that no matter what happens, Jesus is there for you. He has promised this and Jesus never breaks a promise. Jesus Christ loves you as He is the very definition of love. He wants you to help this world to be a better place and when this world gets to you, then He wants to be there to put you back together again. No one else in the world has a God as loving as us Christians. He is everything. Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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