The gospel reading ended with the gruesome and disgusting story of the death of John the Baptist. It would be nice to not have to think about it at all but that story plays a very important role in Mark’s gospel. It is a foreshadowing of what’s in store for Jesus. It’s also a story that Mark has placed in such a way that it interprets both the story that comes before it and also the story that comes after it. After it, which we will read next week, is the Feeding of the 5000 miracle. We’ll explore that next week.
Before it, and actually wrapped
around it, is the story of Jesus sending the disciples out on a missionary
journey to proclaim repentance and that God’s kingdom had come. I say that story wraps around the John the
Baptist story because we get the main thrust of the missionary account
beforehand, then afterward we get just one verse saying, “The apostles gathered
around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.” (Vs. 30)
It may seem strange to want to
contrast the disciples going out as missionaries with the beheading of John the
Baptist, but indeed there is a contrast.
In each case there is a central
person: Jesus and Herod.
Jesus invites his closest
hand-picked followers, the twelve disciples.
Herod invited his closest people too:
his courtiers, officers, and leaders of Galilee.
The disciples were a collection of
what we would probably consider to be working class people. They weren’t particularly educated or
prestigious.
The guests at Herod’s party were the
elite, people with money and influence.
Jesus calls his disciples and then
sends them out into the world.
Herod invites his friends for an
exclusive insider party.
Jesus’ disciples go out and proclaim
repentance and God’s kingdom. They cast
out demons and anoint and cured the sick.
Herod’s party contains what was
presumably a lewd dance by a girl, a rash oath by Herod, and the execution of a
righteous man; whose body is then treated in a horrific way.
I suspect we have a hard time
relating to either of these situations.
I’m pretty sure none of us have been to a party like Herod’s. And I’m pretty sure that none of us have ever
just walked off with the clothes on our backs and started an evangelical
missionary journey. Even though we may
not be able to relate to either let’s be sure to learn from both.
The Herod family was an
extreme. Even the Romans eventually got
tired of their antics and removed them from power. Nevertheless the Herod family’s actions
should always remind us what happens when people who have power and money feel
threatened. When systems of power are
challenged those systems tend to squash those who challenge them.
I
think we Americans are addicted to stories with happy endings. We champion and remember stories where the
underdog triumphs through perseverance and holding fast to what is right. But those stories are the exception
throughout history – even American history.
They are not the norm. Overall
when power is threatened power acts in an effective way to eliminate the threat.
We
need to pay attention to our own lives and motives. Almost all of us have some amount of power
and responsibility. Many of us own
homes. We have jobs, bank accounts,
maybe debts, obligations, responsibilities, and so on. We take actions to preserve and increase our
position in life. Perhaps we aren’t
scheming and greedy, but we do like to see our finances in good shape and
growing, we like to be well-liked and have others see us as acceptable, and we
like to feel safe and comfortable.
None
of these things seem bad at all. The
work involved in preserving and growing these things we would describe as
common sense and living in a responsible way.
But
let’s notice two things. One, all of
that stuff takes a lot of time and energy.
And none of it really leads to improving our relationship with God. And two, in the name of preserving and
growing things we may find ourselves doing all sorts of things that aren’t
exactly in God’s kingdom. We may
overlook unethical behaviors at work. We
may choose to ignore gender and racial issues because they don’t immediately
affect us. We may end up keeping up
appearances by doing things we really don’t like.
Contrast all that with Jesus’ call
to his disciples. He sends them out in
pairs. When we read this we probably get
the idea of Jehovah’s Witnesses bothering us at home on Saturday afternoons or
Mormon missionaries walking through our neighborhoods. The idea of doing that kind of thing puts
terror in the hearts of most of us.
Indeed we have probably all been annoyed or embarrassed by door to door
missionaries, or people at sporting events spouting supposedly Christian
messages through a bull horn.
But
that is the wrong idea. That is not
what Jesus is sending his disciples to do.
In the Interpreter’s Bible commentator Frederick Grant notes this, “[The
disciples’] equipment was to be the simplest, for their journey about Galilee
would not take long, and they could rely on hospitality for their food and
shelter… The hospitality of their
hearers is taken for granted, as could well be done; the hospitality of
religious-minded Jews was well known, and is reflected more than once in the
Bible.” (Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 7,
Pg. 731-2)
And
again about this text another commentator, Halford Luccock writes, “These
directions were for a specific time and situation. It was to be short trip, both in distance and
duration. Many of the counsels arise
from that fact. Nothing could be more
unjustified than to elevate these directions into timeless laws for missionary
activity. Yet there is in them… deep and
lasting wisdom for all the work of carrying the Christian gospel.
“Jesus’
forbidding his disciples to take elaborate equipment says clearly to everyone
who goes out to witness, ‘The main thing is to get on with the work.’ Do not get bogged down with a burdensome
sense of responsibility for paraphernalia.
No bread, no bag, no money, the simplest clothes. Travel light so that the work may get the
whole of your undivided mind and soul… More than once the urgency of the
mission has been lost through a worried concern about incidentals…
“In
the individual disciples life can be wasted in drilling, in getting ready, in
putting off the effort to meet a crying need until the ideal tools are at
hand. By that time the day of
opportunity is passed, or the mind has acquired a permanent preoccupation with
[something else].”
And
he wraps up, “Masonry, money in the purse, [church] furnishings, have become
not only obstacles to the mission but substitutes for it.” (Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 7, Pg. 731)
God sees this world hurting and broken. The situation these days is different than
the situation was in Jesus’ day. The
same tactics of a staff and sandals with no bread or money or two tunics may
not be appropriate, especially in the middle of a New York winter! But the same principles apply. Spreading the gospel is not an heavily
encumbered affair. The needs are great
all around us – food, shelter, inequality, injustice, shame, despair… it’s all
there.
Let’s
not be like the Herods and miss all of that as we become consumed with our own
affairs. Instead let us see and
respond. Let’s not let the shallow
concerns of society overwhelm us.
God
continues to act in big ways, though they may be subtle. Where there is hurt and need do not overlook
it. And do not over-simplify it either,
for these problems are often complex.
Instead explore it with an open heart and mind so that you too can be an
agent of God’s kingdom.
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