Grace For Your Day July 22

Mark 6:17-29 records the death of John the Baptist which has to be one of the saddest stories in the Gospel of Mark because it tells us how an innocent man lost his life for telling the truth. Here is the passage in its entirety:

For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.
 
A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb.

Obviously, there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from this passage but here are a few:

1). Telling the truth can be dangerous because John’s actions came at great risk to his own personal safety since he addressed a king. In other words, John did not stand up to a lowly person. He called out one of the most dangerous men in Israel at the time and he did it because he understood what he had signed up for when he chose to obey God and confront someone’s sin. He was signing up for a difficult task.

2). Telling the truth requires courage. Not only does this passage show us that telling the truth is dangerous but it also shows us that it demands a great deal of bravery because it is not for the faint of heart. As one pastor put it, “God does not call jellyfish into the ministry. He calls men with a backbone and that is what John the Baptist had.” He was bold to the extreme. He was not going to back down even if it put him on the wrong side of a tyrant which leads us to a final point.

3). Telling the truth requires sacrifice because it cost John his head. As a result of his bold stance, the daughter of Herodias asked Herod to cut it off and he complied which is a sobering reminder to us that we may suffer the same fate some day too. If we stand up to sin the way John did, a time may come when we will be martyred but that does not mean that we should back down, either. We need to copy John’s example and stand firm.

I mention that because some Christians think that, if they tell the truth, the leaders of this world will appreciate them for it. It will earn them their respect and admiration. However, that is not what John the Baptist experienced. Instead, he was persecuted. However, it did not stop him. John continued to remain faithful to the task that the Lord had called him to and it is my prayer that our study of this passage would help us all to do the same.

Please join us as we talk about that on Sunday morning. The service will begin at 9:30 and it will be recorded and posted on YouTube later for all those who cannot make it in person.

– Jeremy Cagle