July 14, 2024, A Legacy of Dysfunction, Mark 6:14-29 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ July 14, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

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Growing up in a dysfunctional family…

We have quite a bit a bit of historical information about the dysfunctional household of Herod’s family. There are several Herods in the New Testament, and it’s kind of tricky to keep them all straight. The Herod we read about today was called Herod Antipas, and he was the son of Herod the Great, who was the King of Judea when Jesus was born. It was Herod the Great who ordered the slaughter of all the little boys under the age of two because he was so threatened by the rumors of Jesus’ birth. Herod Agrippa the I, the grandson of Herod the Great, and the nephew of Herod Antipas, was King after his uncle. It was Herod Agrippa I who put James the brother of John to death, just to keep the Jewish authorities happy. And it was his son, Herod Agrippa II, who was King of Palestine after Agrippa I, who heard Paul’s case when the Jews brought charges against him. Agrippa the second was a little bit like Herod Antipas, he was attracted to Paul, and he and his wife listened to Paul gladly. He even recognized Paul’s innocence, but he did not have the courage to set Paul free. Instead, he sent Paul on to be condemned and imprisoned. This was a deadly dysfunctional household to grow up in.

And notice the way Mark reveals something to us about that legacy of dysfunction – the struggle between dark and light inside of Herod. Mark says that Herod’s wife hated John the Baptist for exposing the immorality of their marriage arrangements, but Herod, Mark says, “feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him.” Mark says that when Herod heard John, “he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.” There was something in Herod that was drawn to the light of John’s message, even though John’s words condemned Herod just as much, or even more than, they condemned his wife. Herod had gone along with his wife’s wishes in having John thrown in prison, but until the day of his big birthday party he had guarded John’s life.

But on that day, he had almost certainly had too much to drink; he was pleased and flattered by his admiring guests; and he was proud to show off the beauty and talents of his stepdaughter. In a word, he was thoroughly enjoying the glory and power that belonged to him as the King. And in a moment of thoughtless arrogance, he sealed John’s fate, as well as his own, by making a rash promise to Salome: “Ask for anything, up to half my kingdom, and it’s yours.” When Salome made her mother’s vicious request, it grieved Herod to the heart, but with everyone watching, his courage failed him, and he just couldn’t bring himself to do what he knew was right. So the guards were sent down to the dungeons, and John was murdered, and John’s head was delivered to his wife and stepdaughter on a platter. The King was deeply grieved, but at the same time he just couldn’t overcome his pride and his desperate need to please the people around him. He was trapped by his sin.

You’ve heard the song from the “Lion King” about the “Circle of Life.” This story is about the “Circle of Death.” Herod’s life was already shadowed by the guilt of taking his brother’s wife. He had heard John’s call to repentance, and he was drawn to it, desiring to hear John’s words even though they condemned him. But in the end the pride of his power and his intense need to please man rather than God had the upper hand. He added murder to the list of his crimes, and the circle of guilt and death closed around him until there was no escape.

And here’s the thing: every one of us – sitting here centuries later and half a world away – we were all born into the same household as Herod. We’re not part of the Herodian dynasty, of course, but we were all born into the family of man, that has been shadowed by sin and death ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve. And if we’re honest, don’t we recognize our own struggle in the struggle of Herod? Don’t we all feel the pull towards what is good and right, and don’t we all end up, all too often, choosing to give in to our pride or to the need to please man rather than God? How hard is it for us to be the one who speaks for compassion or mercy or grace when all the voices around us are mocking or criticizing or condemning? How hard is it to do the right thing when everything and everyone around us is happy to compromise. We know those battles, and many more besides. And we know that we don’t always win them.

It’s part of the heritage of our old household, that dysfunctional legacy of fear and self-preservation and shame that still haunts all of us. Paul talked about it in chapter 7 of Romans: “I don’t understand my own actions.” he lamented. “I don’t do what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate…I have the desire to do what is right, but I just don’t have the ability to carry it out. I don’t do the good I want, but the evil I don’t want is what I keep on doing….O what a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul knows that sin isn’t just a matter of breaking some list of rules – sin is that legacy of death that dwells in every one of us who was born into the dysfunctional family of mankind: not just those evil Herodians, but Paul, and you, and me.

But if we continue reading what Paul has to say, he goes on to give us the answer, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Here’s the good news: we don’t belong to that household anymore. We aren’t slaves anymore. We know that we still fight the battle every day, but our victory is already assured – not because we are good people, who are more virtuous than Herod, but because Jesus Christ came to make us members of his own family. We read this morning: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” That’s the good news that John the Baptist came to proclaim: that the Son of God was coming to us in the hopelessly messy and dysfunctional midst of our lives, to make us members of his household of life forever.

I can’t tell you anything about Herod’s final fate. His salvation, and the salvation of every human being, is entirely in the hands of God. But one thing I will say, and that is this. I believe with every fiber of my being that Jesus’ death on the cross, and his Resurrection from the dead, and the transforming power of his Holy Spirit, is sufficient to save any and every man or woman or child that has ever lived or ever will live. Even Herod. Even Hitler. Even you. Even me. That’s the glorious hope whose coming John the Baptist came to announce to the world. That’s the light that even Herod was drawn toward.

We were rescued out of the same dysfunctional household that held Herod trapped like a fly in a spider’s web, so that he did the very thing that he did not want to do. But in Christ we have been adopted out of the household of death and into the household of abundant life. We have been set free from slavery to sin: free to choose the light though the whole world should condemn us, free from all guilt and all shame and all fear – free from the power of death itself. Amen. +