Would You Rather Lose Your Head or Your Faith?
Mark 6:14-29
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’
For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.
When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
What would you be willing to die for? Would you be willing to die for your country? A lot of people today say they would. How about for family—your children, your parents, your brothers and sisters? What about for your friends? In thinking about what you’d be willing to die for, how high would your faith rank? Would you be willing to die for your faith?
Compared to the tests of faith that the original Christians faced, our faith doesn’t get tested that much anymore—at least not to the point of death. There have been periods throughout history where people had to make a severe choice—give up their lives or give up their faith. In fact, the early Christians often had to make that choice. The fact is that for the first 300 years of the Christian faith, the faithful constantly faced a choice between their livelihoods, or their lives, and their faith.
The persecution of Christians wasn’t consistent for all 300 years. There were periods in which the worst persecution Christians faced was the ridicule of others, but there were other periods in which they were killed out of prejudice and for pleasure. What seemed to determine the level of persecution was the degree to which the reigning emperor of the time wanted the people of the Roman Empire to worship them as gods. Those who wanted to be worshiped tended to persecute Christians heavily, while those who didn’t care tended to let the Christians be. Why? Because the one thing that marked the Christians is that many (not all, but many) refused to worship the emperor. Often emperor worship consisted of going to the local temple or magistrate office once a year, and either bowing down before an image of the emperor or paying a monetary tribute. Out of all the religions, Christians gained a reputation for refusing to bow or pay. The Jews normally would have gained a similar reputation, but they were actually given dispensation by most emperors to not have to fulfill the requirement. When Christians refused to worship, they were persecuted.
The worst of all the persecutors was the emperor Nero, who was pretty much of a nut-job in general. Nero had grand designs to rebuild Rome in his own image, including tearing down many popular sites in order to build a magnificent palace to himself. When much of Rome burned, which Nero probably ordered to pave the way for his building projects, he blamed the Christians.
The most popular excuse for persecuting Christians was that Christians were cannibals. That sound ridiculous to us today, but you can easily understand how they could misrepresent Christian faith. What they would say is that the Christians had saved the body of this Jesus fellow, and that on Sundays they would break off pieces of his body and eat it, and then drink his saved blood. For the Romans this rumor justified their persecution of Christians, which included letting them be eaten by lions for sport in the coliseums.
One Christian, who experienced this kind of persecution, was a man named Genesius. He is remembered today in the Catholic Church as St. Genesius. He is the patron saint of actors, comedians, lawyers, stenographers, and torture victims. Genesius had gained a reputation as a comedic actor in the court of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Whenever Diocletian was feeling particularly bored or melancholy, he would call for Genesius and ask him to act out the emperor’s favorite play. It was a comedic take on the Christian sacrament of baptism. Genesius would start by looking very sad and despondent. Another actor, dressed as a priest, would invite him to be baptized. Then several actors would throw Genesius into a large vat of water and dunk him. Genesius would emerge sputtering and making all sorts of noises, at which the emperor would howl in laughter. He would be dunked over and over again, much to the emperor’s delight.
What the emperor didn’t know was that for some time Genesius had been learning more about the Christian faith, and he was becoming sympathetic to it. One particular day, when Diocletian asked for the play, Genesius started out with his mopey act, and then was thrown into the vat. But as he emerged he refused to sputter. He stood there, looking straight ahead. The emperor told him to do his act, but Genesius refused. He declared himself to be a Christian, at which the emperor told him that if he did not do the act, he would have Genesius’ legs broken. Genesius refused again. He was taken away and put in dungeon, where his legs were broken. Still Genesius refused to comply. This, by the way, is where we get the phrase in the theater, “break a leg,” before performances. It means that actors should be true to themselves when they act, just as Genesius had been. Eventually Genesius faced a choice: act or be killed. He refused to do the act, and he was beheaded. He faced the choice between his faith and his life, and he chose his faith.
John the Baptist faced the same kind of choice as Genesius. Why did John get beheaded? For a very simple reason: he ticked off king Herod. You know of Herod. He’s the guy who sings, “So if you are the Christ, oh the great Jesus Christ, prove to me that you’re divine. Change my water into wine” in the play, Jesus Christ, Superstar. Herod was the king of the region around Galilee and Judea, the area surrounding Jerusalem. The Roman Empire had a very weird arrangement in which while they had governors of provinces and regions, yet within some of them they still had kings, who were part figurehead, part ruler. These kings could raise armies and invoke laws, but they had to stay submissive to the Roman Caesar and the governor.
Herod was an incredibly self-indulgent man who was known for his lavish parties and bizarre behavior. John made him angry by criticizing him for his lifestyle, especially his marriage. What was wrong with Herod’s marriage? This is a bit complicated, but bear with me. To understand it helps to start with Herod’s father, Herod the Great who was descended from the generals who divvied up the Greek empire after Alexander the Great’s death. Herod was called “the Great” because of all the building projects he did, but he was anything but great. In fact, he was petty and paranoid. To get an appreciation of the complexities of Herod’s family life, it helps to look at the chart below of Herod’s marriages and sons:
Herod the Great was married five times, and had seven sons. Three of them, Antipater, Alexander, and Aristobulous, he had killed because he was paranoid that they wanted to take power from him. The Herod from our passage was Herod Antipas, his son from his fourth wife. Here’s where it all gets confusing.
Herod Antipas’ half-brother, Herod Philip, lived in Rome and had a wife named Herodius. Herodius was the daughter of Herod Philip’s other half-brother, Aristoblus. Therefore, Herod Philip had married his niece. The two of them had a daughter, who in our passage is also called Herodius, but elsewhere in the Bible is called Salome. As if marrying a niece wasn’t bad enough, Herod Antipas lusted after Herodius. He schemed and plotted to wrest her away from his brother. To do so, he divorced his own wife. He then convinced Herodius to divorce Herod Philip and marry him. This is what John criticized. In effect, Herod Antipas not only was divorced for no reason, which was against Jewish law, and married his brother’s wife, which was against Jewish law, but he also married his niece, which was against Jewish law, and became stepfather to his niece. And John the Baptist had the temerity to criticize Herod for it. So Herod imprisoned John and eventually had him killed because of the scheme between Herodius and Salome in our passgae. As a side note, Herod’s other brother, Philip the Tetrarch, married Salome, thus becoming her grand-uncle, step-uncle, and husband all at the same time. The Herod family definitely put the “fun” in dysfunctional.
The point of the passage is that John looked at this situation and criticized Herod and his family. He wantd Herod to be a better ruler, and to be one who lived more according to the biblical law that Herod said that he followed, as a Jew. Herodius, who felt pangs of triple-guilt, couldn’t handle the criticism, and demanded that John be killed. John could easily have saved his life by going back on his criticism, but he chose his faith over his life. He was speaking God’s judgment against Herod, Herodius, and their family, and he would not go back.
Herod did get his comeuppance in the end, though. His divorced wife’s father, Aristus the king of the Nabateans, decided to attack Herod to get his revenge. Herod raised an army to defend himself, was defeated, and had to get Rome to bail him out. Later, when Agrippa was made a king, Herod complained to the Roman emperor about it, at the insistence of Herodius, hoping to gain more power. Instead, the emperor Caligula stripped him of title, property, and wealth, and Herod ended up dying a poor man in southern France.
Getting back to our passage, what is it that allowed John to choose faith over life? For John it was very simple: He saw the world as filled with God. He didn’t separate life like we do, seeing sacred and secular worlds. He only saw the sacred, and wanted to serve God in all of life. As a result, he lived life in a way that filled it with God.
How do you see the world? How do you live in the world? What would you be willing to give up your life for? Where would God rank in that list?
Amen.
