Posted by Beheading of St. John the Baptist/Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, as well as commemorating the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Gospel from St. Mark recounts how Herod Antipas (the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and son of Herod the Great) had arrested John and imprisoned him because John had criticised his marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. John had told Herod that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife. Herodias wanted to put John to death and sought for a convenient time to manoeuvre the situation so that Herod would agree to this. On the occasion of his birthday Herod made a lavish banquet. The daughter of Herodias came in and danced. This pleased Herod to such an extent that he agreed to grant her whatever she wished. She was persuaded by her mother to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Consequently, Herod beheaded John, and “brought his head on a dish, and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. Which his disciples hearing, came, and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.”
The beheading of St. John the Baptist is not only recounted in Christian sources. Josephus, the Jewish historian, though not a Christian, seems to have thought highly of John the Baptist. He writes that “for Herod had him put to death, though he was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice towards their fellows and piety towards God, and so doing to join him in baptism. In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God. They must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they committed, but as a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already cleansed by right behaviour. When others too joined the crowds about him, because they were moved to the highest degree by his sermons, Herod became alarmed. Eloquence that had so great an effect on mankind might lead to some form of sedition, for it looked as if they would be guided by John in everything that they did. Herod therefore decided that it would be much better to strike first and be rid of him before his work led to an uprising…. Though John, because of Herod’s suspicions, was brought in chains to Machaerus… and there put to death, the verdict of the Jews was that the destruction brought upon Herod’s army was a vindication of John, since God saw fit to inflict such a blow upon Herod.”
Both the account in the Gospels and the account of John in Josephus show that he was a great prophet and moral authority who spoke truth to power. Whereas in the Gospel narrative John is the victim of a grudge killing on the part of Herod’s wife, Josephus states that the execution of John took place because Herod feared that his message was potentially subversive and a threat to political and social stability. Most probably the Gospel narrative gives the immediate reason for the execution of John, while Josephus draws attention to Herod’s fear that, as well as criticising his irregular marital affairs, John was also more generally a threat to the social order. Great crimes often have more than one motivation. There is an immediate motivation, but in addition there is often an underlying issue with a particular individual that leads to the crime eventually being committed. It has been said that truth purchetheth hatred, and those who speak truth to power have rarely been popular.
It is clear that John stood in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets. The prophets were the conscience of the nation and spoke truth to power. The Old Testament narrative draws a distinction between the kings who exercised power and the prophets who preached righteousness. The prophet spoke truth to power, whether they will hear of whether they will forbear, as Ezekiel put it. The prophet Nathan criticised King David for his adultery with Bathsheba. The prophet Elijah criticised King Ahab for the seizure of Naboth’s vineyard and the subsequent murder of Naboth. John’s condemnation of Herod Antipas’ marriage to his brother’s wife clearly stood in this tradition. In his appearance John resembled Elijah, in his message he resembled Amos, a blunt, outspoken, fearless man. The times were evil, he told his hearers, and they needed to repent and be baptised in the face of divine judgment on their sins. The axe was laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that did not bring forth good fruit would be cast down and thrown into the fire. A mightier one would come after him, indeed who was already among them, who would baptise them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Some responded to John’s preaching. Most did not. Many were scandalised by his message and Herod Antipas saw his message as potentially so dangerous in terms of his criticism of his marital affairs and the social order in general that he put him to death.
Clearly John, like the Hebrew prophets before him, was no diplomat or soft courtier. He refused to prophesy smooth things or follow the multitude to do evil. He simply spoke truth to power and was prepared to suffer and ultimately die for it. He was an uncomfortable and disturbing figure. He was one of those whom Jesus in the beatitudes described as being persecuted and suffering for righteousness sake.
There is much that we can learn from the life and witness of St. John the Baptist today. All of us are constantly tempted to water down the message of the Gospel to make it more palatable to our audience. We are constantly told that people find the Christian message and our preaching of it offensive. If we proclaim that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and need to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of our sins we will be told that our message is too much for people today to accept. We live in an age in which people are encouraged at every available opportunity to cultivate their own sense of worth and self esteem. People get offended if you tell them that they are less than perfect or that they should consider the needs of others as well as themselves. Pride was once said to be the cardinal sin and to come before a fall, but it is now seen as the cardinal virtue, for we live in age in which we are all encouraged to believe not in God and objective moral standards, but only in ourselves. We have all followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts and would rather feel good about ourselves than repent of our sins and be forgiven.
But the message of St. John the Baptist is that the truth is more important than diplomacy, and that the truth will out in the end. Let us pray that we will follow his example in our own time by preaching the Gospel in season and out of season, constantly speaking the truth to power, boldly rebuking vice, and patiently suffering for truth’s sake.