Who is Jesus? If you type that question into Google, there are 1.7billion results; 1.7billion web pages seeking to answer that question. But the question didn’t begin with the internet age. Rather, it’s a question that has been asked since Jesus began his earthly ministry about 2000 years ago. And, as we can see in our reading today, it’s a question that has always, from the beginning, produced many different answers.
With the disciples, we’ve been asking that question this term, as we journey through Mark’s gospel, as we listen and watch as Jesus teaches and heals and performs miracles. This morning, we get to hear some of the answers that people are coming up with as they ask that same question: Who is Jesus?
But before we dive in to the passage itself, it might be helpful to take a step back, and recognise that this seems to be a strange sort of passage. Perhaps you noticed the strangeness when Mary announced the reading with these words: ‘Hear the gospel of our Saviour Christ...’ and concluded it with the words: ‘This is the gospel of the Lord.’ It seems strange to say or hear those words when, apart from one mention in passing, the passage doesn’t really feature Jesus. In fact, the passage as a whole is more about John the Baptist, and what happened to him.
Yet it’s still the gospel of the Lord, our Saviour Christ. John is a servant of the Lord, a servant of the gospel, and as he points to Jesus, he shows us what it might look like to be faithful to Jesus. And that brings us back to the question of the hour, the question of all of time: who is Jesus?
Google will give you 1.7 billion answers. In our passage today, we hear of three popular answers. It’s a bit like on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and they ask the audience. Everyone gets to vote on which of the four answers they think is the right one. So who is Jesus?
Well some people in verse 14 say that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Others say that Jesus is Elijah - a famous prophet from the Old Testament, who would come to prepare the way for the Lord. And others claim he is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago. Three different answers, different opinions about who Jesus is. What do you think of them? Are any of them convincing, based on what we’ve already seen of Jesus in Mark’s gospel?
The first one is obviously wrong - after all, John had baptised Jesus back in 1:10. They’re two different people. And as for the second, Elijah comes to prepare the way for the Lord, but Jesus himself is the Lord, whose way is prepared for him by the Elijah - John the Baptist. So the first two options are wrong. Now, the third gets closer to the mark. Jesus described himself last time as a prophet without honour in his hometown. And he is prophetic, but he’s much more than a prophet (as Mark has told us in 1:1 - Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God).
So the people are coming up with possible ideas about who Jesus is, but they’re all wide of the mark. And among them is none other than King Herod. He was the ruler of the province of Galilee, and son of the King Herod who had ordered the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem when Jesus had been born. And Herod heard about all that Jesus was doing - and how his disciples were going two by two among the villages preaching, healing people and driving out demons.
And what does Herod think when he hears of the name of Jesus which is now well known? ‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!’ (16) Herod is almost haunted with the thought that John the Baptist is back from the dead.
Now that immediately raises questions for us. You see, the last we heard of John had been back in 1:14. It was after John had been put in prison that Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. But now we hear that he has died - been beheaded by Herod. So how did all that come about? That’s what Mark tells us in the rest of our passage.
It was Herod who had ordered for John to be arrested, bound, and put in prison. And why did that happen? ‘He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.’ (17)
Herod was married to someone else, and Herodias (who turned out to be his niece), was married to Herod’s brother. But Herod got rid of his wife, and Herodias divorced Philip, and Herod and Herodias married. In the old BCP (1926), there was a Table of Kindred and Affinity. It set out who could not get married, because they were related. And Herod and Herodias’ relationship was also forbidden (Lev 18:16, 20:21). And John told Herod this, to his face: ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ (18)
John spoke the truth of God’s word to the people in power, the people who thought they could do what they wanted. Herodias hated John for it, held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But Herod was more complicated. He heard what John said, and while he didn’t like it, he was still captivated in some way by John.
We’re told that he feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. And we’re told that when he heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him. (20)
Herod is caught in a dilemma. He likes to hear what John has to say. But he doesn’t want to do it - because he likes living in his sinful rebellion even more. He knows that John is a man of God, but doesn’t want that for himself - because he likes being Herodias’ man even more. He’s being challenged to repent, to turn to God, to give up his sin. But Herod thinks he’s in control of the situation. He holds the keys that keep John locked up. But it turns out that Herod is more of a prisoner than John is. Herod is in bondage to his sin, and is imprisoned because of his desires. And he has lost control of the whole situation.
It all comes to a head on Herod’s birthday. He throws a big banquet for his high officials, military commanders, and the leading men of the region. It must have been a boozy affair, and then Herodias’ daughter comes in to dance for the men. Now, it wasn’t that she did a ceilidh dance - something respectable. The subtext is that this was a provocative, lustful kind of dance. Highly inappropriate - and even more so because this is Herod’s step-daughter and niece. Yet he’s so impressed that he offers her whatever she wants - and swears it on oath, even up to half his kingdom.
The girl goes to her mother, and her mother knows exactly what she wants. John’s head. And the girl shows she is her mother’s daughter, by wanting it on a platter. Right now.
Herod was ‘greatly distressed’ (26) by the request. He didn’t want to do it, yet because of his oaths and his guests, he didn’t want to lose face, and so he gave the order. And straight away, John was beheaded. The voice of God’s servant to him was silenced, without so much as a final word or even a farewell.
It’s no wonder that Herod was fearful that John had been raised from the dead when he heard of the miracles of Jesus. Was it his guilty conscience pricking as he remembered what he had done to that righteous and holy man John? How he had chosen to side with Herodias and his sin, rather than John and God’s word?
We can know the right path; we can be called to it time and again; and yet choose to go our own way. And with Herod, it wasn’t a temporary stumble into sin, or a momentary lapse. It was a headlong, deliberate choice to go his own way, fully knowing how wrong his path was. He liked to listen to John the Baptist, but it didn’t change his mind or his heart or his ways. He thought he could sort out his sins some other time. And that’s a dangerous path to go down.
You see, later on, Herod greatly desired to meet this Jesus. He had heard so much about him, and wanted to see him perform a miracle for him. Luke tells us about the meeting in Luke 23:8-12. Herod had many questions for Jesus, but ‘Jesus gave him no answer.’ And then Herod ridiculed and mocked him. As Sinclair Ferguson writes: ‘Having rejected the preaching of John, he ended life ridiculing the One whom John had said was greater than himself. In the end, God had no more to say to Herod.’ (p117)
Herod shows us the danger of hearing God’s word and doing nothing about it; of loving to hear preaching, but loving our sin even more. Could that be a description of (some of) us? We think that we’ll repent some day - but that some day may never come. Today is the day of salvation! Don’t delay any more if this is you!
John shows us what it means to serve God as we point to Jesus - speaking truth to power, even saying the uncomfortable things, no matter what the cost. John didn’t water down his message, didn’t change it so that his hearers would like it better; didn’t say to himself that times change and we need to be relevant to the culture and sure everybody’s doing it these days. He was faithful - even though it cost him his head.
And in one sense, we’re no further on in our quest to answer the question of who Jesus is. The three answers provided are either wrong, or not fully complete. But Jesus is not just a prophet; and he’s not Elijah; and he’s not John the Baptist brought back to life. Jesus is the one who was raised to life. The day after his meeting with Herod, Jesus was crucified, dying to take away our sins, bearing our burden on his back. And on the third day, Jesus rose again, triumphing over sin and death and hell - rising to give us the assurance of life with him; life for all who will repent, and turn from their sin, and trust in him as their Saviour. What a wonderful name, the name of Jesus - the only name given to us by which we must be saved. Are you trusting him today?
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 2nd February 2020.
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