Feasting on Jesus' Sandwich
Introducing the reading: Mark 6:14-29
In my Bible there's a heading above this week's RCL reading which says, "The Death of John the Baptist." But that heading isn't in Mark's Gospel. Mark doesn't call it that. In fact, in the early manuscripts of Mark there are not even spaces between the words, much less paragraph headings!! (Codex Alexandrinus – end of chapter 6:27-54 [apparently 😊])[1]
This is actually important, because that heading The Death of John the Baptist, which some twentieth century editor inserted into my Bible affects the way we interpret the story. It might even direct us away from some of what Mark is trying to tell us about Jesus. Was Mark's main purpose with this story really to tell us about John's death? And... wouldn't we be more accurate to call this text The Murder of John the Baptist?
In Mark's world they put "headings" into the text by the way they arranged stories. One way to do this was to put particular stories alongside each other. So, we have today's reading starting at what we now call Chapter 6:14—and those verse numbers were not in Mark either, and then, straight after today's reading, beginning at Chapter 6 verse 30 there is another story. Those two stories are meant to be read together, and if we were to give them a heading, we might call today's reading Herod's Feast, because Mark contrasts it with what follows, which we could call Jesus' Feast. There's lots of food at both feasts, but everything else is different; Mark highlights the difference between human kingdoms, and what Jesus called the Kingdom of God. He contrasts empire—the way of the world—with the kingdom of God.
So if we read about Herod's feast without contrasting and comparing it to Jesus' feast, we'll miss some of what Mark is saying to us. And you might notice that we don't even read about Jesus' feast in the year of Mark; next week's Lectionary skips right over it, leaving out the whole 19 verses of Jesus' feast!
There's another way Mark's culture built "headings" into a document. They put stories inside other stories as a sign that both stories should be read together. This is what happened a couple of weeks ago in chapter 5 where a story begins with Jesus hurrying to save a seriously ill little girl, but the story is interrupted by the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. Then, finally, we get back to the little girl. If we try to read those stories on their own, we will miss much of what Mark was telling us. The two stories work together to interpret each other.
This way of putting in a heading, so to speak, is often called a Markan Sandwich, because Mark does it a number of times.[2]
Well... today we have a story—Herod's feast—which is inside another story. It's so subtle that we could miss it, but once we see it, it's obvious. So we need to read both of stories. If we try to read each story on its own, we will miss much of what Mark is telling us. You can see the sandwich in the order of service. If you've been following the lectionary, you'll see that last week's reading included some of the "bread" of the sandwich, and that this week's lectionary is the filling.
The story starts around Chapter 6, verse 7, and we heard it read here last week. But... it continues right through to Chapter 6:30, after Herod's feast where, suddenly, out of the blue from our cultural perspective, there is a line which says "the disciples returned to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught." That's where the story of Jesus teaching people how to follow him ends; it's the other side of the sandwich, if you like. So, the full story includes Herod's feast; Herod's feast is in the middle of the story of how to be a disciple of Jesus.
Mark wants us to read from chapter 6:7, right through to verse 30, in one sitting. The story of Herod's Feast is the story of one way to live human life, and Mark contrasts it with Jesus' instructions on how to be a disciple. That's the other way to live. And then, we hear about Jesus' feast—the feast for all those who were not the movers and shakers.
So, let's hear the story.
The Bible is read.
Homily
The short meaning of today's story is: Don't be like Herod. Mark tells us the story of Herod's Feast to help us understand why Jesus is so insistent that his disciples—that's us—travel light. Disciples can walk away from the evil of the world—of empire— and go in another direction. Herod... who wanted to walk away from the evil of the world... could not. Don't be like Herod
To be a disciple, travel light like Jesus.
Travel so light that if people won't listen to the gospel, you don't even take the dust of their village away with you on your feet! Shake it off! Don't get embedded in their world. Don't get obligated to the wrong things in order to keep on living. There is a subtlety here. I think that wonderful interpretation of Jesus words about shaking the dust off our feet comes from the theologian James Alison, although I can’t find the reference. But I do know I have learned this from him: Many years ago, I stopped at the edge of a town and shook the dust off my shoes at the place. But what I was doing was taking a sort of passive aggressive revenge disguised as Christian piety. Travelling light does not do that. What I was doing was channelling the violence that we see in Herod’s feast, but hiding it from myself.
What am I talking about?
Well, Herod was the most powerful man in Galilee. His birthday bash was not a joyful celebration of God's grace and love to him. It was, instead, a ritual designed to reinforce all the power structures in Galilee, with Herod at the top. It was an "I've scratched your back, so now you scratch mine," kind of event. It showed who held the power, and who didn't. If you were invited, you had it made. And your place on the guest list showed you exactly... who you could depend upon, and... who you had to suck up to, and... to whom you owed favours. You knew your place in the who's who, in the hierarchy. You knew what was expected of you. And you knew what you had to do to "stay in good" with the power brokers.
Being at that party was to be shown where you fitted in to the Empire. It was the complete opposite of travelling light like Jesus. This was heavy stuff. If you were invited to Herod's feast, you were embedded into—locked into—all sorts of obligations instead of the one simple calling to trust the Way of Jesus. And so... it was a peculiarly powerless place to be: Herod, the most powerful man in the land, proved to be caught in the sticky web of empire, and had no power at all! Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that in gaining all the power of empire, in becoming successful in the world, he lost his freedom to respond to God.
Here's a surprise: And we won't see this if we concentrate of the murder of John. Mark rather liked Herod! He is sympathetic to him. He doesn't damn him, even though he is a cold blooded murderer. He doesn't call him a whited sepulchre, as Jesus once called a particular group of pharisees. (Matthew 23:27) Instead, he says, "Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet... he liked to listen to him." (20-21) Herod was a man open to God! Mark does not condemn him! There is an extraordinary compassion here. Full of the Spirit, Mark can see that, in the end, Herod was a seeker of God, just like I am.
But what happens to Herod?
Herod has to splash his wealth around. He has to impress... so when his, probably, only teenage step- daughter titillates him and his guests, the poor, drunken fool promises her whatever she wants, even up to half his Kingdom—although I think he meant 49%, not 50. And then his wife, who hates John the Baptist, and probably hates what the men do to her and her daughter— she strikes. "Ask him for the head of John the Baptiser." And the daughter does, literally.
The correct answer from Herod to his stepdaughter, the answer of a truly free person, would have been to say "No! You have asked for much more than half my Kingdom. You have asked for the life of a righteous and holy man. And what's more, you have asked for ownership of my soul, which belongs to God. So, No. You cannot have the life of John, for that is more than half my Kingdom, and it is not mine to give to you." What a remarkable witness to the love and justice of God a statement like that would have been!
But empire, the struggle for human power and status and security, perverts everything. On this occasion, it makes a virtue out of evil, calling murder, pretending that a murder, is "keeping your word." When we are embedded in Empire, rather than in what Jesus calls the Kingdom of Heaven, we have almost no freedom. We are enslaved to the ways of the world. To save John, and to save his own soul, Herod would have to give up his power in the world. But the drug of power, the web of empire, owned him. He was powerless. So, he gave in to his wife... which meant he kept his place in the Empire, and he lost everything worth having. Don't be like Herod.
●●●●
Immediately after Herod's feast, Mark tells us about Jesus' feast. It's a complete contrast. It's the place for the lost and hungry, the nobodies. And there is a place for everyone, not just the powerful. There is food for everyone. There is no violence or murder. There is freedom. Follow Jesus, Mark says. Be like Jesus.
There is a sad echo of this story of the murder of John later in Mark's Gospel. In Mark 15: 6-15, Pilate tries to protect Jesus. "Why, what evil has he done?" he asks the crowd who want Jesus crucified. The obvious answer, which Pilate could see, is: no evil at all. But like Herod, Pilate is powerless before the crowd, the mob, and gives in to the murder of Jesus.
Indeed, the higher we get up the slippery pole, the more powerless we are! The more so-called power we get, the more we have to compromise ourselves, and our freedom, to hang onto that power. And so... we can lose our selves.
●●●●
Where does all this lead us?
In the reading from this week. and last week, Mark's one reading, he asks us a most uncomfortable set of questions: Who owns us? To whom have we given our souls? Are we really seeking the freedom of heaven, or have we actually been seeking the status of empire?
Let us pray:
God who is full of love, and slow to anger;
God of mercy, who offers us freedom and lightness of being:
help us to shed load and live light;
help us climb out of the sticky web of empire;
help us grasp hold of your freedom, and embrace the light burden of life with You. Amen.
(Andrea Prior, July 2024)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_6
[2] There is a very accessible list of some of these at http://markgospel.blogspot.com/2007/02/markan-sandwiches.html.
Would you like to comment?
I have turned off the feedback module due to constant spamming. However, if you would like to comment, or discuss a post, you are welcome to email me using the link at the bottom of this page, and I may include your comments at the bottom of this article.