SJLC Sermon – Pentecost 6 Year B
Mark 6:14-29
It sounds familiar doesn’t it? It sounds familiar but not quite what we are used to hearing. Killed, laid in a tomb, raised from the dead. Someone in power is pressured to kill a prophet and preacher. The body is taken away and laid it in a tomb. Then there are claims that John is raised from the dead. This story sounds familiar but out of place. Did not we just go through all this in March? And this story is about beheading not crucifixion, about Herod not Pilate, about John the Baptizer not Jesus, from chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark, not chapter 15, its too early in the story and too late in our church year. In fact, this dark talk of beheading and death is not as summery and sunny probably we would like. This story of the beheading of John the Baptist seems out of place today.
But even out of place as it is and even though this story about John is not quite like THE passion story of Easter, the Gospel of Mark is telling us something about Jesus. Mark is telling us something about those who speak the truth of God, and the consequences that come with that speaking out. For Mark, John’s story is a big obvious hint that points to Jesus’ story! The Gospel of Mark is all about the fact that the reader knows the end of God’s story, the fact that we know about the resurrection. And Mark is constantly pointing us to the resurrection.
