Two Tables

Mark 6:14-29

July 14, 2024

Go On, John the Baptist
Jack Baumgartner

 

Today, our story is about a feast, a meal,

a banquet, a little dinner party for some friends.

 

It’s Herod’s party.

Herod is the title of King, hero in Greek.

This is Herod Antipas, Herod the Great, Antipas father,

was the Herod when Jesus was born.

 

Herod Antipas is the Jewish king of the area that Jesus lives in.

He’s supposed to be representing the Jewish people,

and being an example of living a godly life,

but he’s not doing a good job of it.

 

He’s thrown a party in his own honor for his birthday.

It is an exclusive party with an exclusive guest list.

For the officials and leaders of Galilee and other

wealthy, influential business people

I’m sure they had the best food and wine.

The best décor, the best of everything.

 

Surely, crazy John the Baptist was not invited to the party.

But John was very much involved.

 

Herodious which basically means queen,

who is King Herod’s current wife, is angry with John.

 

Herod had married Herodias.

Herodias was Herod's brother’s wife,

which wasn’t too odd in itself for the time,

except that Philip (Herod’s brother, Herodias’ husband)

was still alive. And so was Herod’s wife.

Even back then, this was not normal.

 

Most people were probably pretty upset with

this arrangement and how the king had left his wife

and taken up with his brother’s wife,

but still no one said anything about it.

 

People just didn’t say things like this to Herod Antipas.

Herod was the king, a leader of the region, a powerful and vengeful person. 

And Herod had a habit of killing people for less.

 

But John the Baptist did say something about it.

he had mentioned it publicly. He said out loud

that Herod and Herodias’s marriage was a sham.

That  Herod, the king who was supposed to be leading

the Jewish people, didn’t even follow Jewish laws himself.

 

So Herod has John thrown in prison,

but he doesn’t want to kill John.

Herod was fascinated with John the Baptist.

He likes to listen to him,

it says Herod is even afraid of him.

 

But back to the exclusive dinner party.

The birthday bash for Herod.

The entertainment was a dance by Herodias’s daughter,

Herodias, which basically means princess.

 

A little aside, everyone tries to make Herodias’ dance

a seductive dance. But it doesn’t say anything like that,

it just says she danced and everyone liked it.

Maybe she was clogging or tap dancing, like Shirley Temple.

Whatever kind of dance, she did a good job.

No need for it to be seductive, that’s irrelevant to the story

 

The important part is that the King Herod wants to show off

to his guests how generous and wealthy he was.

He swore to the girl that he would give her

anything that she asked for – half his kingdom even.

Right in front of all these important people.

 

I’m sure he thought that maybe she would ask for a pony,

a new dress, a chariot, a better room, a cell phone,

or even half his kingdom.

But instead, and she consults with her mother, the queen.

who’s been steaming about John the Baptist.

 

And the Queen tells the princess,

to ask for the head of John the Baptist.

Having it on a platter was the extra flare of the girl

I guess she figured she had to carry it on something.

 

Now the king is stuck.

Stuck in that awful place that so many politicians are.

Between doing what he wants to do, what he should do,

what he knows is right, and doing what the

rich and powerful around him expect him to do.

What he promised them he would do.

So forced by his oath, his honor, his fears, his pride,

and his need to be respected by his high powered guests,

The King has John the Baptist beheaded.

And, just as the princess asks, at the banquet,

he gives her his head a serving platter.

The terrible left overs of a terrible and gruesome meal.

In this chapter of Mark, Mark 6, there are two feasts.

There is this feast. The feast of the empire.

The feast of wealth and power.

The feast that’s governed by greed and gluttony.

The one that’s governed by oaths and deals with the devil.

It’s a feast that’s exclusive.  Where just a few eat too much,

and most everyone else gets nothing or worse.

 

This is the feast of politics, and commercialism, even of religion

This is the feast of the market place.

Where money, and the power it brings, rule.

Where violence is a byproduct and a method of control.

We’re used to this feast and it’s micro-aggressions.

We’re immune to it now. It doesn’t usually faze us.

 

But, if you stay until the very end, you see that this

is a gruesome feast.

This is a feast that inevitably ends in violence.

A feast that ends with the truth being slayed and killed

and served up on a platter for someone’s spite and enjoyment.

It’s a feast where our children are sucked in as pawns.

This feast is a feast that ends with death.

 

We know this feast.

We live in this feast every day.

Whether we’re the attendants or the victims –

or for most of us, somewhere in between.

It’s the world we live in. It’s the empire all around us.

This is a familiar feast.

But in Mark 6, there is another feast.

It’s a feast that we’ll be focusing on for the next 6 weeks in worship.

In this feast, Jesus is the host.

Unlike Herod’s party, there is not an exclusive guest list,

everyone is invited to come.

It’s called the feeding of the 5000.

Although the disciples try to convince

Jesus that there is not enough,

and there is only enough for a chosen few, Jesus won’t hear it.

Jesus knows that there is enough for everyone to get fed.

So everyone is invited to eat and enjoy.

 

So Jesus feeds five thousand people, everyone in other words,

with just five loaves and two fish.

And at the end of the meal, everyone is satisfied.

And there are twelve baskets of food left over.

 

And just like at King Herod’s meal, the host makes a statement

But instead of an oath – a promise of half the kingdom to one –

What is given is a promise of the whole kingdom to all the people.

This is a feast that ends with abundance, and hope, and life.

 

Two visions of meals.

The meal of Herod’s kingdom and all the earthly kingdoms.

And the meal of Jesus’ kingdom.

 

Both are presented to us by Mark.

Both are offered to us, with no obligations.

The question that Mark asks us is,

Which table do we want to eat at?

 
 

For Lutherans, we don’t believe that we make the decision

over whether or not to have faith.

God’s grace is ours no matter what.

But we do believe that we have a choice

what to do with that grace.

And we make that choice of

which table we’re eating at every day.

 

We make that choice in how we treat others,

how we work, how we spend our time,

how we spend our money, how we raise our children,

how we vote, how we treat strangers,

how we treat the poor and less fortunate

how we treat the rich and powerful.

And how we as a church represent God to the world.

 

Mark spreads these two feasts out for us to consider.

Just like every day, every minute, these

two feasts are spread out in front of us.

 

At which table do we want to eat?