St. Mark 6:14-29
Divine Service
Pentecost 6 (Proper 10) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

As I was growing up, I, like every other person in my school, wanted to be accepted.  And a part of being accepted was doing certain things, dressing a certain way or socializing with a certain group.  When I would ask my mother for something special to help me “fit in,” she would ask why.  And the typical response is “because everyone is …”!!  Peer pressure is at its worst during our teen years, but it seems like it never truly disappears.

As we get older, we no longer have the same “peer” pressure, but we still deal with pressures from those around us.  We have the pressures of daily life – the pressures of family – the pressures of coping with the modern world.  Some of us, intentionally or unintentionally, create pressure upon others. By the force of our will, we seek to create an environment in which people feel compelled to adopt our viewpoint or to behave as we choose. Our methods may vary, but the product is the same – Pressure.

Herod Antipas felt pressure. The story we have before us is a sad commentary of how we can become so entangled in the web of human relationships and people-pressure that we ultimately decide to do even what we specifically don't want to do. Verse 26 says it well, "The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her."  People-pressure forced Herod to do what he knew was not right; yet he did it anyway.  People-pressure can do that to us as well. 

Mark creates a literary pause – he stops at this point in his chronology to bring us up to speed on what happened to John the Baptist.  John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod; and now that Jesus had come on the scene, some, including Herod, thought that John had been raised from the dead.  In the case of Herod, it was the cry of a guilty conscience; for he knew that John the Baptist was a man sent from God.  But if he knew that, why did he kill him?  That is why this historical sketch is written -- to give us insight into the kinds of pressures that caused Herod to act against even his own conscience.  .

The New Testament speaks of several Herods.  It doesn't take very much historical research to discover just how sordid this family was.  Herod the Great was King when Jesus was born.  He was responsible for the massacre of the children in Bethlehem as he sought to kill the Child whom he perceived as a threat to him.  Herod the Great married a number of women and had a number of sons by them.  Some were actually murdered by their father.  Among those who were not was Herod Antipas, the Herod of this passage, and Herod Philip.  These two Herods were half-brothers.  Another half-brother was Aristobulus.  Aristobulus had a daughter named Herodias.  She married Herod Philip.  They, in turn, had a daughter whose name was Salome.

Now comes a storyline that reads like a near-eastern version of Peyton Place.  On a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas met his brother Philip's wife, Herodias.  She was a deceitful and ambitious woman who saw in Antipas a way to fulfill her own selfish desires.  So he took her away from his brother and they came back to Palestine together.  Of course, this sordid affair had already begun.  Remember: Herodias was Aristobulus' daughter, who was Philip's half-brother.  That made Herodias the niece of Philip and Antipas!  Philip had married his own niece.  And now his other half-brother, Antipas, had stolen her away from him.

With that background, let's look at some of the characters in this drama.  As we do, we will see how each of them brought a different kind of pressure and participated in Herod's downfall.

The first person we see is Herodias, the wife of Herod's brother, Philip, whom he had taken unlawfully and married.  We see, in her, a who is someone who seeks to have her own way by whatever means are necessary – a pressure-pusher; a manipulator.  Here is someone who acts solely out of her own personal ambition and pride.

When Herod had brought Herodias back to Jerusalem, John the Baptist had encountered him.  John confronted him and thundered, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."  Herodias was there and she didn't like it one bit, because John had embarrassed her and perhaps because she also knew that he was preaching the truth.  The lesson says: "So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to."  The reason she could not put John to death was because Herod understood a deeper truth than did his wife: “Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him."  So Herodias had to keep her anger inside and wait for just the right time to make her move.  This she did.

The day came soon enough, and she made her move. We read, in verses 21 through 28:

"Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you."  And he promised her with an oath, "Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom."  She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered.  At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter."  The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her.  So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.”

It is fun to do a little non-Biblical guesswork here.  We can assume that Herodias decided to get involved in the planning of the birthday banquet – and she set Herod up.  She made the guest list out and invited just the right people.  She used her daughter to dance before Herod and his guests; as professional dancers normally did this dance.  Actually, the dance was could be described as a kind of strip tease.  And, Herod was consumed by his own lust and, as a result, made a very foolish promise.  He promised to give this girl whatever she wanted, up to half of the kingdom. 

Salome then went to her mother to ask what should be her request.  Her mother, without hesitation, said, "The head of John the Baptist."  When Herod heard this, the foolishness of his oath came home to him.  He regretted what he had said, but because of all those guests who had heard him and who were silently looking on, he felt pressured to do what his conscience told him not to do.  He caved in to that pressure: he gave her the head of John the Baptist.

Just as Herodias was a pressure-pusher, we, too, can become pressure-pushers as well.  How do you go about trying to influence people?  What methods do you use to try to get your will accomplished?  Do you ever withhold affection until someone has done what you want?  Do you ever use power or the fear of retaliation or rejection to keep people in line?  Do you ever continue to press, push and harangue by an incessant repetition of your desire, even after you know they have heard you?  Do you seek to manipulate and set people up to get your point off or straighten them out?  I think all of us have a little of this in us!

In Salome, we see someone who can be described as a pressure-pawn.  It doesn't seem that Salome had any personal problem with John the Baptist.  She was simply someone her mother could use.  She became a ploy, skillfully executed as her mother worked out her devious schemes.

Often times, we can be used by someone else in their attempt to put pressure on someone else.  We need to be always on our guard against this.  We must be careful never to do someone else's bidding when that is simply a route for their influence to be felt.

I have seen this happen most often as people seek to send messages through other people.  They know the person to whom they speak will tell the person to whom they are trying to get the message to.  They want their influence to be felt, but indirectly through another.  The subtle thing about this kind of pressure is that the one being used as the middleman, often times, doesn’t even realize that he is being used this way.  So-and-so will share a "concern" or a "complaint" with someone whom he knows will carry it to the person he was trying to get the message to.  The person with whom he shared it, thinking he is passing on needed information, will then carry that message.  He then becomes a pawn, a pressure-pawn, in someone else's chess game.  Salome was such a pawn.  We must guard against this.  We must guard against both using people, and being used ourselves.

Don't forget about the guests at Herod's party.  Though they said nothing, they spoke volumes. These are what you might call pressure-perpetuators.

While all this was going on, they just sat there.  When Herod made his foolish promise to Salome, no one spoke out to make him question what the implications of his foolishness would produce.  When the head of John the Baptist was asked for, again no one spoke out or questioned the terrible act that was about to occur.  They were silent.  But in their silence, they perpetuated the pressure Herod felt; and in fact, they participated in the cruel act that followed.

Perhaps they felt pressure as well, pressure to not offend Herod.  But in doing so, they did him no favor.  He was keenly aware of their presence, and because of it, he felt the pressure to do what he did not want to do.  He was afraid of what they would think.  The Scripture says, "because of his oaths and his dinner guests..." he had John beheaded.

Do we keep silent when we see others manipulated and pressured?  Do we just sit and watch, to see how they will handle it, or what they will do?  Do we, in doing so, add to the pressure they feel?  Or do we speak up and relieve them of some of this pressure?  Do we let people know that they don't have to please us, that our friendship or love or commitment is not based on their agreeing with us?  Do we let people know that they don't have to live their lives asking themselves the question, "What will they think?

Here is a way of withstanding some of the pressures that come upon us.  We can look at how Jesus handled pressure.  Jesus knew what it was to endure the pressures of people.  There were many who wanted Jesus to jump through their little hoops, to perform for them, to say the right things in the right way.  There were the Pharisees who wanted Him to respect all the traditions of their denomination.  There were the Sadducees who wanted Him to stay out of politics.  There were the Zealots who wanted Him to get into politics; to overthrow Rome and set up a kingdom here on earth.  But Jesus responded to none of these pressures.  Rather, He simply sought the will of His father in heaven and did it.  He never did anything because of the pressure of the people. 

Jesus never worried about what people thought. He knew His mission was to do the Father's will.  That was His first priority. In fact, there were no others priorities.  Rather than react to these pressures, He did what He had been born of the Virgin Mary to accomplish.  He sidestepped the earthly pressures, and accomplished exactly what He had set out to do.  And in doing so, for our benefit, He has relieved us of the pressure of keeping God’s Holy Law; the Law that we cannot keep.  This was His goal – to take our sins with Him to the Cross and to there atone for the sins of the entire world.  He accomplished this, and rose on the third day proclaiming His victory over death – and over the devil, who would see us succumb to the pressures.  Through His death and resurrection, we who have been baptized into that death, have been granted life eternal with Him.

Pressure is a part of the world.  With Paul we can often feel that “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8b, 9)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

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