“The Death of John the Baptist” Mark 6: 1-29

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew the right thing to do, but didn’t do it? Or perhaps you have experienced the reverse - you have known the wrong thing to do, but you’ve done it anyway? John Wesley described these as sins of commission and sins of omission. One is not worse than the other - and we see them both all over today’s scripture lesson in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6.

If you remember last week, Jesus has been moving throughout the region bringing healing to folks - and last week we heard about how he brought a dead girl back to life and brought healing to a woman who had been struggling for over twelve years with a medical condition. And the question that people were asking was where was this healing coming from? By what power was Jesus bringing this healing?

But oh how quickly folks have forgotten what just happened. Oh how quickly the questions seem to shift. On the Sabbath Jesus and his disciples come to the synagogue in Nazareth, his home town. And people couldn’t stop talking about it. Some were asking similar questions to what folks were posing last week - where is his wisdom coming from? But then others started a different type of whispers, different types of questions. Do you know who that is? That’s the son of a carpenter. What can he teach us?

And Jesus continues teaching anyway and says “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” In other words, you aren’t going to listen to me here so I need to keep moving on. 

When I was in college and after I graduated, but before I entered seminary I served as an intern in my home church. In a lot of ways my experience was vastly different from Jesus. I was trusted and listened to by a lot of folks because I was one of them. Because they knew me, knew where I came from. They were the church that had affirmed my call. They were part of the call. 

And yet. And yet, there were some folks who as an act of dismissal would say things like “I remember changing your diapers” when they disagreed with me. 

Oh how it is hard to lead in the place from where you came. 

For Jesus his leadership was so stifled that scripture tells us that he could do no acts of power there. All of those miracles that he had been doing throughout the region couldn’t take place in Nazareth because the people were so caught up in where Jesus came from that they couldn’t even give him a chance. Surely they had heard about what was happening the next town or two over, but that wasn’t to take place because their lack of trusting Jesus stopped it before it could even come and be a testimony amongst them. 

He was able to heal a few folks by the laying on of hands, but as a whole he was amazed by the town’s disbelief. 

For the towns folk in Nazareth their sin was not giving Jesus a chance. They didn’t want to hear him speak about the power of God amongst them. They didn’t want to hear truth being spoken to power. They could not set aside their own biases to catch a glimpse of what God was doing, because in their minds there is no way that God could be working in and through this person right before them. 

Have we ever been there, church? Have we ever let our own biases get in the way? Have we ever rejected something that was said simply because we didn’t think God would show up in that way? Or didn’t expect God to show up at all?

Some of my most wrenching moments in ministry have taken place in board meetings where people were so caught up in doing things their own way that they didn’t see the big opportunities that God was opening up right before them in the Kingdom. They let their fear dictate their faithfulness to the Spirit, because they had never done it that way before. 

Interestingly, right after Jesus had this experience in Nazareth he send his disciples out amongst the region. And perhaps because of what Jesus just faced, or maybe because Jesus knew our human heart so well, he made this statement that if folks don’t welcome you then leave and shake the dust off of your feet. In other words, not everyone is going to accept the Good News. Not everyone is going to be receptive to repentance and being open to hear. And if they aren’t going to hear than its going to be really hard for them to open up their whole lives to God. Jesus just had to shake the dust off of his feet in Nazareth and his disciples were going to have to do the same. In other word, the disciples were to do their best wherever they found themselves and then leave the rest up to God. 

Through Jesus’s teaching and healings and miracles, and the disciples going throughout the region, King Herod started to hear about Jesus and it stood as a conviction to his Spirit. See Herod had John the Baptist arrested and put him in prison because of his wife, Herodias. John had testified against him for marrying her in the first place, because she was his brother’s wife. And because of those words Herodias had it out for him. 

But there was something in Herod’s spirit that was a bit more receptive. He heard John and was perplexed. He feared him. He tried to protect him. He listened to him. Friends, maybe we could ever call that an opening of the Spirit. 

Until the ways of the world simply became too much. He killed John the Baptist, even though he knew it was the wrong thing to do, because he wanted to save face amongst the guests at a party and thought more his own ambitions than what was right or wrong. His desire to please other people outweighed his respect for John and his spirit became closed off. 

Herod feared the wrong power. And he knew it. Because the news of Jesus stood as a conviction to his spirit. Have we ever cared more about not stepping on someone’s toes then doing what we know is right? Have we ever set aside pleasing God in order to please other people? Has our ambition ever lead us to do something that didn’t honor God? Have we tried to shut our spirits off to the point where God needs to convict us?

Friends, what sins of commission or omission is God trying to point out to us today? How have we acted in ways that have shut the Gospel message off in our own hearts and lives? How have we failed to act in ways that are obedient to what the Spirit is doing?

This morning we are going to take time to examine our own hearts. The alter will be open if you feel lead to come and pray. Let us bring our sin and shortcomings before God, asking that the Spirit remove anything in us that would block us from a faithful response. Amen.