Preached by Pastor Jeff Hamling
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Mark 6:14-29
If You Stand for Nothing, What’ll You Fall For?
Introduction:
On Tuesday mornings, the elders and deacons get together to pray for the church at 7AM. When we met last Tuesday, I was running late, so I didn’t have time to make my coffee. So after our prayer meeting, I decided to go to Starbucks on Main Street on my way back home.
I pulled into the drive-through…and there was a massive line of 15-20 cars! I figured it was worth the wait. I’ll just listen to a podcast. The line moved slowly, with each person taking around 2 minutes at the drive-through speaker. What were they ordering? I just like my coffee black. Were all these people ordering foo-foo drinks that take forever to prepare? Why was this taking so long?
Fifteen minutes later, I’m 1 car away from ordering. Behind me, the line was 15-20 cars. I watched the person in front of me and realized she wasn’t speaking to anyone over the speaker. She was just waiting.
I thought, “this doesn’t seem right.” I got out of my car and asked, “Have they taken your order yet?” She said, “No.” I walked around the side of the building to the pickup window…only to discover nobody was there! All the lights were off! The shop was closed!
Each person in that line waited 15 minutes; when they finally got to the speaker to order, they waited another 2 minutes. When they realized that nobody was going to take their order, they just drove off and it just kept repeating itself.
We were all just waiting forever in line for a big cup of nothing!
I went down the line and told everyone, “There is nothing at the end of this line.”
This passage asks the question: What line are you in with your life? What direction are you headed? What do you think will be at the end when you get there. And beware! Because it’s possible that the line you are in—the direction you are heading—is not going to give you the reward that you seek.
Walk Through the Passage
Three acts.
Act 1: v.14-16:
In the previous passage, Jesus sent out his 12 disciples to preach and heal. Word about this spreads as if people were Tweeting about it and posting it on Facebook. Act 1 describes what happens when Herod hears about Jesus. Two things stand out in Act 1:
In v.14 Mark writes, King Herod heard about this (about the preaching and healing of Jesus and his disciples). Herod is a ruler over the area of Galilee, but he is emphatically not a king. He wanted to be one. He even requested that the Emperor give him the title—and it led to him being dismissed and exiled.
Mark mockingly refers to Herod as “King Herod” as a reminder that Herod was waiting in line, living for something, that was never going to be delivered.
As word spread about Jesus, people asked, “Who is this?” Some people thought he was Elijah from the OT returned. Others thought he was some kind of prophet. And finally, others, including Herod, believed that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
This is a segue to Act 2 where we learn how it is the John the Baptist died.
Act 2: v.17-20
In this part of the story, we’re told that Herod had married his brother’s wife—a woman by the name of Herodias. John the Baptist called them out on this.
John the Baptist did this because Herod wanted people to think he was not only King of the Jews but also their Messiah. John is pointing out—I don’t think the Messiah would marry his brother’s wife. After all this is expressly forbidden in the OT (Lev 20:21).
As a result, Herod arrests John and puts him in prison