The Dance of Death

The Dance of Death
Mark 6: 17-29
Mark The People’s Bible Commentary

In the previous study we thought about why this story is here, and why Mark may have felt it appropriate to insert it into the story of Jesus. But now we shall look at the story of the death of John in its own right. It is, of course, a ‘flashback’; we do not know how soon after his arrest John was executed, but it was while Jesus was still publicly preaching in Galilee.

Why John was in prison

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Herod executed John because he knew of his popularity, and feared that he might become the leader of a rebellion against him. (He also says that such was John’s popularity that a subsequent military defeat of Herod’s army was explained by popular opinion as divine retribution for his having executed John.) But Mark gives us another and more personal reason, in Herod’s annoyance (and bad conscience?) over John’s criticism of his marriage to Herodias, and the implacable hostility of Herodias herself. Herod had divorced his wife in order to marry Herodias, and Herodias had left her husband, who was Herod’s half-brother. In Jewish law a woman had no right to divorce her husband, and when you add the close family relations involved in this double ‘divorce’ and remarriage it is no wonder that people were scandalized. John’s robust denunciation was, no doubt, in tune with popular opinion, and that made it doubly wounding, and dangerous, for Herod and Herodias.

And yet Herod himself comes across in this story as irresolute, and will not take action until he is forced into a corner. Verse 20 suggests at least an uneasy conscience, and even a perverse pleasure in listening to his tormentor. Moreover, knowing that other people thought John to be ‘righteous and holy’ (and a prophet of God too!), he must at least have been aware of the political danger in eliminating him; perhaps he himself really shared that opinion of John. Without Herodias to act as his Lady Macbeth he might have hesitated for a long time.

The death of John
Apart from John’s bold and uncompromising stand for principle, there is nothing admirable in this story. It is a notorious and sordid example of intrigue and licentiousness at the court of a minor oriental potentate. Mark tells the story vividly and with gusto, but we are mercifully spared the more lurid details with which tradition has invested the story of the princess’s dance. But John himself appears only as a passive victim, summarily executed off the stage in order to appease the anger of the wicked ‘queen’. It is a sadly inglorious end to the life of a man who had had such a powerful impact for good on the society of his time, and from whose ministry the mission of Jesus was born.

For MEDITATION
We are left to ponder on the nature of a world where evil can so openly triumph, and where virtue and courage, and even the call of God to a prophetic ministry, are no protection against petty self-interest in high places. But it is a salutary reminder at this stage in the story of the Son of God who will all too soon be setting out determinedly on the road which leads inevitably to Golgotha.
Taken from MARK THE PEOPLE’S BIBLE COMMENTARY by Dick France