Herod and John the Baptist
Taken from Mark for Everyone
Description
Mark For Everyone
MARK 6.17–29
Herod and John the Baptist...
...What sells newspapers? Three things, and if they’re combined, so much the better.
Royalty: almost any story about a member of a royal family will sell, not only in Britain or Norway or wherever it began, but around the rest of the world. Sex: nothing like a scandal, especially if it’s to do with people in high places. Religion: though God has slipped down the ratings in recent years, people are still aware that there are unanswered questions out there, and someone who seems to be an authentic spokesperson for God is newsworthy.
Put this package together, locate it in first-century Galilee, and you have the story of Herod and John the Baptist. There’s nothing private about this story. It would have been round the palace within minutes, round the neighbourhood by morning, and round all Galilee within a day or two. If it had happened today it would be all over the newspapers. It’s sordid, shabby and shameful – exactly the sort of thing that everybody likes to hear, however much they pretend otherwise...
Taken from Mark for Everyone by Tom Wright