Head on a Platter - Mark 6:14-29

“It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.”  Screwtape to Wormwood – C.S. Lewis

Everything tragic you can imagine is in this account of John the Baptist – injustice – lewdness – deceit – cowardice – vengeance – death.  Herod the Great had some not-so-great kids – their story is told with words like adultery – lechery – treachery.  Sunday we will look at the descendants of Herod the Great (who tried to kill the baby Jesus) and Herod Antipas (who killed John the Baptist) and Philip the Tetrarch (who did not seem to do anything remarkable except loose his wife to his brother).  What a mess!  In this chaos is the pawn John the Baptist – who is beheaded at the whim of a vengeful adulteress by the request of a young girls dance.  You cannot just make this stuff up – it is so bizarre that only sin can write such a convoluted story.  Sunday I will try to sort out the family tree with its rotten fruit and share the courage of John and the cost of telling the truth.  This is an easy sermon to invite others to come – it is well known and has great applications for today.  

See you Sunday,

Pastor Mike