“Hearing With Pleasure” – MARK 6:14-20

Was it a guilty conscience?

The message of John the baptizer paved the way for the message of Jesus. Herod had him put to death. Now Jesus was becoming well-known and people were speculating about Him. Herod kept going back to the words of John that must have been ringing in his head. He concluded that Jesus was John risen from the dead (6:16).

Was it wishful thinking?

Mark departs from his narrative to go back in time and give us some background. It is not pretty. The message of repentance is a message about sin. Sin is a very specific matter when we get serious about it.

Many take the “all have sinned” approach that allows us to gloss over its ugliness in our sub-conscious.

We need to try specifying our sins when we ask for forgiveness. It hurts. It frightens. It is too real. John specified the sin of Herodias and Herod… incestuous adultery (6:17-18). A classic case of “shoot the messenger” ensued. Sin is ugly, and it most often leads to additional sin when the call to repent is unheeded.

Herod was not exactly the greatest guy in all of Palestine. But, we are given some interesting insight by Mark. Herod enjoyed hearing John preach (although I have heard he thought John went a little over his allotted time) and was awed by him (6:20a). Evidently John’s message struck deeply and caused Herod to need to protect him from Herodias and maybe others.

Such is the power of God’s word.

Herod could see God at work in John’s life as he was “righteous and holy” (6:20b). Maybe there something within Herod that wanted to heed the message?

Hoping, perhaps, that Jesus was actually the “risen” John, maybe Herod was displaying a basic human trait. We look back into our past as wish to reclaim it. Some want to relive good times and others want to undo mistakes. I wonder if Herod wanted to go back and heed John’s call to repentance? We will never know.

But, we can accept the challenge. We were not there to hear Jesus the first time around, but He is risen. The call is fresh and new every day. Do you look back and wish you had repented of ugly sin in your life? Now is the time. Be bold in your acknowledgment of your sin and be equally bold in your repentance!

It is the only way the truth about sin is pleasurable!