Lent 2026 Day 26: Thu 19 Mar
Mark 6:14-20
14 Now King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 Others were saying, “He is Elijah,” and still others, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen from the dead!”
17 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. 18 For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!” 19 So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she had been unable, 20 because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man. When he heard John’s words, he was greatly perplexed; yet he listened to him gladly.
Mark will now tell us about the death of John the Baptist. The link reminds me of some of those you get on afternoon TV when they lead in from one story to another (e.g. “That was a delicious cake! We move now to the family that was caked in mud after a landslide on holiday”). Our lead-in is that Jesus has been making the local news. While the village and town-dwelling folk had been flocking to Jesus and the religious leaders had been raising complaints to whoever would listen, it’s likely that the Roman occupying powers knew next to nothing and cared even less about Jesus. They lived separate lives, the soldiers in their barracks and the governors in their palaces. As long as relative peace held, things were fine by the Romans.
People were beginning to wonder about who Jesus was. Mark and the other Gospel-writers tell us from the very start that Jesus and John were two quite separate characters. We read the story from one who has the bigger picture. We know that they can’t be the same person for obvious reasons. To a herdsman in Bethany or a washerwoman in Bethpage who’d heard stories about John and then Jesus it’s possible they might believe the rumour that the two men were one and the same.
In their heads John the Baptiser could have risen from death and was now re-named Jesus, and it could permit the possibility that Mark has waited until later in the narrative to tell the story of John’s demise.
Other people were saying that Jesus was indeed a re-incarnation, not of John but of Elijah or another of those prophets of old. This might seem crazy, but the disciples themselves were not averse to this idea. Read about it here.
John had been speaking truth to power, and he’d got himself imprisoned for it. Herod had appropriated his brother’s wife for himself and John spoke out, saying to Herod what the vast majority of people would be afraid to say. Sin is sin, and John confronted Herod with it. We already know the outcome but, reading for the first time, we wouldn’t know how or why Herod had killed John. We are about to find out.
What has Mark told us so far that makes Jesus more than a re-incarnated prophet?
Father God, help me to see Jesus both as he presented himself on earth, the Lamb to the slaughter, and as the conquering and returning Lion of Judah.
Paul