When King Herod gifted his daughter her greatest desire, she asked her mother for her opinion on what to request. Her mother's response that her daughter should ask for the head of John the Baptist shows the selfishness of many of those with power and wealth. Where she could have asked for something that benefited many people, the king’s wife asked for a petty act of vengeance merely because
she did not like John the Baptist. Nevertheless, the king granted her wish and his wife was appeased.
But the portion of this passage that I’d like us to focus on today is the final line: “When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.” The disciples were courageous enough to recover John’s body and give him a proper burial. Doing this would have revealed their devotion to John and so could have
put them in the firing line. But they refused to bow to the power of a bully.
Like the disciples, we need to stand against those who abuse power and seek to dominate or manipulate others. We should refuse to cooperate with bullies—the way John’s disciples gently defied Herod’s power by honouring John after his death.
At our time in history, in stark and frightening ways, we, too, must choose between
Herod’s ways and following Jesus. Even as we watch some of our brothers and sisters in Christ claim that God’s reign can be manifest through human structures of dominance and violence, we can whisper that we beg to differ. And we, in defiance of those who use power to feed their hunger and silence all dissent, can, in small and courageous ways, honour and embody the humble way of Christ.
What are some simple, practical ways to stand
up to bullies? How can you resist the dominant power structures of dominance and violence by embodying Jesus’ humble and peaceful way?
Reflections by Rev Joe
Taylor
