Mark 6:16 16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
Mark 6:25 25 At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” NIV
Herod was in a fix – he’d killed John and now his worst superstitious fears came true: (he thought) somehow John was back from the dead and was looking for revenge (against him)! What’s a king to do?
John the Baptist was a remarkable man who called it the way he saw it and wasn’t about to back down from a petty and despotic tyrant whose libido got the best of him. John called Herod for unrighteously taking his brother’s wife in marriage – an act that specifically broke the Mosaic Law, and just wasn’t right. And John was the messenger. Sometimes being the messenger is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes it’s downright painful or worse. John got the, ‘or worse.’
In life I am called to make many decisions (and sometimes to be the messenger) but always I’m called to side with righteousness – and regardless of who I'm dealing with. John courageously called sin, sin and lost his life in the process; am I willing to follow his example no matter what it costs me? That’s something worth thinking about.
Father in Heaven,
Help me to honor Your Name in all I do, and to side with righteousness all the time, every time. Thank You for the example of John and of the Lord and for the many saints who’ve trod this earth before, who did what was right with all their might, walking by the day or tempted by the night – amen.
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