July 14, 2024: Choose Peace

stained glass window, jesus

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Choose Peace

“Be careful what you wish for” and “Heads will roll”: two (perhaps) overused sayings find new meaning in Mark 6:14–29. I have often looked to Scripture for inspiration and encouragement. However, passages like this one about the beheading of John the Baptist are best understood for the lessons on what not to do.

We hear the consequences in this passage before the actions are even shared. Herod is worried that John the Baptist “whom I beheaded” has come back to life. Only then do we get the story that John has been executed, and the circumstances.

Problematic actions taken by characters in this story include:

  • Herod: Promising his daughter the world with no restrictions. We can all imagine how promising a child anything they want, immediately when they want it, might backfire.
  • Herod’s daughter: So excited by the opportunity to get whatever she wants, she is too quick to even consider what she might want. No reason is given why Herod’s daughter would want John executed, beyond her mother’s encouragement, and the likelihood that it certainly would push the promise her father made to the fullest extent. Testing limits.
  • Herod’s wife: She held a grudge . . . and can one example be found in history where holding a grudge led to an outcome that was in line with God’s hope and plan for our world?

We may escalate our language sometimes to demonstrate the depth of our emotions. But before allowing impulse and emotion to rule our actions, we can take a step back and recognize that actions do indeed have consequences. So while it might feel good to threaten that “heads will roll,” those actions or “those heads” may just “come back to bite us.”

Slow down. Choose Peace.                                 

Justin Rabbach, executive director
Board of World Mission