Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The great English cleric, John Donne reminded us “…Any man’s death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind…” therefore it may be expected that the preservation of one life, serves in saving us all. We do not all share the same faith nor beliefs, but do share the same humanity. We all share in the responsibility to protect and defend this Creation.

There is tale of the young man, who seeing a multitude of starfish washed up on the beach, began throwing them back into the sea. A well intended person seeing him told the young man that there were too many starfish on the beach for his efforts to make a difference. The young man pitched another one into the water replying, “It made a difference to that one.” How much can any one person do in her/his few days of this life? How much should one do? Another English cleric, John Wesley, is credited with an appropriate answer: “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.”

At the death of Herod “the Great”, the Romans divided Judaea among Herod’s surviving sons and daughter, who ruled at the pleasure of Rome. All had become Jewish converts, but the Herod family was regarded with deep suspicion by observant Jews. Unlike the Pharisees, the heirs’ objective was not religious purity, but the preservation of political power.

Herod Antipas, the son that Jesus called a “fox”, ruled in Galilee. John the Baptist accused Antipas publicly for the ruler’s affair with Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas’s brother. That speech got Jesus’ cousin immediately arrested. Herod seemed to have a superstitious fascination with John. Rather than killing and silencing the outspoken prophet, Herod kept him locked up and remained curious to hear what he had to say. In prison John was no threat to Herod’s power and authority, but served an entertaining function for the corrupt monarch.

Herodias and Salome, her teenaged daughter, neither wanted to hear the prophet’s testimony nor allow him to live. During a birthday party for Herod at her mother’s prompting, Salome enticed the lecherous king to make an oath to deliver the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod’s fascination with John had grown into a belief that John was indeed a holy man, but he fulfilled the girl’s sick request from fear that not doing so would compromise the image of his political power.

When word of Jesus’ works and ministry came to Herod, his response was, “This is John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him.” This fear of Jesus as the ghost of John the Baptist, was likely the reason that Herod later would not pass judgement on Jesus, but surrendered him back to the Roman government of Pilate to sentence Christ to the cross.

Similar stories are repeated throughout history, even to this day. Religious faith, and in some cases science, may be tolerated as long as it is personal and private, out of the public view and non-intrusive. Even the people of faith, who came to America for religious freedom, were often intolerant of different faiths and beliefs, of different and evolving science.

In early America, meeting places had been ordered burned to the ground after congregations had celebrated Christmas. The governing power arguing “they for whom all days are holy can have no holiday.” There is a pervasive mentality to sequester or eliminate a religious faith, or anything which threatens the norm. Often the Church has surrendered its voice of conscience to secular rulers and governments, and to popular crowds. Those who have dared announce the kingdom of G_d in contrast to the will of men have suffered, and some have died.

Jesus said that there would be resistance and even violent resistance to the Good News. Neither Jesus nor his disciples, then or now, are “meek and mild.” Gentle, yes. Compassionate, yes. Loving, hopefully. The Gospel, and science too, threatens some and threatened people strike back. The Church meanwhile must continue serving and continue praying: for the grace to live faith filled lives, to endure rejection and even persecution, to act as Donne and Wesley suggested, realizing that we operate on G_d’s timeline, in G_d’s Creation, not our own.

Pax,
jbt