Mark 6:17-29
A Promise Made at a Birthday Party
17For 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.
18For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!”
19So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she had been unable,
20because 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.
21On Herod’s birthday, her opportunity arose. Herod held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
22When the daughter of Herodias came and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.”
23And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom!”
24Then she went out and asked her mother, “What should I request?” And her mother answered, “The head of John the Baptist.”
25At once the girl hurried back to the king with her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.”
26The king was consumed with sorrow, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to refuse her.
27So without delay, the king commanded that John’s head be brought in. He sent an executioner, who went and beheaded him in the prison.
28The man brought John’s head on a platter and presented it to the girl, who gave it to her mother.
29When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb.
Berean Standard Bible
Jesus does not appear in this story. Mark leaves him out on the road with the Twelve, turns aside to tell what happened to John, and only afterwards picks the thread back up. He stopped the whole book to put this here.
Herod had arrested John and put him in prison, and the reason was a woman named Herodias. She had been married to Herod's brother. Herod took her, John told him to his face that it was not lawful, and that one sentence is the whole of what John did wrong.
Herodias wanted him dead and could not arrange it, and the reason Mark gives for that is stranger than anything else in the chapter. Herod feared John and kept him safe. He knew the man in his cell was righteous and holy, and when he listened to him he came away perplexed, and he kept going back to listen gladly. The jailer kept coming down to hear the prisoner.
Then a birthday, a banquet, and the worst possible room: nobles, military commanders, the leading men of Galilee. The daughter of Herodias dances, the guests are delighted, and Herod makes her an offer where every one of them can hear it.
Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.
Then he swears to it, and throws in up to half his kingdom. Anybody who knew the book of Esther had heard a king say it before. It is the language of a man being generous where people are watching.
The girl goes out and asks her mother what she should ask for.
The head of John the Baptist.
She comes back with two additions of her own. On a platter, and immediately.
Mark says the king was consumed with sorrow. He did not want this. He had every kind of power in that room and he did not want it, and he had sworn, and his guests had heard him swear. So he sent an executioner down to the prison, and it was done there, and the head was carried in and given to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
Mark does not linger over any of it. He gives the killing one sentence and stops.
When John's disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb.
Nobody in the story could stop it happening. His friends could come for what was left of him, and they came.
How We Know
The reason for John's imprisonment is given twice by two writers. Mark 6:17-18 says Herod arrested him because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because John had told him it was not lawful to have her. Luke 3:19-20 gives the same reason in one sentence and adds that Herod locked John up.
Two accounts agreeing on a specific charge, in different words and at different lengths, supports a fixed piece of information rather than a shared literary flourish.
Mark also records in verse 20 that Herod feared John, protected him, and liked listening to him, which is not the portrait the rest of the chapter needs.
Questions
1 Herod knew John was right and had him killed anyway because of who was listening. When have you gone along with something you did not want to do because of who was in the room?
AnswerEveryone at this table has a version of it, usually small: a joke laughed at, an opinion kept quiet, somebody let down because saying so in front of other people would have been uncomfortable. Herod's version was that same failure, and it cost a man his life.
2 Why was John in prison in the first place?
AnswerBecause he had told Herod plainly that taking his brother's wife was not lawful. There is no other charge. One true sentence said to a man with power who did not want to hear it.
3 Mark says some surprising things about how Herod felt toward John. What were they?
AnswerThat he feared him, protected him, knew he was righteous and holy, came away perplexed by what he said, and listened to him gladly all the same. The man holding John in prison kept going down to hear him talk.
4 What do John's disciples do at the end?
AnswerThey come, take his body, and lay it in a tomb. They could not save him and they did not try to avenge him. They did the one thing still available to them, which was to treat him gently after it was over.
What This Means for Us
Herod is the warning here, and he is not the kind we expect. He did not hate the truth. He liked hearing it, he protected the man who told it to him, and he knew quite well that John was righteous and that he himself was not.
Then a room full of important people heard him make a promise, and he had a man killed rather than look foolish in front of them. Most of our failures run that way. Not a refusal of God, but a small unwillingness to be embarrassed in front of people whose opinion will mean nothing in ten years. So do one right thing this week in front of the wrong crowd, on purpose.
Prayer
Father, we care more about the room than we admit, and it costs other people. Give us the nerve to be embarrassed. Thank you for John, who said the true thing knowing what it would cost. Make us that kind of brave, in the small places where it starts. Amen.