The Preface:
My life has been a bit crazy the last several months. We packed up and left PNG 3 weeks after we heard my mom was diagnosed with cancer. After a 3 month battle, she went home to be with Jesus April 5th 2024. After the memorial service a week later, my dad’s health declined significantly, leading to his admission to the hospital where they a cancerous tumor. Since he has needed so much care, our life ishas been on hold until we know whether the cancer can be cured, and whether he is going to need continuing care.
What is God doing? I could be asking many questions of why. But instead, we have chosen to be asking, “God how do you want to use us in this situation?” What do you do when things don’t make sense and you can’t understand why God would allow things to happen?
The Passage: Mark 6:14-29; Luke 7:18-29
The Process:
- Why had John been arrested? (Mark 6:17-18)
- Who was more upset Herod or his wife? What did that lead to? (Mark 6:19-20; 21-25)
- What was John’s state of mind in prison? (Luke 7:18-23)
- While John never got to see the results of his ministry, what was Jesus’ opinion? (Luke 7:24-29)
The Purpose: (What was God doing? Why did He have this written down?)
When we read Jesus’ epilogue of John, John’s ministry was a great success. Jesus said, “Of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John.” (John 7:28) And yet, what did John see at the end of his life? He was rotting in a prison, destined to a martyrs death. He only had a few faithful disciples who relayed messages to him about Jesus. But, aside from that, he had very little to show for his life’s ministry!
What was going through John’s mind? Clearly, from the message he sent to Jesus, he was wrestling with things. We don’t really know for sure what was in John’s mind, but I have enjoyed how Gene Edwards in his short book, “Prisoner in the Third Cell,” portrayed what this scene may have been like.
As Jesus sends his response back to John, Edwards writes of Jesus, “
“I gave you a task greater than the one I gave to Moses. You are a prophet greater than any who has ever come before.
“But, most of all, you are my kin. You are my own flesh and blood. “If ever, ever I have wanted to give answer to a man’s questions, to explain my sovereign ways, it is today. Yet I have been to you, as to all others, a Lord not fully understood, a God who rarely makes clear exactly what He is doing in the life of one of His children.”
As John’s disciples witness Jesus’ ministry in the town of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), and they recall other times they had witnessed Jesus’ ministry, they observe that many are healed, but not all. The sick, the lame, the blind all come, and Jesus heals many. But, at the end of the day, there was still a line of people, and Jesus didn’t heal them all.
Again, Edwards reflects on what Jesus may have wanted to say to John: “When I called you, John, and told you that you would announce the coming of the Messiah, you assumed that because you were going to prepare the way for me, you would have the joy of seeing that wonderful day of my coming in glory. But today you have met a God you do not understand. Such is the mystery of my sovereignty. Such are my ways in every generation. No man has ever understood me, not fully. No man ever will. I will always be something other than what men expect me to be. I will work out my will in ways different from what men foresee. Death stands beside you. Die, my brother John, in the presence of a God who did not live up to your expectations.” “And blessed are you if you are not offended with me.”
I really like his final chapter. It’s short. Here’s what he wrote:
Chapter 19:
A day like that which awaited John awaits us all. It is unavoidable because every believer imagines his God to be a certain way, and is quite sure his Lord will do certain things under certain conditions. But your Lord is never quite what you imagined Him to be.
You have now come face to face with a God whom you do not fully understand. You have met a God who has not lived up to your expectations. Every believer must come to grips with a God who did not do things quite the way it was expected.
You are going to get to know your Lord by faith or you will not know Him at all. Faith in Him, trust that is in Him . . . not in His ways.
Today you are resentful of those who so callously hurt you. But no, not really. The truth is you are angry with God because, ultimately, you are not dealing with men, you are dealing with the sovereign hand of your Lord. Behind all events, behind all things, there is always His sovereign hand.
The question is not, “Why is God doing this? Why is He like this?” The question is not, “Why does He not answer me?” The question is not, “I need Him desperately; why does He not come rescue me?” The question is not, “Why did God allow this tragedy to happen to me, to my children, to my wife, to my husband, to my family?” Nor is it, “Why does God allow injustices?”
The question before the house is this: “Will you follow a God you do not understand? Will you follow a God who does not live up to your expectations?”
Your Lord has put something in your life which you cannot bear. The burden is simply too great. He was never supposed to do this! But the question remains, “Will you continue to follow this God who did not live up to your expectations?”
“And blessed are you if you are not offended with me.”
The Plan:
As I ask these questions of myself, I encourage you to ask them too.
- What can I learn from this? What is God saying to me and my life from this passage
What is my view of God? What is your view of God? Do you think He is going to always live up to your expectations? What happens when He doesn’t?
- What do I need become more aware of?
Through these circumstances I have learned that I don’t fully admit, nor recognize how needy I really am. David said in Psalm 70:5 “I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid.” David was often in need throughout his life. He had learned in all those circumstances, to be in need, is to be weak in myself, so that God can been seen and known as strong. (Psalm 71:5-9; 2 Cor 12:9)
- How does God want me to engage with this? What does He want me to do because of what He is saying here?
The Power; Implement and Integrate
The power to change is in the implementation and integration of what God is saying to us. We can talk all we want, make lots of plans, but until we do something about it, and develop habits that integrate those truths, we will never change. What is the one thing I need to do as a result of this study today?
I need to be much quicker to admit that I am poor and needy. But then, do not dwell on my weakness, instead be remembering and acknowledging God’s strength and the power of His resurrection life in me. (Eph 1:19-20)
My commitment:
I need to renew my daily prayer, reflecting on God being the source of my life.
Commentary:
Verse by verse insights:
Mark 6:14-16 Herod Antipas, the king, soon heard about Jesus, because everyone was talking about him. Some were saying, “This must be John the Baptist raised from the dead. That is why he can do such miracles.” 15Others said, “He’s the prophet Elijah.” Still others said, “He’s a prophet like the other great prophets of the past.”16When Herod heard about Jesus, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has come back from the dead.”
Luke 9:7 tells us that Herod was “puzzled” with what he was hearing and seeing of Jesus. He goes on to say, “I beheaded John, so who is this man about whom I hear such stories? And he kept trying to see him.” Herod had heard all that Jesus was doing and was concerned. He knew he had beheaded John, but he was beginning to worry that maybe John had come back from the dead. (Mark 6:16; Matt 14:2)
Mark 6:17-20 For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herodias. She had been his brother Philip’s wife, but Herod had married her. John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry your brother’s wife.” So Herodias bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But without Herod’s approval she was powerless, for Herod respected John; and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.
Interesting that it appears that Herodias was the one who had a problem with what John was saying, not Herod. Herod respected John (John 6:20). In fact Fruchenbaum says he was a “nominal convert to Judiasm.” But, Herodias couldn’t do anything to John, or have anything done to John without Herod’s approval (John 6:19) so she needed to find a way to influence Herod to do away with John.
Mark 6:21-28 Herodias’s chance finally came on Herod’s birthday. He gave a party for his high government officials, officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee. 22Then his daughter, also named Herodias, came in and performed a dance that greatly pleased Herod and his guests. “Ask me for anything you like,” the king said to the girl, “and I will give it to you.” 23He even vowed, “I will give you whatever you ask, up to half my kingdom!” 24She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?” Her mother told her, “Ask for the head of John the Baptist!” 25So the girl hurried back to the king and told him, “I want the head of John the Baptist, right now, on a tray!” 26Then the king deeply regretted what he had said; but because of the vows he had made in front of his guests, he couldn’t refuse her. 27So he immediately sent an executioner to the prison to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier beheaded John in the prison, 28brought his head on a tray, and gave it to the girl, who took it to her mother.
We know John struggled a little with his incarceration. He sent word to Jesus asking, “Are you the one, or should we look for another?” (Luke 7:20) But, Jesus had encouraged John by reminding John what the scriptures said the Messiah would do. (Luke 7:22-23)
How did John respond when the guards came to get him for execution? Gene Edwards book “Prisoner in the Third Cell” does a good job speculating what that may have been like for John. It’s well worth the read.
Fruchenbaum notes that, “The Gospels clearly show that John was arrested and killed for personal reasons, but the actual charge was political. We will see that what happens to the herald will happen to the King. From this point on, Jesus moved toward His own coming death.
Mark 6:29 When John’s disciples heard what had happened, they came to get his body and buried it in a tomb.
John’s disciples were permitted to fetch the body and bury it in a tomb (Mk. 6:29), and then they informed Jesus (Mt. 14:12).
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