Mark 6:14-29

Re cap on the above verses abt the beheading of John the Baptist from horizonsnet.org

Background:

Herod the Great was King when Jesus was born. Herod the Great married a number of women and had a number of sons by them. Some were actually murdered by their father. Among those who were not was Herod Antipas, the Herod of this passage, and Herod Philip. They were half-brothers. Another half-brother was Aristobulus. Aristobulus had a daughter named Herodias. She married Herod Philip. They, in turn, had a daughter whose name was Salome.

On a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas met his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. She was a deceitful and ambitious woman who saw in Antipas a way to fulfill her own selfish desires. So he took her away from his brother and they came back to Palestine together. Of course, this sordid affair had already begun. You see, what you have to remember is that Herodias was Aristobulus' daughter, who was Philip's half-brother. That made Herodias Philip's niece. Philip had married his own niece. And now his other half-brother had stolen her away from him.

Lessons:

Pressure-Pushers

-Herodias
a pressure-pusher who is someone who seeks to have her own way by whatever means are necessary. Here is a manipulator. Here is someone who acts out of her own personal ambition and pride.
(Whenever Herod had brought Herodias back to Jerusalem, he had been encountered by John the Baptist. John confronted him and thundered, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Herodias was there and she didn't like it one bit, because John had embarrassed her and perhaps because she also knew that he was preaching the truth.
The reason she could not put John to death was because Herod understood a deeper truth than did his wife. So Herodias had to keep her anger inside and wait for just the right time to make her move.)

Just as Herodias was a pressure-pusher, to a certain degree, we can become pressure-pushers as well. How do you go about trying to influence people? What methods do you use to try to get your will accomplished? Do you ever withhold affection until someone has done what you want? Do you ever use power or the fear of retaliation or rejection to keep people in line? Do you ever continue to press, push and harangue by an incessant repetition of your desire, even after you know they have heard you? Do you seek to manipulate and set people up to get your point off or straighten them out?
We all can live in situations with people like that, either as those under pressure or as those pushing pressure, or sometimes both. We can live like that in our marriages as we relate to our mate. We can live like that in our families as we relate to our children or our parents. We can even live like that in the church, seeking to manipulate and influence and control. We must beware of being a pressure-pusher.

Pressure-Pawn

-Salome
It doesn't seem that Salome had any problem with John the Baptist. She was simply a willing pawn in her mother's chess game. She was someone her mother could use. She became a ploy, skillfully executed as her mother worked out her devious schemes.

Often times, we can be used by someone else in their attempt to put pressure on another. We in the church need to be always on our guard against this. We must be careful never to do someone else's bidding as a conduit for their influence to be felt.

They know the person to whom they speak will tell the person to whom they are trying to get the message across. They want their influence to be felt, but indirectly through another. The subtle thing about this kind of pressure is that the one used, often times, does not even realize that he is being used this way. Brother so-and-so will share a "concern" or a "complaint" with someone whom he knows will carry it to the person he was trying to get the message to. The person with whom he shared it, thinking he is passing on needed information, will then carry that message. He then becomes a pawn, a pressure-pawn, in someone else's chess game. Salome was such a pawn. We must guard against this. We must guard against both using people, and being used ourselves.

Pressure-Perpetuators

Herod's friends.

(Though they said nothing, they spoke volumes. Here are what you might call pressure-perpetuators.
While all this was going on, they just sat there. When Herod made his foolish promise to Salome, no one spoke out to make him question what the implications of his foolishness would produce. When the head of John the Baptist was asked for, again no one spoke out or questioned the terrible act that was about to occur. They were silent. But in their silence, they perpetuated the pressure Herod felt; and in fact, they participated in the evil and cruel act that followed.)

Do we keep silent when we see others manipulated and pressured? Do we just sit and watch, to see how they will handle it, or what they will do? Do we, in doing so, add to the pressure they feel? Or do we speak up and give them the freedom to be the unique people God has created them to be? Do we let people know that they don't have to please us, that our friendship or love or commitment is not based on their agreeing with us? Do we let people know that they don't have to live their lives asking themselves the question, "What will they think?


LEARNING POINTS

The person we need to please is God. The question we need to have before us at all times is not "What will they think?" but "What will God think?"

~There is pressure everywhere, pressure from situations and circumstances, pressure from people, and even pressure we put on ourselves. How do we respond to it? Well, we can respond like Herod. We can be manipulated by it to the point where we are forced to make decisions contrary to what we know is right. Or we can refuse to yield to it and seek the will of God instead.

~key to withstanding the pressures which come upon us; best evidenced in the life of Jesus Christ Himself. (Jesus knew what it was to endure the pressures of people. There were many who wanted Jesus to jump through their little hoops, to perform for them, to say the right things in the right way. There were the Sadducees who wanted Him to stay out of politics. There were the Pharisees who wanted Him to respect all the traditions of their denomination. There were the Zealots who wanted Him to overthrow Rome and set up a kingdom here on earth, a Christian state, if you will.) But Jesus responded to none of these pressures. Rather, He simply sought the will of His father in heaven and did it. Instead of reacting, He acted. He never did anything because of the pressure of the people. He never worried about what people thought. He knew His mission was to do the Father's will. That was His first priority. In fact, there were no others.

~to find victory over the pressures of life, we must come to the same understanding of our life's purpose that Jesus had.

~We must understand that we are here to glorify God and to serve Him. He is a pressure-buster. In Him, we can find relief, even in the middle of the pressure cooker. People may not like it, but then, they never have. (The prophets were stoned and killed. Jesus was hung on a cross. If you are faithful to God, sometimes people will oppose you. They won't like what you are doing or the stand you are taking, or what you are saying. But after all, it has always been difficult to domesticate a true prophet.) What the world needs are not more lukewarm Christians. What the world needs, and what we need to be, are people who do not react to pressure, but who respond to God.