Tuesday this week (29 August) commemorates ‘The Death of John the Baptist’ (Mark 6. 17-29 & Matthew 14). This is the only time in the gospels when we get near tabloid quality writing, it’s all there: power, sex, child-abuse, violent torture and most foul murder.
Indeed, artists, composers and playwrights have been inspired by this story over several centuries, most notably Oscar Wide and Richard Strauss. But it isn’t only its legendary tabloid quality which makes this story so enduring, it also reveals to us some deep and uncomfortable truths about ourselves. Power and truth are often opposing forces, and more often than not power has to defend itself against truth with violence, and yet truth has a habit of enduring.
John the Baptist and after him Jesus became victims, but they also exposed truth to be seen for all times. But this story also warns us how easily the suffering of others can become entertainment. Frighteningly, Herod appears to be not so very different from our sophisticated selves. We read ‘Herod liked to listen to him (John the Baptist)’, he liked having his conscience tickled, it made his life more interesting, as it was otherwise empty and had no meaning.
Do we treat TV news like this today? When he watches his young step-daughter dance he is confronted with his own longing for innocence, but all he can do is destroy it. Jesus in his own dying and rising holds out for us the promise of restored innocence.
Bernhard Schünemann
27 August 2017
