“Two Tables, Two Kingdoms”

Mark 6:17-29 & Mark 8:1-10

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, August 4, 2024

The beheading of John the Baptist is one of the more gruesome and sordid stories in the Bible. A despotic king, Herod Antipas, holds a banquet at which his step-daughter Salome entertains the guests with a sensuous dance. Pleased with her performance, Herod swears to give her whatever she asks, even half his kingdom. She takes him up on the offer, but asks her mother Herodias what she should request. Herodias, who had been publicly shamed by John for divorcing her husband and marrying his brother Herod, sees her opportunity for revenge. Without hesitation, she tells her daughter to ask for John the Baptist’s head. The request is carried out immediately, and John’s head is presented to Salome on a platter. Not an exactly appetizing entree for a royal banquet. In fact, it is a disturbing reminder to all who are present that while they currently enjoy the king’s favor, a similar fate could await them should they fail to do his bidding – or even fall out of favor with his wife.

We know that this event actually occurred, because it is mentioned by the Jewish historian, Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews.

Some details differ, but the essence is the same: John the Baptist was unjustly arrested and executed by Herod, who acted with total impunity, as despotic rulers do.

Originally, I did not want to preach on this passage. I said to myself, “No one wants to hear such an unsavory story on a Sunday morning.” So I skipped over it in the lectionary. But then I read a fascinating essay by Diana Butler Bass, an author and speaker to whose blog I subscribe. She had such an interesting take on this event, that I decided to preach on it anyway. So, with apologies to Diana, here is some of what she said, with a some of my own ideas added.

I titled this sermon “Two Tables; Two Kingdoms,” because that is how Diana approached the scripture – she contrasted King Herod’s banquet with Jesus feeding the 5000, a story I preached on two weeks ago. This morning we read a similar passage, the feeding of the 4000, a story mentioned in both Matthew and Mark, so it seems that Jesus performed the miracle of feeding a multitude more than once. No wonder people followed him!

The settings of these events – Herod’s banquet, and Jesus’ miraculous picnic – could not be more different. Herod invited his guests to a sumptuous palace. Seated at a lavish table, delicacies were spread before them. Wine flowed in abundance. The entertainment was unforgettable. Jesus invited his followers to sit down on the ground, somewhere out in the Galilean wilderness. Bread and fish were served – people ate till they were filled, but the fare was simple. Bread and dried fish were a typical meal for a peasant in those days. As I mentioned two weeks ago, everyone was seated together – those who had a bit more money than the others were also sitting on the ground. There was no high table or low table. Everyone was equal at Jesus’ banquet.

The guests at these two meals were also very different – only the rich and famous were invited to Herod’s feast: government officials, visiting Roman dignitaries, perhaps some local leaders. Common, ordinary folk were not allowed to sit at Herod’s table. Jesus invited the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized. He welcomed people who had to work for a  living – farmers, artisans, fishermen, housewives.

They had been there three days, listening to Jesus, and had had nothing to eat. Jesus felt compassion for them. They were hungry, if not starving. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

Then, look at the hosts of these two dinners: Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, the evil ruler who had all the male babies of Bethlehem massacred, in an effort to murder Jesus as a baby. His son, Herod Antipas, lived a life of luxury, in palaces with mosaic-paved rooms, frescoed walls, elaborate gardens, and luxurious baths. Most of all, he was powerful. He had armies at his command and represented the imperial might of Rome. One way of maintaining power is to show off what one has: a royal banquet is always such an occasion, where the power and wealth of the host is shown to its best advantage. This is not the first such banquet mentioned in the Bible. The elaborate feast of King Ahasuerus of Persia mentioned in the first chapter of Esther lasted seven days: “Drinks were served in golden goblets, …and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.”

Jesus told a parable about a wedding banquet and he criticized the scribes and Pharisees who loved to have the seats of honor at such feasts. Lavish banquets, especially to mark special occasions, were a part of that culture, as they still are in many places today.

Then there is Jesus – an itinerant rabbi, a former carpenter, from a poor family who lived in a small village in the remote province of Galilee, far from the centers of power. What is he, compared to a ruler like Herod Antipas? While potentates such as Herod gave banquets to proclaim their power and wealth and the might of their kingdom, Jesus offers a different vision – the reign of the Kingdom of God. Diana Butler Bass writes:

“The point of Jesus’ miracle is pretty clear: The Kingdom of God is a reign of gratitude, provision, and abundance. The gifts of God are available to all who hunger, all can be seated at this meal, and all will be fed. And there will be more than enough!”

A bit later, after the feeding of the 4000, the disciples worried because they were low on bread – only one loaf between them. Jesus asks, “Why are you talking about having no bread?

Do you still not perceive or understand? …And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.” Then [Jesus] said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

What was it the disciples failed to understand? It is the same thing we, too, often fail to understand. As in Jesus’ day, our world is fixed on the accumulation of material goods and power over others. We fight to get what we think is ours, and it is never enough. We view life as a zero-sum game. If I eat this loaf of bread and piece of fish, you will not eat it. If you eat it, I will go hungry. So we set about trying to plan our lives so that we always have enough and to spare, while others go without. We live in constant fear. We try to plan things so that we are always in control. The person who has the most money, the most property, the most things, and, above all, the most power – that is the person the world admires and emulates - the King Herods of our world.

Jesus turns this world-view on its head: the more we share, the more we have; love your enemies, not just your friends; do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is bread and fish for all, and it is always enough. Jesus wants us to have a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. There is enough to go around. To quote Gandhi again – there is enough for our need, but not for our greed. Experts have long told us that the problem of world hunger is not lack of food, but lack of political will to distribute it to those who need it. We could say the same thing for medical care, or fixing climate change – it all comes down to a lack of political will – translated: people don’t want to let go of money and political power. God’s kingdom is about letting go and trusting God. Remember Jesus said: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear... But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” As the Apostle Paul also wrote in Romans 14: “the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”  Long ago the Psalmist wrote: “Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.” The Bible never counsels us to seek money or power. Not once. Instead it tells us to seek peace, to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with our God; to seek the common good – that which will help all people. We are meant to live together, to work together, to seek peace, wholeness, physical, mental, and spiritual health together as God’s people. That is doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. That is the Kingdom of God. That is what Jesus was trying to teach the people that day when he fed them all, with seven basketfuls left over.

Which table will you choose? Herod’s splendid banquet, which seems tempting and delicious, even intoxicating, until someone’s head ends up on a platter? Or will you choose to sit with Jesus, at a table where all are seated together as equals, where peace, justice, kindness, and even joy reign supreme, a table where all are fed and are satisfied in abundance? Amen.

©Deborah Troester 2024