The Heart's Desire

Scripture Mark 6:14-29

Mark 6:14–29 NRSV

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in 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.” And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

Prophet or Messiah?

It is easier to follow Jesus when He walks on water than to follow Him when He is carrying a cross. I mentioned that last week, but maybe that is too much of an assumption. So let me ask you the question: Would you rather follow Jesus when He was walking on water or when He was carrying a cross? That might be a tough decision. On the one hand, I've never quite figured out how to walk on water myself, and I'm not the strongest swimmer. On the other hand, the path to the cross is a one-way street that comes to a dead end with no turning back. Maybe I'd prefer to try to walk on water a bit first before going there. By the time Jesus had called and sent out His disciples, the people of Israel were starting to recognize the popularity of Jesus, especially around Galilee. He began to develop a reputation as a prophet. In the eyes of the people, this meant that He not only taught God's law, but He also demonstrated God's authority with miraculous powers. In His case, rather than bringing fire down upon the heads of those scoundrel Samaritans, Jesus used His power to heal and even bring back the dead. That's important for us to recognize because not all prophets were like that. They also had nearly 1000 years of history where their official governing body was supposed to be led by three people: a prophet, a priest, and a king. Those three branches of their government acted like our presidents, legislators, and supreme court justices. The Messiah was supposed to be king, the prophet Elijah was supposed to come announce Him, and the priests would make the whole thing holy and official. The pagan nations that ruled them and that lived around them saw only prophets though, because Israel had not had a king for well over 500 years and they had just finished off the second temple building since the time of Solomon. Those foreignors saw only prophets. We read a psalm together a few Sundays back about the king of glory coming through the gates. That was the prayer the people would have sang together when the coming king, or Messiah, came home to a restored Israel. In summary, part of why the Jews did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah was because they did not think the Messiah could come, officially, until they had received their political freedom. Jesus, in all His preaching, teaching, and healing, looked more like a prophet to everyone, than a Messiah. Maybe if He had called down fire upon the heads of a few people, they would have changed their minds, but that was not the way Jesus worked. It is easy to criticize the beliefs and behaviors of others. We can question the faith and loyalty of those we see and hear about around us. But when it comes down to it, do we follow Jesus like a prophet or like our Messiah? Do we love Him for his preaching, teaching, and healing, or do we follow Him like our King? The answer to that question is going to involve more than our head. It involves our heart, and our willingness to set our own desires, dreams, and hopes aside, and trusting Jesus when things are not going to go in our favor.

Thesis: Our hearts will lead us astray, but Jesus will not.

How We Recognize Jesus

How do we recognize Jesus when He shows up in our lives?

You all have no doubt seen people with signs and megaphones, claiming to be prophets, and shouting about when and how Jesus will come back. You may have heard about people claiming to be the Messiah themselves and leading people in cults. There were pretenders before Jesus came into the world and there have been false messiahs ever since. It was very much the same in Jesus' day. Lots of people were crushed by putting their hope and faith in the wrong person, and by the tIme Jesus came onto the scene, many were already grieving the loss of John the Baptist. No matter how many times he told people he was not the Messiah, or how often he redirected them to Jesus, there were some who were and would remain loyal to him, and they were not wrong for doing that. They saw God working through John the Baptist and their lives were touched and transformed by that grace.

Coupled with that was the fact that Jesus was not announcing that He was the Messiah. In many ways, Jesus was doing similar preaching and teaching. The bigger difference, even more than the miracles He performed at first, was that Jesus took His ministry on the road rather than staying in one general location. Jesus went to the people rather than wait for them to come to Him, and He taught His disciples to do the same. Those who lived in the Jerusalem area and enjoyed going to visit John at the Jordan river regularly found that they could not keep up with Jesus, nor predict His appearances as easily. A prophet can be visited, but a Messiah, a King, is meant to be followed.

It was not wrong that they had loyalty to John the Baptist. It was sad that, for some of them, they stopped seeing God anywhere after Him. While John claimed Jesus as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world and Jesus claimed John as a prophet, and the greatest man who ever lived, neither set themselves up as stopgaps for the grace of God shining into our world. And it was a good thing too, because both suffered a terrible fate at the hands of sinful men.

So how do we recognize that spirit of Jesus? For one thing, it is that same Spirit of God that we see in scripture and have perhaps experienced before, and shines through any willing and obedient vessel that will open their heart to redemption... and it does not settle in one person or place. Like the throne of God described in Ezekiel 1, it has wheels and moves. God's Spirit hits the road and we can choose to follow or be left behind.

Prevenient Grace

We are not meant to follow prophets, preachers, pastors, or any other kind of church leader. Those of us who hold those roles, either officially, or unofficially, walk with us and point, nudge, exhort, encourage, and direct us toward Jesus, as Jesus leads us to God. While that is a lifelong journey of days, weeks, months, and often many, many years, every single step matters. Nothing is wasted.

In those steps, God reaches out to us and grabs our attention, even before we know it is Him. Jiminy Cricket is a copyrighted image I'm sure, but we have a reasonable substitute here to remind us of the role he played with Pinocchio, as the voice of his conscience. God's Spirit reaches out and speaks to us as a kind of conscience both inside us, as well as through the wise voices around us, and we can recognize God at work when we hear the harmony of those voices. John Wesley, called that Prevenient Grace - the grace that goes before us, leading us into a moment of repentance and conversion, and really continuing to go ahead of us afterwards. If we're honest, we have to repent more than once. That voice of God leads us in every step, and we discover God's word resonating in all the places God has planted it. We recognize it in ourselves, and in the words and actions of others. It goes ahead of us, paving our way preveniently, and drawing us closer to Him.

John the Baptist was that voice of God, that vessel of Prevenient Grace for King Herod. John tried to point Herod toward God, but Herod struggled to look away from the prophet and turn toward where the prophet was pointing. Surely being with a holy man was enough. Supporting that ministry would get him into God's good graces. Noticing God, and being thankful for the blessings we have feels like religion. It makes us feel spiritual. It makes our hearts feel like we are worthy. But just like Herod, our hearts can deceive us and lead us astray when God puts them to the test.

The Cost

God gave us heads and hearts, thoughts and feelings, and if we let them, they will lead us around like a prisoner in chains. We will find ourselves saying things like, "I couldn't help myself." and "I didn't have any other choice." If we deny our thoughts and feelings, they will lead us from the shadows, and we won't realize it until it is too late. When we try to figure out our lives on our own, we commit the original sin and fall right in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. They both used their hearts and heads to get themselves kicked right out of the Garden of Eden and out of relationship with God. Our hearts and heads are gifts of God, but they are not meant to lead us. God is. The Spirit of God is meant to lead us in ways that do not always make us feel warm and fuzzy, nor do they always make sense. Back to the original question... would you rather follow Jesus walking on water or carrying a cross. If your heart and head didn't wave some red flags and give you feelIngs of discomfort, ask your neighbor to give you a shake, you might not be awake. There is nothing sensible or comfortable about following Jesus. The point of it is to re-correct what Adam and Eve broke. When faced with questions of where to go, it is not a matter of trying to figure out what we can, should, and want to do. It is a matter of asking God what He wants us to do. If we keep Jesus at a distance, like a prophet, thanking Him for His input, but keeping the final decision to ourself, we are not following Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our King, our Messiah. We are not a disciple of Jesus or part of the family of faith. Do we ever make mistakes? Of course! Here's a better question though: Do we ever get it right? Yes. When we choose to obey rather than go our own way, we get it right, and we ought to celebrate and grow from those moments. Those are steps toward Jesus. Those are moments that we live the life that God created us to live. That choice is before us every day. In order to live the life God has for us, we have to deny ourselves, telling the desires of our hearts, "sorry, not today" and our heads "thank you, but God knows better than us". Following Jesus means handing over your heart to Jesus and trusting that He will care for it even more than we care for it ourselves. You can only live one life. Which will it be? The one we try to make for ourselves, or the one God created us to live?