July 11th
Both John and Jesus are executed by political tyrants who fear them but vacillate and finally succumb to social pressure. In John’s case Antipas acquiesces to Herodias, and in Jesus’ case Pilate acquiesces to the mob. Both John and Jesus die silently as victims of political intrigue and corruption, “as sheep silent before their shearers” (Isa 53:7). And, most obviously, both die as righteous and innocent victims.16
John’s martyrdom prefigures more than Jesus’ crucifixion, however. It also exemplifies the consequences of following Jesus in a world of greed, decadence, power, and wealth. Mark sandwiches the brutal and moving account of the martyrdom of the Baptist between the sending of the Twelve (6:7–13) and their return (6:30) in order to impress upon his readers the cost of discipleship.
Herod’s hearing of Jesus follows immediately on the mission of the Twelve and may have been the result of it.
Josephus also provides an account of John’s death at the hand of Antipas, though a somewhat more political version, reporting that Antipas, fearing John’s influence on the people, “decided to strike first and be rid of him before his work led to an uprising” (Ant. 18.116–19). The two accounts of Mark and Josephus look like two sides of the same coin, both attesting to John’s righteousness and piety and Herod’s paranoia and ruthlessness.20
The report of their return, which one would expect after v. 13, has been placed following the death of John, producing an A1-B-A2 sandwich construction. What does Mark intend by bracketing the martyrdom of the Baptizer by the mission of the Twelve? The sandwich structure draws mission and martyrdom, discipleship and death, into an inseparable relationship. This is precisely what Jesus will teach in 8:34, “ ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ ” There, as here, both words are addressed to disciples.
Herod’s hesitation anticipates that of Pilate (15:6–14).
Then in A.D. 39 Herodias, jealous that her brother Herod Agrippa I had been given part of Palestine and the title of king, persuaded her husband to ask for that title. Instead the emperor Gaius Caligula deposed and exiled him for supposedly plotting to secure independence.54 To her credit Herodias followed him into exile.