Mark's Gospel is all about Kingdom, all about eucatastrophe, the Kingdom of God breaking out on Earth. The Kingdom comes as the King comes, and as He is worshiped. I spent most of the early part of the week puzzling over why Mark recounts the story of John the Baptist's beheading just before the feeding of the five thousand. The following, from last night's teen church message, represents my best guest!
We see that the kingdom comes as the real King is worshiped Let’s read verses 14-16 together. Word has reached Herod of what Jesus is doing. He asks people who they reckon this healer preacher is. Maybe He’s Elijah, maybe He’s one of the prophets. This was the common opinion of Jesus at that time. But Herod is sure that Jesus is John the Baptist come back from the dead to haunt him.
Why?
Let’s read why John the Baptist was beheaded in verses 17-29. Can you see some of the themes here? Impurity, adultery, lust and jealousy. There were the marks of Herod’s family. This Herod is the son of the Herod who was King when Jesus was born. He had ten wives, and called all his children Herod, which explains why there are Herods everywhere in the NT. He had illegally married his brothers wife, and John regularly condemned him for it. Herod was a weak, cowardly man, doing whatever he could to save his reputation and appear powerful in front of his friends, even though it’s clear from this incident that it’s his wife running the show. And as a result of this man’s weaknesses, John the Baptist loses his head. This is an ugly, horrible story, an awful way for a King to act, an awful way for anyone to act.
Why does Mark tell us about this here? I think to show us what the real King is like. He wants us to contrast the actions of an evil, perverted human king, with the actions of Jesus, the Heavenly King.
Let’s read 30-44 together to understand this contrast. The disciples come back, and they’re tired, they need to rest. So Jesus takes them away in the boat, with the idea of having a break. But they get seen, people work out where they’re going, and before they get there a huge crowd has arrived. Five thousand men, Matthew tells us. So maybe a total crowd of 20 or 25 thousand, if they all brought their families. Jesus begins teaching them, but it’s getting late, and the disciples are tired and hungry. ‘send them away Jesus, we need to rest,’ they say. Jesus response is met with sarcasm. They haven’t got enough money, and even if they did, there’s no walmart to buy food for thousands of people. It’s got to be caught or baked, and then served. Totally impossible.
Verse 38 is where it gets exciting. They find five loaves, more like biscuits, and two fish, a pretty normal lunch for a Galilean kid, but no help to feed so many people. But no problem for Jesus. He has them sit down on the green grass, and divides out the food. There’s no indication that anyone in the crowd, or maybe even the disciples knew what was happening, the food just kept on coming, and people got full. The word used in verse 42 means something like stuffed. Everyone had more than enough food. And how many baskets were left over? Twelve! How many disciples were there? Twelve! I love that. Jesus cares and loves so deeply for His people that He won’t just feed them once, He’ll make sure that they’ve got something to take home with them afterwards.
Can you see the contrast between Jesus and Herod. Jesus is the Shepherd King organizing and providing for His people on the green grass, making sure they are fed and satisfied. Herod takes and takes, Jesus gives and gives, even to the point of giving His own life, so that we might be satisfied forever.
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