God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something....
"...when Herod learned of it, he said, “It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.”
Although Herod was wealthy and powerful, the Evangelist remembered his cowardly response to the Good News of Jesus. But the craven weakness of this dynasty had been revealed already, when "...on his birthday, he gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee." Stupid with drink, he swore he'd give a dancing girl anything she wanted, "even half my kingdom!" and quailed before her cute response, "Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
The superstitious fool had not forgotten the courage of a nonentity who challenged him from the mud of the Jordan River. Although he had been decapitated, he still frightened Herod.
Roman Christians, who were the first to hear the reading of Saint Mark's written gospel, were already familiar with the cowardice of city and empirial bureaucrats who trembled before the emperor. In fact the entire Roman world was first mystified, then puzzled, and finally terrified by the announcement of the Gospel and the impact of the Holy Spirit.
Men and women without the usual earthly claims of wealth, education, family, or influence were telling stories of a new kingdom, about to appear, which would be governed by a man who had risen from the dead. They did not respond to threats, beatings, imprisonment, or torture and death. They just kept going; and people, both Jews and gentiles, were joining them. They insisted the kingdom to come was not of this world, and so it shouldn't alarm government authorities; but their stories and teachings were changing the ways people acted, spoke, gathered, and shopped. They refused military service and showed little interest in the inane entertainments of the Colisseum.
Roman authorities, like all powerful people in this world, didn't like change. They had grown powerful through the ordinary, predictible ways. They liked the way things were and grew uneasy upon hearing of any new ideas.
Roman Christians remembered the story of John the Baptist. The forerunner of Jesus had suffered as Jesus would suffer, and as they were suffering. John had challenged the scandalous actions of a petty ruler who had married his sister-in-law too soon after his brother's premature death.
"What God has joined together, no human being must separate.... (and) Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:9-12)
If Herod trembles with fear before a child who demands that he keep his oath, shouldn't the world tremble before God when they violate the oath of marriage?
