The Beheading of the Honourable and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
All-Night Vigil Feast. A day when the faithful are highly encouraged to participate in the Divine Liturgy. Day of fast.
Acts 13:25-32; Mark 6:14-30.
Read Mark 6:14-30
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In one sense, today’s gospel begins with the end of the story, rather than the beginning: the passage begins with King Herod’s anxiety about Jesus and his worry that John the Baptist, whom he had killed, has risen from the dead. This introduction isn’t trivial: it hints at one of John the Baptist’s important roles in salvation history. The fact that Herod thinks Jesus may be the righteous prophet who he unjustly killed, now raised from the dead and continuing his mission, shows how John’s whole life and preaching point to Jesus. All the prophets of the Old Testament foreshadow Jesus in their words, but sometimes also in their willingness to suffer for righteousness. John is the ultimate example of this, suffering as a martyr for Christ before the crucifixion.
In the Gospel of John, when the Baptist was asked by his disciples about Jesus, he famously responded that “he must increase and I must decrease.” Yet, John’s death continues to be celebrated by Christians 2000 years later because, by dying for the truth, he points us to Christ, whose death will fulfill the reconciliation between God and the fallen world that John’s preaching looked forward to. So John’s death is not really the end of his life and mission, but points both to his own redemption, and, in Herod’s fear, to the ultimate defeat of evil that will be accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ.