Episode Details

Introduction

Weakness is big business. In the year of our Lord, 2023, in a time when everything in society is cast in terms of power and power struggles, showing off your weakness is much to your advantage. Of course we don’t use the language of weakness. We use the language of oppression, struggle, and disadvantage. If you can show that you sit at the intersection of multiple oppressed groups then you are automatically supposed to have an outside voice and the right to ignore anything coming from those who “have cultural power.” Which essentially translates into being able to ignore anything a straight white man has to say. In our day, displaying your weakness is its own kind of power play.

And many folks, even Christians, have reacted against this in a manifestly unhealthy way, willing to embrace any form of power. We will prove we aren’t weak by the sort of vulgarity, abuse, or crass self-interest we are willing to tolerate and even celebrate. And this is also an error. 

As Christians, those who hold the Bible as our highest authority, we need to realize that there is a type of weakness which is inherent in our nature, and which we must not only learn to be okay with, but to embrace if we are to honor God; namely, our creaturely weakness. We have limitations, limits, and frailties when it comes to how many hours are in a day, how much energy we are given within those hours, how much we’re able to learn and know. And then, this side of the fall, God has put the most authoritative limit on us all: death. So our bodies are not only limited by being creaturely, but they are positively decaying, breaking down, and headed for the grave. And we can ignore this fact, or run from it, or embrace it as reality on this side of Eden. Limits and weaknesses are part of what it means to be human.

But not all weaknesses are simply the result of our humanity. Some of our weaknesses expose sins for which we are responsible. And that’s what we’re going to find in our text this morning. A weak man who believes he is great, and thus coddles his weakness.

Text:

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. 

21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias’s daughter 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 to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and