Thursday 29 August 2024
The Beheading of St John the Baptist
1 Corinthians 1:1-9. I will praise your name for ever, Lord – Psalm 144(145):2-7. Mark 6:17-29.
Jesus feels all that we would feel
Jesus carries the news of the gruesome execution of his cousin John the Baptist at the order of King Herod and the desire of Salome, his stepdaughter. John is the voice crying in the desert for Israel to prepare the way of the Lord. John baptises Jesus in the Jordan. Jesus and John have known each other since they were in the womb. They have grown up as family.
The death of any young person is particularly poignant. Their beauty and their unfulfilled promise; the dreams that will not now come to fruition. The great gap of loneliness in the hearts of those who love them. The sorrow of the might-have-been. Jesus was fully human and fully divine in his nature. He felt all that we would feel. When he is called on by his friends to raise Lazarus, he weeps. Yet he is able still to pray, to love, and cherish those he loves. Steadily, he makes his way towards Calvary, to the salvation of humankind.
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