Sparkly Shiny Things

Gospel: Mark 6: 14-29

Herod is much like the crowd throughout the Gospels. Both are bedazzled by wonders and spectacles, but the deeper reality of their significance is of no interest to them.  Their interest is only surface level entertainment and self-interest.  When a deeper value comes in conflict with it, they are more than willing to sacrifice the life of a human being so as not to be disturbed in their entertainments.  

For this reason Jesus trusted neither the crowds nor those in authority.  When it was Jesus' turn before the powerful he refused to perform a miracle.  The miracles and signs were not entertainment, nor were they ploys to enroll people into a belief system.  They were concrete expressions of God's mercy in the world, and invitations to us to be extensions of God's mercy in the world for others.  

It is easy for us to condemn Herod from afar, but how often are we like him in our faith?  What are we like when Jesus does not perform miracles or spectacles? And when they are performed do we see the deeper reality they convey, or are we merely along for the amusement like children at a circus? If we too are willing to sacrifice human lives for anything whatever, we may be more like Herod and the crowd.  Let us instead embrace the mercy of God found in the miracles and strive to be instruments of mercy in our world for others.