A Prophet's Reward

Gospel: Mark 6: 14-29

There is a false belief among modern Christians which somehow thinks that if one takes up the mantle and voice of a prophet that somehow one will come to exercise power within society and rule over some imagined just society.  To find such a precedent in the tradition would be difficult.  Consider the fate of the Jewish prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr.  All suffered the same fate - death at the hands of the ruling powers of this world.

To aspire to worldly power and dominion is not the desire of an authentic prophet.  It is the desire of someone who just wants the power others have.  They would wield it in unjust ways as much as the ones currently holding the scepter.  It is merely a matter of degree, not of kind.  The authentic prophet has a power altogether different from that of worldly dominion.  It is the power of truth, and truth has no place in the halls of power in our day any more than it did in the praetorium of Pontius Pilate.  

To be a prophet is to accept a prophet's reward: exile, persecution, and ultimately death at the hands of the worldly powers.  To stand and protect the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized is to incur the wrath of the rich, powerful, and influential.  But this is not something we should lament.  Jesus exhorts us to rejoice, for we have been found worthy to carry the mantle of the prophet.