Truth

Carlene L. Douglas
Mark 6:13-29 (NIV)
13They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
14King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying,[a]“John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
15Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” 16But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
17For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. 18For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, 20because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled[b]; yet he liked to listen to him.
21Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” 23And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

24She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” “The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
25At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
26The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, 28and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. 29On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

“You see what you want to see.” How many times have we either heard or said these words in response to reluctance to face the truth? We have the information before us yet we conjure up fanciful and worthless images in our minds to blind the truth. No matter how creative the imagination, how skillful the ability to avoid the truth, the truth will stand.

Jesus was who He was. The people who encountered Him had extreme perceptions of who He really was. In their minds’ eye they saw Jesus for who they wanted Him to be to satisfy their beliefs or their denial of who He was. None of this changed who Jesus was. Herod knew that it was Jesus of whom the people spoke, but denying it would be exactly what he needed to cover his guilt and the sin of his past. Herod’s convenient untruth. It was Herod’s conscience that sealed the thought in his mind that Jesus was the resurrected John the Baptist. It was convenient for Herod to think that a resurrected John would bring him absolution from the sin of ordering John’s death. Accepting that it was Jesus would force Herod to confront his wrongdoing.

Whenever we fast and pray, truth will be revealed. When God shows us the truth, He gives no leverage for us to see the truth as anything else but the truth; no what we wish we had heard, nor what we wish we saw. God’s truth will force us to accept what is. It will confirm, clarify, or negate what we see in our human thinking.

Holding up your heart against God’s mirror, what do you need to accept as truth today?

Carlene L. Douglas
Kairos Community A.M.E. Church
Nashville, Tennessee