Family: Mark 6:24-25

Family dynamics can be rough.  One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it doesn’t shy away from portraying the gamut of how families function.  Mary and Joseph seem to care intensely for Jesus at His birth.  Yet when Jesus is transitioning to ministry, Jesus’ family comes out and tries to drag him out of the public eye because they think he is insane.  In Genesis, we have the story of Jacob and his intense love for his son Joseph.  Of course, that family dynamic led to the envy of his older brothers as they sold him into slavery in Egypt.  I don’t think I need to mention Cain and Abel, also in Genesis.  There is also the story of Abraham and his nurturing love of his nephew, Lot.  Lot doesn’t necessarily return the care as he often selfishly thinks of himself first over Abraham’s needs.  Families, and the dynamics within them, can be quite difficult to navigate.

This is even more true the less the family dynamic is based on love.  If people who love each other occasionally use each other and treat each other poorly, what can be expected of families that aren’t bound together by strong ties of love?  For example, look at the family Herod Antipas has created with Herodias.

Yesterday we discovered just how much Herod constructed family dynamics upon political and social agendas.  By allowing Salome to come in and entertain the male nobles, he displays his propensity for using family at times to get something desired.  Today we see how Salome learned the family dynamic.  When Herod promises to give her anything she asks for, Salome runs out to consult her mother.

I can’t help but wonder what Salome’s agenda is.  Is Salome genuinely grateful for her mother’s influence and she is doing this to please her?  Perhaps.  Does Salome understand the tension between Herod and Herodias regarding John the Baptizer and sees this as an opportunity to do her mother a favor that Salome might be able to call upon later?  Perhaps.  Given what we’ve seen about Herod’s family thus far, I don’t think it is stretching the realm of possibility at all to think that Salome has already learned how to use and manipulate others as she has been used and manipulated herself.

Herodias tells Salome to ask for the head of John the Baptizer.  Salome complies, making the request to Herod.  The cycle is complete and Herod now understands what he’s done.  We’ll deal with his response tomorrow; for today it is enough to let the family dynamics of Herod, Herodias, and Salome sink in.  Family is something God created for the purpose of nurture and teaching love t the next generation.  Herod and his wife have turned it into a political and social game of one-upmanship.  Family dynamics can be rough.