Setting Ourselves Up For Failure: Mark 6:21-23

Sometimes we set ourselves up for failure.  As a young kid, I would get cranky in the middle of Christmas Day after all the presents were unwrapped and we’d had Christmas Dinner.  I was cranky because in my excitement for Christmas I got very little sleep the night before.  Here’s another example.  If something happens in my life to make me considerably upset, I’ll typically say something or do something I’ll emotionally regret later unless I wait twenty-four hours to allow my rational side of my brain to process what happened.  Here’s a third example.  I used to berate myself frequently for failing to do my devotions consistently because I would try to do them when I went to bed.  I’d end up falling asleep and start every morning with guilt because I’d failed to complete my devotions.  It can be hard enough to make good choices; sometimes the choices we make set up circumstances that make future good choices even more difficult.

For example, take Herod Antipas.  On his birthday, he wanted to have a celebration.  Herod invites many of his nobles for a feast.  So far, this sounds no different than what many of us do for our birthday.

Where it goes sideways for Herod, though, is that he asked – or at least allowed – his own daughter to dance and entertain the crowd.  I’ll fully acknowledge I live in a different culture with clearly different values on the relationship between men and women, yet I can’t help but wonder who throws their own daughter in front of other men for the purpose of making the daughter alluring?  By God’s design, fathers should protect their families, not use them for their own advantage.

Naturally, Salome comes in and dances well enough the male nobles are put in a good mood.  Because Salome pleased the nobles, Herod becomes pleased with her.  Salome has shown the men a good time and Herod believes this signifies he’s done his job as the political leader of the region.  If his nobles are pleased with him, then they’ll be more likely to influence the people below them to see Herod in a positive light.

Herod’s choice to allow Salome to dance compounds, though.  Because Herod is willing to use his daughter, why wouldn’t Salome be willing to use Herod?  When Herod puts himself into an even more compromising position by telling Salome he’ll give her anything she wants up to half his kingdom, how does Herod expect this is going to not turn out poorly?  Herod makes an absurd promise to a person to whom he is emotionally attached, making it highly unlikely that he’ll want to break his promise once Salome shrewdly takes advantage of his good mood.

Herod makes a series of compounding bad choices here.  Each choice was rooted in the emotion of the moment.  Sometimes we set ourselves up for failure.