Jesus' Response to the Murder of John the Baptist

Jesus Responds to a Horrific Murder (Mark 6:7-32) 

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" (Mk 6:31b).

v  How do you respond when a very good person you love is brutally beheaded by an evil person?

v  How did Jesus respond when his cousin John the Baptist was murdered by a drunken despot?

v  How did Jesus fulfill his role as a good shepherd when under enormous pressure to respond to a bad shepherd?

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve (6:7-13)

1.    By sending out the Twelve two by two (Mk 6:7), how many teaching/preaching voices would there be (Mk 6:6b)?

2.    What would Jesus' instructions teach them (Mk 6:8-9)? Who would they need on their mission?

3.    What did Jesus teach them about failure (Mk 6:10-11)? What does "shake the dust off your feet" teach them? If they are bent on success, are they in the right business?

4.    What was their primary proclamation (Mk 6:12)? What did they do (Mk 6:13)?

Herod and the Horrific Murder of John the Baptist (6:14-29)

1.    Why was John put in prison (Mk 6:17-18)? Why did Herod protect John and like to listen to him (Mk 6:20)?

2.    Who were Herod's dinner guests (Mk 6:21)? Notice that 3 classes of people were invited. What kind of people were they? Who do they represent?

3.    Why (Mk 6:19) and how did Herodias manipulate a banquet into a murder scene (Mk 6:22-25)? Why didn't/couldn't Herod back down from his drunken oath (Mk 6:26-28)?

4.    How was John regarded (Mk 11:32; Lk 3:15; 20:1-8)? Why did his disciples gather around him (Mk 6:30)? Why were so many people coming and going (Mk 6:31a)? What do you do when a relative of your leader is murdered?

5.   How did Jesus regard John the Baptist (Mt 11:11; Lk 7:28)? How did he respond to his murder (31b-32, 33-44)?

6.    Did John's brutal beheading (6:14-29) disrupt the mission of the Twelve (6:7-13, 30-31)? What can we learn here?

The outline and setting of the emergence of Jesus the good shepherd in Mk 6:7-52 are:

1. Jesus sends out the twelve (6:7-13)
2. Herod and John [and the ministry of Jesus] (6:14-20)
3. Herod the bad shepherd feeds the powerful [at a banquet of death] (6:21-29)
4. The twelve return to Jesus (6:30-32)
5. Jesus the good shepherd feeds his flock [at a banquet of life] (6:33-43)
6. Jesus, as shepherd, leads his disciples and creates "still water" for them (6:43-52)