The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. As we’ve gone through the chapters of Mark these last weeks, it continues to hit me how the experiences of the community in Jesus’ day mirrors in many ways our present day world. Even the grisly executions done by ISIS echo and multiply the violent death of John the Baptist for standing for the truth. This Gospel reading is marked by rejection and misidentification of Jesus—so that right from the first verse, King Herod and the community are mistaking the miracles and works of Jesus and His disciples, for John the Baptist risen from the dead. With misidentification, superstition, scandal, incest, a prophet speaking the truth and righteousness, a conflicted conscience, a murderous grudge, rash vow, persecution, and gory ending, this story has all the elements of a modern movie drama. The reading explains through a flashback, that Herod had recently killed John, and he and the peop...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It’s often said that the holidays are often marked by sharp contrasts in emotions. For some Christians, Christmas is the peak of joy and anticipation for the year, with Easter as well. And rightly so. These two Christian feasts are meant for celebration—and we aren’t going to stop celebrating Christmas yet! We can continue to revel in the joy of Christ’s birth for us, and stretch out our celebration while the world moves on and tunes out. But just as quickly as we’ve heard the marvelous Christmas gospel, we’re hit with Jesus’ narrow escape from death at the hand of Herod’s soldiers, and the brutal massacre of Bethlehem’s innocent sons. And it’s not an accident of the calendar of readings, but how Matthew himself finishes the story of Jesus’ birth and childhood. Why such a swing from amazing good news to such a grim story? Couldn’t we keep this story in the shadows, and just stick to the joyful Christmas message? ...