In a rare moment when Jesus does not appear in the gospel, Mark tells the

story of Herod’s beheading of John the Baptist.

Herod’s story is a cautionary one about the misery that comes when someone

devotes their life to the pursuit of earthly power. Where Herod’s power

destroys, Jesus’ power, exemplified in the life of John, by contrast,

creates, redeems and sets free. It’s his power that we are made for and we

find it by dying to our broken versions of power and rising with him in his

mighty strength.

By Ed Flint