Some people can’t say no. They always want to help. Not being able to say no can get you into problems. People like that tend to make promises that they can’t keep. In their eager desire to do the right thing, they overstretch themselves; they let others down and cause themselves anguish. When faced with another request they forget the fact that they are not all powerful; they forget that they are only human and have human limitations.

But there is a worse fault than not being able to say no. It is far worse not be able to say yes, not able to say yes to God. C S Lewis in his book The Great Divorce, which is on the subject of life beyond the grave, writes about a group of departed spirits who are allowed to go on a coach trip to visit heaven. They are all given the chance to stay; but they all choose not to.

There is a proud, self-righteous man who refused because he had seen a one-time criminal in heaven and he didn’t want to live in the same neighbourhood. There is a cynical, suspicious man. He wouldn’t stay because he knew there must be some trick to the offer. There is a nagging wife and she certainly wont stay because God will not allow her to continue to nag her husband. And there is a bishop who would not stay because he could not face up to the fact that the clever ideas he had and the things he’d preached from the pulpit were really just a lot of nonsense.

They all choose to go back to hell rather than stay in heaven. What Lewis is saying in the book is that people go to hell of their own choice, because they cannot bring themselves to say yes to Jesus. In Mark 6 we are faced with the fact that there were many people who did say no to Jesus.

There are the people of Nazareth. They knew him too well. Their pride and jealousy meant that they couldn’t bring themselves to accept that the local carpenter could teach them anything. Then as Jesus sends his disciples out on their first mission he prepares them for the fact that some will say no. Whole communities and towns will reject them and their message. In fact Matthew tells us in his gospel that Jesus warns the disciples that they may even be flogged or put on trial because some will not say yes to Jesus.

Then of course Herod says no. He chooses to have John the Baptist killed rather than do the right thing. Let’s look then at the story of the encounter between Herod and John the Baptist. This Herod was the son of Herod the Great; the king who had attempted to have the baby Jesus killed when he was born in Bethlehem by massacring all the baby boys.

Herod was an adulterer. He had taken his brother’s wife whose name was Herodias. John the Baptist had spoken out against what he had done, just as the prophet s of old had challenged kings before him. In fact there are several parallels between Herod and King Ahab. Both were proud and selfish. Both were under the influence of vengeful manipulative wives.

There is even a positive side to Herod. He recognised and respected John as a godly man. He would even listen to what John had to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say yes to John’s message of repentance.

But while Herod is keeping his options open, Herodias has made her mind up. Her arrogance and pride meant that Johns challenge to her relationship with Herod meant that her first priority in life was to get John killed. She gets her chance. It’s Herod’s birthday party. All the top people are there. Food and wine flow freely, and then it’s bring on the dancing girl, Herodias’ daughter, and she dances for them.

Herod makes a fool of himself. In his drunken state he offers the girl any thing she wants, even up to half his kingdom. He makes such a big thing of it, swearing on oath to keep his word. The girl is not sure what she wants, so she asks mother. Herodias knows exactly what she wants.

Herod’s birthday party suddenly turns into hell for him. But his pride and vanity will not let him do the right thing. He orders John’s execution. Self was still at the centre of Herod’s life. Although he was attracted to the things of God he still said no. He is a pathetic haunted figure, when he hears what Jesus is doing he is convinced that John has come back from the grave.

People still say no today. Some say no because they are prejudiced or cynical. We live in a culture that tends to ridicule everything. But if we take the path of cynicism, it will ultimately leave us disillusioned. It’s like peeling an onion and taking of and discarding layer after layer and finding that you have ultimately got nothing left to eat.

Many people are cynical about the Christian faith. Some who have been brought up in the church have let their familiarity with Christian things breed contempt. Sometimes it is only when they have made the journey away like the prodigal did that they can learn to truly appreciate what they had despised as familiar. The old, old story is still the best one.

One thing we need to be aware of is that if we say no to Jesus, he will not do a miracle to make us change our mind. You find in the gospels that miracles are a response to faith. It was those who came to Jesus with faith that experienced the miracles, the miracles confirmed their faith. When cynical people ask for a miracle Jesus refuses; Jesus refused to oblige when the teachers of the law and Pharisees asked for a sign and he refused to perform a miracle for Herod when he was brought before him. To come to God everyone has to show a degree of faith. God has given people the freedom to choose. Self-determination is part of human dignity.

That is also the reason that faith cannot be imposed on people. The church in the past has made the mistake of thinking that a whole nation on mass can be Christian. It cannot. It is only as individuals choose to say yes to Jesus that they become Christians. The also have the freedom to say no. God sent Jesus as a man of peace; he came to bring freedom. The gospel is an invitation to freely choose to love and follow Jesus.

Sometimes we may be tempted to water the gospel down in our attempts to get people to say yes. It’s tempting to say to the Moslem that he doesn’t have to believe in the divinity of Jesus. It’s tempting to say to the Hindu that Jesus is just another God that he needs to worship along with all his others. It’s tempting to tell people they can follow Jesus without repenting of flagrant sin. But the gospel message is ‘repent and believe in the only Son of God’.

We also have to accept that Jesus in his love and respect for men and women allows them to say no. Human society is not so good at that. Our society tends to want to manipulate of brainwash everyone into conforming to a politically correct norm.

Jesus does warn of the danger of saying no to him. He tells his disciples to shake the dust off their feet as a warning to those who chose to reject the message. But he does respect the choice of individuals. That is why there has to be a hell. God respects the choice of those who choose independence from God. It accords the human race far more dignity than the liberal idea that wants to manipulate everyone into going to heaven.

Having said all that though, our passage this morning reminds us that Jesus doesn’t easily go away. He is still there. The gospel invitation is still open to Herod, and to the Galilean villagers who choose not to accept the disciples on their first visit. Jesus brought the full knowledge of God’s grace into our world.

Like John the Baptist, he would die at the hands of proud, hateful men who refused to face the truth. But he prayed ‘Father, forgive’ on the cross. And on the Day of Pentecost, the gospel message of repentance was still on offer to those who had crucified him. Jesus doesn’t go away, and the gospel is still on offer to our cynical and disparaging 21st century society.

But there is also something that our passage says to each one of us this morning. Jesus wants us to continue say yes to him. Yes, he died for us; he forgives and accepts us as we are. He tells us not to let our hearts be troubled because he has a home in heaven for us. But he calls us to come closer to him. He calls us to take up our cross. He calls us to a greater trust. He calls us to a relationship of fellowship. He calls us to love him above all else.

May we with integrity of heart and the help of the Holy Spirit say yes to him this morning.
 

Amen.

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