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