Salome (we know her name from extra-biblical sources) asked for the head of John the Baptist after her dance before the king. Why she would do such a thing fuels the eponymous drama by Oscar Wilde and opera by Richard Strauss. Basically they speculate that, like her father, the young woman when she heard John speak was very much perplexed, yet she liked to listen to him. She was perplexed because the challenge to a more godly life in John’s preaching required her to change… and change is hard. When I hear Jesus say “turn the other cheek” or “give to those who ask” or “love your enemies” I am attracted by his words. The challenge to let those words change my behaviors.
