Ready to end up like John

Festival of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist

Jeremiah 1:17-19  +  Mark 6:17-29

You heard the account this morning of the beheading of John the Baptist. It’s a sobering account. There was nothing glamorous about it. John didn’t go out in a blaze of glory. He sat in Herod’s prison for weeks or months. And then, on Herod’s birthday, an executioner showed up to his prison cell and chopped off his head, which was then delivered on a platter to a vulgar teenage girl, who then delivered it to her victorious mother, who ended up getting the revenge she had been seeking all along. Such was the earthly end of the man about whom Jesus said, Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. How did it come to this? And why? And what does it mean for us, in our place and in our time, where it seems like those in power would gladly rid the world of people like John? We’re going to address those questions today, based on the Scripture lessons you heard. And as we do, I’d like you to ponder this question: Are you ready to end up like John?

What was it that got John thrown into Herod’s prison in the first place? Well, you know how John conducted his ministry by the Jordan river. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He applied God’s Old Testament Law to the crowds of people who came out to him, to the people in general, to tax collectors, and to soldiers alike. I think today is a fitting day to hear how St. Luke described John’s preaching:

He said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him: “Brood of vipers! Who taught you that you would escape the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance…Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages…I baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Fiery preaching, isn’t it? It’s the kind of preaching that brings some people to their knees in fear and repentance, eagerly seeking God’s forgiveness in the promised Christ and eager to amend their sinful ways. But it’s the kind of preaching that makes other people angry. How dare you judge me! How dare you say that what I’m doing is wrong! As Jesus described such people, This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

Some of the evil deeds being exposed by John belonged to King Herod, that is, Herod Antipas, tetrarch or “king” of the region of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great, who killed all those baby boys soon after Jesus was born. It was this same Herod Antipas before whom Jesus would eventually stand trial on Good Friday. This Herod had married Herodias, the ex-wife of his half-brother Herod II, also known as Herod Philip. Now, that was fine according to Roman law, and American law would certainly permit such a thing. But it was plainly forbidden by God’s Old Testament Law for an Israelite to marry his brother’s wife while his brother was still alive. So John simply and fearlessly and publicly denounced the king: It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.

That was all. John didn’t incite an insurrection or try to get Herod dethroned. He just rebuked Herod for his sin. But to publicly rebuke a ruler at that time was no harmless thing. There was no First Amendment-guaranteed free speech in Roman-occupied Israel. Didn’t John know he would be in danger for rebuking the king? Of course he knew. But unlike the average Jew, who had no call from God to publicly rebuke kings, John had been called by God to be a prophet, to speak the truth of God’s Word with divine authority, whether it was the Law that condemns sin or whether it was the Gospel that pointed penitent sinners to Christ. And as a prophet, John had the same command and the same promise from the Lord that the prophet Jeremiah had: Speak to them all that I command you. Do not be afraid of them, that I would cause you to be shattered before them. For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against her princes, against her priests, and against the people of the land. And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”

And the Lord did deliver John from the people, until John’s ministry was done and it was time for him to offer up his life as a witness.

His preaching made both Herod and his illegitimate wife Herodias angry. They both wanted to kill John for daring to call their sin a sin (as Matthew tells us). The difference was, while Herodias simply wanted him dead, Herod knew that, politically, that would be a mistake, because John was very popular among the people. So Herod simply threw him in prison, where he liked to visit John occasionally and even began to listen gladly to some of the things John had to say.

But then came the fateful birthday party, as you heard in the Gospel, and that almost-certainly seductive dance by Herod’s step-daughter Salome, and then the foolish oath on Herod’s part—“I’ll give you whatever you want”—and the despicable suggestion on Herodias’ part that her daughter ask for the prize of John the Baptist’s head on a platter, which Herod reluctantly granted so as not to lose face before his guests. It’s so disgusting, so vile. It seems so meaningless, almost a bad joke. It looks like God delivered John right into the hands of the wicked, and the wicked got exactly what they wanted.

So I ask you, are you ready to end up like John? Preachers have to be. You know, if we were ever to have a seminary recruitment day for our diocese, this is the day I would choose for it, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. John is the model for all Christian preachers, from his fearless and direct preaching of the Law, to his persistent and earnest pointing to Jesus as the Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, to his emphasis on a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to the ignominious ending of his earthly life for daring to speak the truth.

Now, you’ll say, I don’t know many pastors who have ended up that way! In our age, that’s true, although there have been other kinds of ignominious endings for faithful pastors—losing income, losing homes, losing family, losing friends, losing reputation and respect. When preachers don’t lose any of those things, it’s either due to a singular providence of God, or it’s due to the fact that there are few preachers anymore who walk in the footsteps of John, who say what needs to be said when they know they will pay for it dearly.

But the time is upon us when the consequences for speaking the truth, as God has commanded us to speak it, are becoming more severe. And this doesn’t apply only to pastors. Pastors are called to speak publicly, to preach against all sin and to point all penitent sinners to Christ. Not everyone has that calling. But Christians in Afghanistan know all too well that all it takes is admitting openly that you’re a Christian for the Taliban to hunt you down and execute you in cold blood.

The executions haven’t begun here yet. But you know from experience what can happen to a congregation that takes a doctrinal stand against a larger church body. And you know that, in your own vocations, expressing a Christian worldview about sex or about marriage will get you accused of hate speech. Not going along with the demonic narrative about gender will get you fired. Not going along with the demonic forcing of experimental drugs into people or face masks onto people—onto little children!—will get you a condescending lecture from society, will get you denied entrance into more and more places in our country, and may also get you fired.

So. Are you ready to end up like John? Jesus was. He knew that John was not just the forerunner who announced the coming of the Christ, but also the forerunner whose death foretold the death of the Christ. John was the first preacher of Jesus as the Christ, and his ending foreshadowed the ending of every preacher who would follow, in one way or another, and of many non-preachers, too. Why have so many been ready to end up like John? Because Jesus was. Because our God took on human flesh so that He could end up on a cross to pay for the sins of the world with His suffering and death, to earn back God’s favor for sinful mankind, giving us the right to call upon God as our Father, claiming only Christ as the reason.

That’s the message of the cross, that Christ, the Son of God, was willing to be delivered up for us on the cross so that we could be reconciled with God through faith in His atoning sacrifice. And if you’ve been reconciled with God through Christ and if you know He has a place in Paradise prepared for you, will you really cling to this life so tightly? Will you really be silent about God to save your skin, or hide your faith in God to keep from being hated, or fail to live and speak as a Christian in the world in order to escape the executioner? Oh, Satan will tempt you to be silent, to hide your faith, to go along with the godless world in order to get along with the godless world. And he’ll promise, you can keep your job if you do! You can keep your earthly life! You can keep your head on your shoulders! Maybe. But you won’t keep it for long, any of it. Soon this godless world will perish. Soon you’ll die, of this or that. And only those who have been ready to end up like John, trusting in Christ and confessing Him before men, no matter the consequence, will escape the judgment that awaits the world and will spend eternity with the Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.

So pray today for the strength to resist the devil, to resist the temptation to shrink back from the cross. And the Lord will not disappoint you. He’s right now building up your spiritual muscles. He’s right now in the Word—and momentarily in the Sacrament—injecting you with courage, with fortitude, with the conviction you need to face whatever the world might throw at you, so that, when the time comes, you’re ready to speak, ready to confess, ready to offer up your head, because you know the One in whom you have believed, that He will not abandon you to the grave, but will reunite your body with your head and give you a much better life in the life to come. Amen.