Pentecost 8
– Proper 10
15 July 2018
Mark 6:14-29
The Beheading of John the Baptist
O Lord, You granted Your prophets strength
to resist the temptations of the devil and courage to proclaim repentance. Give
us pure hearts and minds to follow Your
Son faithfully even into suffering and death; through the same Jesus Christ,
our Lord, who lives, and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and
forever.
“Weak and wicked Herod. Like his father
before him. Was more afraid of looking bad in front of his dinner guests. Than
he was of God and His wrath. Driven by lust and pride. And in the false name of
honor. As though he were a man of his word. He unjustly. And illegally. Executed
John. To please the daughter of a harlot. Who was not his wife.”1
We prefer our
Bible stories to be pristine. We enjoy readings that are good for food… pleasant to the eyes… desired to make us wise.
(Genesis 3:6) We favor music and song that lifts us up. We wish to feel good
about ourselves. After spending time in church.
That doesn’t
always happen. Nor, should it. A diet consisting only of sweets is not good for
you. Nor is it good for you spiritually. If we hear nothing of the consequences
of transgression.
Conventional
wisdom tells us: “you must first hit rock
bottom before you climb up.” Not so! Some hit rock bottom and go splat!
The story of
the beheading of John the Baptist reminds us that the way of sin always leads
to destruction. Offense casts a web. For which we cannot easily escape. John’s
death speaks about the reality in which we live. - A broken and fallen world. –
Outside of Eden.
Herod the Great. Who murdered the boys
from Bethlehem. Had ten wives and many children. He was a particularly nasty
tyrant. Herod's paranoia. About keeping power. And his ruthless suppression of
dissent. Earns him a well deserved place alongside the great dictators of
history. He trusted no one. Not even his wives. (Remember, he had ten!) Or his
many sons. One spouse. And three of his boys. Were all executed. Because he
feared they were plotting against him.
Any threat of
an uprising. Was put down. With brutal and bloody rage. Encouraged by his Roman
masters. Herod believed in singling out individuals for public execution. As
well as the mass slaughter of His opponents. Two thousand years later. Not much
has changed. As far as brutal dictators are concerned. Herod is the prototype.
He set the standard.
Herod Antipas.3 Governed Galilee for more than forty years. Remember
him. He is one the main characters of our Gospel lesson this morning. He is the
one who not only executed John the Baptist. (Matthew 14:1; Luke 3:19) He played
a crucial role in Jesus' death. (Luke 13 & 23).
Why is the
story so important? And why do we spend an entire Sunday to focus on this ugly
and brutal death? We do so. Because John is the forerunner of Jesus. His
ministry will parallel Jesus.
John has an
unlikely birth. So does Jesus. John is found in the desert. Jesus is driven by
the Spirit to be tempted – in the desert. John preached repentance. So did
Jesus. John confronted the religious authorities of his day as did Jesus. John
is innocent yet finds himself arrested. The same happened to Jesus. John is
executed as is Jesus.
Jesus rises
from the dead. Did John? Scripture does not mention him by name specifically. However.
Matthew will give us a hint in his gospel account of Good Friday when he
writes: “And Jesus cried out again with a
loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was
torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep
were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into
the holy city and appeared to many.” Matthew 27:50-53
Could John
have been one of those saints who had fallen asleep only to be raised? Was John
someone to come out of the tome after Jesus’ resurrection only to appear to
many in the holy city? Again. Scripture does no mention John specifically by
name. But the pattern fits. So don’t bet the farm insisting that John was one of
the first to be resurrected. But I won’t hold it against you. If you wager a
few acres.
(If loving you is wrong) I don’t want to be
right! Antipas married the daughter of the King of Arabia. But later he
lived with Herodias. The wife of his
brother Philip.1 The New
Testament gives the reason why Herodias sought John's head. She had married Prince Philip. But later
shacked up with Herod. 2
Herodias was
married to Philip. Antipas took her to be his wife. Yes! Herod married his
sister-in-law! “The wife of his brother
Philip.” “For Herod himself had sent
men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias,
his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.” (v.17)
She acted
against the law of man and of God in leaving Philip to marry Antipas. John
rebuked Antipas. For this adulterous union. And Herodias took vengeance. John
called Antipas out. Saying, “It is not
lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias held
a grudge against John. And wanted to kill him. But she could not. Herod feared John. Knowing that he was a
righteous and holy man. Antipas
protected John. When Antipas heard him. He was greatly perplexed. And yet he
liked to listen to him.
John was a
just man. And a holy man. A complete good man.
Herod knew this. What was lacking in his own character. He saw in John.
And this frightened him. John was a man sent from God. A man of God. A man for
God.
Antipas wanted
to please his guests. He wanted to please his wife. And he was afraid of this
desert preacher. So he locked him up. He shut him down. He attempted to silence
him. But John’s words still haunted him.
Choose. But
choose wisely. An opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet
for his crew. The officers and the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter came
in and danced. She pleased Herod and his guests.
He solemnly
swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I
will give you, even half of my kingdom.” Her reply was expected. “(I desire
ᾐτήσατο λέγουσα) the head of John the baptizer.” Deeply
grieved. Yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests. He did not want to
refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to
bring John’s head.
So. Do we give
a “false witness” when we, for example, compromise clear Biblical principles in
order to fit in at work, or at school?
What price will we pay? To acquire acceptance and approval?
So, what about
you? Do your sins rise up against you? Of what are you afraid? Do you crave the praise of men? Do you fear
the voice of God? Repent! And claim that forgiveness. Which was won for you by
Jesus Christ. This forgiveness has a name. It’s called Absolution.
[Absolution] “Is neither a response to a suitably worthy confession. Nor the
acceptance of a reasonable apology. To absolve means not only to loosen. To
free. To acquit. it also means to dispose of. To complete. And to finish.
When God pardons. He does not say He
understands your weakness. Or makes allowances for your errors. Rather He
disposes of. He finishes with. The whole of your dead life. And raises you up.
With a new one. He does not so much deal with your failures. As does He drop
them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. He forgets your sins in the darkness
of the tomb. He remembers your iniquities no more. In the forgetfulness of
Jesus’ death. He finds you in the desert of death. Not in the garden of
improvement. And in the power of Jesus’ resurrection. He puts you on His
shoulders. Rejoicing. And brings you home.”3
Words –1,550
Passive Sentences – 4%
Readability – 79.5%
Reading Level –3.8
Sources:
Artwork
The Beheading of John the Baptist Schnorr von Carolsfeld © WELS permission
granted for personal and congregational use
1. Quote
taken from an 8.29.2002 sermon by Rev. Dr. David Peterson, Redeemer Lutheran
Church, Ft. Wayne, IN, which also gave structure to this manuscript.
2. Josephus'
Antiquities of the Jews Book 18,
chapter 5, paragraph 4 comment that Herodias "divorced herself from her husband while he was alive" to argue
that it took place before Herod II's death, in about the year 27, thus making
it possible for Jesus to have been born in the reign of Herod the Great (as
indicated by the Gospel of Matthew) and to have died in his early 30's (as
indicated by the Gospel of Luke). See also Stewart Perowne, The Later Herods p.
49, (Bruce 10 n. 16; Schürer 344 and n. 19)
3. His
second son.
4. Robert Farrar Capon, Parables of Grace, p. 39
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