Sermon - The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist 2021 - Mark 6:14-29

Saint John the Baptist Preparing Himself for His Martyrdom, Louis Finson, 1607

God’s Word, the Bible, isn’t like a Disney movie or a comic book; it can be very harsh and jarring at times. The cover art on the bulletin is a good example of that; it’s harsh and not pleasant to look at. I looked up some other art for this day of the church year and let’s just say this bulletin art is very tame in comparison.

The reason that God’s Word, like our Gospel reading today, can be so harsh and uncomfortable is because it’s real, and reality is not a cute cartoon. This world is harsh and uncomfortable, it’s messy and violent, it’s frightening and worrisome. God knows it. Being a Christian in this world is risky and it can cost you everything. God’s Word is true and good and beautiful, but it often makes people uncomfortable and even murderously angry. When Christians cling to His Word, it can cause Christians much suffering. Yet, in spite of their earthly suffering, God promises to give rest to those who are faithful to His Word.

That’s why we remember the martyrdom, the beheading, of St. John the Baptist. His courage and faithfulness inspires us also to be brave and faithful. The eternal reward he and all the martyrs receive is a comfort for us who also may suffer for the Word of God. We faithful will receive our rest from the Lord, through Christ, who gave His life as a ransom to free us from death to life.

The story surrounding John the Baptist’s death reads much like a soap opera, except this is totally real. It’s complicated and bizarre, yet here it is. The Herod in our text today is Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the Herod at the time of Jesus’ birth. Herod the Great had ten wives, and as you could guess also had many children. 

Herod Antipas had been originally married to the daughter of a foreign Arab king. That is, until he went to Rome and there met Herodias, a beautiful and ambitious woman. Herodias was the daughter of one of Herod Antipas’ half-brothers, which makes her his niece. Additionally, she was already married to another of Herod Antipas’ half-brothers. But that didn’t stop them from deserting their spouses and running off together and getting married. So just to be clear, Herodias is both his brother’s wife and his niece. Gross.

John the Baptist came preaching repentance, and called out their incestous and adulterous relationship. John knew that when people would see the example of their ruler, they would be tempted to make similar sinful decisions. He boldly preached God’s Word, even though it was unpopular. But “Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.”

But Herodias didn’t let the grudge go. So when she saw her opportunity to kill him she took it. It was Herod’s birthday and he had invited a bunch of elites to his palace for a party. At this party, Herodias’ daughter from her first marriage, Salome, danced for Herod and all the elites who greatly enjoyed her dance. To put this politely, she wasn’t just doing a tap dance routine. Again, just to be clear, Salome is Herod’s stepdaughter and his niece. Gross.

So Herod in his lustful crazed stupidity, “vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” So she talked to her mom, and her mom, still bloodthirsty, demanded John the Baptist be killed and his head shamefully paraded about on a platter. Herod, the spineless and prideful man he was, went along with it. John was abruptly and without ceremony beheaded in prison. “When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.” 

It’s a strange, dramatic, and disturbing story. It doesn’t really end on a happy note. It’s a sad story. Yet it’s God’s holy and precious Word, it’s the story of one of our fellow Christians and the suffering he endured for the sake of God’s Word. It is good to remember and honor those Christians who went before us and suffered for their faithfulness to God’s Word.

It is good to remember and honor those Christians today who are currently suffering for their faithfulness to God’s Word. In many places in Africa, Muslims regularly attack and kill Christians, burning them alive in their churches. Presently in Afghanistan the Taliban, Muslims, are killing Christians. They’ve been doing it for years, and now with American forces out of the way, they’re doing it even more. In Finland, the Lutheran Bishop Puhjola along with a Lutheran member of parliament are facing prison for confessing the Biblical truth that homosexuality is sin. These Christians are choosing to remain faithful to the Word of God even if it costs them their lives.

The reason John the Baptist and other Christians remain faithful is that they know it doesn’t just end on a sad note. For Christians the end of our story is far from sad! When we’re laid into the grave it’s not the end for us! “Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” The end of this life for the Christian is only just the beginning of living eternally with God in paradise!

Christ is the first and the greatest martyr. He laid down His life on our behalf. His death is for us and truly is our death. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” When we were baptized, His death became ours and we died with Christ in those blessed waters. The crucifix not only shows Christ’s suffering and death, but it shows our suffering and death, because this is Christ for us. We have been united with Jesus in death. “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

That is the hope towards which we look! We don’t just see suffering and death as our end, but we see the resurrection and the empty grave, we see the new heavens and the new earth, we see life which doesn’t end! We Christians can see the future, we have been given this wonderful foresight; we can see beyond this present suffering and death to the neverending joy awaiting us after this life. That gives us Christians a powerful perspective on life so that in spite of our present suffering, we know that there awaits us a resurrection and a time of rest and peace, the likes of which we’ve never known here on earth.

Martin Luther has a quote attributed to him that helps make this clear: “World, death, devil, hell, away and leave me in peace! You have no hold on me. If you will not let me live, then I will die. But you won’t succeed in that. Chop my head off, and it won’t harm me. I have a God who will give me a new one.” You could just as well hear John the Baptist speaking those words when the executioner entered his cell to chop off his head. God shall give him a new head, and a better one, in the resurrection! There’s nothing to fear because even death is destroyed through Christ’s resurrection.

Here in America we’ve not had to face this sort of suffering yet. But the days of imprisonments and executions may yet come, I don’t know. We’ve had a different type of persecution here thus far, a sort of slow gradual decay. But that doesn’t change the fact that we are called to be faithful right where God has placed us. We have our own sets of battles to fight. We fight against the sins and temptations in our own hearts, and we fight against them in the world around us. We don’t get to choose our battles, but we do get to remain faithful wherever the battle for God’s Word is to be fought.

This faithfulness may cause us to suffer. Yet, in spite of our suffering, God promises to give rest to we who are faithful to His Word. Let us like John the Baptist and so many other martyrs, both past and present, abide in the Word of God and remain true to God’s Word. Because in the end, our story extends beyond this life and the grave. Through Christ the resurrection is ours and we shall receive peace and rest in eternity.