Revelation 6:9—1; St Mark 6:14-29
Lutheran High School Chapel
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Herod was a pervert. He committed adultery with his brother Philip’s wife. She was also his niece. History intimates that he was more than “just friends” with Caligula, if you know what I mean. Caligula, in case you forgot, was the Roman Caesar who lived incestuously with his sister, raped brides at their weddings, executed parents in front of their children and laughed about it, had playwrights burned alive on stage, and tortured people as dinner entertainment. Herod, that rotten apple, hadn’t fallen far from the poisoned tree.
But his sexual dalliances were only the beginning of his moral decrepitude. He embezzled money and incurred a substantial debt with wealthy officials. He cooperated with Claudius to assassinate Caligula, after which he was appointed tetrarch in Judea and Samaria. He martyred St James, the son of Zebedee, and when he saw that it pleased the people, he had St Peter imprisoned. He was a self-righteous, bombastic, arrogant tyrant who surrounded himself with sycophants. Acts 12 details his quick demise: An angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last (Acts 12:23).
But then there is St John. The baptizer. The Forerunner of the Messiah. The Voice crying in the wilderness. He didn’t have a wife. Or children. Or a home. He lived in the desert of Judea and ate insects and wild honey growing up. He dressed in rough fashion reminiscent of Elijah in whose spirit he served, turning the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers. His life prepared him for a ministry that lasted at most a year and a half.
He called Pharisees a brood of vipers, warned of the impending doom to come even while the axe was laid to the root of the tree. He kept company with tax collectors, prostitutes, and traitors, repentant sinners all. He was jailed for daring to criticize Herod, to speak truth to power, as they say, by preaching that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife as his own.
Imagine that. A Christian preacher unafraid to tell the ruling authorities that their ideology about marriage and sexuality was wrong. That it was not in step with God’s Word. Calling them to repentance. John didn’t toe the party-line. He wasn’t a Republican or a Libertarian. He had no political allegiances at all. He wasn’t polite. Or nice. In fact he did one thing and one thing only: he pointed to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He decreased, in every possible way, while the Son of God increased.
Today he’d be censured, shouted down, and rioted against. He wouldn’t be allowed on Facebook, Twitter, or college campuses. He’d have some pretty choice words for church bodies who call themselves “Christian,” even “Lutheran” yet deny the true Gospel at every turn, evening publicly voting against the clear words of Jesus Christ as the exclusive way of salvation.
But they were different times. They were the beginning of the end times. And St John didn’t lose his business or his friends or his 501c3 status. He lost his head, his life. For Jesus’ sake. And thus he kept it for eternal life (Jn 12:25).
For the time came for the greatest born of women to be wicked decapitated in prison to slake the bloodlust of a murderous and cruel adulterous and her equally sinister daughter. St John died to please the pompous promise of a duped royal ruled by his sexual appetites. His severed head was served up on a silver platter for a morose dinner party. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it. Then they went to Jesus.
That is what John taught them to do. Go to Jesus. That is what he still proclaims to you to do. Go to Jesus. He is now among those souls beneath the altar, slain for the Word of God and the martyrdom that they bore. He cries out, How long, O Lord? He has been given the white robe of Christ’s own righteousness and told to wait a little while longer. But still he preaches to you, Go to Jesus.
He preaches from the baptismal font in your church, standing there each Sunday, immovable and resolute (unless yours is on wheels), calling you to repentance; to return to your Holy Baptism. Your sins may not be as heaven crying as Herod’s, but you too have broken the Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery, but shall lead a chaste and decent life in all that you say and do. Pornography. Lust. Any form of sex outside of one man and one woman marriage. These are all just as wicked. Just as unlawful. What are willing to forego for the sake of that good confession? Your job? Your friends? What are you willing to loose for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Your head? Your life?
Indeed you have the One whom St John preached and pointed and baptized. You have the Lamb of God upon whom all your sins were laid. He is the One who became the adulterer, the pervert, the sexually immoral, the fornicator. Jesus became Sin. And because He would not perform for Herod, He would not dance to his sadistic drum, He was handed over to receive in His body the bloodlust of disgusting men. He was executed as a criminal while enduring the prison wrought by your sins. He is the Righteous and Holy Man, but He did not keep Himself safe from your perversions and lusts, but took them into His side and killed them. He is your Head who was cut off from the land of the living and was laid in the tomb.
But the Father avenged His blood by raising Him from the dead. Go to Him. For He now comes to you. He calls to you, not to dance salaciously before Him, but to purify you, cleansing you from all unrighteousness by water and His Word in Holy Baptism. There He gives you the white robe of His perfection and tells you to wait. Wait upon His Word. Hear Him gladly. Receive not half, but the whole of His kingdom, by grace. He even serves you in love and honor at His Supper. Not the grotesque buffet of Herod, but the beautiful and bounteous meal that is His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By these are you purified in body and soul, heart and conscience. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lutheran High School Chapel
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Herod was a pervert. He committed adultery with his brother Philip’s wife. She was also his niece. History intimates that he was more than “just friends” with Caligula, if you know what I mean. Caligula, in case you forgot, was the Roman Caesar who lived incestuously with his sister, raped brides at their weddings, executed parents in front of their children and laughed about it, had playwrights burned alive on stage, and tortured people as dinner entertainment. Herod, that rotten apple, hadn’t fallen far from the poisoned tree.
But his sexual dalliances were only the beginning of his moral decrepitude. He embezzled money and incurred a substantial debt with wealthy officials. He cooperated with Claudius to assassinate Caligula, after which he was appointed tetrarch in Judea and Samaria. He martyred St James, the son of Zebedee, and when he saw that it pleased the people, he had St Peter imprisoned. He was a self-righteous, bombastic, arrogant tyrant who surrounded himself with sycophants. Acts 12 details his quick demise: An angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last (Acts 12:23).
But then there is St John. The baptizer. The Forerunner of the Messiah. The Voice crying in the wilderness. He didn’t have a wife. Or children. Or a home. He lived in the desert of Judea and ate insects and wild honey growing up. He dressed in rough fashion reminiscent of Elijah in whose spirit he served, turning the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers. His life prepared him for a ministry that lasted at most a year and a half.
He called Pharisees a brood of vipers, warned of the impending doom to come even while the axe was laid to the root of the tree. He kept company with tax collectors, prostitutes, and traitors, repentant sinners all. He was jailed for daring to criticize Herod, to speak truth to power, as they say, by preaching that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife as his own.
Imagine that. A Christian preacher unafraid to tell the ruling authorities that their ideology about marriage and sexuality was wrong. That it was not in step with God’s Word. Calling them to repentance. John didn’t toe the party-line. He wasn’t a Republican or a Libertarian. He had no political allegiances at all. He wasn’t polite. Or nice. In fact he did one thing and one thing only: he pointed to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He decreased, in every possible way, while the Son of God increased.
Today he’d be censured, shouted down, and rioted against. He wouldn’t be allowed on Facebook, Twitter, or college campuses. He’d have some pretty choice words for church bodies who call themselves “Christian,” even “Lutheran” yet deny the true Gospel at every turn, evening publicly voting against the clear words of Jesus Christ as the exclusive way of salvation.
But they were different times. They were the beginning of the end times. And St John didn’t lose his business or his friends or his 501c3 status. He lost his head, his life. For Jesus’ sake. And thus he kept it for eternal life (Jn 12:25).
For the time came for the greatest born of women to be wicked decapitated in prison to slake the bloodlust of a murderous and cruel adulterous and her equally sinister daughter. St John died to please the pompous promise of a duped royal ruled by his sexual appetites. His severed head was served up on a silver platter for a morose dinner party. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it. Then they went to Jesus.
That is what John taught them to do. Go to Jesus. That is what he still proclaims to you to do. Go to Jesus. He is now among those souls beneath the altar, slain for the Word of God and the martyrdom that they bore. He cries out, How long, O Lord? He has been given the white robe of Christ’s own righteousness and told to wait a little while longer. But still he preaches to you, Go to Jesus.
He preaches from the baptismal font in your church, standing there each Sunday, immovable and resolute (unless yours is on wheels), calling you to repentance; to return to your Holy Baptism. Your sins may not be as heaven crying as Herod’s, but you too have broken the Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery, but shall lead a chaste and decent life in all that you say and do. Pornography. Lust. Any form of sex outside of one man and one woman marriage. These are all just as wicked. Just as unlawful. What are willing to forego for the sake of that good confession? Your job? Your friends? What are you willing to loose for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Your head? Your life?
Indeed you have the One whom St John preached and pointed and baptized. You have the Lamb of God upon whom all your sins were laid. He is the One who became the adulterer, the pervert, the sexually immoral, the fornicator. Jesus became Sin. And because He would not perform for Herod, He would not dance to his sadistic drum, He was handed over to receive in His body the bloodlust of disgusting men. He was executed as a criminal while enduring the prison wrought by your sins. He is the Righteous and Holy Man, but He did not keep Himself safe from your perversions and lusts, but took them into His side and killed them. He is your Head who was cut off from the land of the living and was laid in the tomb.
But the Father avenged His blood by raising Him from the dead. Go to Him. For He now comes to you. He calls to you, not to dance salaciously before Him, but to purify you, cleansing you from all unrighteousness by water and His Word in Holy Baptism. There He gives you the white robe of His perfection and tells you to wait. Wait upon His Word. Hear Him gladly. Receive not half, but the whole of His kingdom, by grace. He even serves you in love and honor at His Supper. Not the grotesque buffet of Herod, but the beautiful and bounteous meal that is His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By these are you purified in body and soul, heart and conscience. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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