Sermon: Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist - 2021

22 August 2021

Text: Mark 6:14-29 (Rev 6:9-11, Rom 6:1-5)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

When our Lord’s name “became known” because of His miracles and preaching with authority, King Herod’s conscience convinced him that St. John the Baptist had been raised from the dead.

The story is as old as time: a person is tormented by his conscience because he has broken God’s Law.  We see this theme in various stories: Shakespeare’s MacBeth, Poe’s Telltale Heart, and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But this time, it’s a true story: King Herod being convinced of the resurrection of an innocent man, a prophet of the living God, whom Herod had murdered.  Herod hears of Jesus, and thinks: “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

And in a sense, King Herod is not wrong.  Of course, he was mistaken that our Lord Jesus is actually John, but it isn’t wrong to confess that St. John will rise again, that he will be resurrected in the flesh and vindicated, his head placed back on his body, and his mouth continuing to preach the Word of God, proclaiming the Good News about his cousin Jesus, the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  For not even killing the preachers can rob the world of the Gospel those preachers proclaim.  Kill one, and another takes his place.  And yes, eventually, all preachers and all hearers who confess our Lord Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead!

It’s ironic, because Herod has faith of a sort.  He confesses the resurrection, but he doesn’t confess it in a way that saves, that is, he does not put his trust in our Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation.  Indeed, King Herod fears the resurrection to come – as well he should.  Scripture teaches us that he did not repent, that he died in his sins.  And indeed, he will be raised from the dead to stand before his Judge, giving an account for his life, without having our Lord serving as his advocate.

Herod was too much of a coward to refuse the entreaties of his scandalous wife and debauched stepdaughter.  He feared John and did not want to kill him, “knowing that he was a righteous and holy man.”  But apparently, he did not wear the crown in the family.  He allowed himself to be tricked by his cunning wife into executing John.  He was “exceedingly sorry,” but did not want to look bad in front of his guests.

St. John was killed because he was faithfully preaching the Word of God, calling all men, no matter how obscure, and no matter how powerful, to “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  John preached the law to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”  John’s message of repentance, of the Law, was received so bitterly that Herod never heard the message of forgiveness, of the Gospel.

Herod was not the only one confessing the resurrection.  John’s disciples “heard of it” – that is, John’s execution – and “they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.”  The Romans did not believe in “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  They treated the remains of their own dead as if they were garbage.  Instead, they focused on the soul, believing that the higher good was for the soul to be “freed” from the body.  We Christians see things exactly the opposite.  God created us and freed us to be souls and bodies united.  Their temporary separation in death is overcome by our Lord Jesus Christ, who received John’s baptism of repentance, and brought it to completion in His own baptism of forgiveness.  And because of our Lord’s promise regarding baptism, we are born again, born to eternity.  And as St. Paul confesses, “we were buried therefore with [Jesus] by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

Something deep down inside of Herod recognizes and confesses this resurrection, and it frightens him.  However, something deep down inside the disciples of John – who will become the disciples of Jesus – recognize and confess this resurrection, and it comforts them.  For what did they do, dear friends?  They “came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.”  They didn’t let the Romans toss it in the garbage.  And even without his head, they took John’s body and placed him inside a waiting room of sorts, a tomb, where the body of John waits to this day for the Lord Jesus Christ to return, and to raise all believers to life, in the body, in the flesh, not to be disembodied souls, but to be made whole once more.  This is their confession, and ours.

This is what we are doing when we place a Christian body into a tomb.  It is an act of faith in Christ that this body, which has been born again through baptism, will rise again to “newness of life” – even as our Lord was raised that first Easter.

And the resurrection is not frightening to us, dear friends.  For our conscience is clear, having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, by the very cleansing blood of the Lamb whom John the Baptist said, “takes away the sin of the world.”

And this is why to this day, we Christians sing John’s confession: “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us” in our Divine Service when the pastor holds up the crucified and risen body of Jesus, and the very blood that covers our sins, and is a pledge and token of the resurrection.  And in faith, dear brothers and sisters, we take and we eat, we take and we drink, and John’s preaching of Christ and the forgiveness of sins are given substance in the Sacrament.

Herod was right to be afraid, and he was right to confess the resurrection.  And every time we sing John’s Words, and every time we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, and every time we make the sign of the cross in remembrance of Holy Baptism – we honor St. John.  And we, like his disciples, confess that he will rise again from the dead. 

And this confession is, for us, dear friends, a joy rather than a scourge upon our conscience.  We await the resurrection with joy, knowing the reunion with our loved ones that is to come, knowing that we will worship our Lord in eternity, and knowing that St. John will be vindicated for His testimony, having been “slain for the Word of God and for the witness [he] had borne.” 

And until the day of our own death, indeed, “May we with faith and courage, the Lamb of God proclaim.”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.