Sermon manuscript:
Be faithful unto death and you will
receive the crown of everlasting life.
At the end of last week’s Gospel reading Jesus sent out the
12 apostles. They went out and did what Jesus told them to do. They proclaimed
that people should repent. They cast out demons and anointed people who were
sick with oil and healed them. The apostles were making a name for Jesus by doing
the works Jesus had given them to do in his name.
Our Gospel reading today follows immediately after last
week’s reading, and as you can recall, today’s reading was about the beheading
of John the Baptist. Our reading today is linked in an interesting way with
last week’s reading, even though they seem to be completely different topics.
At the very beginning of our reading today it says, “King
Herod heard of it.” The “it” that Herod
heard of was the work of the apostles in Jesus’s name. When Herod heard of
this, he immediately thought of what he had done to John the Baptist. His
conscience was bothered, and understandably so.
Mark then goes on to tell the story of what Herod and his
illegitimate wife, Herodias, had done. Theirs was a story of unbelief and
unrepentance. They did not submit to the teaching that John the Baptist taught
them. They resisted, each in their own ways. Herod might not have been quite so
upset as Herodias, but he still put him in prison and was responsible for
beheading him. Herodias was much more straightforward. She hated him.
She hated him because John had said that what they were
doing was wrong. Herod and Herodias were not originally married to each other.
Both of them were originally married to other spouses. Herodias was originally
married to Herod’s brother Philip. But they wanted to be together, so they
divorced their spouses and married each other.
John the Baptist told Herod that this was adultery. The 6th
commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.”
Marriage is a lifelong promise of love and faithfulness between husband and
wife. God is the one who joins the two to become one flesh, and God is the one
who ends marriages by bringing about the death of either husband or wife. Then
the surviving spouse is free to marry another. When a person divorces their
spouse without sufficient justification that is taking the place of God. God is
supposed to decide when marriages end, not us.
I’d like to pause for a moment to take stock of our own
understanding of these things in our time. God’s commands concerning divorce
and remarriage are perhaps not well known, but they are certainly not well
heeded among us. We have a problem also with fornication, which is having sex
with someone to whom you are not married. Sexual experimentation with multiple
partners is the norm. Living together with someone to whom you are not married
is the norm.
Whether these things are normal or not is beside the point.
God is clear. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not fornicate. You shall
not have this special sexual relationship without promising lifelong
faithfulness. God’s “no” to these things are so that he may say “yes” to a
relationship that is deeper, healthier, and life-giving. Whether you or I like
or dislike these commands, doesn’t change the fact that they are God’s
commands. The appropriate response to God’s commands that we have not kept is to
fear God and repent.
It is obvious that neither Herod nor Herodias feared God and
repented. It is quite likely, in fact, that neither of them thought much about
God at all. They justified themselves in their own sight, so that they could do
what they wanted to do. When John the Baptist contradicted their justification
of themselves, they probably didn’t think that God had anything against them.
They probably thought that John was against them with some outdated, misplaced zeal
for sexual purity laws. Thus they directed their hatred against John, when it
was in fact God that they had a problem with. John was just the messenger. John
was a faithful messenger, but Herod and Herodias punished him—first by
imprisoning him, then by beheading him.
Such is the experience Christians will have who want to be
faithful messengers of God. Jesus doesn’t keep this a secret. He says, “If they have hated me, they will also hate you.” If
you want to be a disciple of Jesus, then you will take up his cross and follow
him. The hatred of rebellious sinners that is really against God will be poured
out on those who remain faithful to his Word.
The anger of rebellious sinners is understandable, if you
will only consider how you yourself are. I don’t know of anyone, including
myself, who likes to hear criticism of themselves. My first reaction is to
strike out against the one who tells me I’m wrong. Although this is
understandable as an immediate reaction, may God grant us grace so that we come
to our senses. We should realize that we are not just dealing with flesh and
blood. God is behind the faithful messenger. We should not be like Herod and Herodias,
who did not come to their senses. They continued on in unbelief and
unrepentance.
If we are looking for an example to follow, we should be
like John the Baptist. He is an example of faithfulness. John loved God and
Jesus. Because John loved God, he made it his ambition to please God. John was
not ashamed of God’s commands or God’s promises. John believed that the surest
way to happiness and eternal life was by following what God teaches in the
Bible.
John was very brave. He condemned sin wherever it might be
found regardless of the power or authority of the ones who were sinning. He
called the highest leaders in the church at that time a “brood of vipers,”
because they were a brood of vipers. He called Herod and Herodias adulterers
because they were adulterers. This last diagnosis, even though it was true,
resulted in his death.
John could have easily avoided death and a whole bunch of
trouble if he would only have not cared about God’s commands or God’s promises
or God’s kingdom. All that John would have needed to do was to say, “Never
mind. No big deal. Let’s all just life and let live.” Immediately he would have
been released from prison. If only John would have melted into the general
population, who are quite baffled and cowardly when it comes to spiritual
things, he wouldn’t have been opposed. John could have had a much more comfortable
life.
But if John would have been like that, then he would not
have been the bright and shining light that he was, leading people out of the
devil’s kingdom into God’s kingdom. He would have left people just the way they
were, lost in sin and unbelief. God’s Word would remain unused. John wouldn’t
have accomplished anything that he did accomplish. John’s faithfulness to God’s
Word helped an untold number of people to escape hell by repenting of their
sins and believing in Jesus. John baptized an untold number of people for the
forgiveness of their sins. He pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John was a good and helpful man.
You can be like John too. You are fully equipped with what
John had. You have God’s commands. You have God’s promises. Those commands and
promises bring about repentance and faith in those whom God has chosen. You can
be a bright and shining light that helps people escape from the devil’s
worthless lies and leads people to God’s truth in Jesus that saves all who
believe in him.
But this will not necessarily be easy or painless. You will
be tempted to please people rather than trying to please God. You must be brave
in the face of opposition. There are so many ways that people might want to
punish you for being different from the general population, for being proud of
God’s commands and promises, which are the path to eternal life.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that you could
share a similar fate as John the Baptist. You could be thrown in prison. You
could have your head chopped off. That wouldn’t be the worst thing. If that is
the way that God would have you meet your Lord and Savior, then let that day
come speedily. You will have lost nothing and gained everything by being faithful
to Jesus.
Martin Luther says in his famous hymn, “A Might Fortress is
Our God.” God is a mighty fortress fully sufficient to save us in uncertain
times. With the troubles we heard about last night in our nation, God’s
commands and promises are still our faithful guide which cannot and will not
let us down. A mighty fortress is our God, and he remains that way no matter
what happens. Martin Luther says as much at the close of that hymn:
And take they our life,
Goods, fame, child and wife,
Though these all be gone,
Our victory has been won;
The Kingdom ours remaineth.
Be faithful unto death, and you will
receive the crown of everlasting life.
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