“The Death of a Prophet”
Mark 6:14-29
We've heard what the people of Nazareth
thought of Jesus. They weren't too impressed. They rejected him, to
Jesus' own amazement. Now Mark tells us what Herod thinks about
Jesus. This is the Herod Antipas, who is the son of Herod the Great –
and it was Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus when he
slaughtered the children of Bethlehem. It was also the same Herod
here, Antipas, who was in Jerusalem and before whom Jesus stood on
trial. So the mention of the Herod name gets us thinking both
backward and forward in the New Testament witness.
Herod has heard of Jesus. Word of Jesus
must have been all the talk. The miracles that Jesus performed –
well, Herod reasoned in his superstition that Jesus was John the
Baptist come back from the dead to haunt him. And the message of
Jesus was similar to the message of John the Baptist – repent, and
believe! And so Mark gives us a flashback scene – and tells us
what led up to this when it comes to John and Herod.
The story is kind of disturbing, isn't
it? Especially when you have to teach it to children. It's kind of
grizzly. But if you can get past that part of it, you might still
wonder why Mark, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would tell us such a
story.
It would make a pretty depressing
movie, I think. There's no happy ending in which the little guy is
vindicated. John, this nobody from nowhere, who had given up the
creature comforts of life to live in the wilderness – John, a voice
crying in that wilderness – whose message was growing and
commanding attention. People were responding in droves, as the
Pharisees commented, “all of Judea is going to him!” And John,
the voice of accusation toward Herod – learns that calling out the
king's sin is dangerous business. I guess oday some would call it,
“speaking truth to power”.
“Herod you married your brother's
sister! Repent!” And if it bothered Herod, it REALLY burned his
adulterous wife, Herodias. She wanted this voice silenced. She
wanted John out of the picture. And so she has Herod arrest him.
Oh, she wanted him dead, too... but Herod feared to go that far. For
he knew, somehow, that John was a righteous man.
The conscience is a funny thing, isn't
it? You see it in action here with both Herod and Herodias. Both of
them were sinners, just like the rest of us. Their sin just happened
to be more public. But that didn't stop John from speaking the law
to them, from calling a sin a sin. But who likes their dirty laundry
aired out for all to see?
Imagine a modern day parallel scenario
in which a pastor has to call out someone's sin. Perhaps a couple
wants to get married, but has been living in sin together, and
everyone knows it. And the faithful pastor tells them this is wrong,
this breaks the sixth commandment, this dishonors God's gift of
marriage. Ah, but this couple - they're ok with the pastor
addressing sin in general but not getting too specific. They're ok
when it's someone else's sin. When the pastor rails on the sins of
the secular, godless world. But don't point to my sin. Don't shine
the light on me! If you've been around churches long enough you know
this sort of thing happens, and it doesn't always end with repentance
and restoration as we hope.
Or the older person who needs a word of
correction about their habit of gossip. Or the person who's
attendance or giving hasn't been what it should. Or the person who's
ok with most of what the Bible teaches, but still wants to hold this
or that teaching at arm's length.
But don't kill the messenger! When a
prophet, or now a pastor, speaks and warns you of sin, calls you to
repentance, it's not to be a self-righteous so-and-so or an
old-fashioned meanie-pants. This is for your own good. It's the
fate of your soul that hangs in the balance. We want you to turn
from sin, be forgiven, and live! We want your conscience to be clear
and clean, and your spirit renewed. And we pastors need to
continually hear these same words of law and gospel that we preach!
Herodias had probably already silenced
her own conscience, but she couldn't quite silence John's mouth.
Herod seemed to be going back and forth, caught between Herodias and
his own conscience. So he compromised and locked John in the
dungeon. But this wasn't good enough for Herodias. She wanted full
and complete victory over the voice of the law. So she waited for
her chance, and she used her own daughter in part of her scheme. And
she tricked the king, and got what she wanted. John's head on a
platter.
And look how this story also shows us,
that sin often ensares other people into its nasty web. And here,
adulterous Herodias even puts her daughter on shameless display to
get her way. She uses her to commit murder, and drags her down with
her. Sin is contagious and infectious, and it always has been, ever
since Eve said, “I gave some also to my husband, and he ate”.
You may think your sin is your own business, but you may not see how
it affects others. And Jesus warns us harshly about those who cause
little ones to sin – it would be better to have a millstone around
your neck and be thrown into the sea.
You can kill the messenger, Herodias,
but the message remains. The word of the Lord endures forever. You
can quiet and muffle your conscience, you can surround yourself with
people who will either mind their own business or even celebrate your
sinful ways. But it doesn't change the verdict. Just has Herod was
afraid Jesus was John come back to haunt him – our sins can still
haunt us, even from years and years ago.
I remember one older gentleman who was
dying, and made a special point to confess to his pastor what he
called, “the sins of his youth”, things he had done some 60 years
ago. It was ancient history. But not to him. They say time heals
all wounds, but the wounded and stricken conscience is another story.
David spoke similarly, “I know my iniquity, and my sin is always
before me.” Paul wrestled with the evil he hated, but found
himself doing anyway. “What a wretched man!” he called himself.
No, there's only one way to a truly
clean and clear conscience, and it's not by killing the messenger.
It's not by twisting or re-writing the law. It's not by ignoring it.
The only way is forgiveness, and that forgiveness is only through
Christ.
John was the fore-runner of Christ.
The last of the prophets who got what prophets so often did for their
work – death. Jesus called it “a prophet's reward”. From an
earthly view, John's story wasn't a happy ending at all. But the
spiritual reality is greater. John was the fore-runner of Christ,
both in preaching repentance and faith, both in bringing a baptism
for the forgiveness of sins, and also in suffering and even dying at
the hands of the wicked and powerful. But while John was the
greatest man ever born among men, he wasn't worthy to untie Jesus'
sandal. While John died in faith, for faithfully preaching the word
of God, Jesus died for much more.
You see, in the cross, Jesus
accomplishes the forgiveness of all sins. And yes, that includes
your deep, dark sins. It includes the sins of your youth and the
sins of this minute. It includes the sins that would shame you
before men, and the sins that only your conscience knows. It even
includes those sins that God only knows. While John's head was
brought as a trophy on a platter for Herod, Jesus' cross stands as a
symbol of God's love and mercy for the world.
And while Herod superstitiously feared
that John had risen from the dead and appeared again as Jesus – we
know that Jesus really DID rise from the dead, and appeared to his
disciples. But Jesus doesn't come back to haunt us, or to throw sin
back in our face. He conquers death for us. To show us his word is
true. To vindicate his sacrifice as acceptable to God. And to give
us a preview of the resurrection that awaits us – life beyond death
for all his people. When he appears to his disciples the first words
out of his mouth are not, “Why did you leave me when I needed you
the most?” or, “Peter, how could you betray me?”. The first
words are, “Peace be with you.”
Jesus brings peace to the troubled,
sore and weary conscience. He brings rest to those who would labor
to earn their own way to God. He brings hope to those in the despair
of a life that is a trail of sin's destruction.
And so, yes, John the Baptist lives,
even though he died. And one day John will rise bodily with all the
other believers, and with you, dear Christian, in the real ending of
the story. For though you die, yet shall you live. Though your sins
were as black as death, Jesus makes them white as snow. Though you
face death all day long, Jesus wins you the crown of life. For Jesus
is a live, and because he lives, we live. Because he declared “it
is finished!”, sin really is finished, and death has no future.
Go in his peace. Amen.
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