Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

If there was one thing that would have frightened King Herod, it was that John the Baptist was somehow raised from the dead. Thanks to a drunken stupor while entertaining both political friends and foes, a dance that was likely pleasing to the male eye, and thanks to a sinister plot of a vindictive woman, Herod woke up one morning with a headache, a dead prophet and a head staring at him from a bloody platter. The memory of John was still haunting Herod enough as it was. Now it seems this Baptizing preacher is miraculously raised from death, and bound to come by the palace for another round of guilt-inducing sermons. King Herod knew John was right about his sinful, adulterous marriage. He was told to repent, just as John told everyone, but this politician under the spell of Queen Herodias had allowed Satan to pluck up the seeds of the Word that God had planted in his heart. He was glad to hear about the Gospel of God’s kingdom, and the coming of the Savior, but he just loved his lifestyle, which is to say, he loved sinning, way too much. So instead, he pacified his wife and tried to keep John as safe as he could in a prison near the Dead Sea.

We live in a world of false comfort. We are clothed with fine, soft clothing and fare sumptuously every day. Our mutual funds may fluctuate more than we want, but such wealth would be unimaginable a generation ago: think of the cell phones, laptop computers, and air conditioning, of course, but then you go into the kitchen: there you find popcorn poppers, computerized refrigerators, waffle irons, double boilers, cappuccino machines. The pioneers who settled this land were lucky if they didn’t have to share forks! Anyway, John is a good man for us in our luxurious existence. He is a man obsessed. He cares for almost nothing, least of all gadgets and convenience. He cares not even for decent food or clothing. He cares only for the Savior to come, the One whose sandals he is not fit to untie, but Whom he will anoint by Divine Command. He will anoint Him for a crown of thorns, for a throne erected between two thieves, for a Kingdom whose glory is found in the death of its Prince. In the anointing, in that Holy and first of all Baptisms, heaven opens to sinners, the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and the Son begins His journey toward our redemption.

Nonetheless, John’s message sounds mean to our sensitive, modern ears even as it did to Herod’s. It is harsh because he will not waste your time to be nice. He will not coddle you. He has not come to try out his flawless rhetoric to “make a point” but he gets right to the point. He won’t tell cute stories or show you funny videos, or promise more money in your pocket. He is not trying merely to “make you think.” He is not being clever or poetic. He will not manipulate your emotions or “set the mood.” He is not a reed blown about in the wind of human opinion. He despises the urge to be interesting or engaging. He’d even fail the Seminary preaching classes! But on Jordan’s bank stands a man obsessed. He cares only for the wrath and judgment to come, doing the work he has been given to do before the night comes when no man can work. He wags that bony finger of his in your face, stands too close, breathes his nasty locust breath upon you, fixes his steely gaze,
eyeball to eyeball, and says, “Repent! Repent now, before it is too late. Turn from yourself and your worries. Cease your self-obsession, your concern for your rights and honor. Don’t let the thoughts that try to condemn you have the last word. Be filled with the Spirit, die and rise again with Christ, hear the Father’s adopting words. Be Baptized and live!”

John is the ultimate preacher of the Law. And that is so often our excuse for ignoring him. Our fallen flesh tends to think, “Well, he preaches Law but I need to focus on the Gospel. John was all about ‘fire and brimstone’ and calling people out when it’s none of his business how people live, but I am a nice, gentle, kind person. I want to help people. I am not like John. I am like Jesus.” Okay, but then you should actually try reading the Gospels and pay attention to what Jesus says. There is a reason that the Gospels summarize both John’s and Our Lord’s preaching with the same sentence, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” They may have done similar actions, but of the two, Jesus is more stern, more fierce, more demanding. He is not some wimpy little do-gooder. He is bold and brazen. He even got angry! He is not afraid to pick up a towel and water and wash His disciples’ feet. He is not afraid to defy the priests and the governor. He keeps awake to pray. He does not fall into temptation or excuse sin. He is not afraid to look weak or to suffer. Finally, He is clearly the only One ever not afraid to die. If John is obsessed, Jesus then must be a maniac.

Like it or not, the Law is God’s Word. It is His revealed will for man but man cannot obtain it. False law, not the kind John preached, is actually quite nice. False law takes many forms, but at its most popular it is a guide for good living or secret hints on how we might please God, earn His favor, and get ahead. False law says there can be other definitions of marriage. The real Law came from John’s mouth, and also ultimately from Jesus. It is damning. It hurts; it kills. It drives us to our knees. But it is it is good. It needs to be preached, so it would open our eyes to the reality of how helpless we are. The Law made even King Herod stop and think for a while.

John preaches the Law because he is a prophet of the Most High. That does not mean that God sent him to make the people feel guilty and sad or to scare them. He was sent to tell the Truth. And that Truth can only comfort those who own up to their smelly feet and let Jesus wash them. John comforted them. In repentance, Jesus Christ, the Salvation of mankind, is known. John delivers forgiveness through preaching and baptizing into Jesus. The Law he preaches is not the goal. It sets our hearts up to hear the Gospel, the Good News of God’s intervening love that caused Him to take up our flesh.

The tender mercy of our God is not in removing the Law, but in fulfilling it. It accuses us. It drives us to the edge of despair. With Isaiah we cry out, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.” With Peter we beg, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” We acknowledge the goodness, the holiness of the Law and our abject failure regarding it. But then, at the Word of Christ, the Law, which hounded us, departs. It is satisfied in the perfect life and death that Jesus lived and died in our place. Suddenly, there is no one to accuse you. The Lord helps you up, embraces and kisses you, and bids you come and be a guest at His Table, to sit down next to John and all the others who believe and testified until death. Your sins are removed. Your past, your shame, your guilt are no more.

Unlike John, Jesus really did rise from the dead, not to make you fearful like Herod was, but to set you free. He wipes away your tears and fills those places left empty and abandoned inside you with Himself. His hair, His skin, His bones, that Body pierced, dead and buried, back to life, with God’s judgment now satisfied, is placed into your once unclean lips and they are cleansed. You are healed. You are whole. The Blood of the Lamb is poured down your throat and into your heart. You are clean. You are one with Him. You abide in Him and He in you. You are His. You enjoy a Holy and perfect Communion.

That was what King Herod rejected. It was the blessed, sweet Gospel that came right along with John’s stern demands for repentance. He heard that he couldn’t have a wife who was also his sister-in-law as well as his niece. And the devil, using other people’s anger, incited him to kill John, since he can’t ever kill the Gospel. But when the guilt started coming back to the king’s conscience, just like it might be for you when you recall a sin you’ve done in the past, Herod felt helpless, like there was nothing by which he could undo this day of reckoning. The risen John the Baptist could pop in any day now and announce my condemnation, and I wouldn’t have an answer back.

Thanks to the Gospel Word that you hear today from your Lord and Savior Jesus, you need not face that helpless, condemned feeling that’s stronger than any normal feeling. You may have days where everything good that Jesus does for you sounds like it is tearing you down with shame instead of lifting you up. Like you are not good enough. But those thoughts need not haunt you anymore. You do have God’s unchanging Word that says Jesus was good enough and He took your place. He gave you His place. Really, you are not condemned—you are safe and secure in your heavenly Father’s arms. Because of this Good News, John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb at the presence of his Savior. He also died in joy too, even though it was also a sad, unjust tragedy. He was branded a fanatic, but it was the Word of God that kept him tied to the message of the Gospel and eternal life. Give no anxious thought to what tries to dominate you in the here and now. The persecution from the world is not worth comparing to what lies ahead. Your life, as well as your death, should it come before Christ returns, will in the same way as John the Baptist bear witness to your Lord who gave up His life in order to make you His own.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:

Isaiah 6:1-9 Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts
Luke 5:1-9 …a great number of fish, and their net was breaking…

Amos 7:7–15 the LORD took me as I followed the flock
Ps. 85 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease.
Eph. 1:3–14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ….
Mark 6:14–29 Martyrdom of John the Baptist