God’s Word Remains
Mark 6:14-29
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 12, 2015
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text, Herodias’ daughter came in immediately with haste to the
king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of
John the Baptist on a platter.”… And immediately the king sent an
executioner with orders to bring John’s head.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
After last week’s promise that the Gospel of the One stronger
than the strong man will go out into the world, immediately on the
heels comes this text in which the one specifically chosen to highlight
this Jesus as the Lamb of God – this prophet is silenced by a mere
birthday request, his head chopped from his neck and presented on
a silver platter. Is this really how the One stronger than the strong
man expects His gospel to go to the nations?
How does John go from ‘the baptizer’ to ‘the beheaded’?
What would put society’s rulers in such an uproar? What had John
done to be imprisoned and eventually meet such a fate? - He had
dared to disagree with the ruling class’s perversion of marriage: “It is
not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife,” John had preached
against Herod. (Interesting word choice: “not lawful.” Rulers can
change their laws, but not God’s.) Not unlike sins against marriage in
our day, is it?
When the news of the Supreme Court decision on ‘gay
marriage’ broke, I sent an e-mail to all Calvary e-mail addresses I
have, an e-mail including these words:
“I’m sure we will have much opportunity as a congregation to
discuss this… after all, this issue will test our resolve for the rest
of our earthly days, perhaps pointedly so in the not-so-distant
future.”
Well, today’s gospel reading presents a very pointed
opportunity to discuss this. For John’s earthly demise began with his
unwillingness to let Herod define marriage.
Uncomfortable with the eerie similarity between the sins
legitimized by the secular ruler in our text and by our supreme
secular rulers in the last two weeks, we grasp for ways to
differentiate:
“Pastor, don’t exaggerate. Our rulers don’t act like ruthless
tyrants; they don’t kill as birthday gifts and pressure into submission
with the sword. No one’s going to be beheaded.”
True, our rulers don’t strong-arm by the threat of death. Our
society works by a much more subtle attempt to control – a strongarming of thought. Consider how our nation’s leaders want to win
the war against terrorism – they said just this week the war will be
won not with weapons but by changing hearts and minds. That
would be great if they were proclaiming the free Gospel for sinners!
But, what about changing thoughts by force and away from God’s
will, using such force on their own subjects? A well-known elected
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leader our land recently said of Christianity’s God-given view of
marriage, [The thinking of] “religion is just going to have to change.”
The social pressure is enormous, isn’t it?
Institutionally, military chaplains are being threatened with
the termination of their chaplaincies if they continue to speak of
homosexuality as sin. Journalists in the New York Times have – in the
last week – called for churches to lose their time-honored tax
exempt status, so that our offerings to God would be taxed by the
state as some sort of business profit. Our synod’s hired legal
consultants warn that lawsuits may be pursued to drive Lutheran
institutions out of education at all levels. And what about lawsuits
aimed at bakeries and wedding photographers, which have resulted
in family businesses closing or, just this past week, for one bakery a
fine of $135,000?
And, even if you believe that such institutional pressure is
exaggerated, or – if it IS real – simply won’t affect your daily life,
what of the social pressure you face individually? After all, who
wants to be on the opposing side of the social media celebration that
“#LoveWins”? Who dares send out into the blogosphere and on
Twitter and Facebook that you disagree with the notion that it is
joyous and godly that two men lay with each other? Who doesn’t
know that the Christian will be chastised for such “backwards,
closed-minded, bigoted thought” as believing that marriage is as
narrowly defined by God as defined by Jesus 2000 years ago? And,
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you know, this wouldn’t blindside the Church so much had we
actually spoken up when marriage was being attacked by
heterosexuals wanting pre-marital, extra-marital, and everythingbut-God-given marital relationships. But, back then, when society
was just wading into the murky waters of sexual revolution, the
Church didn’t bother to confess the Faith, but remained fearfully
quiet (the love of numbers)… how easy to simply remain quiet now.
And so, the pressures of ‘thought police’ threaten the Word
of God and the preaching thereof. You’ve been very tempted to
convince yourself – haven’t you – that “as long as I don’t endorse
same-sex marriage I can simply remain quiet. If people just don’t
know where I stand on the issue, I don’t have to say anything unless
they approach me.” Is that what it means to confess Christ? Does
Christ say, “Whoever confesses me before Men by not saying
anything at all, him I will confess before My father in heaven”? No,
he specifically rejects that idea when he continues, “Whoever is
ashamed of me before men, him I will be ashamed of before my
Father in heaven.” And if you want to try to argue that ‘being
ashamed’ isn’t the same as ‘merely remaining silent’, what good will
it do you if Jesus ‘merely remains silent’ about you before his Father
in heaven?
And, if we think we can remain faithful by simply keeping
silent, heed carefully the example of Peter, who said, “Master, if all
fall away, I will never fall away!” … and Peter thought he could
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remain faithful, and remain in the public square of Jesus’ trial, by
keeping quiet… and how did he fare?: as soon as he was questioned
– Deny! Deny! Deny! “I never knew the man!”
Friends, if you are unwilling to actively confess the Truth,
what makes you think that when you are caught flat-footed and offbalance you will then confess the truth? And you need not think of
Peter’s denial, because you probably are well aware of your own…
maybe even within the last few weeks… your own which proves your
confession of sins to be true – “Lord, I have not loved you with my
whole heart… I deserve nothing but your wrath and eternal
punishment.” Repent, and ask God to strengthen you in the good
confession of Christ, that love might truly win! And He will forgive
you all your sins because love has won out on the cross of Christ.
Let’s consider this from a slightly different angle. Why does
Mark’s gospel – known for its brevity and sense of urgency – why
does Mark’s gospel include such a detailed, fairly drawn out
description of something that is really quite a minor point? Why
spend so much time on the beheading of John when the Lamb of
God continues to march to the cross? Is it not because St. Mark
wants to teach us that the strength of the gospel sometimes looks
awfully weak… the smallest of problems can snowball against the
Christian – John has to speak up against the sins of the ruler; the wife
is more upset by John than Herod is: (and we all know:) “wrath hath
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no fury like a woman scorned”, there’s a birthday party… and the
daughter wants John’s head as her gift! – “bad break after bad
break” so that everything seems hopelessly lost – and how easy to
despair and grow despondent when it seems that Jesus is unwilling
to deliver us from such spiraling – even as John had once asked, “Are
you the Christ, or should we expect another?” And yet, Christ had
strengthened John’s resolve – for this very moment! – by saying to
John’s disciples, “Go and tell John what you see…many are healed,
the dead raised up, the gospel continues to be preached to the
poor.” And John knows the Gospel will win out; he trusts in Jesus’
promises, even unto death.
Ought you be encouraged by John’s confession to consider
your own? Certainly. But recall, John was not merely an example… he
was a herald. John pointed his disciples to Jesus.
And there’s the point of this text, isn’t it? The messenger may
be silenced, but the message cannot be; it continues to ring out long
after John is dead, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world.” John’s preaching was not about himself, but the
purpose of every preacher is to point his hearers to Christ – “I must
decrease, and He must increase,” John had said, and the herald’s
beheading shows to what extent heralds must point to the One
greater. All hope hinges on the One to whom John pointed. If John
himself cannot be stronger than the strong man, if our own
preachers so easily succumb to death, then we must hope that the
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Lamb of God to whom John points is the One to expect for our
salvation.
John’s death, and current events of our day, lead all pastors
to repent where they may have sought to build up for themselves a
cult of personality. No more can churches be built on a preacher’s
popularity… because if you just want everyone to like you, you’ll cave
on the most basic of issues – man and woman joined in marriage as
God designed it. You’ll cave even on that, lest society label you a
bigot.
This text calls us preachers to repentance, that we might also
learn from John, “He (Christ) must increase and I must decrease.”
And that perhaps calls you to repentance, too, for it asks you to
judge why you come to church… is it because you “like it”?… or think
your pastor is a persona “worth following”? … or that fellow
Christians will always stand strong in the faith or show true Christian
love? What futility in such hopes! Is it because everything here is
socially acceptable… doesn’t ‘rock the boat’ with how daily life is
going? Then we’ll have to become something completely different to
still be loved by our society. Or do you come to this pulpit and altar
because here the truth of Jesus Christ, Him crucified for sinners, is
proclaimed …with benefits of forgiveness, life, and salvation
administered according to His will? If that is not the single purpose
you come to this altar, you will end up a victim of the pressures of the
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godless ‘thought police’ of our society. And you will be ashamed of
the gospel, and Christ will be ashamed of you.
But, if “Jesus, priceless treasure” is your single purpose in
coming, then rejoice – for the crucified and risen Christ himself
comes to serve you… comes Himself to proclaim forgiveness from
hell for your poor confession in times past, comes Himself to teach
you the proper confession for the future, comes Himself to nourish
and sustain you with His very body and blood so that you might have
strength to always give a reason for the hope that is in you.
And, notice that, friends… Christ does not call you to “give a
reason for everything you denounce.” Christianity is not legalism. It
is not about saying “no” to every sinful desire just for the sake of
saying “no.” Rather, Christ’s doctrine teaches you the reason for your
hope in Him – “Whoever confesses Me (not just “My Law”) before
men”, that you might be ready to confess to your friend, neighbor,
co-worker, family member who advocates sexual sins or perhaps
himself takes part in such sexual sins… you may confess in a way that
shows you don’t just hold to the Gospel because you hold to the
Law, but you also joyfully live by the Law because it is the will of the
God of the Gospel, and so you may say to that dear soul ensnared in
error’s maze,
“Friend, you genuinely follow your ways (identify yourself by
them) because you genuinely hope – and society tells you to
hope – that such temporal self-satisfaction will bring you eternal
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joy and gladness. But this too will fail you. This too will leave you
unfulfilled, will fall short of its promise, and will end in despair…
because this too falls short of God’s righteousness and this, too,
will end in the grave.
But let me give you a reason for the hope that is in me –
Christ died for my sins. Christ gave me His life and took on my
death; Christ is my righteousness. Christ has defined marriage
with His own love for His bride, the Church, as the apostle says,
“This mystery (of marriage) is profound, and I am saying that it
refers to Christ and His Church.” And, because Christ is the Holy
Bridegroom, He has promised me the inheritance of heaven and
victory over the grave. As a loving husband, Christ serves and
sustains me to this day with Law and Gospel so that my sins are
washed away and sin’s temptations will not overpower me.
And (you can say) Christ died for you as well, friend. Christ
died that your sins might be washed away and sin’s temptations
will not overpower you… even as the apostle said,
‘Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice
homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you
were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’
There, friend (you can say to your fellow sinner), there is the
treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the free forgiveness,
justification, and sanctification which is my certain hope… a
gospel and baptismal way of life for you, too.”
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Friends, the Word of God is such a treasure that we can confidently
proclaim Law and Gospel to fellow sinners who, like us, would
eternally benefit from Christ crucified. We can call one another to
sacrifice riches, limb and life for this gospel. When the heralds of the
gospel are publicly ridiculed, fined, imprisoned, - whatever the cost
for preaching the gospel might one day be – we can defend them,
confess with them shoulder-to-shoulder, we can visit them in prison,
encourage them, sacrifice for them, lay them in their tombs, care for
their families. And, most importantly, we can follow where they are
pointing… to “Jesus, priceless treasure”… for long after the
messenger is silenced and long after secular kingdoms crumble, the
Gospel remains. Christ is still Christ; His promises are still His bloodbought promises; and He will continue to sustain His Church until He
vindicates her from all her enemies on the final day.
In the Name of the Father
And of the Son
And of the Holy Spirit.
+ AMEN +
Rev. Mark C. Bestul
Calvary Lutheran Church
July 12, 2015
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