Pentecost VII (Proper 10 B) [Mark 6:14-29] (12-Jul-2015)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 8.30am, 10.30am.

Click here for PDF file of sermon for printing.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

She went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us all your Holy Spirit to open our ears and minds and hearts to your life-giving, spirit-filled words. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel reading today is one of the most gruesome Sunday readings that we come across. And yet, it is one of great encouragement for our context today. In his Gospel, Mark goes on a tangent for a while, where he takes us away from what has been happening to Jesus and his disciples, and now tells us about what had happened to John the Baptist.

First, let’s read the first part of our reading which talks about what was going on, and why Mark ends up telling us about this event with King Herod and John. We read: King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. What actually did Kind Herod hear about? He heard about the fact that Jesus had sent his 12 disciples out in pairs, and had given them authority over the unclean spirits. And we read that they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

This is the thing that King Herod heard about and he had heard about the name of Jesus. So what’s all this about the disciples having authority over the unclean spirits? Many people today when they hear this, they just gloss over, as if we’re reading fairy tales here. When we read the bible, we have to stop reading as if we’re modern people, and the bible is an ancient text. Many people don’t read the bible, because they think they’re too sophisticated to read about apostles casting out demons and healing sick people. No—we should treat the bible as if it were written yesterday. Sure—it might talk in such a way as if it happened in a different country, but if we’re going to make sense of all of this, we have to picture the events as if it had just happened. We’re not smarter than people who lived back then, we’re not more sophisticated. We think we are, but we’re not—and then in our sophistication, in our pride, in our arrogance, in our cultural superiority we look at what it says in this reading and we think: that didn’t really happen. But that’s not true. What the bible says here is that Jesus gave his disciples authority over unclean spirits, and then they went out and cast out demons and healed sick people.

This same authority is given to Christians even today in the church. We have authority over the unclean spirits. Jesus says: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And he has baptised us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and he promises to be with us to the end of the age. But will we listen to Jesus and his word? Will we learn from it? Will we acknowledge our sin when the Holy Spirit points it out to us and confess it, or will we continue to make our spirits more and more unclean?

But many Christians don’t believe that this authority exists. People don’t think Jesus has power over anything.

Every time we hear the forgiveness of sins spoken in church, this is Jesus who comes to bind our sins and throw them behind his back. This is Jesus who comes to heal our broken spirits, and undo the devil’s chains on us and set us free. This is Jesus who comes and releases us from every oppression and sadness and suffering that the devil wants to trap us in. St Paul says: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God. When you receive the forgiveness of sins, you receive this wonderful, powerful, mighty armour. And the devil can just get lost! You are baptised, and he no longer has any claim and any right to you. The devil has received his eviction notice, and he has already been forcibly removed and stuck in prison. Any grip that the devil wants to hold us in, Jesus comes and undoes with his word. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians: The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Does the devil have a stronghold over you? Not anymore! You are God’s baptised child and your sins are forgiven. Jesus has authority over the unclean spirits, and he gives it to his church to use. Even the apostles cast out demons and were even permitted by Jesus to heal people who were sick, not to promote them and their name, but to promote Jesus and his name. This is about Jesus here? Do you think the donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem thought that it was all about himself? All the glory belonged to Jesus. Even today, here in our church, every wonderful gift that we receive from Jesus, is not to glorify us, but to glorify him.

As we think about our mission to our community, this authority over the unclean spirits is something very important for us to think about. We often do all kinds of things, to win friends and influence people. But Jesus doesn’t give us influence over them, he gives us authority over the unclean spirits. And this authority comes with God’s word and it comes with prayer. When we think about our friends that we would like to invite to church, we must bring them to Jesus in prayer and place them at his feet and under his authority. And we should ask Jesus to send us the opportunity and the words to speak to them something that Jesus needs them to hear—and in this way, Jesus will provide the right opportunities for us, and he will provide the wisdom and the words, if we ask him for them. He has gently and lovingly taken you under his authority and made you his child. Don’t you think he can do that even for someone else?

And so we read in our reading today: Kind Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

They have heard about the powers that are work in Jesus. They recognise this power. And they know that this power is at work. But whose power is it? They think, maybe it’s John the Baptist’s power, or Elijah’s power, or they think Jesus is one of the prophets. Little do they know that this is even greater—this is the power of the Word of God who has become flesh, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And one little word from Jesus has the power to destroy the works of the devil. St Paul in Ephesians wants us to learn about God’s great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Do you hear all of those “power” words? Might, power, at work… And all the power comes from Jesus’ living words. Jesus doesn’t want us to trust in his power, but in his powerful word.

And so, it’s the word that spreads, and it even comes to the king’s house that there is someone out there called “Jesus”. They recognise that he’s working on the same page as John the Baptist, but in a much greater way, just as if John the Baptist had come back from the dead as was now coming to wreak his revenge on King Herod. King Herod was shaking in his shoes! He has killed John the Baptist—he had tried to put an end to that work, and yet Jesus now takes it over. This reminds us, that when all of us are dead and gone, Jesus will still be alive, and any good work that we have begun with Jesus here on this earth the Holy Spirit will continue and build upon until the end of time.

So let’s think now about John the Baptist himself. How did he end up in King Herod’s prison? And how is it that he ended up losing his head? This is what St Mark wants to tell us in our reading today.

So—let’s think about John the Baptist. What would you think if he were alive today, and he just happened to live here in Mt Barker, and he came to church today, and he came up to you and sat down in the pew next to you? Remember, he would be dressed in a camel’s hair shirt, and leather belt, and the only thing he’s been eating is honey and bugs. I don’t suspect he would smell too good! We might say he’s a misfit, an eccentric, an oddball, a bit of a “cook”. And yet, he’s God’s cook. He’s God’s eccentric. He’s God’s hairy bug-man.

When I look back at my life as a Christian, I’ve met many eccentrics in the church—people whom the world ignores, and judges, and shuns. And it’s amazing how God hides his wisdom under the world’s foolishness—I have probably learnt more from “God’s eccentrics”, than I have learnt from anyone else. You see—there’s a particular calling for Christians to go against the grain, and to go against the flavour of the month, and go against the spirit of the age. And so, if we want to be faithful to Jesus, and to be conscientious, and to take Jesus at his word and try and follow it, we shouldn’t be surprised if people around us start to think we’re a bit odd. It can be a lonely walk being a Christian today—and I know that many of you feel like that sometimes. But in our loneliness, God draws all of us odd-types together, people who we would never expect to even talk to otherwise, and he gives us all the same Holy Spirit to drink. Isn’t that a wonderful miracle? How precious is each person here in our church today in all of their difference, and in all of their uniqueness, in all of their eccentricity!

Now, how did John end up in prison? Well—we read: It was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

So, here’s our hairy bug-man, and he goes to his King and he tells him that he’s sleeping with the wrong woman. We might think that he wasn’t very wise, or we might think that what he did wasn’t a clever political move. And yet, John was sent for nothing else than to speak God’s word. And here we read that he was imprisoned for God’s word, and died for God’s word.

Now, think about the particular word that he spoke. He said that it is not lawful for Herod to marry his brother’s wife. We might think that this is not really a central teaching of Christianity. It’s not like we say on Sundays: I believe in God the Father Almighty, and that men can’t marry their sisters-in-law. And yet, God has created marriage, and he has created men and women in his own image. We read that when Eve was brought to Adam, that he said: This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. God has created a beautiful order and a beautiful model and pattern for men and women to live together in harmony as one flesh. And if we as men and women rebel against this order and this pattern, then we rebel against God. And this was John the Baptist’s calling—to call people to repentance, and to baptise them. There was forgiveness for King Herod and his illegal wife if they wanted it. Even King Herod was interested, but Herodias was a schemer, and she ruled the roost, and had Herod tied around her little finger.

Christians today are also receiving a lot of criticism about our teaching on marriage, and maybe in recent weeks, perhaps on social media, you have seen the battering that God’s beautiful order of marriage and creation has received. I know that many of you are torn on these issues too—you have friends and family who have different opinions and you might not know what to think. Whatever pressures you are under, Jesus knows—and he is walking with you, he loves you, and he wants to encourage you. But we have to understand that John the Baptist was a martyr—he died for the faith, even if we might think that he was imprisoned for something that was not the most important thing.

And so, Herodias manipulates the whole situation. She uses her daughter, who is dancing on King Herod’s birthday, to go and get John the Baptist’s head, as her prize for entertaining. We read: [Herod] vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

Whose head do you hunger for? What hairy bug-man is sitting next to you in church? Is there someone who speaks God’s word to you, but who you think is a pest, and you just wish they would shut up? Are you guilty of sin of the tongue, and think that you are doing everyone a favour to kill off someone’s reputation, and to show everyone who’s boss?

You know, Herodias asked for John’s head, because she thought that the most dangerous part of John’s body was his mouth. If we cut off his head, he won’t be able to say anything anymore. And yet, she’s wrong. The power of John’s ministry is not just in his mouth, it’s in his finger, because all the way along, John was pointing to his coming Saviour, and saying: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so, when John’s head is severed from his body, his finger still points to his Lord, and to his crucifixion, and his death for this sin, this blood-lust, and all the sin of the world. His finger still points you to your precious Jesus on the cross, and risen from the dead.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been thinking a lot in the last year about all those Christians in the Iraq and Syria who have lost their heads. Some Christians in the last year have been crucified, Christian children and Christian toddlers have been crucified. And the only reason why it hasn’t happened to you, is because you just have the great blessing of living in this country in a time of peace. And yet, they are Christians with us. There have been more Christians who have died for their faith in the last century than in any time before. Those martyrs are part of the company of heaven who is now feasting at the wedding banquet, together with whom we gather for worship and eat the Lord’s Supper. The victory belongs to Christ.

I remember reading once about a whole lot of Catholic nuns who were executed by the guillotine at the time of the French Revolution in 1789. And as they were carried to their deaths, they sang: Come Holy Spirit. You see, even when the church is on its knees, and good faithful Christians like John the Baptist are completely humiliated, the victory still belongs to Christ, and the Holy Spirit will still continue the work.

Jesus says: I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, the world is evil, but you are stronger. The world is mad, and yet you make perfect sense. The world is hateful, and yet you are perfect love. Amen.