Morning Message Text: Mark 6: 14-29
John the Baptist Beheaded
14 King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
15 Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”
16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
17 For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.
18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
19 So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to,
20 because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled ; yet he liked to listen to him.
21 Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
22 When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.”
23 And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
24 She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” “The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
25 At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
26 The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her.
27 So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison,
28 and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.
29 On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Morning Message:
What are we willing to risk for our faith? You might not think too much about taking risks for your faith; that is probably because we seldom if ever put anything on the line for what we believe in. You don’t necessarily have to put your physical life on the line in order to take a risk for what you believe in. Let me ask you this. Would you risk a relationship for your faith and the faith of someone else? There is simple, but very intentional things we can do to put our faith on the line. I have probably told you about my grandmother more than once and her influence on my life when I was very young. My grandmother was loving and kind; she had a big heart. There were times when I was very young that she took me and bought me shoes and clothes out of her hard-earned small paycheck she received from working in the cafeteria at Anchor Hocking. She was not a pushover when it came to her faith. I used to get so angry with her when she would make me get out of bed to go to church and Sunday School, and she was not smiling or happy with me when I finally made it to the car. I got a sermon to and from church. She didn’t care if I was upset with her, and she didn’t worry about whether I liked her at the moment. She was willing to risk that for my soul. She told me what was right and what was wrong.
Now you might hear this story about the demise of John the Baptist and think that maybe he should have minded his own business. First you need to hear the whole story. Herod committed several sins in marrying Herodias. First, at the time he already was married to the daughter of King Aretas IV, so he had to divorce her. Second, Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, a son of Herod the Great, which made her his niece—a forbidden union according to Leviticus chapter 18 verse 16. Third, Herodias had married Philip, another of Herod’s brothers, and in order to marry Herod, she first had to divorce Philip. So John repeatedly rebuked Herod. What a mixed-up mess of a family. As a Christian leader John felt that he had no choice; he was speaking the truth to a very influential family who was very much in the public eye, and to allow them to live unchecked like this would set a very bad example for everyone else. John was risking everything, even his head, his very life, for what was right in the sight of God. We have no idea the affect this had on the church then and the church today.
Now I know that you have heard this statement or something similar, “In the name of Christ stop!” Have you ever felt like uttering those words to someone that you cared about? Let me tell you a story about a martyred Saint named Telemachus. He is the obscure Christian monk from the east who ended the Roman Gladiator Games on January 1, A.D. 404. Here is the story.
The Gladiator Games went on for centuries in Rome at the Colosseum and at other venues. The games had men, slaves, and animals fight to the death for the sport and the entertainment of blood-thirsty citizens of the empire. Telemachus came to visit the churches in Rome at Christmas and was shocked by the thousands who flocked to see the gladiatorial games. Appalled by the inhumanity and ungodliness of these acts and cut to the heart, he jumped from the stands and positioned himself between two gladiators and said over and over, “In the name of Jesus, stop this thing.” A gladiator took an ax and pierced his head. 50,000 people watched this scrawny little monk die. Stunned, the crowd all quietly walked out of the Colosseum. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs claims that the sight of his death “turned the hearts of the people.” Perhaps human life is worth something. Life is not meaningless but meaningful. Maybe life is about more than sadistic entertainment. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. One man made the difference in the greatest capital of the day in the greatest amphitheater. This was the last day of the Gladiator Games. We stand on the shoulders of Telemachus. The story is hard but beautiful. Isn’t it? This really happened on January 1, A.D. 404. What should we do to serve the Kingdom of God?
Why do you think it is that we are so unwilling to risk anything? I am not saying anything here that you don’t already know in your hearts. We stay quiet about what we know to be right because that is just easier. We have bought into this notion that we shouldn’t tell our children they are wrong because it might make them feel bad about themselves. I don’t think we really believe that, but it’s just easier to not deal with it. What that has gotten us in today’s world is a society of people who don’t seem to know that it is not okay to riot and destroy other people’s property or hurt and sometimes even kill others if they disagree with them. Saying “no” has become far too risky, and we have forgotten how to gracefully tell people that they are simply wrong. How can we ever get to the point of risking everything for Jesus when we are afraid to risk something as insequential as a relationship.
We can’t start by deciding that we will suddenly start taking risks. Before we can be bold for Jesus, we have to empty ourselves and surrender our wants for God’s will. In Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 we hear this from Paul, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” The idea of surrender is to choose not to resist and to submit to authority. The most consequential act of surrender happened when Jesus chose not to resist His Father’s will for Him to die on a cross: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” All disciples of Jesus are called to surrender in the same way—to be willing to take up our own cross. If you are a disciple of Christ, contemplate the degree of your surrender to Him and any resistance you feel. Are you getting this? We don’t risk the things of this life because we have not fully surrendered to Jesus. John the Baptist lost his head and his life willingly because they meant nothing to him. He had already surrendered everything to Jesus. Paul went to prison and was eventually executed. He risked everything because he no longer saw earthly life as valuable when compared to eternity with Jesus. How many people have come to Jesus because of the self-sacrificing love of John and Paul and the Martyrs?
In finishing, I want to contrast the attitudes of the two men in this scripture. First: John the Baptist, the great prophet who told the people to repent and make the way clear for their Savior. He gave up the pleasures of this life for the promise of eternity. He cared nothing about what people thought of him in his camel hair clothing and leather belt; eating locusts for dinner. Then we have Herod: looking for every pleasure that he could find in this life with no regard for right and wrong. He enjoyed listening to John speak, but he refused to repent. He did not want to harm John, but he cared much more about his reputation before his friends and sacrificed John even though he knew it was the wrong thing to do. Are your cares for this world, your family, your friends, your job keeping you from risking everything for Jesus? You could lose your head, but souls might be saved.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
Views: 0
