“JESUS: THE BLOOD & WHITE ROBED MARTYR”
Saint Mark 6: 14-29
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist: 30 August Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
Herod would not have heard of John had the Baptist kept his mouth shut. If John had been a cow-like citizen of empire and minded his business with head down and hands up he would have lived a long and dead-empty life—a life in spiritual Egyptian bondage—not to Pharaoh but to Satan.
You too go along to get along. Being a Christian in the still safe and protected confines of a parish nave is not hard. Being a Christian in the market place and public square is fast becoming like the third decade of the 1st century A.D.
No follower of Jesus will ever be persecuted for healing the sick as doctors and nurses or of feeding the hungry. You will not lose life and limb—head—for turning the other cheek and weeping with those who weep. John was murdered for being a Prophet. A Prophet was a man chosen by The Lord to speak the full counsel of God’s Holy Word. A Prophet spoke God’s entire writ—both Law and Gospel. And while a Prophet was chosen only BY GOD in a direct immediate anointing; so too every Christian—all of you—were also selected only BY GOD in the direct but mediated means of Holy + Washing. Like The Baptist, you all were “baptized into Jesus Christ…baptized into His death.” [Rom 6.3] At the font…THERE…you were given a white robe. You were even given a “little season” to rest and grow and be nourished in infancy until the day your mouths could sing forth the praises of He who found you and called you. While not Prophets you are martyrs, i.e. “witnesses” to the hope that is in you in: Christ Jesus!
John was killed for speaking truth to authority. This doesn’t mean that he spoke capitalism, free-markets, or 2nd amendment rights to socialistic and fascist power mongers. Those seeking to control others have been around since Cain and will continue to the Eschaton. No, John spoke The Lord’s commandments in Law (the 6th Commandment) to an unrepentant actual man: Herod. John said it is a sin to commit adultery and to steal someone else’s spouse. John would have said to any contemporary authority, or average “Joe-on-the-street” (or family member at Thanksgiving Dinner) abortion, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, transgenderism, and co-habitation are sins against God. And as sinful, they are damning unless repented of. John would have also called contraception, sterilization, euthanasia, suicide, masturbation, pornography, and lusting, sinful and unclean. This too was the way all bold Christian laity and pastors used to talk as well…at least some of the time…when it was safe.
Repent of that which is in your heart and mind that despoils and stains the white Baptismal Christ-gown that has been draped upon you. Repent of the nasty thoughts that swirl in through your ears and assault your eyes. Your ears are to hear Christ’s Word and your eyes are to behold His works in Word and Sacrament. Repent of your cowardice in speaking His hard Law to those who you are afraid of offending. It is better to offend than to let others assume you don’t really believe what you say you believe. Repent of your cowardice in speaking His hard Law to your own self-justifying heart.
The fifth seal opened in John’s Revelation is not the Five Books of Moses as Law—Commandments. The Law kills and brings no one justification. Whatever this seal may be, it points to Jesus. Jesus’ own five holy wounds on the Tree: His four wounds of both hands, feet, and side, along with His Sacred Head crowned with deep-biting thorns. His Head!
John was beheaded and maybe you will one day too. But John’s bold confession and his horrible death profited him nothing. His salvation was given him by Jesus. His Kinsman by His grace gave John faith to receive The Lord’s own bold confession and horrible death on the cross. The Son of God, the Second Person, was the true crowning head of the Blessed Trinity for He was God enfleshed—the True Prophet of the Godhead tabernacling with man—tabernacling TODAY with you. The Head of His Church, His spotless Bride had His own sinless brow marred so cruelly for your cruel trespasses. He hung His Head in death as it was taken from Him by sin and burial.
Christ not only preached the Law, taught the 6th commandment and sexual purity, He lived it perfectly. Christ kept all the Law that you don’t and He paid for your failing confessions in the face of trial by His own confession of Truth—all the way to the Tree.
Even as you frequently, hopefully daily, cry out Maranatha—“come quickly Lord Jesus,” so too do all the Saints in heaven, Saint John the Baptist, cry out with loud voices: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood…?” [Rev. 6. 10]
One day soon, very soon, the Judge will return. One day, THIS DAY, right now, the Judge, your brother is here to save you again from all judgment by His gracious forgiveness and peace. Your Groom, your very Head invites you to joy in being His Body by giving you to eat of His Body.
You may be killed. That is good. You have been killed, and that is gracious and saving to eternity. John’s corpse was laid in a tomb but John’s spirit was laid in The Lord’s Hands and Bosom till the Day of the Resurrection of The Body—all flesh. You too have been killed in bloody + washing. With John, you are “buried with Christ, by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of The Father, even so you also should walk in the newness of life.” [Rom. 6. 4]
Christ exalts your heads now with His tender kiss of peace.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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