Today’s Gospel text shows us just how God’s Word is received and how His messengers are treated by the world. Simply for pointing out to King Herod that his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife was sin according to the Word of God, John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. Now, in this country that doesn’t happen. You can say virtually anything you want about the president or any other leader of our country for that matter and not be imprisoned or executed for it. But to give you a sense of the hostility that John faced, imagine what kind of reception you would receive from your neighbors if on the 4th of July you saw them shooting off illegal fireworks and then went over and told them that to do such a thing not only went against the law of the land but also God’s Law and that therefore it wasn’t right for them to do. Do you think they would say something like, “You know, you’re right! What we’re doing is wrong, it’s sin, and we’re going to stop right now!” No, more than likely they’d respond to you with some abusive language and then continue on with what they were doing. They might stop if they knew the police were going to get involved, but you can bet that the same anger that Herod harbored against John would be harbored against you in the hearts of your neighbors.
That is because nobody likes to be convicted of sin, including you and me. The warnings, commands, and threats of the Law don’t change us for the better. They don’t turn sinners into saints. They may change the outward behavior of those who are afraid of such threats, so that some people might obey the Law simply to try to avoid punishment. But with others, as was the case with Herod, the Law is simply ignored and sneered at, and those who proclaim it are persecuted. Only after Herod thought that John had risen from the dead did he feel guilty for what he had done.
Herod is an example of one who was more concerned about his lusts and his reputation than he was about the Word of God. When John confronted him with his sin, Herod could have confessed it, received John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of his sins, and turned from his sinful behavior. But Herod was caught between doing what he wanted and pleasing his guests on the one hand, and doing what is right and pleasing God on the other hand. If he remained unrepentant, he could continue to eat, drink, and be merry, giving himself over to his pleasures while enjoying the honor, praise, and acceptance of his peers. If, however, he were to confess that the Word of God was true and John were right, that would mean he’d not only have to give up his sinful affair, but he’d also lose face before his friends by going back on his promise to give Herodias’ daughter what she’d asked for. In the end, Herod decided that the passing pleasures of sin were more appealing to him than the Word of God. He remained in his adulterous affair and he had John executed at the request of his step-daughter, in order to save his reputation before his colleagues.
John was executed because he was a faithful proclaimer of God’s Word. And John proclaimed that Word regardless of how it would be received or what might happen to him for speaking that Word. In this way, he was a successor of all the prophets who had gone before him, all of whom in one way or another were rejected and persecuted for proclaiming the Word of God. We have an example of this in today’s O.T. lesson, where the prophet Amos was rejected by King Jeroboam and one of his self-appointed priests named Amaziah. Neither one of them wanted to hear or heed Amos’ warnings. They didn’t repent at his preaching. Instead, they banished him from their presence. Amos responded by saying something to the effect that he hadn’t chosen this vocation of prophet for himself. Who’d want that, after all, when the job description included suffering and martyrdom for proclaiming the Word? Amos had been a simple herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But God gave him a new vocation, saying, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
Now John was on the scene doing the same thing. But in his case he was more than a prophet; he was also the forerunner of Christ, proclaiming the Word of God in the flesh, identifying Jesus as the One of whom all the prophets had spoken. John was the Elijah spoken of by the prophet Malachi, who was to come before the great and awesome day of the LORD, in order to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, preaching that all should repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. John not only spoke of Jesus as the prophets had, but pointed to Him and said, “Here He is! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Repent and believe the Gospel.” But like the prophets who had gone before him, John, too, was rejected, suffered, and died for such proclamation, prefiguring how Jesus would be rejected, suffer, and die.
Since people had rejected the spoken and written Word of God, so they would reject the One whom that Word proclaimed - the Word of God in the flesh. And yet Jesus came for all the Herods of this world, for you and me, and yes even all the prophets and Apostles, who were all at one time a bunch of Herods in their hearts. At one time, our reputations and pleasures were more important to us than the Word of God. Even now we still war against the little Herod that dwells within us, who does not want to repent at the preaching of God’s Word and wants to live instead as he pleases, too embarrassed to proclaim the Word to others for fear of rejection and loss of reputation. Jesus gave Himself into death for such sinners, for us who, as Paul puts it in the book of Ephesians, were at one time “dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the lusts of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath...” Jesus gave Himself into the death of the cross for all Herods, in order that He might keep those who repent of their sins and trust in Him safe from God’s wrath, having cleansed them of all their sins with the sprinkling of His blood in holy Baptism.
Even King Herod could have received the forgiveness of his sins simply by confessing himself a sinner and trusting in Jesus as his Savior. John wasn’t acting like some kind of moral police officer, whose job it was merely to point out the faults of others, nor was he presenting himself as more righteous and holy than anyone else. John himself was a sinner and even told Jesus that he needed to be baptized by Him, rather than the other way around. God doesn’t rebuke us with His Law, in order to destroy us and leave us in despair. He does it in order that we might see our need for a Savior, His Son Jesus Christ. God wants to empty you of all the earthly treasures that you hold so dear - your reputation, your status, your money, your righteousness, your gods - in order to fill you with the true treasure that He gives you freely in Jesus. But notice here that the world desires the death of Jesus and His messengers who preach Him even more than it desires any earthly treasures. After his step-daughter pleased Herod with her dance, he offered her up to half of his kingdom. But what did she ask for? John the Baptist’s head on a platter at the instigation of her mother. Now, think about that! Half of a kingdom on the one hand vs. somebody’s head on the other... The girl’s choice was stupid and foolish. And yet it reveals just how much people hate God, His Word, His Christ, and those who proclaim Him. They’d give up all the treasures of the world, if it meant that they could silence God.
But God loves the world too much to remain quiet. He is not willing that anyone perish in his sins, but that all repent and come to a knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ. God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live. In order that people might repent and believe the Gospel, He puts His Word into the mouths of His saints, so that it might be proclaimed. In the book of Romans St. Paul writes, “How are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” And so, in the past God used priests, prophets, and Levites to proclaim His Word to His people. Then He used John the Baptist, His Apostles, and His own Son, the Word of God in the flesh, to proclaim His Word to the world. Now He uses pastors and you, His priests today, to proclaim His Word to those who ask you to give a reason for the hope that you have in Jesus. And like those who have gone before you, you too may be rejected for proclaiming Him. But Jesus says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Remember that you too were at one time one of those who rejected Jesus and His Word. You too were once a little Herod, dead in your trespasses and sins, living out your lusts, being more concerned about yourself and your reputation than you were about confessing your sins and your Savior. But God had mercy upon you, and He still grants you His forgiveness for Christ’s sake, even when that little Herod in you still wants to come out and play. Remember that Jesus gave Himself into death and rose again from the dead to save all the Herods of this world. His sacrifice more than sufficiently covers all your sins, so that God’s wrath now passes over you and you live instead under His grace, mercy, and peace. John the Baptist’s death couldn’t do that for you. His shed blood can’t save you, nor can the blood of any other saint, including your own. But the blood of Jesus shed on the cross can and does save you. “In Him,” as the Apostle Paul writes in today’s Epistle text, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace...” With His blood Jesus purchased you for Himself. And now, regardless of what might happen to you in this life for confessing Him, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, not even death itself. When He comes again on the Last Day, He will raise up you and all the dead, and give to you and all believers in Christ the inheritance of eternal life that is yours even now by faith in His sure and strong Word. Amen.