Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 11^th
Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches            
Custer and Hill City, SD
Recapitulated in Christ                 
Mark 6:14-29, Ephesians 1:1-14

 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. 

     This is the Gospel of the Lord. 

    Really?  This is Gospel?  This is Good News, that Herod ordered the decapitation of John the Baptist?  Now, we know that the word Gospel, strictly speaking, means Good News.  But we also use “Gospel” to refer to the first four books of the New Testament, because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in total, tell us the very best news.  But they speak of many difficult things as well, which we need to hear and understand.  So when I said: This awful story is the Gospel of the Lord, I was saying that this has been our reading from the Gospel, in this case, from St. Mark, chapter 6. 

    But still, how is this story even in the Gospel?  How can John’s death by decapitation even be a part of the story of salvation?  Everything about this story is uncomfortable.  The deeper we dig, the messier it gets.  First, we have a wicked royal family.  Herod, puppet king of Galilee on behalf of the Romans, is married to Herodias.  She had been his brother Philip’s wife, but Herod enticed her away.  John the Baptist condemns their adultery, and so lands in jail, because the king, and especially the king’s wife, do not appreciate being condemned.  John in this persecution joins Amos, and every prophet who gets in trouble for speaking the truth to powerful people. 

    Next, we have a birthday party gone terribly wrong.  We shouldn’t read too much, or too little, into the daughter of Herodias pleasing the party with her dancing.  But questions force themselves upon us.  Just how old was the girl?  Just what kind of dance did she do?  We don’t know.  We only know that her dance was so pleasing it led Herod to make a rash promise, and back it up with a vow:  Ask whatever you want, up to half of my kingdom…  

    Now our twisted story gets really bad.  Did a young girl go to her mother in innocence, just looking for an idea of something good to ask for?  A castle?  A pony, perhaps?  Or did a young woman share her mother’s anger at John, and went to her knowing that they had an opportunity to do bad things to the wild prophet from the Jordan?  In any case, think of the request.  Think of saying those words out loud, in all seriousness:  Give me the head of John the Baptist, on a platter. 

   Think of being one of the birthday guests, of waiting in horror for the wish to be granted.  I assume they waited in horror; you don’t suppose anyone waited in ghoulish expectation, do you?  Was the party that dark and wicked? 

    The deed is done, and we are appalled, and perhaps wondering about Mark.  Even though he wrote the shortest of the four Gospels, Mark gives the most terrible details from this story.  Why tell us so much?  Is it simply to reveal the darkness of which we human beings are capable?  Surely, we don’t need to be warned away from such evil.  Hasn’t our society progressed far beyond such savagery?  

    After all, it’s not like we Americans have aborted 60 million children in the womb since 1973.  Sixty million babies killed; 60 million mothers led into a horrible choice; our whole nation and culture turned against itself and its future. 

    Does Mark really need to lecture us on violence?  It’s not like in America bizarre violence fills our news far too often.  Or that dozens of grotesquely violent horror movies are produced in America each year, primarily to be watched by our youth.  Even better are the insanely violent video games, which put the trigger in our hands!  But it’s only a virtual trigger.  It’s pretend.  That couldn’t affect anyone, could it? 

 Do we really need Mark to warn us of the human capacity for violence and cruelty? 

 

   Yes, of course we do.  Remember that the next account in Genesis after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin is the story of Cain killing his brother Abel.  When we turn from the Lord of life, we make ourselves seekers of death.  Our sinfulness means that the capacity for violence is within us all.  We will not be able to relax our guard until God delivers us from this world of tears.  Mark just lifts the veil a little on the darkness, so we are reminded that it’s all too real. 

    But is that it?  Is this story needed in the Gospels simply to warn us against human wickedness and violence?  Could there be any other connection between the decapitation of John the Baptist and the Good News of God’s salvation?  If only somehow there could be a “recapitation,” a rejoining of the head to the body.  That would be a happy ending. 

     But how can that be?  Once John’s head is off, how can it be reattached? This finality is why violence is such an enduring curse.  Stolen goods can be returned or replaced; a lie can be admitted and corrected; a covetous heart can learn to rejoice in another’s good fortune.  But once thrown, a punch cannot be pulled back.  Once dead, a murder victim is gone to us.  Scars can last a lifetime, and the blood of Abel still cries from the ground.  How can the head be put back onto the body, once the deed is done? 

    Well, there is a recapitation, a recapitulation, to be precise, a bringing all together again under one head, which we heard about in our reading from Ephesians.  Now, you didn’t hear those exact words.  Our translation tries to make easier sense of the Greek for us, speaking of a plan for the fullness of time, a plan “to unite all things in him,” things in heaven and things on earth.  The “unite all things” translates a Greek word which means “to recapitulate,” or, “to bring all things back together under the head.”  In Him.  And the Him, the Head, of course, is Jesus Christ.  

   Remember what Jesus said to the rich young man: Only God is Good.  Which means that all men and women are wicked.  This is the plumb line of truth, that cuts through human pride.  God in mercy restrains the worst evil, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the elect, for the sake of His Church.  For left to our own devices, we humans would quickly destroy one another.  This is unpleasant to consider, but important to remember and confess, lest we think too much of ourselves and decide we don’t need a savior.  Lest we imagine we can build heaven on earth through human cooperation.  No, a truly good future depends entirely on Christ, our head. 

    Our flesh, our sinful natures, don’t like admitting such dependence, such wickedness and lack of personal power to do good.  We are always trying to introduce something from ourselves into the salvation equation. 

    It doesn’t matter whether the false teaching is obvious, as in the Five Pillars of Islam, which say do these five tasks, and you will be accepted by Allah into heaven.  Or the door knocking way to heaven of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Or whether the lie is more subtle, as in the seemingly tiny requirement of “making a decision” or “giving your heart” to Jesus.  Any time we add a work of ours to God’s work of salvation we corrupt the Gospel, and we insult Christ. 

   Indeed, we do a better job with avoiding violence than we do avoiding self-justification.  We must be watchful, for our natural tendency is to corrupt the pure Gospel with requirements for good works by us.  We do this to be able to feel that we are saving ourselves.  We need to be watchful, or we will lose our heads, spiritually speaking.  Because only the living Christ, the Head of the Church, can save us from death.  Only the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, can testify before the court of God that all sins have been paid for.  And Jesus has paid for every sin, including the sins of Herod and Herodias, including the sins of those involved in the abortion industry, and including the sins of those who have been deceived by their propaganda.  All is forgiven in Christ, washed away by His Blood.  So we, the Church, have Good News for all people: whoever looks to Jesus in faith is forgiven, period.  He is the prophet greater than Amos, or John, or even Moses, the Prophet who died and rose again, to fulfill God’s promise of salvation for all. 

    John the Baptizer lost his head in service to God’s Church.  But he will be
restored, because the crucified and resurrected Jesus is the head of His body, the Church.  In Christ, John has been ransomed from the devil.  Ransomed by the precious blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of ours sins, according to the riches of his grace.  In Christ, God has made known to us the mystery of his will, a plan revealed at just the right time, a plan to bring back together under the One True Head all things in heaven and on earth.   In Christ, the soul of John the Baptist lives, with all the saints who have gone before, joyfully awaiting the Last Day, when John’s soul will be reunited with his perfected body, head included. 

    In Christ, we too have obtained an inheritance, the promise of eternal life in heaven, having been chosen before time in Christ, to the praise of his glory.   How can we make so bold a claim?  Not because of anything we have done, but because God has promised. 

   Indeed, God has sealed His promise with Himself, for in Baptismal waters we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.  In our Baptismal faith, made new every time we hear the Word of forgiveness, strengthened every time we feast at the banquet of forgiveness, in this faith we eagerly await the day when Christ will reveal the promise to our eyes. 

    In the meantime, we live in a world that is violent, and that constantly self-justifies.  We live in a world that rejects God’s way.  We live as strangers called to speak unpopular things to the powers of darkness.  But we have no need to fear, for we are free, free to be bold, to speak against evil, to speak for life, to risk the anger of the popular culture, to stand up for the weak and the lowly.  We are free to uphold God’s Law because we know the One who has fulfilled that Law for us and for all people.  Even more, we can proclaim forgiveness to every sinner who feels the accusation of God’s law, for in Jesus, there is forgiveness for all.  For all people, and for every sin.   

    Let the world reject us.  For what is the world to us?  We are joined to the Head of all things, the Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  He has entered into His creation and redeemed it, in His own body, on the Cross.  And we are connected to Him.  We are by His grace and power truly His body, the Church.  His blood flows through us.  Our leader, our Savior, our Head rules all things.  In Christ we have the victory, over sin and death, the world and the devil.  Rejoice, and sing His praises, today and forevermore.  Amen.