You’re fascinated by St. John the Baptist. No surprise — he is a fascinating man. But at the same time, you’re also scared to death of him and of his preaching. Or, if you’re not, you should be.
Now, it may be that you like to hear his fiery preaching well enough, especially when he’s pointing the finger at somebody else, and especially when you assume that John the Baptist is long since dead and gone. But you don’t like it at all when you find that he is still preaching repentance from the Holy Scriptures. You don’t like it when he turns the Law of God on you and your sins, and he calls you to repent in both heart and life, to set aside your vices and actually change your behavior.
If you imagine that you do like to hear St. John call you to repentance, then you don’t understand repentance at all, and you sink that much further into your own self-righteousness, supposing that genuine repentance, faith, and life are something you can do for yourself. I guarantee that your old Adam, who is no one other than yourself, does not like to hear the true preaching of the Law.
The preaching of St. John the Baptist does still call you to repent, and it’s a deadly serious matter. Not only that, but your life depends upon it, because it is not lawful for you to think the things that you think; it is not lawful for you to say the things that you say; and it is not lawful for you to keep on doing the things that you are doing. Your sins and your sinfulness are neither lawful nor safe.
It is not lawful for you to compete and fight with your brothers and sisters, nor to take their stuff away, whether it be Legos and action figures or books and video games, or whatever it might be.
And as you get older, it is equally wrong and sinful to lust after your neighbor’s wife, to crave her for yourself, and to devise ways of enticing her away from your neighbor. So, too, it is not lawful for you to covet your neighbor’s children, his friends, his workers, or even his pets.
Nor is it lawful for you to covet the bodies and affections of young dancing girls, or any of the other provocative allurements of this world, which reign as idols in your heart and in your life.
All of your selfish, prideful kingdom building is wrong, as you arrogantly presume yourself to be a god and not a mortal man. And yet, fearing the opinions of man more than you fear the one true God, you commit what amounts to murder in His eyes and in His righteous judgment — by the hatred and enmity in your heart toward those who are beyond your reach, and by the actual hurt and hostility that you inflict upon those who cannot protect or defend themselves from you.
It is not lawful for you to do any of these things, nor a thousand other similar sins that you commit.
But you add sin upon your sin, and you make things far worse for yourself, when you shut up the preaching of the Law, when you stop your ears to it and run away from it — when you presume to keep it on a leash, because you like to hear it “a little bit,” but you want to keep it at arm’s length, or locked up in a cage or a dungeon, and you insist that it may speak to you only when it is spoken to, and only to the extent that you permit. You thus suppose yourself to be the master of your own domain, the king or queen of your own castle; but that’s a lie which ends in death.
Repent of your arrogance and of your sin, or you will lose more than half of your kingdom, and really far more than your head or your body in the end.
In your confrontation with St. John the Baptist, it’s kill or be killed, at least for the time being. There’s no two ways around it. Neither of you can live while the other one survives in this life.
And yet, here is the profound irony and the paradox of the Cross: Those who save their life in this world will lose it forever in the dungeon prepared for the devil and his wicked angels, while those who lose their life for the sake of Christ Jesus and His Gospel will save it for eternity with Him. That is how things truly are.
To repent, as you are called to do, and to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, is to put your own head on the chopping block, it is to bare your neck to the sword — to the Sword of the Spirit, at least, and, as needs may be, to the temporal sword of the king.
This isn’t fun and games. It’s not make-believe or “let’s pretend.” It is a fearful and deadly encounter. No one gets out alive. One way or the other, you are called upon to die, whether for the Resurrection and eternal Life in Christ Jesus, or for eternal death and damnation in hell.
But, now then, do not hear and see only St. John’s fearful preaching of the Law — though, by all means, do hear and heed that preaching, and repent. But in repenting see him point and give way to Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away your sins, who submits Himself to death and the grave on your behalf, and who raises you up with Himself, in body and soul, unto newness of life.
St. John’s entire life and ministry, his preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, his suffering, and finally his death, are all a witness and a proclamation of this one Lord Jesus Christ, of His Cross and Passion, and of His Resurrection from the dead.
Everything about St. John — from his miraculous conception and birth, from the waters of the Jordan River to the depths of Herod’s dungeon and, finally, to the tomb in which he is buried — everything about St. John is wrapped up in Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. Every bit of it points to the Lord Jesus Christ. For St. John is called and sent by God to be the Forerunner of the Christ, to go before the face of the Lord and prepare His Way. And because the Way of the Lord is the way of the Cross, the way of suffering and death, that is where St. John the Baptist goes.
The same is true for anyone else who preaches and baptizes in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it is no less the case for those who are baptized into Him, who are given His Cross to bear and are called to follow after Him, even to the point of death and the grave. It is to that Cross of Christ, and to that death with Him, that each and all of you are called by His Word and Holy Spirit.
The Lord’s people, His saints, are so wrapped up in Christ Jesus, so identified with Him, and so also named by Him and for Him as Christians, that the world sees Christ Jesus in them. And that is true for you, as well; for it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you, and you in Him.
And so it was that Herod could not shake the impression that Jesus the Christ really was St. John the Baptist risen from the dead. And in a way, Herod was exactly right about that!
In the Word and works of Christ Jesus are the first fruits of His Cross and Resurrection. For His gracious miracles of healing and new life are a blessed foretaste of the neverending Feast that has come to fruition in His Resurrection and is manifest around the world in the Liturgy of His Gospel.
For those who die with Christ Jesus, like St. John and all the baptized, Jesus’ Resurrection is their Resurrection and their imperishable Life. His Resurrection is your Resurrection and your Life.
So also, it is in Christ Jesus that St. John and all the baptized are righteous and holy. It is in Jesus that you are righteous and holy, blameless, innocent, and pure before God the Father in heaven.
It is in that sure and certain hope, in that confidence of Christ and His Gospel, that the disciples of St. John, with tender affection and Christian love, laid his poor mistreated body to rest in the tomb, there to await the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day.
And already, the souls of those, including St. John the Baptist, who have been slain for the sake of the Word of God — as well as those who have departed from this mortal life in the faith of Christ Jesus — find their Peace and Sabbath Rest in Him, under His Altar, in heaven as on earth.
What does this mean? You have died with Christ in your Baptism, and so your life also is now hidden with Christ in God.
In life and in death, in body and in soul — even as you carry the Cross in your callings and stations on earth, and even when your body shall in due season be laid to rest in the dust of the ground — you are safe and secure in the Body and Blood of your crucified and risen Lord Jesus.
This true and everlasting King, who is both God and Man, prepares a Table before you in the presence of your enemies, each and all of whom He has defeated for you by His own Cross. It is a Banquet, not for His own benefit — not to be served, but to serve you in love — to forgive you all your sins, to give you His own Life, and to save both your body and your soul forever and ever.
So, then, as your mortal body is here fed with His Life-giving Body and Blood, it is enlivened, honored, and glorified by Jesus, in preparation for and anticipation of the resurrection of your body at the last, when it shall be no longer mortal and perishable, no longer subject to sickness, infirmity, and pain, nor any more susceptible to weakness, tiredness, and fear, but immortal, and imperishable, and glorious, like unto His own glorious Body.
Your soul, as well, both now and forever, has Peace and Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus, who has given Himself for you, who gives you His Body to eat and pours out His holy and precious Blood for you to drink in this Holy Communion. Whether for the first time, or for the millionth time, it is for all time; it is forever. For with this Feast He gives you, not simply half His Kingdom, but Himself with all His gifts and benefits, in whom the Kingdom of God is truly at hand. Therefore, you are His, and He is yours, forever and ever, world without end.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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