Readings: Revelation 6:9-11 | Romans 6:1-15 | Mark 6:14-29
Text: Mark 6:14-29
John was the forerunner to the Christ. He was born six months before, and He went before the Lord. He was a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mark 1:3, citing Isaiah 40:3). And that he did for all Judea and Jerusalem, who came out to be baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But the Mightier One came, as John said, and has fulfilled all righteousness [Mark 1:4-8, Matt. 3:13-15], and indeed He is the righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption of all who believe [1 Cor. 1:30].
We are those who come after Christ. He tells us,
“34If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” and “29Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
(Mark 8:34; 10:29-30)
But like John, we also sometimes must confess, one to another, God’s holy, unchangeable Law and then point repentant sinners to Christ.
John preached against so-called marriage which ran contrary to God’s Law. No matter what gifts were exchanged, political favors given, or how much Herod and Herodias felt love or just relief that Herod was different from his brother, Phillip—it was not really marriage. John said as much. Herod’s rank did not factor in. He was a human being, and humans are subject to the Law given by their Creator. This Law does not change depending on where you live, how much money you have, or what is socially acceptable, or even if you consider yourself a Christian.
Those who have the Word of God know what marriage is:
18Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”…21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
(Genesis 2:18, 21-25)
And like was shared during the Catechism lesson on the Sixth Commandment, anything apart from this institution is not God’s intent for marriage. This holds true, even in the age of no-fault divorce, cohabitation, and pairings of all different kinds. Through political maneuvering and an effective messaging campaign, people of our country have declared two men or women to be a lawful marriage. Yet, for all the force of the United States Supreme Court, or the State of Oregon, these entities do not have the power to rewrite what God has established.
So, the people who have God’s Word believe that Word, and like John, we speak His truth to others. And like John, we don’t give preferential treatment with whom we speak this truth, whether it’s to those in authority, or those in our family. It may be to our children who put off marriage but not giving into their lusts, or to our parents who want to avoid the financial burden of being legally wed, or to our peers who want to divorce because they don’t feel fulfilled by their spouse anymore.
And also like John, the one who brings the Word of God may suffer personally for exposing that sin. It might mean at the very least awkward silences at dinner, alienation, or ridicule. For Christians in some positions it may mean losing your job, like Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran[1] or having your business boycotted, as Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A. It has resulted in a years-long witch-hunt against in Finland against Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola Bishop, who, in 2004, spoke God’s truth in a booklet titled “Male and Female He Created Them.” In 2019, it was brought up by enemies of God, who have successfully tried Räsänen and Pohjola three times on the charge that what they wrote “is insulting to sexual minorities and therefore unlawful.”[2]
With all that speaking the truth entails—even if it isn’t the shedding of your blood—Christians today are truly martyrs for marriage. Martyrs are those who witness for God. And those who are deluded in error want to silence the accusation which comes on our lips. But it isn’t for any personal pride or battle for conservative values that we speak. It is God’s love for wayward souls. God loved Herod Antipas, and Herodias, and her daughter enough to speak to them.[3] God loves the homosexuals, the transexual, the spouses at odds with each other, the couples who move in together—enough to speak to them, and He is using His people to do that. In all likelihood, they won’t be coming here to hear this sermon, so it is laid on you to share the warning of the Law, “It is not lawful, and I care about not just your happiness, but your eternal welfare, to tell you this is not good.”
19And Herodias had a grudge against [John] and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
And like Herod, the people we speak to will have a moment where they will have to respond to the truth of God’s Law and choose. Herod’s time of choice came when his pretend wife and her daughter asked for the head of John the Baptist. We hope for nothing so extreme, but when the moment of truth comes, it is our prayer that they would repent of their wickedness and turn to Christ, the Savior of sinners.
Even in John’s death, God’s will was done. Perhaps as John had been preaching,
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire,”
(Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17)
he had hoped this would mean immediate, visible victory over those who oppose the coming Messiah. But the Kingdom now can still be resisted. Even if men and women reject its call to repent and believe, that doesn’t mean God’s Word has failed. Sure, Herodias was pretty smug that she had gotten her way and gotten rid of that troublemaker. In the End—the Day of Judgement—God has the last word.
As we, the followers of Christ, are martyrs for marriage in our own time, it isn’t our responsibility to manage how people respond to the Word of God. Instead, our calling is to proclaim and uphold the unchanging truth of marriage—to, as St. Paul says, “shine as lights in the world…in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation” and in Hebrews it is written, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled” (Phil. 3:15; Hebrews 13:4).
That brings its own challenges and pains, but amidst that, God’s blessing. Where we constantly retreat to is the Word of God, which never changes even though our feelings and patience run short. St. Peter wrote to married believers:
“1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct… 5For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 7Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
(1 Peter 3:1-2, 5-7)
Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, was a beautiful example of this. After finally reaching repentance, Augustine recalled the years of his mother’s prayers and painful toil for her unbelieving husband and son:
“When she reached a marriageable age, she was given to a man and served him as lord. She tried to win him for You, speaking to him of You by her virtues through which You made her beautiful, so that her husband loved, respected, and admired her. She bore with his infidelities and never had a quarrel with her husband on this account. For she looked forward to Your mercy coming upon him, in hope that, as he came to believe in You, he might become chaste…At the end, when her husband had reached the end of his life in time, she succeeded in gaining him for you. After he was a baptized believer, she had no cause to complain of his behavior which she had tolerated in one not yet a believer.” (Confessions, Augustine, Book IX,
19-22)
The burdens which Christians bear for marriage today are nothing new, but we are sorely tempted by human remedies. It’s hard to slog through day-to-day, year after year, with your spouse—their sins and your sins colliding. The thing that breaks marriages is not something out there; it’s when hardness of heart takes root in our hearts and estranges one spouse against another. Because the sinful heart is so deceitful, we can easily become deceived. That’s why we take the Word of God for our clarity in how our God would have us each to live before Him.
All of this shows the burden and pain of taking up our cross as martyrs for Christ. We don’t ask for these crosses to bear, but we will not accept the world’s ways—defining marriage according to lusts, casting it off when it doesn’t suit our fancy, and chasing after a carnal appetite. Following Jesus, these pains drive us to the cross where the Lord lifts up and restores our crushed spirit [Psalm 34:18-19]. He brings us to where the Father adopted us in the water of Baptism, to confess our sins and believe the word of Absolution which He puts on our pastor’s lips, to eat and drink Jesus’ Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
It’s nothing new that people hide from God’s Law, but He has been seeking out sinners since the first disobedience (which also happened to take place in marriage). He has sought and found you and me, and by His grace may He guard us against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, so that we can live godly lives in the presence of God and our neighbors.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen
[1] https://adflegal.org/case/cochran-v-city-atlanta
[2] https://yle.fi/a/74-20217653 and https://ilcouncil.org/2026/05/07/finnish-mp-and-bishop-to-appeal-bible-trial-conviction/
[3] We learn of Herodias’ daughter’s name from the 4th century church historian Eusebius.
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