『The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist | St. Mark 6:14-29 | You Bear a Most Vicious Image of Love』のカバーアート

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist | St. Mark 6:14-29 | You Bear a Most Vicious Image of Love

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist | St. Mark 6:14-29 | You Bear a Most Vicious Image of Love

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The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist August 30, 2026 Mark 6:14-29 I already know you may not appreciate the cover on today’s bulletin. It appears graphic: a head on a platter; it’s just sitting there, staring back at you. You heard the story in the Gospel with your ears, but seeing it, seeing the head of John the Baptist before you, that’s another story. Why would we use such an image on the bulletin cover? Children will see it! However, is this image as striking as you first believed? Is it as graphic as you think? Ponder this for a moment… I’ll give you time. Now, I asked these questions because I would argue that an even more graphic image is before you each and every day; in fact, every time you imagine this image in your mind, this figure appears, and the brutality is inescapable. How could you carry such a graphic image with you each day? How could you be so dark and troubled? Of course, you’re sitting here and saying, “Pastor, I have no idea what you are talking about, I would never carry such a horrid image of death with me each and every day.” Oh yeah, then what’s wrong with you? Why wouldn’t you? What’s wrong with me, what’s wrong with you? Nothing…well, that’s not completely true. I am a sinner, just like you. So why wouldn’t this disturbing image appear in your mind as it does in mine? I mean, you were brought into it just as I was; it was placed on both your forehead and your heart as a child, as an infant, like a tattoo so you’d never forget who you are. Well, that’s morbid; you’ve been walking around all these years with an image of violence in your heart and mind, but you haven’t noticed? Reflect on what I’m telling you now. I’m saying that since the time of your birth, you’ve been carrying an image within you that is worse than the cover of today’s bulletin. But why haven’t you noticed this? That’s a good question: why haven’t you noticed this? Probably because you’ve become complacent; maybe all the violent and horrendous imagery of the news on the television you watch or in the video games you play has made you numb, or maybe you’ve decided to bury those images in the depths of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the part of the brain that suppresses unwanted thoughts and visuals you’d prefer not to have. Maybe that’s it; maybe that’s why you can’t ponder or visualize the image that’s honestly worse than the cover of today’s bulletin. You’ve become complacent, numb, and buried the image of proof. However, the image, the cross, and Jesus’ mangled body still remain before you; you can’t escape it; it’s right here to my left. That vivid, horrible image of violence, the most horrendous violence known to mankind: crucifixion. Whips, lashes, and nails. A crown of thorns for the King and Kings, rough wood that digs deep into the open wounds of His back for a throne. Yes, Jesus cleans up real nice for our purposes today, for public display, but make no mistake, the day He died for sinners like you and me, it’s not an image we would have looked on with glee, joy, or celebration. No, His cross would have brought us shame. It would have been seared into our memories, the kind of image you can’t outrun or ever forget, the image of tragedy. Being there that first Good Friday would have stayed with you until the day you died. But that’s one of the reasons you might not want to think about it, to ponder it, or wrestle with it – it is graphic, vicious, and horrendous. But you are also the reason Jesus went to this cross. Your sin, the ways you have not lived rightly, according to your Father’s will, as we learn from the Ten Commandments and Holy Scripture. How you have not loved God with all your heart or your neighbor as yourself, the way you have not been faithful in confessing your faith in your Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for you. And here is the difference between you and John the Baptist, the one whose head ended on a platter; he was faithful, even to the end. He confessed Jesus until his dying breath. He refused to compromise God’s law, even at the risk of his life. He would not dilute God’s commands regarding the adulterers in King Herod’s court, which ultimately led to his death, just as he wouldn’t soften his message for his apostles. Despite the potential for mental or physical harm, John the Baptist consistently proclaimed God’s Word in full. In this way, the rejection of the word John preached foretold the rejection of Jesus’ words. John’s violent death foreshadowed Jesus’ death. And you, the baptized, have been brought into this death, too. Hear those familiar words of the epistle again: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as ...
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