Sermon Text: Mark 9:10-13

TREATED WITH CONTEMPT
Prayer: Dear Lord: If we’re treated with contempt, mocked or mistreated because of our faithfulness, comfort us in knowing that John the Baptist and the saints endured this, but especially that You endured it for our salvation. Be with us in our suffering. Also let it touch our hearts so we’re more zealous for the salvation of all who do evil, and more serious for our own salvation. Amen!
Sermon Text, St. Mark 9:10-13. 10 So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. 11 And they asked Him [Jesus], saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 12 Then He answered and told them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ:
This time when we meet John the Baptist it’s all over. Before we heard of John’s baptizing and preaching. But in Mark 9, it’s sometime after his death.
As they come down the mountain Jesus is talking about His own suffering and death, but He connects it to the death of John the Baptist. Previously He had said that John was the “Elijah” whom Malachi had prophesied was to come. Now He says to the three disciples: “I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”
This was a sensitive subject. Peter, James and John first were disciples of John. There’s no record that they spoke of his death, except to inform Jesus of it. But now He brought it up. To know what they knew we hear Mark 6:14-29:
Now King Herod heard of [Jesus], for His name had become well known. And he said, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” Others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets.” But when Herod heard, he said, “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!” For Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife; for he had married her. Because John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not; for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And … he heard [John] gladly.
An opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. And when Herodias’ daughter came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those who sat with him, the king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” He also swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist!” Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry; yet, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, 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 away his corpse and laid it in a tomb.
What unspeakable things there are in this story, yet God wants it spoken. Especially as we’re pressured into silence about the sexual permissiveness around us, or barbaric deaths whether in abortions or by terrorists in Israel.
Herod wanted his half-brother’s wife, Herodias, for his own, although he was already married. He secretly married her and went to war with his wife’s father. He didn’t care, he wanted what he wanted. John preached the Law to Herod, condemning his 6th commandment sins. Herod didn’t want to hear it, and put John in prison. During this time in prison is when today’s gospel lesson took place, when Jesus spoke to the crowds vindicating John. Then later, back in this story, Herod’s sinful lust responds to the dancing of his wife’s daughter. Herodias uses this to get John put to death in a barbaric way.
This isn’t a story we hear in church. With its seedy and gruesome details maybe we’re glad we don’t. But it was something the disciples held close and didn’t want to forget. It introduced an emotion that goes with sadness: anger. This story makes you angry. You want Herod and his rotten family to get it.
We still have the Herods with us: pleasure seekers who promote a carefree life without morals or limits. Today the Herods, Herodiases and Salome’s are running the culture, and the government too. Jesus’ disciples didn’t want to fit in with the Herods – but His disciples today are pressured to do just that.
When people who are sexually confused take a new name or pronoun that lies about how God made them, it’s the person who won’t speak that name or pronoun and thus dishonor God who’s punished; so Christians are pressured to silence themselves, unlike John when only prison and death could silence him. Christians who stand against the normalizing of homosexual conduct that God says is “against nature” (Rom 1:26), or won’t approve of a friend who’s willfully committing adultery, they are reviled and treated with scorn.
When people won’t vote for a candidate who supports abortion and they’re insulted and reviled and their reputation’s destroyed for being a “one-issue voter,” when really they are following God’s commandment not to murder and not to help those who do so, once again the Herods are in charge.
Just for living as Christians and living the creed that you profess on the basis of the true faith of the Bible, you face adverse consequences. So you do face persecution. Your head isn’t on a chopping block, but your good name is.
If we feel sorry for ourselves over this, anger is sure to come. If someone hurts us, our first impulse is to hurt back. We know this anger, frustration and deep sadness about the world that Jesus’ disciples felt. But notice what Jesus does with the anger. He puts it not in John’s story, but in His own.
Jesus summed up their attitude with the phrase “treated with contempt.” In the old version it’s: “set him at nought.” The word nought means nothing, to be treated as if you’re a nothing, with no dignity or rights. “Treated with contempt” applies to how John was treated, but Jesus puts it in His own story: that “the Son of Man must be treated with contempt.”
Jesus came to be considered a nothing, treated with contempt. This doesn’t seem right. It’s offensive to the world, and it’s part of the Christmas message: He came to suffer. You see it as little Baby Jesus shivers in the cold stable. One day His mother can no longer shield Him but watches helplessly as He endures the torments of being crucified. Even His heavenly Father forsakes Him. He will be all alone. Why? He knows what’s waiting for every sinner.
Not just a little “contempt” that this world offers, but – in hell – eternal “gnashing of teeth” at you, receiving all hatred and not a drop of love forever. There you would truly be “set at nought.” It isnothingness. All that God created, you would be deprived of it forever, especially His fellowship. That’s waiting for you, if you have sins and they remain with you. Jesus doesn’t want that for anyone, not even the Herods of this world.
Jesus came to “be treated with contempt” so you won’t be. He came to take all your sins away from you and bear them Himself. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, holy and without sin, and then born of the virgin Mary, born sinless. Because you have a sinful nature and are born sinful, He came to give you a new nature and make it so you’re without sin in God’s sight, to take away all the guilt of all your sin. You won’t get an ounce of God’s anger over sin. All you get is His love, a bottomless ocean of it, starting in Your baptism.
So Jesus is showing what we should think of the Herods of the world, the people who treat us with contempt. In His being “set at nought,” made a nothing, treated with contempt, Jesus is showing us a better way.
The reason we feel anger when we’re mistreated is that we think we are something, and we don’t deserve to be treated that way. It is true, we have dignity and value and we are something – but not due to anything in us. We deserve nothing good. By our own strength, all we can do or be is nothing.
This is how to look at the Herods of today: to realize that despite what they seem, in themselves and their seeming achievements that’s a nothing. But God wants them too – like us and with us – to turn from the nothingness this world comes to in the end, and to be given all things in Him. We don’t need to envy their worldly acclaim and influence. It need not make us angry or take from us our serenity. In peace we should pray for them to the Lord.
You know where your value, dignity and worth come from: Jesus our Savior, who has made you worthy – has made you something – beginning with His birth. We know, by faith in Him we won’t always be “set at nought,” but finally we’ll be raised up by Him in glory, and our true worth will be shown openly in front of all. John the Baptist shows us that.
For John’s life didn’t end in nothingness, it was not an awful death like it seemed. It was what nobody could see, so glorious. He was crowned, and welcomed into his true life, where he now welcomes into heaven all who have come to repentance and faith through his words, his life all the time only increasing in joy and happiness. May God bring us all to this life, by making us sure of our worthiness in His sight, for His Son’s sake. Amen!