The Beheading of the Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John

+In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Tonight we commemorate the Beheading of the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John. This feast compares to Great and Holy Friday of Holy Week on which we see that the Son of God who came into the world full of grace and truth, was rejected and put to a most cruel death by those who despised truth and found it to be an unwelcome intrusion into their lives of falsehood. In tonight’s Feast St. John the Baptist is also put to a terrible death merely for speaking the obvious truth to those who did not wish to hear it.

The wicked Herodias deeply resented the saint’s rebuke of her adulterous relationship with Herod, the brother of her husband. With the blind hatred of those who are given over to the love of evil, she utterly refused the grace of repentance and instead eventually found a way to have the Baptist murdered and his blessed head mocked as the bloody centerpiece of her depraved social gathering.

Thus the two greatest men in the history of our poor, sad world were both put to horrible deaths for the same exact reason, namely that they came bringing the light of truth into a world of men who much prefer the darkness of falsehood and sin.

As we know, Jesus praised John highly, saying that of those born of women there is none greater than he. Let us understand that John was not merely called “great” but the “greatest” precisely because he was a man of absolute truth, who bore witness to the One who is Truth perfectly, not only in his preaching but in fullness of his life. In John there was no deceit or falsehood; no conflicting motives or wayward desires. Filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, John was born into the world as one who by word and deed together could bear an unsullied witness to the truth, and thus could serve as a faithful guide pointing all of mankind to Jesus, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.

With the celebration of this blessed Feast it is fitting for us to pray to the Baptist, that by his intercessions we too might become lovers of truth. As the intercessions of the Theotokos are coveted by those seeking purity of soul, so it is right for seekers of truth to ask for the help of St. John that they might also be led into the fullness of truth and gain his courage to stand for it at whatever cost. Our world has certainly not become more enlightened with the passage of time, or more tolerant of those who come bearing God’s truth. Perhaps more than ever, we are a people who need John’s intercessions to help us face the coming darkness and the perilous times that lay ahead.

I’m sure we are aware that many of the world’s nations consider themselves “Post-Christian” in orientation, as the influence of Christianity has declined to be temporarily replaced by secular humanism. It’s my personal opinion that this situation won’t last for long as nature abhors a religious vacuum. Already the religion of Islam is making tremendous gains in Western Europe and many of its cultures are on the brink of dramatic change within a generation or two at most. Our nation, increasingly guided by secular progressives, is also engaged in the steady removal of every influence traceable to its so-called “Judeo-Christian” foundation. God only knows what awaits us if this movement succeeds, though I doubt if it will resemble what even its authors hope for. If some people today feel oppressed by Christians who allegedly “seek to impose their morality on others,” just wait until Islam possibly becomes the dominant religion of America. They will wish for the “good old days” at that point!

Nevertheless, the decline of Christianity in this country is not primarily the fault of secular progressives, but of the Christians themselves. It is the Christians who have mostly stood by while the leaders of their various denominations watered-down the faith in an effort to “fit in” with the changing culture. Christians are supposed to season and transform the cultures they find themselves in, but the exact opposite has been allowed to happen here. The salt of American Christianity has lost much of its flavor, and will soon be trampled underfoot by men. Far from becoming less religious, America is simply becoming less Christian. Whatever the religion of the future may be, is not something that I am looking forward to seeing.

It is important to remember that nations and governments that protect the rights of Christians are historically something of an anomaly in this fallen world. More frequently the people of God have found themselves persecuted, either by countries that flat out reject Christianity, or by those that nationalize schismatic or heretical forms of it to the exclusion of Orthodoxy. The sudden emergence and spread of genuine Orthodox Christianity in America at a time when its other forms of Christianity are waning is an interesting development, and perhaps a sign that God requires yet one more people who will witness to His truth in these latter days by the shedding of their own blood.

Orthodox Christians have traditionally been grist for the martyr’s mill, and although I sincerely hope that each one of us will be allowed to live long, happy, and prosperous lives, we should at least consider the fact that this is by no means guaranteed to us. It is good for us to feel a certain tension and lack of ease with this world, and to cultivate the sense that we are strangers and aliens in a land increasingly hostile to our faith and presence here.

Few things illustrate this better than the remembrance of the holy martyrs. Thus on this commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, I ask us to reconsider and recommit our lives to Jesus Christ our Lord. How often the blessed scriptures encourage us to do exactly this, and to rouse ourselves constantly against our sleepy devotion and selfish ways! Let us renew our efforts to embrace Holy Orthodoxy more completely, to deny ourselves what is false and wrong, and to be conformed to the truth of the gospel. Our world will do all that it can to undermine this in our lives and in the lives of our children. Let therefore labor all the more to stir one another up to faith and love in Christ, even as the world around us grows steadily darker.

Through the intercessions of the Glorious Forerunner and Baptist John, O Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us. Amen.

+To the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.