A HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE BEHEADING OF THE GREAT PROPHET, FORERUNNER, AND BAPTIST OF THE LORD, JOHN
(Aug. 29/ Sept. 12)
About the Enemies and the Emulators of Saint John the Forerunner, and the Shunners and the Followers of His Teaching
Brothers and sisters!
Today we commemorate one of the darkest deeds ever committed in the history of mankind, the beheading of John the Forerunner, preacher of repentance and greatest among men. The series of events leading to the Forerunner’s beheading was set in motion when the Baptist reproached King Herod for having married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, to which Herod responded by imprisoning John. Herodias conceived an especially bitter hatred for the Lord’s prophet and wanted to have him put to death, but initially could not do so, because Herod respected the Baptist as a holy man, and the people regarded John as a prophet.
Some time passed, and on his birthday, Herod invited his nobles and officers to the palace for a great supper. At the banquet Salome, Herodias’ young daughter, danced lasciviously before the guests, so captivating Herod that he promised to give her whatever she wanted, up to half of the kingdom. Salome went to her mother for advice, and Herodias told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The girl returned and did as her mother had instructed.
Herod was grieved, but did not refuse the request, because he was ashamed to break his oath before so many of the prominent men of Galilee. He sent the order for John’s decapitation to the prison, and presently the head of the Forerunner was carried into the hall on a charger. Salome then took the head to her mother who, after mocking it, had it buried in an obscure corner of her garden. As for the body, John’s disciples took it and laid it to rest on the Mount of Olives.
These sorrowful events, brothers and sisters, occurred almost two thousand years ago, yet the Church of Christ continues to commemorate them every year on this, the foremost of the feasts of the saints. Doubtless, she does this because of their importance at the time they occurred, but also because the feast has much to teach us today. In particular, the feast indicates to us who are emulators of the Forerunner’s enemies, and who emulators of the Forerunner himself.
We shall begin our brief discourse on this with the former, then turn to the latter.
First, those who have forgotten God and all that is holy are new imitators of the Forerunner’s enemies. Such people are deaf to every salutary exhortation, and have made pursuit of worldly pleasures the whole purpose of their life. Like Herod, they live solely for the world and the flesh.
Second, girls and young women who have renounced modesty and shame, and who flaunt themselves, are also adversaries of the Forerunner and his teaching. They resemble no one so much as Salome, who danced lasciviously before not one or two lustful men, but before an entire hall full of them. Unveiling with her body her evil character, Salome showed that she had silenced all conscience and was not only herself a slave of the passions, but was ready to lead others into sin. So far advanced in wickedness was she, that as wages for her wanton dance, she dared ask of Herod her mother’s appalling, shocking desire: the head of the most righteous of men on a platter.
Third, the mothers, relatives, and so-called friends of such immodest girls, who, instead of reproving them, affirm their shamelessness and even urge them on, are also to be counted as enemies of the Baptist and his teaching. Their model in this is Herodias, the black figure lurking behind all the vile and tragic deeds we bring to mind today.
Now, in fewer words, we shall identify the Forerunner’s imitators and followers of his teaching… These are they who love righteousness, live in accordance with conscience, fear God’s judgments more than the world’s, and are more concerned to please God than to please the worldly. Such people do not care much what unbelievers or the impious think. On this account, they endure considerable unpleasantness and sometimes great sufferings at the hands of ungodly people, who disdain them and misuse them in various ways. Like the Baptist, these his followers pursue virtue, love sacred truth, and act in accordance with principle at all times, not counting the cost.
Besides this, dear Christians, the present feast also reminds us not to expect the full triumph of truth and righteousness in the present age. We see from the life and death of the great Forerunner that this will occur only in the age to come, when God’s Kingdom of truth and righteousness shall appear. For the present, we must be prepared to labor and suffer for truth and virtue as necessary. The Saviour Himself has warned us: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.[1] Christ, being sinless and the only completely righteous One, endured many sufferings while dwelling among us in the flesh, by this showing what we ought to expect. He counted those who suffered blessed and deemed them worthy of the greatest reward: the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake,[2] He said. Let the hope of the eternal Kingdom be our consolation, as it was for the Lord’s Baptist, and let the Forerunner’s example teach us to be Godpleasers, not pleasers of unrighteous, unholy men.
O great Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, supreme teacher of repentance! By thine entreaties, help us to imitate thy love for truth and righteousness, to follow thy teaching, and to endure nobly every suffering for the sake of the good. By thy prayers lead us to blessed repentance and self-amendment, so that the Lord may count us thine emulators, and so that blessed chastity, integrity, and every Godpleasing virtue may flourish among us. Amen.
[1] John 15:18-19
[2] Matt. 5:11
