The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
12th July 2009 9:00am & 11:45am
Preacher: The Dean
The Revelation of the Martyrdom of St John the Baptist
After we have read today’s
Gospel lesson, many would ask that question. John the Baptist had prepared the
way for Jesus and baptized him, and in the end he died in the hands of Herod
and at the jealousy of Herodias his mistress, in a word, he died at the
maliciousness of man.
How should we look at the
death of John and Baptist, and how should we consider the suffering of
righteous men?
According to the Bible,
when John was baptizing Jesus, he could see that the Holy Spirit was upon
Jesus, and heard from above that “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased.” He had by then already given witness for Christ saying: Behold the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). In the Gospel
according to Mark, John had sent his followers to ask Jesus: are you the one
who is to come? Or are we to wait for another? This may indicate that John had
doubts about the one for whom he had borne witness before at that time. We need
to notice that John was not jailed because he committed any crime, he was
thrown into prison because he was outspoken of evil-doing, and those in authority
at the time persecuted him. Maybe he had hoped that Jesus would deliver him,
but he was kept in jail and Jesus had done nothing. This may have been the
cause of John’s doubts, but Lord Jesus sent the follower back to John with a
message: Go and tell John what you hear and see, the blind can see, the lame
can walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf can hear, the dead is raised, and
the poor has good news brought to them. Blessed are those who take no offense
at me. (Matthew 11:4-6)
Not long after Jesus
replied John, John was killed. In other words, to the day he died for Jesus,
John had not seen Jesus coming to save him, but he took no offense with Jesus,
because his mission was completed, Christ has come, and the work of his pioneer
was accomplished.
From a worldly view, John
the Baptist died a horrible death. Not only was he killed, he was beheaded, his
head was put on a platter and given to the daughter of Herod as a gift. But in
the eyes of God, the events have a different narrative. All loyal servants of
God are hated by this world, but they did not seek the praise of men, they
craved only God’s acknowledgement for their loyal service.
We should also be the same!
Christians do not view glory and shame in the same way as the world. The
yardstick of success and failure is adopted from God’s value judgment, on
earth, John the Baptist’s head on a platter was failure and shame, but in God’s
eyes, it was success and glory.
God’s value judgment is
indeed very different from the world’s standards. God seems to have very discrepant standards.
Let us consider the cross,
which is a symbol of discrepant meanings. It indicates that death is life, failure is success. Life does
not come after death, and success does not follow failure. But we can see life
through death and in death, and we can see failure as an alternative format of
success. From the martyrdom of John the Baptist, we can see clearly that life
is evident in death: hence we can see the risen Christ from the cross, we can
see light in the midst of darkness, we can see the transcendent in the
ordinary, and we can see the presence of God in a simple life.
John was not the only one
to tread the painful path, as the Via Dolorosa awaited Jesus himself.
We have to learn to seek
God in the actual pains of the cross, and not to seek him vaguely. We do not
have to look for pain deliberately, but we know that pain is part of human
struggle, if God had travelled the path of pain, we also think that pain has
its meaning. Of course we work very hard to alleviate pain from the world, but
we must embrace the pain, sorrow and death that we know must come, and trust in
the depths of our hearts that we will meet God there.
Since we all have faith in the
Resurrection, and have been freed from the power of death and trust that God
will be the final victor, hence the calling of the cross can move us to engage
in a long lasting struggle with the power of death with all that we own , even
with our limited lives.
In this way, although all
that we come up against on earth is misfortune, pain, sorrow and death, we also
trust fervently that one day, Man will reach the state of bliss, joy and life.
Christians are optimistic about the world, and are glad to take part to usher
in the new world, sharing the hopes and fears, joys and sorrows of the world.
Only this way will we be
fearless of our weakness, for in recognizing our weakness, we have all the more
reason to rely on Christ, as Paul said in 2 Corinthian chapter 12, Therefore I
am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities
for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Since Paul had the virtuous
hope, he could be in adversity without feeling hopeless, because he believed
that the one who has resurrected Christ will raise us with Jesus, and although
the body may be destroyed, our hearts are renewed everyday.
Each of our Sunday
Eucharist service is a commemoration of hope, we remember the death of our
Saviour and celebrate his resurrection, we also hope for his coming again.
Christian hope is a very
peculiar thing, Jurgen Moltmann, a theologian in the early 20th
Century, was a war prisoner when he came to realize what hope really is. In
losing everything, he could see the unique hope that transcended hopes and
disappointments, whoever possesses this hope will survive, and those without it
will perish. This kind of hope can resist destruction and failure, and refuses
to be disheartened; it possesses the will and courage to strive and to renew,
and to hold on to life itself, it will persevere and live on, no matter what
the circumstances is.
This kind of hope
acknowledges that reality is not perfect, and sees clearly the fragmentation of
life, and even realizes the failure the Lord had encountered. The God of
failure is a very difficult concept to accept. We might be able to accept that
God had failed once some 2000 years ago, but now he is a victorious God. We are
unwilling to believe that God today is as he was 2000 years ago, still
suffering the failures of today. It is because we think that in our sorrows and
pains, it would be excellent to have God to save us from all adversities. But
God had not saved his prophets, and not his martyrs, even Jesus when nailed
upon the cross had cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!”
According to the martyrdom
of John the Baptist and the crucifixion of Jesus, God’s omnipotent powers are
not as we believe to be the invincible type. Christian hope is less about
victory, but more about not willing to accept defeat, not afraid of defeat, it
is the fearless spirit which always ventures ahead. Christian hope is not about
keeping for ourselves a last glimmer of light, treating God as the ultimate
insurance policy of this world. Christian hope is dying before living,
accepting failure in this life without being discouraged, knowing that life
will pass but keeping faith in eternity, sustaining the vitality of life when
even the last glimmer seems to fade away, which is when God seems to have
vanished. When we can realize that even almighty God can and has accepted worldly
defeat, our hope turns to dying with the dying Christ, to accept reality in
life together with God, which amounts to mostly failures and deaths. Of the
victorious Christ has left us any visible symbol, it is the cross which
signifies shame and pain.
Many have experienced that
prayers seems to be in vain, God has for many times not grant what we asked,
and has not given us what we asked for which were good and reasonable requests.
It is hard for us to not doubt from time to time that God is unable or unwilling
to grant us our wishes. In any case, he seems to evade us when we most need
him, not lending a helping hand, and not being the God that would grant us all
we wish for.
It is precisely in these
circumstances that Christian hope is shown to be a virtue. The virtue of hope
is that even when we are in extraordinary circumstances, we do not lose faith
in our Lord, but have good faith in him. The virtue of hope is not wishing that
he would give us what we want or what we have lost in the end, it is hope in
Christ himself, we love, trust, and have hope in him. He is the source of that
hope, simple as that. Even at times when we felt that he has not managed to put
right all that has gone wrong in life, in our world finance affairs, or evil in
our daily life, we still have faith and hope in him and love him. Paul had
said: For in this hope we
were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he
already has? (Romans 8:24)
When Christians look upon the Risen
Christ, trusting that good will overcome evil, life will be victorious over
death, and challenge corruption and death with whatever strength we have in our
lives, that constitute a maturing virtuous hope.
Brothers and sisters, John
the Baptist was beheaded, was his death of any value?