God's Last Words

THE PRICE OF SIN

Mark 6: 14-29 (NRSV)

Some things in life are simple and others seem more complicated than necessary, and there are simple truths that seem natural and little “white” untruths that humans use because it’s almost how we’re made. The sky is blue is true unless the sun is setting, rising, or stormy; it’s just not right to tell your wife, daughter, girlfriend, or female acquaintance they look fat in a certain dress or outfit, and so forth.

Life gets complicated and before you know it truth and untruth, reality and fantasy become mixed up and definitions of behavior and actions are all messed up, and the cost of a behavior becomes relative to the risk of reward.

Today I have a number of questions for you:

Quiz/Answers: 
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years 
2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador 
3) From which animal do we get catgut? Sheep and Horses 
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November 
5) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane? Orange, of course.

Not all answers are straightforward and some require knowledge gained by experience.

Learning the correct answer to questions, and the meaning of truth, and even knowing the cost and rewards of God’s Laws require study, training, and having the experience that is given in church, families, and the real world.

If you don’t know what the cost of defying God is, behaviors that we may call sin, then you’ll never learn that the price of sin is all you have to give, anyway.

Let’s hear a message from our Gospel for today from Mark 6: 14-29. This passage comes immediately after Jesus’ disciples had caused disruption and chaos across Israel after Jesus had sent them out to minister to the people quite successfuly.

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” 

But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.  For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 

And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him.

When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 

She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 

When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

It is said that King Herod, upon being told that a new prophet named Jesus was stirring up trouble, turned pale and became quite upset. He was sure that it must be his old enemy John the Baptizer come back from the grave to get even for being beheaded. And he was probably feeling guilty enough about it.

Herod decided then and there to scheme and plot against Jesus in order to cover-up his past sins. For Jesus, the price of Herod’s past sins would be death. For us, the price of our sins, all the secret stuff we do when we hope nobody’s looking, is Jesus’ death.

Isn’t it ironic that if Herod had listened he would have heard Jesus’ core message conveyed in Romans 6: 23 that says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Herod would have discovered that God had provided a way to avoid the cost of sin through the cost of discipleship.

Herod instead falls prey to the old saying so prevalent in the traditional church that many people love good preaching, as long as it is kept far away from their own beloved brand of sin lest they are reminded of its price.

The price of each of our sins put Jesus on that cross. Our own death is the price we have to pay unless we ask Him to pay it. But unless we admit we owe it does us no good.

The drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he'd received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he'd pulled one over on his wife.

When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. "You were drunk last night weren't you!" "No, honey I wasn’t." "Well, if you weren't, then who put all the Band-Aids on the bathroom mirror?"

The biggest problem of sin is denying or refusing to understand and recognize it.

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman once told the story of a distinguished minister, Dr. Howard, visiting from Australia, who preached very strongly on the subject of sin.

After the service, one of the church officers came to counsel with him in the study.

"Dr. Howard," he said, "we don't want you to talk as openly as you do about man's guilt and corruption, because if our boys and girls hear you discussing that subject they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about sin.

The minister took down a small bottle and showing it to the visitor said, "You see that label? It says strychnine -- and underneath in bold, red letters the word 'Poison!' Do you know, man, what you are asking me to do? You are suggesting that I change the label.

Suppose I do, and paste over it the words, 'Essence of Peppermint'; don't you see what might happen? Someone may use it, not knowing the danger involved, and would certainly die. So it is, too, with the matter of sin. The milder you make your label, the more dangerous you make your poison!"

Kind of like what Donald Trump is doing right now about illegal immigration. It is against our laws yet nobody wants to address the criminal nature of the offense as sinful. Our president and congress seemingly want to ignore the price we’re paying to tolerate politically correctly calling someone an undocumented worker rather than a n illegal alien flaunting laws.

Radio personality Paul Harvey once told the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf.

The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin.

"First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. "Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up.

When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.

So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His huge  appetite just craves more--until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"

It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate. But we live in a world being consumed by it’s own lusts.

Just a few short passages from today’s verses, Jesus asks us in Mark 8: 36, “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?”

If we concentrate on a world of sin that’s all we’ll ever get – the wages of sin are death, yet the grace of God frees us from its burdens for all eternity.

In many churches today there is no conviction of sin, therefore there no need for repentance and regeneration in Jesus Christ. Instead they teach “Have your best life now” because God loves you “just the way you are.”

It is deception and many will end up on the wrong side of eternity because they thought they were good enough. Sin does have a price and if you don’t pay it through Jesus Christ you’ll have to pay it through eternal damnation of your soul.

Your choice. Amen.