Nougat 8

John’s story isn’t an easy one, and it may not be as popular for many because it doesn’t present ‘Happily Ever After’. But neither is Life always sweetness and light. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat

‭Matthew 14:3-4 NIV‬

[3] Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, [4] for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

When We’re Persecuted for God’s Sake

When Jesus preached that ‘first sermon’ on the mountainside, I’m confident that it wasn’t what most persons expected. He was preaching to Jews, God’s chosen people, the direct descendants of the Children of Israel. They knew the God of their salvation and had benefited from communal collective memories of the ‘good old days’. Moreover, within their sundry laws were cautions and consequences. Those laws indicated that when the going got rough in Israel, it could be traced back to individual or communal sin.

Deuteronomy 28, for example, outlines the possible blessings and curses expected in the Land of Promise. The curses outweighed the blessings. In Exodus 20, the first commandment also presents with generational punishment (to the 4th generation) for failure to honour God. Some fail to notice that there was also a generational blessing (to the thousandth generation) that accompanied the commandment.

What this meant is that when folks were reviled, persecuted, or lambasted, it was perceived as divine retribution. Just ask Job’s friends or the folks who blamed blindness on the parents of a man born with a disability (see John 9). It is not hard to expect that ‘sin’ would have been imputed on John the Baptist by the public despite Herod’s proclivities.

It was a painful place to be in. I’m not sure that the Beatitudes even entered John’s mind. Yes, he knew what Jeremiah and Ezekiel endured, but walking in their shoes was not his personal goal. When John said, ‘He must increase so I must decrease’, in John 3, I don’t think he imagined it meant revenge imprisonment.

But God allowed it to happen.

While this foreshadowed what happened to Jesus, it was certainly unexpected in John’s part.

Siblings, God sometimes permits evil things to happen. Even when we’re living ‘right’ for God. No doubt about it. I’m not even going to suggest that it makes sense. Worse yet, it doesn’t always have Job’s turn around.

But the earthly ending doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care. On the contrary, God cares a whole bunch. God collects our tears in a bottle (see Psalm 56), weeps with us (see John 11:35), and promises comfort when we mourn (see Matthew 5:4). And this is especially the case when it happens because we’re living godly lives. We can’t get discouraged, we can’t thrown in the towel.

Even when we can’t see the good in a situation, we are assured that God’s working something positive out (see Romans . It might not be Herod. It might not even be Herodias or imprisonment. But in the midst of the moment, we hold firmly to the hope built on Jesus’ love and God’s graciousness.

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May all we seek be found in Christ