The lawless king, surrounded by even more lawless wives, is a creature of the devil, where lies and hypocrisy, debauchery and malice are all intertwined in a rebellion against truth, purity, and God. It intertwined and poured into a feast, choked first with wine, and then with righteous blood. And alone against the whole ocean of this evil is the righteous prophet, whose "life is blameless and the previous is honest," John, the preacher of repentance and the denunciator of temptation.

"Thou shalt not have the wife of Philip thy brother," resounds the menacing denunciation of the desert dweller, the revered prophet, of the depraved ruler and his even more lawless concubine.

This "ought not" sounded from the wilderness where the prophet asceticized, it sounded from the crowd of people when John went out to preach, and the people's rumor repeated after him: "It is not right, it is not lawful for him who is called to keep it to violate the Law of God." This "must not" could not be held by either prison locks or chains. It must not," God commanded. "Each has his own wife, and each has her own husband..." (1 Corinthians 7:2). And this "one must not kill the prophet" sounded in the conscience of the king, when the evil bloodsucker, the dissolute Herodias, reveled in her bloody revenge on the righteous man and prophet.

But what was it only for John to be silent, to close his eyes to the iniquities of the king, as did the teachers of the people's law, the wise men of this age? Why did John persist in his preaching-denunciation, thus hastening the hour of his insolent death, when the shameless hands of the prostitute would carry his sacred head, still smoking with blood, on a platter amidst a vile feast, revelry of all kinds of passions and violent drunkenness, and when the devil in the form of a woman in the triumph of his victory over the truth would prick with a needle the tongue that proclaimed the truths of God?

Why did John not spare his life? Because he is the Voice of God, the Voice of Truth. Because he "kept the law of righteousness." Because he had to stop the temptation that corrupts those for whose sake the Son of God came to earth. Zeal for God devoured him and did not allow him to remain silent. And God suffered the unlawful murder of His prophet, as He suffered the death of His Son, in order to save the world.

May the will of God be done!

And God's people – the lamps in the world – follow God through the "shadow and shadow" of death, carrying with them the light of truth in the darkness of a world swallowed up by lawlessness. And the truth of their prophecies, fulfilled in the world, strengthens the faith of some people and gives birth to faith in others. And the truth of their life and death, which proclaims heavenly truths, gives strength and abundant consolation to those who henceforth follow God in patience with unrighteousness, evil and sickness from those who rise up against God's righteousness.

And can the suffering of John the Baptist now be compared with the glory that shone upon him from beyond the grave? "John's mortal vessel was thrown to the ground," says Chrysostom, "but the unflickering lamp of his spirit shone with the bright light of faith and those in hell." The lamp of his spirit shines also to us, who exist in the darkness of earthly life.

After his death, John the Baptist, having descended into hell, preached to the righteous of the Old Testament the coming deliverance from their bonds by the appearance of Christ the Savior. He descended from hell with Christ after the Resurrection of Christ and was vouchsafed many crowns in heaven as a virgin, as a desert dweller, as a preacher of repentance, as a prophet, as Christ's Forerunner and Baptist, and, finally, as a martyr. The headless body of the righteous man was buried with honor by his disciples near Samaria together with the prophets Elisha and Obadiah.

Блаженная же глава его, претерпев поругание от безумной Иродиады, со временем явилась в славе, и свет этой славы уже не мог затмить ничто в мире. И Церковь поет: «Ирод безумный отсекает главу Предтечи, Христос же содевает его, яко Крестителя, главу Церкви, веры сиянием и проповедью о явшемся в мир Спасителе...» А нечестивое семейство пожало плоды своей беззаконной жизни и гнусного своего злодеяния над праведником Божиим. Ирод, мучимый преступной совестью своей, во все дни оставшейся жизни видел на трапезах своих главу Иоанна Предтечи и слышал грозный обличающий его голос: «Не должно тебе иметь жену Филиппа, брата твоего». Вскоре оклеветанный племянником пред римским императором, он был сослан в ссылку в Испанию, потеряв при этом все свое царство, а не только обещанную плясавице половину его.

Саломия, испросившая по наущению своей матери милости для себя в убийстве пророка, погибла в водах реки, провалившись под лед. Шея ее была перепилена обломками льда, на котором висела она, исполняя ногами в воде страшный танец, начатый на безумном пире.

Ирод и Иродиада по преданию были поглощены живыми землею. Зинула земля, и ад расступился, приняв души их. И горькая память их, как беззаконников и убийц, хранится лишь в связи с вечной памятью праведника, которая жива и по сей день.

А пример жизни святого пророка, Предтечи и Крестителя Господня научает нас, как жить, угождая Богу, как спасаться в мире греха. Он учит нас жаждать явления Господа и Спасителя в нашей личной жизни всегда. Он учит нас всегда и во всем желать познания воли Божией о нас.

Иоанн Предтеча и по сей день проповедует нам, что первый шаг на пути нашей встречи с Господом есть покаяние и очищение от скверны греха. Будем же каяться и творить достойные плоды покаяния.