Sermon on Luke 15:1–32 Fourth Sunday in Lent Our Hope Lutheran Church & Kramer Chapel March 27th-28th, 2022
Text: “[The Father] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
Intro: The Parable of the Prodigal Son is, ironically, not about the lost son. It is about the Father and another son – the older one. Nor is the other two lost parables about the lost sheep or the lost coin. Nor are they about the ninety-nine sheep, safely grazing in the pasture or the nine coins still in the woman’s purse. They are about the friends and neighbors and the angels of God. God looks everywhere for the lost and rejoices when he finds them. He throws a party and wants us to rejoice with him. For they were dead and now are alive again; they were lost and now are found.
Before He made the world, God loved us.
He chose us to be his children, rigged things so that we would be adopted as his heirs.
In Jesus, he became one of us, sought us, died for our sins and rose so that we might live with him forever.
His Holy Spirit put faith in our heart, keeps us safe in his care and is a guarantee of our salvation.
God loves sinners and wants us to love them, too.
Yet we are not alone. God has countless lost children, who have wandered far from home.
Jesus searches everywhere for them.
When he finds them, he rejoices and brings them home.
He throws a party for them and wants us to celebrate and be happy with him.
Yet sometimes we do not feel like celebrating.
Most of us have lived our lives as faithful Christians.
Yet we live in a world that at best ignores God’s will and worst defies it.
When they finally come to their senses, are we really all that happy about it?
What we forget is that we are sinners, too.
Jesus came from heaven and sought us.
He was born and lived in every way we are, except he didn’t sin.
He bore our sins and complaining to the cross, where he died in our place.
He rose to break the power of sin and death.
He brought us home, singing and rejoicing.
In the end, we will share his joy in the party that lasts forever.
This can be a challenging topic for Christians to hear and understand. But, understood well, it is a tremendous comfort. The comfort is not just for the confidence of individual Christians in the faith. But, the confidence also is in Christian witness, that what we perceive as success and failure are not ours but the Lord’s.
First, it is good for us to understand that’s foreknowledge and election are different attributes of God. This distinction is not for God’s benefit or to contain His action or His will. This distinction serves us by preventing us from applying our own reason to fill in gaps what God has revealed to us of himself. The revealed aspects of God and those hidden things can deliver us truths which seem to be in paradox. Our duty as Christians is to embrace and hold fast to those seeming paradoxes in the confidence that we have received what we need to know.
God’s foreknowledge is his knowledge of all events of history, the current time, and the future prior to their occurrence. The prophets are all examples of this attribute of God. This is not to say that they possessed the attribute of God of which we speak. But rather, God revealed to them some of his foreknowledge, allowing them to prophecy correctly. And, that is the mark of a true prophet. What a prophet says, if they are from God, must come true.
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
God’s foreknowledge includes Christians and unbelievers alike. But it is not given to us to understand this as a causal relationship. That is to say that the foreknowledge of God does not cause sin or evil. The cause of evil and sin is the Devil himself, and mankind’s evil inclination to do sinful things. God’s awareness of all things does not cause bad things to happen.
There are two errors of human reason concerning predestination/election that arise from our discomfort with those things revealed to us that seem to be in paradox.
The first is that there is no predestination/election. This is the Arminian teaching commonly referred to as decision theology (teachings rising from: Jakobus Arminius 1560-1609). Decision theology lays hold of the truth that damnation is a result of mankind’s sin and hatred of God. Then, the Arminians make the intellectual extrapolation that salvation must also be a result of the will of man. The assumption that I can choose God simply does not stand in the face of the scriptures. St. Paul say we were dead in sin. Dead things don’t do things apart from the external, life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)
The second error is that God chooses both the salvation of some and the damnation of others. This is a Calvinist error that rises from applying human reason to the hidden things of God and in mingling together foreknowledge and election (teachings rising from: John Calvin 1509-1564).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)
Reason says, “if God chooses some for salvation, then He must choose not to save others.” Reason is wrong. He is uncomfortable with incomplete understanding God reveals to us. The rest may be revealed to us at the eschaton, the resurrection of all flesh. But, for now, it is not give to us to know or understand.
There is a simple gap in our understanding between what is revealed and what is not. Those are not given to us to fill-in or to work-out in our own understanding. Rather, God has revealed what He wants us to know. It is sufficient for our salvation by faith in Christ Jesus.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
“Love your enemies.” This is one of those difficult phrases of Jesus that hits right at our hearts. As my parents used to remind me, if you are mad with someone, pray for them; it will help you not be mad at them anymore.
But “love your enemies” is even a bit more difficult than that because sometimes prayer does not solve issues or restore friendships. “Love” these days in our world is all about feelings and all about selfishness. But that is not Christian love. It is not the “love” in the Scriptures. “Love” means to sacrifice for the sake of someone. Who would sacrifice anything for their enemies?
David certainly wrestles with this in Psalm 3. Let’s take a look.
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”
David’s enemies think he should be damned. “There is no salvation for him in God.” What’s more, these foes that are rising against him are led by Absalom his son. David the King vs. Absalom the prince. Talk about a family feud brewing! We love our children, but sometimes our children do not love us. We ask ourselves, “How could David love his son Absalom, the son who is about to kill him?”
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
David has our answer. The Lord is his shield. David’s army was against him. His own son was against him. But God was not against him. God would defend him. God would protect him. God would never leave him or forsake him.
“Love your enemies” may be one of the most difficult challenges for us, but we know that God loves His enemies, even those who killed Him, even those who sin against him. He loves even us and forgives us. This we know for the Bible tells us so.
With this comfort in mind, David then continues:
5I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
As someone remarked the other day, these verses are not here so that we know that David was tired, and that he needed a nap. David writes this in the poem to show how God is his shield. Even though his son pursues him, even though the army wishes to kill him, even though he has enemies all around, the Lord grants him sleep. The Lord sustained him that evening and each day.
David will not be afraid, and neither should we be afraid. For just as God was David’s shield, he is our shield too. We can love our enemies as God loved His enemies, and we do not need to be afraid because God will sustain us.
Now the psalm finishes with even more comfort.
7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!
“Save me, O my God!” This is David’s prayer, and we hear it again and again in the Scriptures. So many in the Gospels say this very thing to Jesus. “Save us” is “hosanna” in Hebrew. This points us toward Palm Sunday when the entire crowd is chanting “Hosanna!” And save them He did, five days later when He died on the cross.
On that day, our Lord “loved His enemies” even unto death.
What are we fighting about anyway? It seems everywhere you look these days, there is fighting going on. There are fights in families about politics and health. There are fights on social media, and friendships are erased. There are fights between countries, and anxiety among the nations. What are we fighting about today?
Let’s take a look at Psalm 2.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? According to the psalmist, it is because they are fighting against the Lord and against His anointed. Preach that in this world that is angry 24/7. Why don’t families get along? Because you are fighting against the Lord. Why don’t I have any friends anymore on the internet? Because you are fighting against the Lord. Why are countries destroying one another? Because they are fighting against the Lord. I imagine this message would get laughed out of the room because there is no space for truth like Psalm 2 tells us.
But consider what the war cry is, that “we” would “burst our bonds apart and cast away cords from us.” That they would be free. That is what the war is about. That is what all the fighting is about. That this world wants to be free from God, wants to be free to sin, wants to be free to speak, but only because “I am right and you are wrong.”
It would seem that at the time of the Psalmist, they have forgotten that the truth will set you free. It seems in our own day, that we have forgotten that the truth will set us free. Without the truth, there will always be fighting because there will always be lying. But the fighting isn’t so personal, it is in fact theological. The people are fighting amongst themselves because they are fighting against the Lord.
Let’s take a further look at Psalm 2.
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall breakthem with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
What will God do about this? It is clear what He will do. He sets His King on Zion, the holy hill. In other words, it is only through the church that peace will come on earth. And the church will only have peace because that King is God’s Son. We know Jesus has come, and that He has brought peace on earth through His death on the cross. We know that Jesus is God’s Son, begotten of the Father. And that we are now going therefore, baptizing and teaching and making all the nations into His heritage.
Consider these comforting words of warning from Psalm 2 today:
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
I often teach about the 3 P’s of the Psalms: Poetry, Prayer, and Praise. As we begin taking a look at the Psalms, we notice right away that they are written as poetry and not prose. Hebrew poetry is not written like we might write poetry, with rhyming and meter and so forth. It often compares the righteous and the wicked (as we will see in Psalm 1) and repeats a thought to emphasize and describe what the poet means.
Psalms are also prayers. Whereas many of the passages of Scripture are written in third person past tense, the psalms are frequently written in first person. “Have mercy on me, O Lord!” “Save me, O my God!” This makes the psalms memorable, personal, and powerful as we read them, pray them, or worship with them.
Finally, psalms are praise. I say “praise” for the sake of alliteration. What I really mean is that the psalms are songs. The book of Psalms was the first hymnbook of the church and it has remained in this place in worship even today across denominations and contexts. Psalms are poetry and they are prayers, but they stay with us because we sing them.
Let’s take a look at Psalm 1.
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
The first word we find in the entire book of Psalms is “blessed.” Throughout the Old Testament there are many comparisons between the blessings and the curses. And this Psalm certainly brings this out. I often remind my people that this is also how Jesus began His most famous sermon “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” This is also similar to how many pastors begin their sermons with “Grace, mercy, and peace.”
What we want to focus on next in these two verses are the verbs. First, the blessed man does not walk. As we know, “Synod” means to walk together, and this reminds us of the fellowship we have with the congregations around us. But in this case, the man is not walking into sin, “into the council of the wicked.” This is so easy to do, and it is the way that temptation starts. We walk the walk, walking the way to destruction.
What else does the blessed man do? He does not stand in the way of sinners. When we think of walking, there is always the opportunity to “walk away from it.” But now the sinner stands with other sinners and participates with them in it. Now the sinner is one of the rest, just like everybody else.
But soon after we walk the walk of sin and destruction, eventually we talk the talk too. That’s what the sinner does. The blessed man does not get to this point, but the sinner certainly does. Now he scoffs at the blessed man and reviles the faithful.
Walk, stand, sit. This is the progression of sin that the Psalmist wants us to think about. What logically comes next? Lying down dead. As Paul says in Romans 6, “the wages of sin is death.” And that is the result of unrepentance and sin.
What makes the blessed man so blessed?
It is that “he delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” In other words, the blessed man loves the Bible. The blessed man studies God’s Word and believes it is true. The blessed man is not walking or standing or sitting, but hearing and reading and believing.
And as Lutherans, it is important that we do not get stuck on the word “law” in terms of Law and Gospel. “Law” here means the entirety of God’s teaching in His Word. This is the Word of God we love, and it is the Word of God we study. And this is what makes each and every one of us blessed by God and called to be His beloved children.
“Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” Luke 11:28
A Short Summary of the Sermon of Dr. M. Luther Delivered on Reminiscere Sunday March 16, 1522 Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
Now we have heard all the things which ought to be considered here, except confession. We speak about it now.
In the first place, one form of confession, founded on the Scriptures, occurs when someone commits a sin publicly, or with other men’s knowledge, and is accused before the congregation. If he abandons his sin, they intercede for him with God. But if he will not hear the congregation, he is excluded from the church and cast out, so that no one will have anything to do with him. This form of confession is commanded by God in Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins against you (so that you and others are offended), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”
There is no longer even a trace of this form of confession to be found. In this particular case, the Gospel is put aside He who could reestablish it would perform a good work. Here is where you ought to have taken pains and reestablished this kind of confession, and let the other things go. For by this no one would have been offended, and it would have been accomplished without disturbance. It should be done in this way: When you see a usurer, adulterer, thief or drunkard, you should go to him in secret and admonish him to give up his sin. If he will not hear, you should take two others with you and admonish him once more, in a brotherly way, to give up his sin. But if he scorns that, you should tell the pastor before the whole congregation, have your witnesses with you, and accuse him before the pastor in the presence of the people, saying:
”Dear pastor, this man has done this and that, and would not receive our brotherly admonition to give up his sin. Therefore I accuse him, together with my witnesses who were present.” And then, if he will not give up and willingly acknowledge his guilt, the pastor should exclude him and put him under the ban before the whole assembly, for the sake of the congregation, until he comes to himself and is received back again. This would be Christian. But I cannot undertake to carry it out single-handed.
Secondly, a confession is necessary for us, when we go away in a corner by ourselves, and confess to God Himself and pour out before Him all our faults. This confession is also commanded. From this comes the familiar word of Scripture: “Facite judicium et justitiam.” (Genesis 18:19) Judicium facere est nos ipsos accusare et damnare; justitiam autem facere est fidere misericordiae Dei. As it is written, “Blessed are they that keep judgment and do righteousness at all times.” (Psalm 106:3) The judgment is nothing else than a man’s knowing and judging and condemning himself, and this is true humility and self-abasement. The righteousness is nothing else than a man’s knowing himself and praying to God for mercy and help through which God raises him up again. This is what David means when he says: “I have sinned; I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,” (Psalm 32:5 ff.) and, “You forgave the iniquity of my sin; for this all your saints shall pray to You.”
Thirdly, There is also a confession when you take another aside, and tells him what troubles you, so that you may hear from him a word of comfort. This confession is commanded by the pope. It is this urging and forcing which I condemned when I wrote concerning confession, and I refuse to go to confession just because the pope wishes it and has commanded it. For I wish him to keep his hands off confession and not make of it a compulsion or command, which he has not the power to do. Yet I will let no man take private confession away from me, and I would not give it up for all the treasures in the world, since I know what comfort and strength it has given me. No one knows what it can do for him except one who has struggled much with the devil. Yes, the devil would have slain me long ago, if confession had not sustained me. For there are many doubts which a man cannot resolve by himself, and so he takes a brother aside and tells him his trouble. What harm is there, if he humbles himself a little before his neighbor, puts himself to shame, looks for a word of comfort from him, and takes it to himself and believes it, as if he heard it from God himself, as we read in Matthew 18:19 “If two of you shall agree about anything that they shall ask, ill shall be done for them.”
We must have many absolutions, so that we may strengthen our timid consciences and despairing hearts against the devil and against God. Therefore no one should forbid confession nor keep or drive any one away from it. And if any one wrestles with his sins, is eager to be rid of them and looks for some assurance from the Scriptures, let him go and confess to another in secret, and receive what is said to him there as if it came directly from God’s own lips. Whoever has the strong and firm faith that his sins are forgiven, may ignore this confession and confess to God alone. But how many have such a strong faith? Therefore, as I have said, I will not let this private confession be taken from me. Yet I would force no one to it, but leave the matter to every one’s free will.
For our God is not so miserly that He has left us with only one comfort or strengthening for our conscience, or one absolution, but we have many absolutions in the Gospel, and are showered richly with them. For instance, we have this in the Gospel: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14) Another comfort we have in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses,” etc. (Matthew 6:12) A third is our baptism, when I reason thus: See, my Lord, I am baptized in Your name so that I may be assured of Your grace and mercy. After that we have the private confession, when I go and receive a sure absolution as if God Himself spoke it, so that I may be assured that my sins are forgiven. Finally I take to myself the Blessed Sacrament, when I eat His body and drink His blood as a sign that I am rid of my sins and God has freed me from all my frailties. In order to make me sure of this, He gives me His body to eat and His blood to drink, so that I shall not and cannot despair: I cannot doubt I have a gracious God.
Thus we see that confession must not be despised, but that it is a true comfort. And since we need many absolutions and comforts, because we must fight against the devil, death, hell and sin, we must not allow any of our weapons to be taken away, but keep intact the whole armor and equipment which God has given us for use against our enemies. For you do not yet know what work it is to fight with the devil and to overcome him. I know it well. I have eaten salt with him once or twice. I know him well, and he knows me well, too. If only you knew him, you would not in this manner drive out confession.
I commend you to God. Amen.
Copyright: Public Domain
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
March 15, 1522 Dr. Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
Yesterday we heard about the use of the holy and Blessed Sacrament and saw who are worthy to receive it, those who fear death, who have timid and despairing consciences and who live in fear of hell. Such people come prepared to partake of this food for the strengthening of their weak faith and the comforting of their conscience. This is the true and right use of this sacrament. If you do not find yourself in this state, refrain from coming to the altar until God also takes hold of your and draws you to the Sacrament through His Word.
We will now speak about the fruit of this sacrament, which is love. That is, that we should treat our neighbor in the same way that God has treated us. Now we have received from God nothing but love and favor, for Christ has pledged and given us His righteousness and everything that He has. He has poured out upon us all His treasures, which no one can measure and no angel can understand or fathom. For God is a glowing furnace of love, reaching from the earth to the heavens.
Love, I say, is a fruit of this sacrament. But I do not yet perceive it among you here in Wittenberg, although there is much preaching of love and you ought to practice it above all other things. This is the principal thing, and the only thing that matters for a Christian. But no one is eager to do this. You want to do all sorts of unnecessary things, which are not important. If you do not want to show yourselves Christians by your love, then leave the other things undone, too, for St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am like a trumpeting horn or a clashing cymbal.” This is a terrible saying of Paul.
And further: “Although I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries of God, and all knowledge. And although I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2-3) You have not gone as far as that, although you have received great and rich gifts from God, especially a knowledge of the Scriptures. It is true, you have the pure Gospel and the true Word of God, but no one as yet has given his goods to the poor, no one has yet been burned, and even these things would profit nothing without love. You want to receive all of God’s goods in the sacrament, and yet do not pour them forth again in love. You will not lend a helping hand to others. No one thinks first about another, but everyone looks out for himself and his own gain, seeks only his own interests and lets everything else go as it will. If anybody is helped — well and good. No one looks after the poor or seeks how to help them. It is pitiful. You have heard many sermons about it and all my books are full of it and have the one purpose, to urge you to faith and love.
If you will not love one another, God will send a great plague upon you. Let this be a warning to you, for God will not reveal His Word and have it preached in for nothing. You are tempting God too much, my friends. If someone in times past had preached the Word to our ancestors, perhaps they would have acted differently. Or if the Word were preached today to many poor children in the cloisters, they would receive it with much greater joy than you. You do not listen to it at all, and give yourselves to other things, which are unnecessary and foolish.
I commend you to God.
Copyright: Public Domain
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
March 16, 1522 Dr. Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
In our discussion of the chief things we have come to the reception of the sacrament, which we have not yet finished. Today we shall see how we must conduct ourselves here, and also who is worthy to receive the sacrament and who belongs there.
It is very necessary here that your hearts and consciences be well instructed, so that you distinguish well between the outward reception and the inner and spiritual reception. This is the bodily and outward reception, when you receive with your mouth the body of Christ and His blood. Anyone can receive the sacrament in this way, for such reception may be without faith and love. But that reception does not make you a Christian, for if it did, even a mouse would be a Christian, for it can likewise eat the bread and drink out of the cup. It is such a simple thing to do. But the true, inner, spiritual reception is a very different thing, for it consists in the right use of the sacrament and of its fruits.
I would say in the first place that such reception is the true inner one, and is a reception in faith. We Christians have no other outward sign by which we may be distinguished from others than this sacrament and baptism. But a mere outward reception, without faith, amounts to nothing. There must be faith to make one well prepared for the reception and acceptable before God, otherwise it is all sham and a mere external show, which is not Christianity at all. Christianity is a thing of faith, which is never bound to any external work.
But faith (which we all must have, if we wish to go to the sacrament worthily) is a firm trust, that Christ, the Son of God, stands in our place and has taken all our sins upon His shoulders, that He is the eternal satisfaction for our sin and reconciles us with God the Father. If you have this faith you may receive this sacrament, and neither devil nor hell nor sin can harm you. Do you ask why? Because God is your protector and defender. And when I have this faith, then I am certain God is fighting for me. I can defy devil, death, hell and sin and all the harm with which they threaten me. This is the great, inestimable treasure given us in Christ, which the words of man fail to describe. Only faith can take hold of the heart, and not everyone has such faith.
Therefore this sacrament must not be made a law, as the most Holy Father, the pope, has done with his fools’ commandment: All Christians must go to the sacrament on holy Easter, and he who does not go shall not be buried in consecrated ground. Isn’t this a foolish law which the pope has set up? You ask why? Because we are not all alike. We do not all have equal faith. The faith of one is stronger than that of another. It is therefore impossible that the sacrament can be made a law, and the greatest sins are committed at Easter solely on account of this unchristian command, which tries to drive everybody to the sacrament. And if all robbery, usury, depravity and all the other sins were thrown into one pile, this sin would surpass it — even though it seems to be the holiest of all deeds. And why? Because the pope can look into no one’s heart to see whether he has faith or not.
But if you believe that God is with you and that He stakes all His treasures and His blood for you, as if He said: “Walk behind Me without fear or delay, and then let anything try to harm you. Let the devil, death, sin and hell and all creation try it! I will go ahead of you. I will be your captain and your shield. Trust Me and rely upon Me completely” — if you believe in this way you cannot be harmed by devil, hell, sin or death. If God fights for you, what can they do to you?
If you have such faith, you are ready to come to the altar and receive the sacrament as an assurance, or seal, or sign to assure you of God’s promises and grace. But such faith we do not all have. I wish that one-tenth of the Christians had it! See, such rich, immeasurable treasures, which God in His grace showers upon us, cannot be the possession of every one, but only by those who suffer either bodily or spiritual adversity. Bodily adversity comes through the persecution of man, and spiritual adversity by despair of conscience. Outwardly or inwardly, the devil causes your heart to be weak, timid and discouraged, so that you don’t know how you stand with God, and when he reproaches you with your sins. And in such terrified and trembling hearts alone God desires to dwell, as the prophet Isaiah says. (Isaiah 66:2) For if you have not felt the battle within you, if you are not distressed by your sins nor have a daily quarrel with them, and if you do not wish for a protector, defender and shield to stand before you, you are not yet ready for this food. This food demands a hungering and longing man, for it delights to enter a hungering soul, one that is in constant battle with its sins and eager to be rid of them.
He who is not prepared in this way should abstain for a while from this sacrament, for this food is not for a satisfied and full heart. If it comes to such a person, it is harmful. Therefore, if we think about, and feel within us, such distress of conscience and the fear of a timid heart, we will come with all humbleness and reverence, and not rush to the altar carelessly, with insolence and without fear and humility. We are not always ready for it. Today I have the grace, and am ready for it, but not tomorrow. Yes, it may be that for six months I have neither desire nor fitness for it.
Therefore you are the most worthy to receive the Sacrament when you are constantly harassed by death and the devil. Then you receive it best. It strengthens you in the faith by reminding you that no harm can come to you, because He is now with you. No one can take you away from Him. Let death or the devil or sin come. They cannot harm you.
This is what Christ did, when He prepared to institute the Blessed Sacrament. He brought anguish upon His disciples and trembling to their hearts when He said that He would leave them, (Matthew 26:2) and again they were tormented when He said: “One of you will betray me. (Matthew 26:21) Don’t you think that that cut them to the heart? Truly, they received the word with all fear, and sat there as though they were all traitors to God. And after He had made them all tremble with fear and sorrow, then only did He institute the Blessed Sacrament as a comfort, and consoled them again. For this bread is a comfort for the sorrowing, a healing for the sick, life for the dying, a food for all the hungry, and a rich treasure for all the poor and needy.
Let this be enough at this time concerning the proper use of this sacrament. I commend you to God.
Copyright: Public Domain
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
March 13, 1522 Dr. Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
We have heard of the things that are necessary, such as the mass, which is regarded as a sacrifice, and of the unnecessary things, such as the leaving of monasteries by monks, the marriage of priests, and the images. We have seen how we must treat these matters, that no compulsion, or law, must be made of them, and that no one shall be dragged from them by the hair, but that we must let the Word of God alone do the work. Let us now consider how we must observe the Blessed Sacrament.
You have heard how I preached against the foolish law of the pope and opposed his regulation, that no woman shall wash the altar-linen on which the body of Christ has lain, even if it be a pure nun, except it first be washed by a pure priest. Likewise, when any one touches the body of Christ with a hand, the priests come running and scrape his fingers, and much more of the same sort. But when a priest is incontinent, the pope winks at it. If the woman bears a child, he lets that pass, too. The altar-linen and the sacrament, however, dare not be touched.
Against such fools’ laws we have preached, and set forth that no sin is involved in these foolish prescriptions of the pope, that a layman does not commit sin if he touch the cup or the body of Christ with his hands. You should give thanks to God that you have come to such clear knowledge, which many great men have lacked. But now you have become just as foolish as the pope, with your notion that you must handle the sacrament. You would prove that you are good Christians by touching the sacrament with your hands. You have dealt with the sacrament, our highest treasure, in such a way that it is a wonder you were not struck down by thunder and lightning. The other things God would have allowed you to do, but to make this a matter of compulsion; He cannot allow it at all. If you do not back away from this, neither the emperor nor anyone else need drive me from you, I will go without urging. Yes, I dare say, none of my enemies, although they have caused me much sorrow, have wounded me as you have wounded me in this matter. If you would show that you are good Christians by handling the sacrament, and boast of it before everybody, then indeed Herod and Pilate are the chief and best Christians. They handled the body of Christ, I think, when they had him nailed to the cross and put to death.
No, my dear friends, the kingdom of God consists not in outward things, which can be touched or perceived, but in faith. (Luke 17:20, 1 Corinthians 4:20) But you may say: We live and should live in accordance with the Scriptures, and God has instituted the sacrament in such a manner that we should take it with our hands, for He said: “Take and eat, this is my body.” (Matthew 26:36) Answer: Though I am convinced beyond a doubt that the disciples of the Lord took it with their hands, and though I admit that you may do the same without committing sin, nevertheless I can neither make it compulsory nor prove that it is the only way. And my reason therefore is this: when the devil, in his seeking after us, argues, Where have you read in the Scriptures that “take” means “seizing with the hands”? —how shall I prove or defend it? (What does “Take” mean?) No, how will I answer him when he cites, from the Scriptures, the very opposite, and proves that “take” does not mean to receive with the hands only, but also to convey to ourselves in other ways? “See, my good fellow,” so he says, “how the word ‘take’ is used by three Evangelists in describing the taking of gall and vinegar by the Lord. (Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23) You must admit that the Lord did not touch or handle it with His hands, for His hands were nailed to the cross.” (Luke 23:36) This verse is a strong argument against me. Again, he cites the passage: Et accepit omnes timor , —”And fear took hold on all,” where again we must admit that fear has no hands. (Luke 7:16)
Thus I am driven into a corner and must concede, even against my will, that “take” means not only to receive with the hands, but to convey to myself in any other way in which it can be done. So you see, dear friends, we must be on firm ground, if we are to withstand the devil’s attack. Although I must acknowledge that you committed no sin when you touched the sacrament with your hands, nevertheless I must tell you that it was not a good work, because it caused offense everywhere. For the universal custom is, to receive the Blessed Sacrament directly from the hands of the priest. Why will you not serve in this way also those who are weak in the faith and abstain from your liberty? It does not help you if you do it, nor harm you if you do it not. Therefore no new practices should be introduced, unless the Gospel has first been thoroughly preached and understood, even as it has been with you. On this account, dear friends, let us deal soberly and wisely in the things that pertain to God, for God will not be mocked. You may mock the saints, but with God it is vastly different. Therefore, I pray you, give up this practice.
Let us now speak of the two kinds. Although I hold that it is necessary that the sacrament should be received in both kinds, according to the institution of the Lord, nevertheless it must not be made compulsory nor a general law. We must occupy ourselves with the Word, practice it and preach it. For the result we should look entirely to the Word, and let everyone have his liberty in this matter. Where that is not done, the sacrament becomes an external observance and a hypocrisy, which is just what the devil, wants. But when the Word is given free course and is not bound to any observance, it takes hold of one today and falls into his heart, tomorrow it touches another, and so on. Thus quietly and soberly it will do its work, and no one will know how it all came about.
I was glad to know when someone wrote me, that some people in this city had begun to receive the sacrament in both kinds. You should have allowed it to remain thus and not have forced it into a law. But now you run ahead and want to force everyone to do it. Dear friends, you will not succeed in that way. And if you desire to be regarded as better Christians than others, because you take the sacrament into your hands and receive it in both kinds, you are really poor Christians indeed! In this way even a sow could be a Christian, for she has a big enough snout to receive the sacrament outwardly. We must deal soberly with such high things.
Dear friends, this dare be no mockery, and if you would heed me, give it up. If you will not heed me, no one need drive me away from you — I will leave you without being asked, and I shall regret that I ever preached as much as one sermon in this place. The other things could be passed by, but this cannot be passed by. You have gone so far that men say: “At Wittenberg there are very good Christians, for they take the sacrament with the hands and handle the cup, and then they go to their brandy and drink until they are drunk.” Thus are the weak and simple-minded men driven away, who would come to us if as much instruction had been given to them as was given to us.
But if there is any one so stupid that he must touch the sacrament with his hands, let him have it brought home to his house and there let him handle it to his heart’s content. But in public let him abstain, since that will not bring him harm and the offense will be avoided which is caused to our brothers, sisters and neighbors, who are now so angry with us that they are ready to kill us. I may say that none of the enemies who have opposed me until now have brought so much grief upon me as you.
This is enough for today. We will continue tomorrow.
Copyright: Public Domain
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
March 12, 1522 Dr. Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
Dear Friends: We have heard the things which are necessary, as for instance, that the mass is regarded as a sacrifice. Then we considered the things which are left to our liberty, such as marriage, the monastic life, the abolishing of images. We have treated these four subjects, and have said that in all these matters love is the captain. On the subject of images, in particular, we saw that they ought to be abolished if they are going to be worshipped, otherwise not, although I wish they were abolished everywhere because they are abused — it is useless to deny it. For whoever places an image in a church, imagines he has performed a service to God and a good work, which is downright idolatry. And this, the greatest, foremost and highest reason for abolishing the images, you have neglected, and taken up the very lowest.
For I suppose there is scarcely any man who does not understand that the crucifix over there is not my God, for my God is in heaven, but that this is simply a sign. But the world is full of the other abuse, for who would place an image of silver or of wood in a church, if he did not think that in so doing he was doing God a service? Think about Duke Frederick, the bishop of Halle, and the others. Would they have placed so many silver images in the churches, if they thought it counted nothing before God? No, they would not do it. But this is not sufficient reason to abolish, destroy and burn all the images; and why?
Because we must admit that there are still people who do not have the wrong opinion of them, but to whom they may be useful. Although they are few, yet we cannot and should not condemn anything which is still useful to the devotions of anyone. But you should have taught that images are nothing, God cares nothing for them, and that He is not served, nor pleased when we make an image for Him, but that we would do better to give a poor man a gold coin than to give God a golden image, for God has forbidden the latter, but not the former. If they had heard this teaching that images count for nothing they would have ceased of their own accord, and the images would have fallen without any uproar or tumult, since it was already happening.
We must, therefore, be on our guard, for the devil is after us, through his apostles, with all his craft and cunning. Now, although it is true, and no one can deny that the images are evil because they are abused, nevertheless we must not on that account reject them, nor condemn anything because it is abused. That would result in utter confusion. God has commanded us not to lift up our eyes to the sun, etc., that we may not worship them, for they are created to serve all nations. (Deuteronomy 4:19) But there are many people who worship the sun and the stars. Shall we, therefore, go up to pull the sun and stars from the skies? No, we will not do it.
Again, wine and women bring many a man to misery and make a fool of him. Shall we, therefore, kill all the women and pour out all the wine? Again, gold and silver cause much evil, shall we, therefore, condemn them? No, if we would drive away our one worst enemy, who does us the most harm, we would have to kill ourselves, for we have no greater enemy than our own heart, even as Jeremiah says, “The heart of man is crooked,” or, as I take the meaning, “always twisting to one side or the other.” Jeremiah 17:9) And what good would that do us?
If you want to color the devil black you must have good charcoal, for he, too, wears fine clothes and goes to the fair. But I can catch him by asking him: “Do you not place the images in the churches because you think it a special service of God?” and when he says “Yes,” as he must, you may conclude that what was meant as a service of God he has turned into idolatry by abusing the images. He eagerly sought what God has not commanded and neglected God’s positive command —to help the neighbor. But I have not yet caught him. He escapes me by saying: “I help the poor, too. Why can’t I give to my neighbor and at the same time place images in churches?” That is not true — for who would not rather give his neighbor a gold coin, than God a golden image!
No, he would not trouble himself about placing images in churches if he believed that God was not served by it. Therefore I freely admit, images are neither here nor there, neither evil nor good, we may have them or not, as we please. This trouble has been caused by you. The devil would not have accomplished it with me, for I cannot deny that it is possible to find someone to whom images are useful. And if I were asked about it, I would confess that none of these things give offense to me, and if just one man were found upon earth who used the images rightly, the devil would soon draw the conclusion against me: “Why do you condemn what is still useful in worship?” This challenge I could not answer. He would have successfully defied me. He would not have got nearly so far if I had been here. He played a bold game, and won, although it does no harm to the Word of God. You wanted to paint the devil black, but forgot the charcoal and used chalk. If you would fight the devil, you must be well versed in the Scriptures, and, besides, use them at the right time.
Let us proceed and speak of the eating meats. It is true that we are free to eat any manner of food, meats, fish, eggs or butter. This no one can deny. God has given us this liberty. That is true. Nevertheless we must know how to use our liberty, and treat the weak brother differently from the stubborn. Observe, then, how you must use this liberty.
First of all, if you cannot give up meat without harm to yourself, or if you are sick, you may eat whatever you like, and if any one takes offense, let him be offended. And if the whole world took offense, yet you are not committing a sin, for God can excuse you in view of the liberty He has so graciously bestowed upon you, and of the necessities of your health, which would be endangered by your abstinence.
Secondly, If you should be pressed to eat fish instead of meat on Friday, and to eat fish and abstain from eggs and butter during Lent, etc., as the pope has done with his fools’ laws, then you must not in any way be drawn away from the liberty in which God has placed you, but do just the opposite to spite him, and say: “Because you forbid me to eat meat, and presume to turn my liberty into law, I will eat meat in spite of you.” And thus you must do in all other things which are matters of liberty. To give you an example: If the pope, or anyone else would force me to wear a cowl, just as he prescribes it, I would take off the cowl just to spite him. But since it is left to my own free choice, I wear it or take it off, according to my pleasure.
Thirdly, There are some who are still weak in faith, who ought to be instructed, and who would gladly believe as we do. But their ignorance prevents them, and if this were faithfully preached to them, as it was to us, they would be one with us. Toward such well-meaning people we must assume an entirely different attitude from that which we assume toward the stubborn. We must bear patiently with them and not use our liberty, since it brings no peril or harm to body or soul, no, rather is beneficial, and we are doing our brothers and sisters a great service besides. But if we use our liberty without need, and deliberately cause offense to our neighbor, we drive away the very one who in time would come to our faith.
Thus St. Paul circumcised Timothy because simple-minded Jews had taken offense. He thought, “What harm can it do, since they are offended because of their ignorance?” (Acts 16:3) But when, in Antioch, they would insist that he ought and must circumcise Titus, Paul withstood them all and to spite them would not have Titus circumcised. (Galatians 2:3) And he held his ground. He did the same when St. Peter by the exercise of his liberty caused a wrong conception in the minds of the unlearned. (Galatians 2:11 ff.) It happened this way: When Peter was with the Gentiles, he ate pork and sausage with them, but when the Jews came in, he would not touch this food and no longer ate with them. Then the Gentiles who had become Christians, thought: Oh No! We, too, must be like the Jews, eat no pork and live according to the Law of Moses.
But when Paul found that it would injure the liberty of the Gospel, he reproved Peter publicly and read him an apostolic lecture, saying: “If you, a Jew, live like the Gentiles, why do you make the Gentiles live like the Jews live?” (Galatians 2:14) So we, too, should live our lives and use our liberty at the proper time, so that Christian liberty may suffer no injury, and no offense be given to our weak brothers and sisters who are still without the knowledge of this liberty.
Copyright: Public Domain
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
