Second Sermon.
Today we celebrate three praiseworthy, comforting feasts, in which the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to all those who seek Him with strong faith for special comfort: first, the wise men from the east; second, John the Baptist, when he was baptized by Him in the Jordan in the thirtieth year, and when the Holy Spirit, together with the fatherly voice, gave witness of Christ that He was the Son of God, Matth. 3, 17. Marc. 1, 11. Joh. 1, 34.; thirdly, when he proved his glory and honor with the miraculous sign, when he made wine out of water in the wedding, Joh. 2, 7-11.; in this he wanted to honor the marital state, which now, unfortunately, is badly torn apart, spurned and rejected by the pope and his grace junkers, as a miserable despised state. For what God has set up is and will be spurned by the world; of which we will say more in its time and have already written enough about it. Now we want to deal a little with the first appearance.
(2) The wise men of Arabia, who were skilful men and no doubt rulers in the land (as was the custom of the Orientals at that time), when they saw the star in the gateway, came without delay to Jerusalem and diligently sought the newborn king of the Jews. Thereby we are to notice that they have this king,
They could not have sought nor found the Lord Christ without the star, which at last led them to know from the word of God where they should find this King. It is the same with us: We cannot find Christ without the Gospel, without the Word of God; this must point us to Him, and lead us to find Him; but then only when we grasp the same Gospel with faith; Otherwise, even if we have it, hear it and know it, it is of no use to us, we will not find it, any more than the scribes found it, who had the Scriptures and knew how to point other people to it, but they did not get there, but did not take it to heart and slept through the King, for whom they had waited a long time with all their sighing. Therefore it is not enough to have the gospel or to hear it, but it must be believed and grasped with the heart, otherwise we will not find Christ. And here you also see how it does not depend on whether one is learned or unlearned, whether he knows much Scripture or little; to whom God gives it, he has it: he does not look at the person, Acts 10, 34. 10:34, but whom He draws, he is drawn, and yet always has the gospel preached.
(3) Now that these wise men, by indicating the Scriptures and proving the star of Christ, have been able to
When they found the infant, the King of the Jews, in Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary, they did not let the smallness of his appearance bother them, but as they had been taught by the Word, they recognized the infant as the Messiah and Jewish King for whom the Jews were waiting, and they opened their treasures before him, offering him gold, frankincense and myrrh. But the way of faith is to be felt, how the same does not allow anything to be mistaken, but hangs on the word alone, does not ask anything, how it all seems outwardly. The wise men did not take offense at the fact that this child and his parents were there without all splendor, in poverty and misery, and that nothing was more wretched than that this child should be a king; but they went on, considering him to be a king, as they had been told from the Scriptures, and showed him royal honor with delicious gifts and presents, which they had brought with them from their country, as the best. But the world would not have done so, but, according to its custom, would have looked on great splendor, on sumptuous pads, on many servants and maids; there it is wont to give its gifts, namely, where before there is enough and all abundance; yes, it is well of the kind that it takes it from the poor and miserable, snatches the bread from the mouths of the hungry and needy, who, however, have nothing else, but what they get sick and sore with their bloody sweat.
4 From this we are to learn: if we also want to honor Christ with these ways, we must close our eyes to everything that is beautiful, shining and glittering in the eyes of the world, and not let ourselves be annoyed or frightened by it, whether it is considered small, contemptible and foolish in the eyes of the world; be content with it, so that you know that it pleases God in heaven. Beware of what is glittering in the eyes of the world; practice the works that are considered foolish and insignificant in the eyes of reason, such as helping the poor, comforting the afflicted, and caring for one's neighbor's needs. If you practice these things diligently, and know how to do them by faith, the other glorious works, such as the institution of Mass, the keeping of vigils and anniversaries, and the building of churches, will come to you,
and what is more of the work of fools, fall from themselves to you and perish; on which works almost the whole world is now pretending; for they shine beautifully, if they are nevertheless an abomination before God. But what God has commanded, namely, to serve our neighbor and to take care of his misery, to be kind and gentle to him, and what other commandments of God are more, these remain behind, and are to be considered a small thing before the world, even foolish and mocking. That is why no one wants to go there; why? Therefore, it does not shine: "If it does not shine, it is not valid," they say.
Now God would rather be deprived of His honor and service than that we should neglect the service of our neighbor; as Christ says in Matthew 5:23, 24: "If thou offer thy gift upon the altar, and there think that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave thy gift there before the altar, and go thy way first, and be reconciled to thy brother; and then come and offer thy gift. There you see and hear that God does not want to be served unless we first serve our neighbor and become friendly to him.
Therefore God also rejects the sacrifices of the Jews in the prophet Isaiah, because they left the most necessary thing standing, namely, mercy and faith, saying: "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full of you; I have not wanted the burnt offerings of rams, nor the fat of fatted animals, nor the blood of oxen, lambs and goats. When ye come before my face, who hath required this of you, that ye should walk in my courts? Offer me no more grain offerings in vain; the burnt offering is an abomination in my sight. I will not suffer your new moons and sabbaths and other feasts; I am displeased with them, and they almost grieve me. And if ye lift up your hands, I will turn mine eyes from you: and if ye pray much, I will not hear it: for your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves and be clean; remove the evil of your thoughts from my sight; stop doing evil; learn to do good; seek judgment; help him who is in need.
Suffer, judge aright the fatherless, protect and defend the widow," and how more is written there in Isaiah Cap. 1, 11-17.
(7) You see from these words of Isaiah what God wants to be pleasing to Him. If we reject these works in order to serve the poor, and do not take care of their needs, he does not want to know us; for what we do to our neighbor, we do to God and Christ himself, as he will say at the last judgment: "Inasmuch as you did it to the least of mine, you did it to me," Matth. 25, 40. 45. 25, 40. 45. You must not then boast much about your church-building or mass-keeping; he will say, "What do I ask about your churches or masses? what do I worry about your altar, about your bells? do you think I delight in stone and wood, in ringing and tolling? "Is it not all mine before? The heavens are my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet," Isa. 66, 1. Who commanded you to build churches? I have set before thee living temples, which thou shouldest have built, and fed, and helped them: so hast thou gone about with other foolish works, which I commanded not. I know not of thee; thou mayest go about with thy churches and with thy masses. You should have trusted in me alone; so all your comfort has been based on such works, as if you wanted to wrest heaven from me with them and make me your friend. And summa summarum, what I have commanded you have not done, and what I do not desire you have done with all diligence. Well then, thank you again for it: I do not know you; you may have recourse to the God who commanded you to do these things etc.
(8) From this we are to learn that, just as the wise men here did not allow themselves to dispute the lowly and poorly condition of the infant and its parents, so we should not allow ourselves to be misled by the lowly and miserable condition of our neighbors, but should certainly consider that we find Christ in them, and that what we do to them we do to Christ Himself. His kingdom stands in despised little things, yes, in the holy cross, contempt, persecution, in misery and wretchedness; as Paul says in the 44th verse.
Psalm v. 23. says: "For Your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter", Rom. 8, 36. And in another place He says: "We have become as the refuse of the world, and of every man's waste", 1 Cor. 4, 13. Therefore Christ says to His disciples when He sent them out to preach in the Jewish country: "Behold, I send you as sheep into the midst of wolves", Matth. 10, 16.
(9) Those who look for Christ elsewhere than in such a small form, in the cross and persecution, do not find him: the wise men found Christ, the newborn King, not in Herod's hall, not with the high priests, not in Jerusalem, the great mighty capital; but in Bethlehem in the stable, with a despised, scorned people, with Mary and Joseph. In sum, Christ wants to be found there, where it is least understood.
(10) Now we must also consider what the wise men meant by their gift and offerings, for they certainly indicated that this child was a king, and not only a king, but God and a mortal man. In the gold they confessed that he was a king; as if they wanted to say: We bring thee gold: not that we would make thee rich therewith; for gold and silver, and all things that are made, are thine before: but we confess thee thereby a mighty King of all things. So we also offer the gold to Christ, if I recognize him as my King and Lord. O this is strong faith! For if I acknowledge him to be my King and Lord, all my will must perish, and nothing must rule in me, but Christ alone must rule and reign in me as he pleases, and give all things to him to do with as he pleases. Thus did the leper in Matthew 8:2, who said to Christ, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me." Therefore my will must be nothing in me, if Christ's kingdom is to exist in me. Christ Himself did not let His will rule in Himself, but always lived according to the will of His Father, as He says in John Cap. 6, 38: "I came from heaven, not to do My will,
but of him that sent me." Yes, he was obedient to his Father even unto death, Phil. 2, 8. and restored all things to him.
(11) According to the example, which is written especially for our comfort, we should also surrender our will to God and His Christ, and freely trust in Him, and He will do it well; as the 37th Psalm v. 5.7. says: "Command the Lord your ways, and hope in Him, and He will do it well"; and soon after: "Be still unto the Lord, and let Him do it with you. Such and such sayings should provoke us to patiently suffer God's will in us, to make it sweet or sour, with love or with suffering; for he certainly does not spoil it. Blessed is he who believes this with all his heart. How can he be sad all the time? Let such a one be dealt with as one pleases, let him be burned or drowned, let him be thrown into prison or let him out, he asks nothing of it: he knows that it is for his good. So we sacrifice gold with the wise, if we do not let our will rule in us, but keep Christ quiet, and let him do with us as he wills. Therefore these are hypocrites and gleamers, who cannot suffer God's will, but as he attacks them, he does not do right, thinking it should go out as they think, and become angry when it does not go according to their will; not wanting to be persecuted nor despised, murmuring and grumbling, scolding and biting against it, like the wicked (angry) nags; so that they resist that Christ's kingdom does not reign in them: So they take from Christ the gold, which they should offer and give to him, that is, they want to reign themselves and not recognize Christ as their King and Lord.
12. By the incense they signified the divine honor which we offer to him, if we confess that all that we have we have from him, purely for nothing, without any merit on our part; therefore we should ascribe it to him again as to the right Lord and not boast at all in the goods we have received, but seek only his honor in it, and when he takes it from us again as his own good, we should be satisfied and give it to him with the dear Job and say: "I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother, I am naked from my mother.
I shall come naked, I shall go naked again. The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, the name of the Lord be blessed," Job 1:21. So let us suffer all our misfortunes and adversities patiently, as if God Himself had laid them on our necks; as indeed no one can harm us, unless Christ will have it. "Not even a hair of your head shall perish," he says in Luca Cap. 21, 18. to his disciples.
(13) Therefore, in all our troubles, we should seek no other God, nor any other help and comfort, but Christ alone; he is the one who was made for us by God the Father for wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Then we offer Christ the good Arabian incense, if we have refuge in him alone in our distresses, afflictions and fears. But those who seek help and comfort elsewhere than from witches and sorceresses do not offer incense to Christ, but stinking sulfur, in which they must burn forever, because they have not believed or trusted in Christ.
(14) In myrrh they signified a mortal man; for with myrrh they anointed the dead bodies, so that they remained alive for many a year. Myrrh is a strong bitter sap that flows from the trees in Arabia, like a gum, or like the resin that flows from the pines, spruces or firs in our country. But then we offer myrrh to Christ, if we strongly believe that Christ, by his death in his mortal body, has overcome our death, sin, devil and hell. And this is the highest faith; for if we doubt it, our case is not well; but if we believe with all our heart that death, sin, the devil, and hell are swallowed up in and through Christ's death, I shall not be afraid of them: death shall not consume me: for I have the myrrh, that is, the death of the Lord Christ, in my body and soul, which shall not cause me to perish. Such a mighty thing is faith, to which all things are possible, as Christ says in Mark 9:23.
(15) Here we are to learn that from day to day we are to subdue our old Adam with the Lord Christ, and die to his desires with cross and temptation; not which we choose ourselves, but what God sends us, that we may bear it patiently and gladly, so that thereby the body may be tamed and be obedient to the Spirit. That we, thus buried with Christ and drowned in baptism, may in turn also rise with Christ, and that he alone may reign and live in us. This includes great groaning and longing, which the Holy Spirit does in us without ceasing, as Paul says to the Romans, Cap. 8, 26, that Christ wants to help us to seize the stiff-necked, wanton prankster between the spurs, so that he does not become too horny and throw the noble soul into the mire.
(16) This is what our baptism indicates, namely, nothing else but that the old wretch, the stinking Adam, must die and be buried. We should always remember this, because as long as we live, sins still remain in us; therefore, through the contemplation of baptism, we must still mend ourselves, like an old wicked house, until it can never suffer the mending, that is, until we die. St. Paul says very nice words about this to the Romans Cap. 6, 3-11, which we should remember especially well, and says: "Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? So we are buried with him through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. But if we have been planted together with him to the same death, we shall also be conformed to the resurrection, knowing that our old man was crucified with him, that the sinful body might be celebrated, that we should no longer serve sin. For he that is dead is justified from sins. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, and know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, shall not die; death shall not have dominion over him henceforth. For that he died, that
he died to sin once; but that he liveth, he liveth to God. So you also, consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(17) This has been said about the first appearance; now we will also deal a little with the other appearance, namely, the baptism of Christ.
18) In the baptism of Christ there are three things: first, that the heavens were opened when Christ was baptized; second, that the Holy Spirit was seen there in the form of a dove; third, that the fatherly voice was heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
19 First of all, it is to be noted here that Christ's baptism is nothing else than that he took all our sins upon himself and paid for them, and also purified all waters with the touch of his body, so that whoever was baptized in his name should also be free from sin and the heavens should also be open to him. So Christ was not baptized for his own sake, because he had no sin on him, as Peter 1 Petr. 2, 22. says: but he took all our sin and wickedness on him, Is. 53, 4. and drowned them all in water, thus showing what we should do. He is like a good physician who drinks the bitter syrup of the first before the sick person, so that the sick person may drink it more cheerfully and fearlessly. In baptism we also drink a bitter drink, namely, the death and dying of the old Adam, which is very sour and bitter in our nostrils; for the dipping into the water means nothing else than that the old rascal must perish and die. This happens through the cross, which God lays out for us according to His divine will, which we should not throw away from us, but bear willingly and gladly.
20. but that it might be the easier for us, Christ also was baptized, and took up his cross, and willingly bore it, and so was obedient to his Father unto death, even the death of the cross, as Paul says to the Philippians 2:8, that he might save us from sins, and
to his heavenly Father, which was done by pure grace, without any merit on our part, so that we have baptism as a sign and assurance, as Paul says to Tito Cap. 3, 4-7: "Then the kindness and brightness of God our Savior appeared, not because of the works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy He made us blessed by the bath of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that we might be justified by the grace of the same. Heirs of eternal life, according to hope, that is ever certainly true."
Secondly, the Holy Spirit appears here in Christ's baptism visibly in the form of a dove, so that it is indicated that in our baptism we also receive the Holy Spirit, who governs and guides us according to the divine will; who is with us and helps us to carry the holy cross, admonishes us, stops us, drives us on, and where we lack, he comes and helps us to carry it; if we fall, he raises us up again and is with us as a faithful companion on the way. He also makes the burden of the cross easy for us, which we would otherwise never be able to bear if he did not help us. If you fall into sin, remember that you have recourse to baptism. For this is the one little ship that helps us over. Therefore beware of those who make two boards by which we swim across the sea of sin, baptism and repentance, saying that if we have been shipwrecked by sin and have lost baptism, we must take repentance: *] believe them not, it is vain deceit, that they may go about. Baptism is a beginning of repentance. Therefore, as often as you fall into sins, have recourse again to baptism, and there again you will obtain the Holy Spirit to help you. For repentance is nothing else but a displeasure with oneself and one's sinful life, and a renewal of the person, which is shown in baptism.
22. in such renewal of life follows
*) (c d)
For God's praise and thanksgiving for the grace received; then the same man goes up and shows himself friendly toward his neighbor, and does what is pleasing to him. This means that the Holy Spirit appeared over Christ in the form of a dove; for the dove has no gall: so those who receive the Holy Spirit in baptism also become kindly and without bitterness toward anyone.
23 Thirdly, the voice of the Father is heard in the baptism of Christ, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This voice is also heard by all who are baptized in Christ's name, for then we become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, Rom. 8:17. Let no one doubt this. St. Paul says in Eph. 1, 6: "God loves us in His beloved Son." This should be a great comfort to us in fear and distress, that we have one through whom we are pleasing to God, even though we are in sin; for He does not look at us, but at His beloved Son, in whom we are pleasing to Him. Therefore, those are foolish who want to act before God with works and avoid this means. It is decided that no one will please God without Christ, whom He has given to us; He is the mercy seat on which and in which He will hear and accept us. 1 Tim. 1, 15. 1 Joh. 2, 1. Rom. 3, 25.
(24) Therefore all the sayings in the Gospel and in Paul, which so kindly draw us to Christ, serve especially this, when he himself speaks in Matthew, Cap. 11, 28-30: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls: for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light"; and this saying of St. Paul 1 Tim. 1, 15: "This is ever certainly true, and a precious word, that Christ Jesus is come into the world to save sinners"; and this to the Romans Cap. 4:25: "Christ was given for our sins, and raised for our righteousness." The entire New Testament is made up of these sayings
With what sayings shall we comfort our sorrowful, despondent conscience, when it is in anguish and distress because of sin or death, shall strengthen and feed our faith with them, and when we lack faith in any way, cry out to God at all times: Lord, increase our faith! Lord, help
Our faith, O Lord, strengthen our weak faith, *) that we may cleave unto thee, and be satisfied with thee, howsoever it may be. That is enough for now, we want to call upon God for His mercy.
*) strengthen our weakness (c d).