Matth. 1, 1-16.
This is the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob begat Judah and his brethren. Judah begat Pharez and Saram of the Thamar. Pharez begat Hezron. Hezron bore witness to Ram. Ram bore witness to Aminadab. Aminadab begat Nahasson. Nahasson begat Salma. Salma begat Boaz, by Rahab. Boaz begat Obed, of Ruth. Obed begat Jesse. Jesse begat King David. King David begat Solomon, by the wife of Uriah. Solomon begat Roboam. Roboam begat Abijah. Abia begat Assa. Assa begat Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat begat Joram. Joram witnessed Osia. Osia begat Jotham. Jotham begat Achaz. Achaz begat Ezechia. Ezechia begat Manasseh. Manasseh begat Amon. Amon begat Josiah. Josiah begat Jechonia and his brethren about the time of the Babylonian prison. After the Babylonian prison, Jechonia bore witness to Sealthiel. Sealthiel bore witness to Zorobabel. Zorobabel begat Abiud. Abiud bore witness to Eliachim. Eliachim begat Asor. Asor begat Zadoch. Zadoch begat Achin. Achin begat Eliud. Eliud begat Eleazar. Eleazar bore witness to Matthan. Matthan begat Jacob. Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
(1) Although Adam, our first father, was greatly fallen, and had to await death all the time with all his children, both of the body and of the soul, yet it was promised him, although darkly, that he and his descendants should be saved from this fall, in the words which God said to the serpent Genesis 3:15: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head." From these words Adam received a consolation that another woman should be born, from which fruit such cunning and seduction of the serpent should be brought back and Adam [with his children *] be redeemed. The consolation was given to Adam and his children until Noah; then the promise was denied, because God made a covenant with all the children of Noah, and set the rainbow as a sign of the covenant, Genesis 9:13, so that the human race would be given confidence that God was still favorable to us and wanted to have us uncorrupted; thereby mankind was once again saved until Abraham.
2. in the days of Abraham, God purified His mercy, and made it known that He would
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send a Savior who would deliver us again from death of both body and soul: even though the body would die, it would not remain in death, but would rise again with the Lord Christ, as St. Paul says Rom. 6, 4. The words God said to Abraham are thus: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," Gen. 22:18. Therefore we poor people had reason to hope and wait for the Savior who would bring us back. And from that time on all the prophets prophesied variously of the exceedingly gracious fountain of all mercy, of this seed, of the Lord Christ, how he should at last be born; that all who believed in him might be saved by such an unchanging promise; And if only man would open his eyes, he would have to confess and say that an unbelievable thing has happened to us here, that man, so condemned, maligned and corrupted, should be brought back through the birth of a man. Therefore, the dear prophets also cried out so eagerly and with unspeakable groaning that God would send the Savior whom He had promised.
(3) In such faith of Abraham the children of Israel afterward obtained the law and the glory before other nations, that they might keep the
By which promise, which Moses established, is so clearly figured and signified the Anointed One, whom today's Gospel describes, who he is and whence he came; and by the faith of the Lord all have been saved, from Abraham to David, as many as have been saved.
4 In David's time God made Messiah's future clearer, so that it was known from which lineage he was to come, namely, from David's lineage, when God said to David, "When your time is past, when you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who shall come from your womb, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will make the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son," 2 Sam. 7:12, 13, 14. And still more clearly in the 132nd Psalm v. 11: "The Lord hath sworn unto David faithfully, from this he will not turn: I will set on thy throne the fruit of thy womb." Hereby Christ is described as to be a king, and an everlasting king, as it is said of him in the 45th Psalm v. 7. "God, thy throne abideth for ever and ever; the scepter of thy kingdom is a straight scepter." But he shall be a spiritual king, ruling the earth by the word. And whoever accepts his word belongs to his kingdom; but whoever is not under this scepter and does not hear his word is not of God, nor does he belong to the kingdom, but must have Satan for a king, under whose power we all are, as long as the Lord does not save us from it and protect us by his scepter, which happens when we believe in him.
5 Because our salvation flows from the promise of God alone, each one must make fresh efforts that he may never attain salvation apart from this promise: even if we do the work of all the saints, it is of no avail; but again, if we take hold of this king's scepter, God's promises, we may not be lost: even though the sins of the whole world are upon us, all must be swallowed up in him; even though no good work is done by us, we must nevertheless be saved.
As we see in the thief who hung on the cross with the Lord, he took hold of God's word and believed in Christ, therefore he also attained the promised paradise, Luc. 23:42, 43. So we may also not be endangered: if we alone believe that it is so, then it is certainly so, putting aside everything that men have taught us or that we have done or can do. Here it must all perish in the future of this new king, that he alone may reign in us in his kingdom, that is, in our hearts. A man must accept it as if it belonged to him, as if all that was written of the King belonged to him; for all that was ever written of Christ was written for our comfort, that we might feed and nourish our faith therein. In such confidence God has graciously given us His grace to describe and to announce that He will keep what He has spoken. Whoever lets such things go to his heart must long and thirst for such scripture and divine promise, that he offers and gives us such goodness and mercy out of grace.
6. So now the text of the gospel follows, not only with the voice, but also penetrates with power into the heart, and pours into it love, pleasure, delight and joy, as if now an angel would come from heaven, and tell us poor, condemned, imprisoned people, and say thus: Behold, man, thou hast sinned, therefore thou must be eternally lost, the heart must be terrified; but though all these things are true, yet God by grace hath had mercy upon thee, and sendeth thee a Savior, as he promised Abraham and his seed. Be glad therefore and give thanks to God; behold, here is the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the son of David, the son of Abraham, that these things have not only come to pass, but are also recorded, that thou mayest be sure of them. He will not nor can he deceive thee; believe only, and thou shalt have all things.
7 Matthew puts David before Abraham, although the promise of Abraham came to David in the beginning and in the end, which David's promise the prophets saw.
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and comforted the people with it. In Isaiah, Cap. 11, 1, the prophet says: "There shall spring up a branch from the tribe of Jesse, and a branch from his root shall bring forth fruit." Jeremiah also says thus Cap. 23:5: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up a righteous plant unto David, and a king shall reign, that shall rule wisely, and establish judgment and righteousness in the earth." And so henceforth the prophets are full, full, who all prophesied of David that his kingdom should be established; as the angel of Mary also proclaimed, saying, "God the Lord will give him the throne of David his father, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom shall have no end," Luc. 1, 32. 33. Therefore Matthew had to put David first, as one more known, and Abraham next to him, because the promise was first made to Abraham; as Mary herself says in her song: "He remembereth mercy, and helpeth his servant Israel, as he spake unto our fathers, unto Abraham, and to his seed for ever." And this very promise has now been fulfilled and described in this Gospel, which we will consider further.
(8) St. Matthew describes his gospel in a masterly way, making three distinctions of the fathers from whom Christ sprang, fourteen patriarchs, fourteen kings, and fourteen princes. For the scepter and the kingdom must cease in Judah according to the prophecy of Jacob, which says: "The scepter shall not be taken from Judah, nor a ruler from his feet, until the hero come, and to him the nations shall fall," Gen. 49:10. Here it all must be fulfilled. And the persons are three times fourteen, as Matthew himself calls them: from Abraham to David, both counted, are fourteen persons or members; from David to the Babylonian prison, but fourteen members. Here one person is omitted in Matthew, which is called Joachim, and should thus stand: Josiah witnessed to Joachim, Joachim witnessed to Jechonia and his brothers. This is testified by Chronicles. And from the Babylonian prison to Christ there are also fourteen members. What threefold difference
has a great stealth; as we shall see.
009 The Jews were commanded among other statutes to keep these three, that they should honor the God whom their fathers had honored. The second, that they should not take a priest of any other family than their own, of the family of Levi. The third, that they should not choose a foreign king except from among themselves. These three commandments were masterfully combined in our Lord Christ, that he should be one God, an eternal priest of our flesh and blood, and a king, our brother, sprung from our human race, who in his divine power could help us and save us, and our eternal priest prayed for us without ceasing, as the epistle to the Hebrews says, Cap. 5:6. 5:6 But since it is not for a priest to be involved in worldly matters, he must be a spiritual and eternal priest who takes care of us as our brother. Thus he is also a king who protects us and handles us, before whom we must not fear; for he is like us, a man like us, yes, the most despised man born, so that the heart would ever be satisfied in the Savior, who can never leave us. Who would stand before God's eyes and not be terrified if this priest did not stand before God? Who would protect us if he were not a king? Who would make us blessed if he were not a god? How could he take care of us if he were not a man and our brother, with whom we could talk as if he were us?
10) O merciful Savior, how wisely you have attacked it; you are ever my brother, I know it, as it says in Psalm v. 23: "I will tell your name to my brothers"; as also the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 2, 12. Even though you are God, my Lord Christ, and a king of heaven and earth, I cannot be afraid of you, for you are my companion, my brother, my flesh and blood. I will not let this deceive me, that I am a sinner and you are holy. For if I were not a sinner
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you would not have been allowed to suffer for me: therefore I am confident. I see also how the pious and the wicked are described here, of whom thou wouldest have been born, that thou mightest comfort the fearful and foolish consciences, that they might have fresh confidence in thee, as though thou hadst taken away our sin; as indeed he hath taken it away. And that we might be sure of this, he has left us his word here, which certainly assures us of the same. Therefore we have the sacrament of confession for our sake alone, that an inexperienced heart may also have a sure outward sign (which also takes away sins), as if God were sure in his words and promises, of which we have said more elsewhere.
11. There were some kings and princes among them, as Matthew tells us, who were exceedingly wicked men, as we read in the books of the kings; but God writes them in this, as if they were worthy to be born of him, and does not describe any godly women: The four women named here were all wicked and unrighteous in the eyes of the people, and were considered wicked women: Tamar, who begat Pharez and Saram with Judah, her husband's father, as it says in the first book of Moses, Cap. 38, 18.; Rahab is called a bitch or whore in the book of Joshua Cap. 2:1; Ruth was a heathen woman, Ruth 1:4: though she was pious in honor, for no evil was spoken of her, yet because she was a heathen she was despised as a dog by the Jews and was held worthless in the eyes of the world; Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, was an adulteress before she took David in marriage and begat Solomon with her, 2 Sam. 11:4. These special doubts are all told so that we may see how God has prescribed only one mirror for all sinners and sinneresses, that he was sent to sinners and wanted to be born of sinners: that the greater the sinner, the greater should be his refuge in this gracious God, priest and king, who is our brother, in whom we, and in no other, can fulfill the law and obtain God's grace. Therefore he has come from heaven and desires nothing more from us, except that we should
If we only let him be our God, priest and king, then everything will be right and simple; through him alone we become children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, as St. Paul says to the Galatians Cap. 3, 26: "Ye are all the children of God through faith in Christ JEsu." Here all sinners' hearts must leap for joy that their sins have been worthy of such a Savior. Must not a heart be born again when it hears this, and be moved by heartfelt love to begin a new life, for it has been stirred by the wind of divine grace in that it has grasped the promise of the forgiveness of all sin.
(12) If we count the persons in this gospel, we find two and forty members figured by the two and forty defeats the children of Israel had before they came into the Promised Land, as it is written in the fourth book of Moses, Cap. 33. Now if we also want to enter the Promised Land, which our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared by His birth, we must also lie down two and forty times, that is, we must leave our own ways and be born from man to man, from one limb to the other, until we come to Mary and Jesus, where we will find rest for our souls. This birth, however, is sour for us, because it almost upsets the weak nature that its will and purpose should be broken. But nature gives that no birth can happen without pain; but one always has more pain, challenge and sorrow than the other. The avenger on the cross crossed the two and forty levels at once and soon came to Christ. Likewise many martyrs and dear saints more; but no one can walk this long journey with short effort, unless he is led by a great wind, namely, the Holy Spirit. We must go from foot to foot, from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, from Jacob to Judah, and so on; but we must start with Abraham, that we may be found conformable to his faith, and obtain the bestowal promised to him; then we may be all the more glad.
To go from one patriarch to another, that is, to let one tribulation pass after another, until we are called away from this journey into our rest. For man must be afflicted so long and fail so often in his will that he finally becomes weary, and so overcome his flesh that it becomes subject to the spirit and gladly walks in the will and obedience of God.
(13) Therefore, no one should presume to enter heaven with a quiet life and good days, as Christ says in Luke 18:24, 25: "How hardly will the rich enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And in the Acts of the Apostles Cap. 14, 22. Paul teaches that we must go through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of God. In Luca Cap. 16, 25. Abraham says to the rich man: "Remember, son, that thou hast received good things in thy life, and Lazarus, on the contrary, hath received evil: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." So Christ also had to suffer and enter glory through the cross. And St. Paul says 2 Tim. 3, 12: "All who would live godly in Christ JEsu must suffer persecution." Now from this we may learn that it is all poison that is pleasing to the body; therefore Paul says to the Romans Cap. 8, 13: "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye kill business by the spirit of the flesh, ye shall live." The spirit that comes from God is eager to suffer, but the flesh is against it. Christ proves this: when he said to his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the Jews and be killed, Peter led him alone and said to him, "Lord, spare thyself; it shall not be done unto thee. But Christ turned and said to Peter, "Get thee, Satan, out of my sight: for thou meanest not the things that are divine, but those that are human," Matt. 16:22, 23.
(14) Here it is clear that human reason is striving against God's will. God wants us to go through the cross and persecution.
shall come to glory; so the flesh opposes, grieves over the suffering. But those who have the Spirit of God rejoice that they should suffer for the sake of God; as it is written of the apostles, "They went away rejoicing," says Lucas, Acts 5:41. 5:41, "from the presence of the council, because they were worthy to suffer reproach for his name's sake."
(15) For this reason James says in his epistle Cap. 1:2, 3, 4: "My dear brethren, count it joy when ye are tempted in many ways; and know that your approved faith worketh patience. But let patience work a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, having no blemish."
16. how much patience is necessary for a Christian man, so that we should hold our souls with patience, as Christ says in Luca Cap. 21, 19, otherwise we will lose them forever. Therefore we must enter into a new life, and not immediately curse and be unwilling when any misfortune befalls us, but always lift up our heart to God and patiently suffer His will, He will deliver us from it in His time, if it pleases Him; and always remember that He means Fatherly and well when He sends us persecution, fear, affliction and adversity, as the epistle to the Hebrews says Cap. 12, 5-8: "You have forgotten the consolation that speaks to you as to children: My son, do not slight the chastening of the Lord, and do not desist if you are chastened by him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, but he scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God is pleased with you as with children. But where is there a son whom the father does not chasten? But if you are without chastisement, which all of them have received, you are bastards and not children. May God grant us His divine grace that we may happily pass through the two and forty stages and be born with the Lord Christ into a new life, amen.
From St. Anna celebration.
17 I should also say of St. Anne, whose celebration is celebrated today: so I do not find kei-
ny letter in the Scripture from it. I believe that God has left this undescribed, so that we would not seek a new place of salvation, as we are doing now, running to and fro, and thereby losing the right Savior, Jesus Christ. You may have left today uncelebrated and waited for your work at home, but the devil has blinded us so much that we do with the greatest diligence what we have devised, but we leave God's statutes and commandments in place; we can see before our eyes how pious we are becoming. We are at these last times
We may not come to the misery of not knowing our hell, death and destruction. May God help us out of this game, so that we may adhere to the Gospel and leave such a ghost and monkey game behind. Beware, whoever can, I only want to warn you herewith. If one wants to honor the dear saints, one can certainly find another way that God is honored together with them, as I have said and written enough about it in other places. Let us leave it at that for now.