Matth. 23, 34-39.
Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scholars of Christ: and of them ye shall kill and crucify some, and some ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood that is shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachai, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, that all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and ye would not. Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate. For I say unto you: Ye shall not see me from henceforth, till ye say, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
1 This is a hard gospel against the persecutors of the faith. But as much harder as it is against them, so much more comforting is it to the faithful who are persecuted. And this gospel teaches how stiff-necked it is about the natural light, own conceit and reason: where it falls into works and commandments, no one hears it any more, as is said in the next gospel; but its works and conceit shall be right, help not how much it is preached, how many prophets God may give it.
Everything that is against her, the great red murderess, must be persecuted and dead; just as St. John Revelation 17:4 depicts her. and says: "She is called the great whore of Babylon, wearing a red purple robe, sitting on a beast that was also red, and a golden drinking vessel in her hand, full of filth and abomination of her fornication, that is, the doctrine of men, so that she leads the pure believing souls away from the faith and puts them to shame, threatening to strangle all who resist her.
2. such stiff-necked and murderous
This gospel also shows stubbornness; first of all, God tries all kinds of things with it, sends to it all kinds of preachers, whom he tells by three names, prophets, wise men, scholars of Christ.
3. prophets are those who preach from the mere inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who did not draw it from the Scriptures or from men, as Moses and Amos were; and these are the highest and best, who are wise, and can make others wise, set Scripture and interpret it. Of this kind were almost all the fathers before and with Moses, and after him also many, especially the apostles, who were laymen and bad unlearned people, as Lucas Apost. 4, 13, who were ignorant of the Scriptures.
4. the wise are those who have it not only from God, but through Scripture and men, and are the disciples and followers of the prophets, but who preach and teach with the mouth and living words themselves. Such was Aaron, who spoke all that Moses called him, as Ex. 4:15, 16. God says to Moses, "Put my word in his mouth, and let him preach for you to the people, and you shall be a god to them." So also all shall be priests, as Zechariah Cap. 11. says.
5. the scribes or scribes are those who teach with writings and books where they could not teach presently or orally. As the apostles were also, before them the evangelists and their followers, as the holy fathers; yet that they write and act not their conceits, but God's word, which they learned from the wise and from the Scriptures. Now these are the three ways in which the truth may be revealed; scripture, word, thought; scripture through the books; word through the mouth; thought through the heart. Nothing else can grasp the teaching but the heart, the mouth and the writing.
Now all this does not help the stubborn reason; it hears neither word, scripture nor enlightenment, as God tries to do with it. It suppresses and burns the scriptures and books, as King Jehoiakim did with Jeremiah's books, Jer. 36, 23. But it forbids, keeps silent and condemns the words; it chases away and kills the enlightenment with the prophets. And
which is strange, there is no prophet killed, driven out or persecuted for punishing gross sins, without John the Baptist, whom Herodias had killed as punishment for her adultery. Such a great man did not have to have the most terrible cause to die; although the Jews were not hostile to him because of this, but because he would not let their thing be right, saying that he had the devil.
007 Thus all strife hath always been between right and wrong worship. Abel was strangled by Cain, so that his worship would not be valid. So all the prophets, wise men and scholars have condemned the worship of God as idolatry, which was done by reason and works without faith; so natural conceit took hold and said that it was done in honor of God and was right. That is why the prophets had to die when they forbade and punished God's service and honor and good works; as Christ says John 16:2: "The hour will come when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service." So, all the idolatry in the Old Testament was done by them, not that they worshipped wood and stones, but wanted to serve the right God with it. Since this was forbidden by God and was done out of their own conceit without faith, it was certainly from the devil and not from God. Therefore, the prophets said that it did not serve God, but the idols; they did not like this, nor did they like to hear it, so they were not allowed to be silent by God's command; therefore, they had to die, be chased away and persecuted.
(8) Therefore all the quarrels are between the false saints and the true saints concerning worship and good works. The former say, This is worship; the latter say, No, it is idolatry and superstition. And has endured from the beginning, will endure to the end.
9 So now also: the papists have invented good works and worship for themselves with their outward works and laws, which is nevertheless all a faithless thing, based only on works, and without God's command, vain man's handiwork. Thus we say: It is not God served, but self and the devil, as all idolatry, and seduce only the people from the Christian faith and common
brotherly love; they do not want to suffer this, and cause the misery that now goes on. They agree on both sides that God is to be served and good works are to be done; but in the interpretation, which is worship and good works, they never become one. For these say, Let faith be, and nature and reason with their works be lost; and those say, Let faith be nothing, and nature with its works be good and right. They also agree that gross sins, death, adultery and robbery are not right, but in the main works of worship they differ like winter and summer. The former hold to God and His mercy and fear Him; the latter run to wood and stones, food and clothing, day and time, and want to win over God with building, pinning, fasting, whispering and platters, fear nothing, and are insolent, full of all presumption, the holy, learned, wise people, to whom even God is not holy, nor learned, nor wise enough with all His prophets, wise men and scribes.
(10) There are several questions in the gospel that we need to see. The first: Why does Christ say that all righteous blood from Abel onward should come upon the Jews, when they have not all shed it?
Answer: The words of Christ are directed to the whole multitude and generation of all those who have persecuted the prophets from the beginning. This is proved by the fact that he addresses not only the present inhabitants of his time, but also all Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often have I desired to gather thy children together" etc. This refers not only to the present but also to the former inhabitants of Jerusalem. Item, when he says: "You killed Zacharias between the house of God and the altar"; when the same Zacharias was killed by the king Joas, 2 Chron. 24:21, about eight hundred years before the birth of Christ; nor saith he, Ye slew him." So they also killed Abel and will also kill the prophets and wise men. As if he should say: It is one people, one kind,
One generation; as the fathers, so also the children. For the stubbornness, which resists God and his prophets in the fathers, also strives in their children; it is more mouse than the mother. And does the Lord mean that all righteous blood shall be shed upon them, so much, the people must shed all righteous blood, it is their way, do not do otherwise to them. All the blood that is shed, they shed; therefore it shall all come upon them.
012 And why doth he bring in the two only, Abel and Zacharias, seeing Zacharias was not the last that shed blood, but after him Isaias, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Urias, Micah, and almost all that are called in the scriptures. And Zacharias is the first among the prophets whose bloodshed is reported by name in the Scriptures. But Christ is not speaking here of the prophets alone, but of the blood of all the righteous, of whom many were slain under King Saul, item, many prophets under King Ahab, whose names are not recorded.
(13) I know nothing else to say on this subject, except that Christ herewith keeps the custom of the Scriptures, and sets us an example, that we should not say, keep, or bring up anything that is not clearly founded in the Scriptures. For though Isaiah and other prophets were killed, yet after this Zachariah there is none described by name in the Scriptures as having been killed. And therefore, though he be not the last whose blood is shed, yet is he the last that is described by name, as he preached in his time, and was slain; that therefore Christ put on the first and last righteous man, which is declared in the scriptures, and thereby comprehended all other righteous blood, which was not declared, but was shed before and after. It is written about the prophet Uriah Jer. 26, 23, that he was killed by King Jehoiakim long after this Zechariah; but it is only told by others, as a history that happened long ago. But in his time the Scripture writes nothing about him, nor does it say that he ever was, since it describes the time and history of the same king in the histories 2 Chron. 36, 4. ff. 2 Kings 24, 1. ff.; therefore the Lord does not refer to him.
14 One asks also: Why Christ call the son Barachiä; if the Scripture calls him, the son Jojada; because thus the text reads 2 Chron. 24:20, 21: "The Spirit of God hath started Zachariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he is come out before all the people, and hath said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God unto you, Why do ye transgress the commandment of God, which shall not prosper you, and forsake God, that he may forsake you again? Then they all gathered together against him, and stoned him by the commandment of the king in the churchyard: which when he died, he said, God seeth and seeketh this." This was also because he punished their worship, which they had established.
15. st. Jerome thinks that he is called Barachia's son from a spiritual cause, therefore Barachias is called from Latin benedictus, the giving reindeer; but the others say more easily that his father was called Jehoiada with the surname Barachias, perhaps because he did a lot of good to the same king and the people, therefore they called him the giving reindeer and after his death killed his son in gratitude; as it is used to go in the world, according to the proverb: Whoever helps one from the gallows, he helps him again. As happened to God's son: since God had done all good to all the world, they crucified his dearest son to him, as this figure means.
16 Lastly, they ask: Since no one can resist God's will, why does he say: "How often have I wanted to gather your children, and you have not wanted to? They have drawn the sentence in many ways, some based on free will and its ability; so it seems that not free will, but self-will is punished here; and is a bad freedom, which only does against God, and is so severely condemned and punished.
17 St. Augustine forces the words upon the mind, as if the Lord meant thus much: As much as I have gathered of thy children, that have I done with thine unwillingness. But this is very violent to this simple saying. It would be much easier to say, "Christ has spoken here as a man who also has all human concerns.
carried. So he did many things according to humanity, which are not proper to deity, except that he had to eat, drink, sleep, walk, cry, suffer and die. So one could also say here that he said after human nature and movement: I wanted, and you did not want.
18 For, as I have said several times, one must pay attention to Christ's words, some of which only show the divine, some the human nature. But still, because he introduces himself here as a God, when he says: "I send to you" etc.; for prophets send belongs to God alone. And Lucas 11, 49. says that he thus said: "Therefore the wisdom of God says: Behold, I will send prophets to them" etc. His words are like this, as if he had not only in his time, but also before and many times wanted to gather their children, so that it would be understood by the divine will; therefore we want to answer: That the words are only understood in the very worst and most simple way from the divine will, according to the custom of Scripture, which speaks of God as of a man for the sake of the simple; as it is written in Genesis 6:6, "He repented that he created man, when there is no repentance in God. Item that he is angry, yet there is no anger in him. Item Gen. 11, 5. He came down from heaven and saw the building of Babylon, yet he always remains seated. And in Psalm 59, v. 5. 6. the prophet often says to him, "Wake up, why do you sleep so long?" Item: Get up, come to me, and the like; yet he does not sleep, does not lie down, is not far away. Item Ps. 1:6: "God knows nothing of the way of the unrighteous," when he knows all things. All these sayings are said according to our feelings and conceit, not according to the essential state of divine nature. Therefore they are not to be led into the high speculation of the secret sayings of divine nature; but are to be left here for the simple-minded, and let them be understood and said according to our feeling. For we do not feel otherwise, he does thus, as the words read; and is a fine comforting way to speak of God, which is not terrible nor high. So also here: "How often have I willed" is also to be understood,
that he has done so, so that no one could have thought and felt otherwise, that he wanted to gather them gladly, has done as a man would do who wanted to have such things gladly. Therefore, let high things go and stay with the milk and simple sense of the Scriptures.
(19) But that we also take our doctrine from the gospel, so here the Lord sets such a lovely picture and likeness, as it is done for faith and believing man, that I do not know it more lovely in the whole Scripture. He spoke much harsher words in this chapter out of anger and displeasure against the Jews and cried out horribly for their unbelief; therefore he also does what angry people do against the ungrateful, magnifying their good deeds and good will in the strongest possible way: I would gladly have given him the heart in my body etc. So also here the Lord, in the most heartfelt way he likes, lifts up his good will and benevolence to the Jews, he says: He would have liked to be their mother hen, if they would have wanted to be little chicks.
20 O man! Mark well the words and the likeness, how earnestly and wholeheartedly he pours them out. In the image you will see how you should relate to Christ and what he is good for, how you should use and enjoy him. Look at the hen and her chicks, and you will see Christ and yourself painted and abconterfeit, because no painter can paint.
First of all, it is certain that our souls are little cows, so the devils and evil spirits are the consecration in lust; without which we are not so wise as little cows to flee under our hen. So the devils are much more cunning to rob our souls than the consecration to the chicks. Now it is said above, in an epistle, how it is not enough for us to be godly, to have good works, and to live in grace. For even our righteousness cannot stand, let alone unrighteousness, in the sight and judgment of God. Therefore I have said, If faith be right, it is of a kind that it trusteth not in itself, nor in its own faith, but cleaveth unto Christ, and under the authority of God.
He gives himself to the same righteousness; he lets it be his shield and protection; just as the little chick does not leave its life and lurking, but gives itself under the body and wings of the hen.
22. for he that shall stand before the judgment of God is not enough to say, I believe and have grace; for all that is in him may not sufficiently protect him: but he offers against the same judgment Christ's own righteousness, which he makes to act with God's judgment, which stands before him with all honor forever, as Ps. 111:3 and Ps. 112:3 say, "His righteousness endureth forever." Under the same he crept, adorned and ducked, trusting and believing without a doubt that it would preserve him; so it also happens, is preserved by the same faith, not for his sake or for the sake of such faith, but for the sake of Christ and his righteousness, under which he surrenders. Also whatsoever faith doeth not so, it is not right. Behold, this is what the Scripture means when it says Ps. 91:1-7: "He that abideth under the shelter of the Most High, and dwelleth under the shadow of the Lord, may say unto God, Thou art my confidence and refuge, and my God, I hope in thee. For he will deliver thee from the snare of the hunters, and from the pestilence of perversion. His shoulders shall he cover over thee, and under his wings shall be thy confidence. His truth is thy shield and thy canker; Therefore shalt thou not fear the terror of the night, Nor the arrow that flieth by day, Nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness, Nor the plague that wasteth at noonday. Though a thousand fall on thy left side, and ten thousand on thy right side, yet none shall come nigh thee."
(23) Behold, all this is said of the faith of Christ, how he alone endures and is protected from all danger and destruction, false doctrines, temptations of devils, both bodily and spiritual, on both sides, that all others must fall and perish, because he gives himself under the wings and shoulders of Christ, and there sets his refuge and confidence. So also Malachi says Cap. 4, 2: "The sun of righteousness shall rise for you who fear my name, and blessedness shall be your reward.
under his wings." Therefore St. Paul calls him Rom. 3, 25. propitiatorium, the throne of grace, and teaches at all ends how we must be kept in faith through him and under him. If then the faithful and the saints need such a great shield, where will they remain who, with their own free will and works, go apart from Christ? O we must remain in Christ, on Christ and under Christ, not departing from the Gluck hen; otherwise all is lost. St. Peter 1 Ep. 4, 18 says: "The righteous will hardly keep"; so laborious is it to remain under this hen. For we are torn from her by many temptations, both bodily and spiritual, as the psalm above indicates.
24. Now see how the natural mother hen does it, hardly any animal takes so hard care of its young: She changes her natural voice and takes on a miserable and lamenting voice; she seeks, paws and entices the chicks; where she finds something, she does not eat it, but leaves it for the chicks; with all seriousness she fights and calls against the consecrator, and spreads her wings so willingly, and lets the chicks climb under her and over her, she likes it so well; and is ever a fine, lovely image. So also, Christ took to Himself a pitiful voice, lamented for us and preached repentance, denounced to everyone his sin and sorrow with all his heart, paws at the Scriptures, entices us in and makes us eat it, and spreads His wings over us with all His righteousness, merit and grace, and so kindly takes us under Him, warms us with His natural heat, that is, with His Holy Spirit, who comes through Him alone, fights for us against the devil in the air.
25 Where and how does he do this? Undoubtedly not bodily, but spiritually. His two wings are the two testaments of the holy scriptures; they spread his righteousness over us and bring us under him. This is because the Scriptures teach this and nothing else, how Christ is such a glorious hen that we are kept under him in faith and through his righteousness. Therefore the above Psalm itself interprets the wings and shoulders, saying
says: "His faithfulness or truth", that is, the Scripture taken in faith, "is a cancer and shield" against all fear and danger. For we must grasp Christ in word and sermon, and cling to the same with a firm faith that he is such as is now said of him; then in the same we are assuredly under his wings and truth, and are well kept under them.
So this gospel is his wing or truth, and all the other gospels; for they all teach Christ in this way, but in one place more clearly than in another. Above he is called a light and life, item, a Lord and Helper. Here he is called a mother hen, always and always insisting on faith. So now his body is himself or the Christian church' his heat, his grace and Holy Spirit.
(27) Behold, the most lovely mother hen, who always wanted to gather us together, spreads her wings and beckons, that is, she preaches and has the two testaments preached, sends prophets, wise men and scribes to Jerusalem, to all the world. But what happens? We do not want to be chicks; first the trustworthy saints, who especially fight against it with their good works, do not want to recognize the faith, that it is so completely necessary and blessed; do not want to know their danger, nor let their thing be unjust; yes, they become even consecrated and sow, devour and persecute the chicks with the hen, tear wings and bodies, kill prophets, and stone those who are sent to them. But what will be their reward? Listen, terrible things.
Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate.
28 O a terrible punishment is this! we see it also in the Jews. They have killed prophets for so long that God no longer sends any to them; he has now let them go five and a half hundred years without preaching, without prophets, has taken his words from them and pulled their wings to himself. And so their house is desolate, their soul no one builds, God no longer dwells among them, it has happened to them as they wanted; as the 109th Psalm v. 17. says of them: "They
did not want the blessing, therefore it shall come far from them; they loved the curse, and it shall come to them also." Then all the blood shed on earth passes over them, and the gospel is fulfilled above them.
29 Isaiah also said of them, Cap. 5:5, 6: "I will make you see what I will do to my vineyard. I will cut down the fence thereof, and will break it down; I will break down the wall thereof, and will make it stand, and it shall be desolate; it shall not be pruned, neither shall it be pruned, and it shall grow thorns and hedges; I will forbid my clouds to rain upon it. O dreadful words! What is it that no rain shall come upon them, but that they shall not hear the gospel and faith? What is it that they shall not be circumcised, neither shall they be circumcised, but that no man shall punish them in their error, and open their infirmities? Therefore it is abandoned to the teachers of men, who tear it up and tread it down, so that it must remain desolate, bearing nothing but hedges and thorns, that is, works saints, who are without faith, bearing no fruit of the Spirit, but only to eternal fire, as the hedges and thorns grow and are prepared.
(30) But all this we Gentiles may well take to heart. It is so evil with us, is it not much more evil. We also persecuted the glorified hen and did not remain in the faith. Therefore it has happened to us that he has left our house desolate and our vineyard abandoned. There is no more rain in all the earth, the gospel and the faith are silenced; there is no pruning nor hoeing, no one preaches against the false works and doctrine of men, and cuts off such useless things: but he causes us to be torn up and trodden down by the pope, bishops, clergymen and monks, of whom all the world is full, full, full, and yet does no more than tread down and tear up this vineyard. One teaches this, another that; one tramples this place, another that; each one wants to establish his sect, his order, his rank, his doctrine, his sentences, his works. Thus we are trampled underfoot, so that no more knowledge of the faith is left.
there is no Christian life, no love, no fruit of the Spirit; but vain fireworks, hedges and thorns, that is, glitterers, hypocrites, who presume to be Christians with vigils, masses, pens, bells, churches, psalteries, rosaries, saints' service, feasts, caps, plates, garments, fasts, ramparts and the innumerable foolish works more.
31 O Lord God, all too torn, all too trampled; O Lord Christ, all too desolate and forsaken are we wretched people in these last days of wrath. Our shepherds are wolves, our watchmen are traitors, our patrons are enemies, our fathers are murderers, and our teachers are deceivers. Alas! alas! alas! When, when, when will your strident anger cease?
32) But finally the Jews are comforted, because he says: "Verily I say unto you: Ye shall not see me from henceforth, till ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." These words Christ spoke after Palm Day on Tuesday, and is the conclusion and last words of his preaching on earth; therefore it is not yet fulfilled and must be fulfilled. They may have received him once on Palm Day, but this is not fulfilled. And that he says: "You will see me no more", is not to be understood that they did not see him bodily after that, if they crucified him after that. But he means that they should no longer see him as a preacher and Christ, for whom he was sent; his ministry and he in his ministry is no longer seen by them. In this sermon he has given them the last *) and has now concluded his ministry, for which he was sent.
33) So it is certain that the Jews †) will still say to Christ: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Moses also proclaimed this in Deut. 4:30, 31: "In the last days you will return to God your Lord, and you will obey His voice. For God, your Lord, is a merciful God; He will
†) In the editions after 1546, the following reading is found: So it is certain that the Jews still had to say afterwards: etc. Cf. the following note.
D. Red.
He shall not forsake thee, nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant which he sware unto thy fathers. Item, Hos. 3, 4. 5.: "The children of Israel will sit for a long time without a king, without princes, without priests, without an altar, without priestly garments and robes. And afterward the children of Israel shall come again, and seek God their Lord, and David their King," that is, Christ, "and shall honor God and His lovingkindness in the last days." And Azariah 2 Chron. 15, 2. 3. 4. 5.: "Where you forsake God, He will also forsake you. Many days will pass in Israel without the true God, without priests, without teachers and without law. And when they shall come again in their anguish, and shall cry unto God of Israel their Lord, they shall find him." *)
*) In the editions after 1546, the following reading is found: These sayings all speak of the last time when the Jewish kingdom and right priesthood will cease
These sayings may not be understood by the present Jews; they have never before been without princes, without prophets, without priests, without teachers and law. St. Paul Rom. 11, 25. 26. also agrees with this and says: "Blindness happened to Israel in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles came in, and thus all Israel was saved. May God grant that the time is near when we hope. Amen.
that nevertheless afterwards many Jews should be converted to the right king and priest, Christ; which then happened after the ascension of Christ, through the apostles, and afterwards through the preaching of the gospel. - The opinion expressed here agrees with later statements of Luther about the conversion of the Jews. Cf. e.g. For example, Walch (old edition) XXII, 2315. f.: "Then said one, Is it not written, that the Jews shall be converted before the last day? Doctor Martin Luther said, "Where is it written? I know of no certain saying. Rom. 9. they do bring forth a saying, but it cannot be proved from that." (S. Erl. ed. 62, 376.) - Cf. also column 68, § 56 of this volume. D. Red.