Luc. 16, 19-31.
Now there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and lived all his days gloriously and joyfully. But there was a poor man named Lazarus, who lay at his door full of sores, desiring to be satisfied with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; but the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And when he was in hell and torment, he lifted up his eyes, and beholding Abraham afar off, and Lazarum in his bosom, cried out, saying, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarum, that he may dip the uttermost part of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am in torment in this flame. And Abraham said, Remember, son, that thou hast received thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus, on the contrary, hath received evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And over all this there is a great gulf fixed between us and you, that they which would go down from hence unto you cannot, neither can they go over from thence unto us. Then said he, I pray thee, O father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have yet five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear the same. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one of the dead should go unto them, they would repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if any of the dead arise.
(1) We have hitherto in the gospels various examples of faith and love; as then all the gospels teach faith and love, that ye know, I hope, abundantly enough, how no man can please God, if he believe and love. Now in this gospel the Lord holds up to us both an example of faith and of unbelief, or the ungodly state, so that we may also shun the contradiction and opposite of faith and love, and cling all the more diligently to faith and love. For here we see a judgment of God on believers and unbelievers, which is terrifying and
*) This sermon is moved to the second Sunday after Trinity in editions a and c, that of the second Sunday to the first. It appeared in ten separate printings in 1523 and 1524. Cf. Erl. A. 13, 1 f.
D. Red.
is also comforting. Terrifying to the faithless, comforting to the faithful. But that we may understand these things the better, we must model these two, the rich man and the poor Lazarum: in the rich man we see the kind of unbelief; in Lazaro the kind of faith.
(2) We must not look upon the rich man according to his outward appearance: for he hath sheep's clothing, and his life glistereth, and seemeth good, and covereth the wolf masterfully. For the gospel does not rebuke him for committing adultery, murder, robbery, sacrilege, or anything that the world or reason would censure. He was as honest in his life as that Pharisee who fasted twice a week and did not do as other people do, of which Lucas Cap. 18:12 also says. For where he did such
If the gospel had shown him to have worked gross knots, it would have shown him to have been so precisely searched for that it also shows his purple robe and food, which are external things and God does not judge there; therefore he must have led a fine holy walk externally and kept the whole law of Moses according to his own and everyone else's liking; but one must look into his heart and judge his spirit.
For the gospel has sharp eyes and sees deep into the heart, reproving even the works that reason cannot reprove, looking not at the sheep's clothing but at the right fruit of the tree, whether it is good or not, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 7:17.
4 So, if we look at this rich man according to the fruits of faith, we will find a heart and a tree of unbelief. For the gospel reproves him, that he hath daily fed himself deliciously, and clothed himself gloriously, which yet no reason reckoneth a great sin. In addition, the works saints think it is right, and they are worthy and deserving of it with their holy life, and do not see how they sin against it with unbelief. For this rich man is not punished because he used delicious food and splendid clothes, since many saints, kings and queens of old wore splendid clothes, such as Solomon, Esther, David, Daniel, and others, but because his heart was after them, sought them, hung on them and desired them, took all his joy, pleasure and delight in them, and even had his idol in them. This is shown in Christ by the word "daily", that he lived gloriously every day. From this it is evident that he sought and pursued such a life with diligence, and was not driven to it, or by chance, or for the sake of office, or to serve his neighbor in it; but only atoned for his pleasure with it, and lived and served himself. By this his heart's secret sin, unbelief, is seen, as by the evil fruit.
5 For where there is faith, he does not ask for splendid clothes and delicious food, nor for any good, honor, pleasure, power, or anything that is not God Himself;
Seek, seek, and cleave unto nothing, but unto God alone, the highest good; consider him like unto all things, both good and bad, both good and bad. For though they wear fine clothes and have great power and honor, they have no regard for any of these things, but are forced into them, or come by chance, or have to serve someone else. Thus Esther the queen says that she did not like to wear her royal crown, but she had to do it for the king's sake. David also would have preferred to be a common man, but he had to be king for the sake of God and the people. Thus all the faithful keep themselves, that they may be compelled to power, honor and glory, and always keep their heart from it, and act with an outward nature to serve their neighbor; as the 62nd Psalm v. 11. says: "Forsake not iniquity and wickedness, keep not yourselves to such as there is nothing; if riches fall to you, hang not your heart on them."
(6) But where unbelief is, a man falls on it, clings to it, seeks it, and has no rest until he obtains it; and when he overcomes it, he feeds and fattens himself in it like a sow in the mire, and immediately has his blessedness in it; asks nothing about how his heart stands with God, and what he should have and wait for in it; but the belly is his God; and if he cannot have it, he thinks it is not right. Behold, this rich man sees not such abominable, evil fruits of unbelief, and covers them up, and blinds himself with many good works of his Pharisaical life, and so hardens himself, until there is no help of doctrine, admonition, preaching, or promise. Behold, this is the secret sin which the gospel punishes and condemns.
7 From this follows the other sin, that he forgets to love his neighbor, for he leaves poor Lazarum at his door and does nothing to help him. Even if he had not wanted to help him personally, he would have ordered his servants to carry him into a stable and wait for him. This means that he has no understanding of God and has never felt anything of His goodness. For he who feels God's goodness also feels his neighbor's unkindness.
But he who does not feel God's goodness does not feel his neighbor's misfortune. Therefore, just as God does not please him, neither does his neighbor go to his heart.
For faith is such that it looks to God for all good and relies solely on God. From this faith, then, man recognizes God as good and gracious, so that from such knowledge his heart becomes soft and merciful, that he would gladly do to everyone as he feels God has done to him; therefore, he breaks out in love and serves his neighbor with all his heart, with body and life, with goods and honor, with soul and spirit, and puts everything into him as God has done to him. Therefore, he does not look for healthy, high, strong, rich, noble, holy people who have no need of him, but for sick, weak, poor, despised, sinful people whom he can be of use to, and exercise his soft heart on them, and do to them as God has done to him.
(9) But unbelief is of such a nature that it does not think good of God. From which unbelief his heart is blinded, so that he neither feels nor recognizes how good and merciful God is; but as Psalm 14:2 says, he does not respect God, nor does he inquire after Him. From such blindness it follows that his heart becomes so hard, hardened and merciless that he has no desire to serve anyone, but rather to harm and offend everyone. For as he feels no good in God, so he feels no desire to do good to his neighbor. Therefore it follows that he does not look for sick, poor, despised people, to whom he could and should be useful and do good; but opens his eyes and looks only for the high, the rich, the powerful, from whom he himself may have benefit, good, pleasure and honor.
10 Therefore we see from this example of the rich man that it is impossible to love where there is no faith, and impossible to believe where there is no love; for both want and must be with each other: that a believer loves everyone and serves everyone, but an unbeliever is an enemy to everyone in his heart and wants to be served by everyone; and yet such abominable, perverse sins all
covers with a little semblance of his hypocritical works, with the sheep's bellows; like the great bird ostrich, which is so foolish, when he covers the neck with a trip, he thinks that his whole body is covered. Yea, here thou seest that no blind and unmerciful thing is but unbelief; for here the dogs, which are yet the angriest beasts, are more merciful over this Lazarum than this rich man, and perceive the poor man's need, and lick his sores; whereas the hardened, deluded hypocrite is so hard, that he grudgeth him the crumbs of his table.
(11) All unbelieving people are like this rich hypocrite. Unbelief does not allow them to do or be otherwise than as this rich man does and shows them with his life. And especially the clergy, as we see before our eyes, are of this kind, who never do any good work, but only have good days, serve no one nor are of any use, but let everyone serve them: Rips, raps, only into my sack, let another have what he likes. And though some have not delicious food and raiment, yet there is no lack of will. After them then follow the rich, princes and lords, doing many good hypocritical works with foundations and church buildings, that they may cover the great mischief, the wolf of unbelief, that they may be hardened and hardened, and become of no use to any man. This is the rich man.
(12) Nor do we have to look at poor Lazarum outwardly with his grief, poverty and sorrow. For there are many people who also suffer misery and hardship and yet gain nothing from it; as King Herod had an evil affliction, as is written in the stories of the apostles Cap. 12, 23. But this did not make him any the better in the sight of God, for poverty and suffering do not make anyone pleasing in the sight of God, but he who is pleasing in the sight of God beforehand, whose poverty and suffering is delicious in the sight of God; as the 116th Psalm v. 15 says: "How precious is the death of his saints in the sight of the Lord."
So we must also look into the heart of Lazaro and seek the treasure that made his flocks so delicious. But this has certainly been his faith and love; because
Without faith nothing can please God, as the master of the epistle to the Hebrews says, Cap. 11, 6. Therefore, his heart must have been such that even in the midst of such poverty and misery he provided for all good things to God and relied on Him for comfort; in which goodness and grace he was so abundantly satisfied and had such pleasure in it that he would have gladly suffered even more misery if the will of his gracious God had so desired. Behold, this is a true living faith that has softened his heart through the knowledge of divine goodness, so that nothing would have been too difficult or too much for him to suffer and do. Faith makes such a skilful heart when it feels God's grace.
14 From this follows the other virtue, namely, love of neighbor, that he also was willing and ready to serve anyone; but being poor and miserable, he had nothing to serve with; therefore his good will is counted for the deed.
(15) But this lack of bodily service he repays abundantly with spiritual service. For now, after his death, he serves the whole world with his sores, hunger and misery. His bodily hunger feeds our spiritual hunger; his bodily nakedness clothes *) our spiritual nakedness; his bodily sores heal our spiritual sores: In that he teaches and comforts us with his example, how God is pleased with us when it is evil for us on earth, if we believe; and warns us how God is angry with us when it is well with us in unbelief; just as God was pleased with him in his misery and displeased with the rich man.
(16) Tell me, what king could do such a service to all the world with all his goods as this poor Lazarus did with his sores, hunger and poverty? O of the wonderful works and judgments of God! How masterfully does he disgrace the clever fool, reason and worldly wisdom. She walks along and rather sees the beautiful purple of the rich man than the wounds of the poor Lazari; she rather sees a
*) "dresses", so d; c has "speiset". D. Red.
She would rather see a healthy, beautiful person, like the rich man, than a horrible and naked one, like Lazarus; yes, she would close her nose to the stench of his wounds and turn her eyes away from his nakedness. However, God lets her go, the great fool, before such a noble treasure, and always judges his judgment for himself in silence, and in the meantime makes the poor man so precious and delicious that after that all kings are not worthy to serve him and to wipe his sores. For what king, do you think, would not now wholeheartedly give his health, purple and crown for the sores, poverty and misery of this Lazari, if it would become him? And what man is there who would now also give a damn for the purple and all the wealth of this rich man?
(17) Do you not think that if this rich man himself had not been so blind and had known that such a treasure, such a precious man in God's sight, was lying at his door, he would have run out, wiped and kissed his sores, laid him in his best beds: all his purple and riches should have served him? But at the time when God's judgment was passed, he did not see that he could do it. Then God thought, "Well, you shall not be worthy to serve him either. After that, since the judgment and work of God is over, the clever fool looks around; and since he now suffers in hell, he would gladly give house and yard to whom he did not want to give a morsel of bread before; and now desires that Lazarus cool his tongue with the outermost part of his finger, whom he did not want to touch before.
(18) Behold, God still fills the world with such judgments and works every day, and no one sees them; indeed, everyone despises them. There are poor and needy people before our eyes, whom God sets before us as the greatest treasure, but we close our eyes against them and do not see what God is doing there; after all, if God has set aside and we have missed the treasure, then we come and want to serve, it has been too long. So we begin and make sanctuary out of their garments and shoes and vessels, and make pilgrimages, and build churches on their graves, and have much to do.
We create fools' work, mocking ourselves for having let the living saints be trampled underfoot and corrupted, and now honor their garments when it is neither necessary nor useful: that of course our Lord will pass judgment on us, as he says in Matthew Cap. 23:29-33: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the graves of the righteous, saying, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have shared with them in the blood of the prophets. Ye bear witness of yourselves, that ye are the children of them which slew the prophets. Come on, fulfill the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you vipers, how will you escape the damnation of hell?
19 All believers are like this poor Lazarus and are all true Lazarians, for they are of the same faith, mind and will as this Lazarus. And whoever will not be a Lazarus, will certainly have his share with the rich silent one in the fiery hell. For we must all, like Lazarus, trust in God with the right faith, surrender to Him, act according to His will with us, and be ready to serve everyone. And even if we do not all suffer such hardships and poverty, there must still be the same will and opinion in us that were in Lazarus, to gladly accept such things where God would have it.
20. for such poverty of spirit may well stand in great goods; as Job, David, Abraham were poor and rich. For David says Psalm 39:13: "I am a stranger and a sojourner, as were all my fathers." How did this happen, since he was a king and had great land and cities? It was like this: even though he had these things, his heart was not in them, and he was nothing compared to what he had before God. He had also said of his health that it was as nothing to him in comparison to his health in the sight of God, and that he might well have suffered even outward heaviness and sickness. So also Abraham, although he did not have such poverty and sickness as Lazarus, he nevertheless had the same mind and will to accept the same that Lazarus had.
if God had inflicted them on him. For the saints should have the same mind and courage inwardly, but they cannot have the same work and suffering outwardly. Therefore Abraham also recognizes this Lazarum as his own and takes him into his bosom, which he would not do if he were not of the same mind and had pleasure in Lazari's poverty and sickness. Let this be said of the summa and opinion of the gospel, that we may see how in all places faith saves and unbelief condemns.
(21) Now the gospel raises several questions. The first: What is the bosom of Abraham? since it cannot be a bodily bosom. To answer this is to know that man's soul or spirit has no rest or place where it can abide but the word of God, until it comes to the bright contemplation of God on the last day. Therefore, we hold the bosom of Abraham to be nothing other than the word of God, when Christ was promised to Abraham in Genesis 22:18, namely: "Through your seed all nations shall be blessed. In these words Christ is promised to him, as by whom everyone shall be blessed, that is, saved from sin, death and hell, and by no one else, nor by any works. All who have believed in this saying have believed in Christ and have been true Christians, and have therefore been saved from sin, death and hell through faith in this word.
(22) Thus all the fathers before the birth of Christ entered the bosom of Abraham, that is, they remained with firm faith in this saying of God while they were dying, and they fell asleep in the same word, being held and preserved as in a bosom, and they still sleep in it until the last day; except for those who have already risen with Christ, as Matthew chap. 27, 52, where they have remained. Just as we too, when we die, must rise up and surrender with strong faith in the word of Christ, when he says John 11:26: "He who believes in me will never die," or the like; and so die, fall asleep, and be taken up and kept in Christ's bosom until the last day. For it is even
The same word that was spoken to Abraham and to us, both of which say of Christ that we must be saved through him. But this is called Abraham's bosom, because it was spoken to Abraham first, and began with him.
(23) So, again, hell in this place cannot be the real hell that will come on the last day. For the rich man's body is undoubtedly not buried in hell, but in the earth; but there must be a place where the soul can be and have no rest, which cannot be bodily. Therefore, we consider this hell to be the evil conscience, which is without faith and God's word, in which the soul is buried, seized until the last day, when man will be cast into the real bodily hell, body and soul. For just as Abraham's bosom is God's word, in which the faithful by faith rest, sleep and are preserved until the last day: so must hell ever be, since God's word is not, in which the unfaithful by unbelief are cast out until the last day. This can be nothing else than an empty, unbelieving, sinful, evil conscience.
024 The other question, How is the conversation between Abraham and the rich man? Answer: There can never be a bodily conversation, since both their bodies are buried in the earth; so little as there is a bodily tongue, which the rich man laments in the heat; nor a bodily finger or water, which he desires from Lazaro. Therefore all this must happen in the conscience in this way: when the conscience is opened in dying or dying distress, it becomes aware of its unbelief, and then first of all sees the bosom of Abraham and those who are in it, that is, the word of God, in which he should have believed, and did not; from which he then has the greatest pain and fear as in hell, and finds no help nor comfort.
(25) Then such thoughts are lifted up in the conscience, which would hold such a conversation if they could speak as this rich man holds with Abraham, and then seeks whether the word of God will help him, and all who have believed in it, so fearfully that it will also help the
The least of all consolations from the least of all, and yet it cannot be given to him. For Abraham answers him, that is, his conscience takes such understanding from the word of God that it cannot be; but has taken his part in his life, and he must now suffer, but be comforted the others whom he has despised.
26 Finally, he feels that he is being told: There is a great gulf between him and the faithful, so that they can never come together. These are the thoughts of despair, when the conscience feels that the word of God is eternally denied to him and that he can never be helped; this is what the thoughts of his conscience are struggling for, and he would like the living to know that this is how it is in mortal distress, and he would like someone to tell them. But nothing comes of it; for he feels an answer in his conscience, that it is enough in Moses and the prophets, in whom they should believe, as he also should have done. All this is between a damned conscience and God's word at the hour of death or death's throes; and no living man can know how it is, except he that learneth it; and he that learneth it would that they knew it, but it is in vain.
(27) The third question: When did this happen? and whether the rich man still suffers this every day without ceasing until the last day? This is a subtle question and not easy to answer for the inexperienced. For here one must put time out of mind and know that in that world there is neither time nor hours, but everything is an eternal moment; as St. Peter says 2 Ep 3:8: "One day in the sight of the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day", Ps 90:4. Therefore I consider that in this rich man it is shown how all unbelievers will fare when their eyes are opened in death or dying trouble; which can happen for a moment and then cease again until the last day, as God pleases; for no certain rule can be placed on this. Therefore I must not say that the rich man still suffers now as he suffered then; nor must I deny that he still suffers thus.
For both are at God's discretion, and it is enough for us that we are shown His example and the beginning of the suffering of all unbelievers.
(28) The fourth question, whether one should also pray for the dead? because there is no middle ground indicated in the gospel between the bosom of Abraham and hell, and those in Abraham's bosom have no need of it, and those in hell are of no use. We have no commandment from God to pray for the dead: therefore no one can sin in this who does not pray for them; for what God has not commanded or forbidden no one can sin in. But again, because God has not let us know what the state of souls is, and we must be uncertain what He will do with them, we do not want to and cannot prevent those who ask for them from sinning. For we are ever certain from the gospel that many who have died have been raised, whom we must confess that they have not received nor had their final judgment; so neither may we yet be certain of any other that he has his final judgment.
29 Since this is uncertain and you do not know whether the soul is condemned, it is not a sin for you to pray for it, but in such a way that you leave it uncertain and say: Dear God, if the soul is in a state that it can still be helped, I beg you to be merciful to it. And if you have done this once or twice, let it be well, and command it to God. For God has promised that He will hear what we ask. Therefore, when you have asked once or three times, believe that you have been answered, and never ask again, lest you tempt or mistrust God.
(30) But to offer perpetual masses, vigils, and prayers, and to declare them every year, as if God had not heard them before that year, is the devil and death; it mocks God with unbelief, and such prayer is a loud blasphemy against God. Therefore, beware of it and depart from it. God does not ask for annual endowments, but for a heartfelt, devout, believing prayer; the same will help the souls, shall help them a little. Vigils and masses may help the
The bellies of priests, monks and nuns; but the souls are not helped by it and God is only desecrated by it. *)
If you have a rumbling spirit or a poltergeist in your house, who pretends to help you with masses, you should certainly consider him a devil. No soul has ever appeared from the beginning of the world; neither does God want it to. For here you see in the Gospel that Abraham does not want to allow the rich man to teach the living; but points to God's word in the Scriptures, Deut. 31, and says: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear the same." With this Abraham looks at God's commandment in the fifth book of Moses and reminds us of it, since God says: "You shall not ask anything of the dead." Therefore, it is certainly a ghost of the devil that some spirits allow themselves to be conjured up, and ask for so and so many masses, such and such pilgrimage or other works, and then appear with clarity, pretending that they are redeemed. In this way the devil creates the error that people fall from faith to works and think that works can accomplish such great things. And thus is fulfilled what St. Paul proclaimed in 2 Thess. 2, 10. 11. that God sends strong error and seductions to unrighteousness over the unbelievers, because they have not received the love of the truth, so that they would be saved.
Therefore be wise and know that God does not want us to know how things are with the dead, so that faith may prevail through the word of God, who believes that after this life God will save the faithful and condemn the unfaithful. If a poltergeist appears to you, do not pay attention to it, and be sure that it is the devil, and push him with this saying of Abraham: "They have Moses and the prophets"; item, with the commandment of God in Moses: "You shall not ask anything of the dead"; then he will soon be overthrown. If he does not become angry, let him rumble until he is weary, and for the sake of God, in firm faith, suffer his will to be angry.
And even if it were possible that it were a soul or a good spirit, you should not learn anything from it or ask anything of it, because God forbids it; for this is why He sent His Son Himself to teach us everything that we need to know; what He did not teach us, we should not want to know, but be content with the holy apostles' teaching, through which He preached to us. But I have written more about this in the postilla about the Gospel on Epiphany Day and in the booklet about the abuse of the Mass; you may read more about it there.
34 So that we may also give an example, we read in the Historia Tripartita of a bishop who came to Corinth on his way to the Council, and when he could not easily find lodging for himself and his servants, he saw a desolate house standing there, locked up, and asked if he could not be lodged there. He was told that it was so monstrous that no one could live in it, and that many times in the morning people were found dead in it. He did not say much, but went straight in and lay there all night, for he saw that it was the devil's ghost and had a firm belief that Christ was the devil's master; therefore he despised him and went in with him. Then the house was cleared by his praying and lodging, so that no rumbling or monster was heard in it from then on. Behold, thou seest that they are devils, the rumblers; and that there is not much to dispute with them, but with cheerful faith they are to be despised, as if they were nothing.
Item, so one ran of the bishop Gregorio in Cappadocia, that he went over the Welsche mountains, and lodged with a pagan sexton or churchman, who had an idol, who answered him what he asked, and fed on the same trade, that he told the people secret things. The bishop knew nothing of this and went his way in the morning. But the devil could not stand the holy man's prayer and presence and fled from the house, so that the churchman could no longer prophesy as before. When he called his idol and howled for his loss, the little devil appeared to him in his sleep and said: It was his fault that he had accommodated the bishop, before whom he could not have stayed. The priest hurried after the bishop and complained to him that he had driven away his god and his food and that he had thanked the inn in a bad way. The bishop took a piece of paper and wrote briefly: "Gregorius, greet Apollini beforehand. I allow you to do what you did before; be well. The churchman took the letter and put it with his idol; then the devil came again and did as before. At last the churchman thought, What a lowly god is this to me, who allows himself to be driven and led by this guest, who is a man; and he set out for the bishop, and was taught and baptized, and so he became an excellent bishop in Caesaria in Cappadocia after this bishop's death. See how simple faith is, and yet how joyful, sure and powerful it is. Do the same to your poltergeists.