Marc. 8, 1-9.
At that time, when there was a great crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them: For they have tarried with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I should send them home without eating, they would die of hunger by the way. For some had come from afar. And his disciples said unto him, Whence shall we have bread here in the wilderness to fill them? And he asked them: How much do you have of bread? They said, "Seven. And he commanded the people to lie down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples to set before them: and they set before the people. And had a little fish; and he gave thanks, and commanded the same also to be presented. And they did eat, and were filled: and they took up the rest of the fragments, seven baskets. And there were about four thousand of them that had eaten; and he sent them away.
(1) Dear friends, I hope you understand the gospel well, for you are now almost sufficiently established to know what is to be expected in the gospel and what is modeled for us in it, namely, the right kind and nature of faith; for which reason also Christ is so kindly pictured and modeled for us in all the gospels; although the history and works change, yet simple faith always remains. Now, this gospel paints such a picture of the Lord for us that we may fully recognize what we are to think of him, namely, that he is merciful, mild and kind, likes to help everyone, likes to be with everyone, and likes to deal and create with everyone. And faith must have such an image.
*This sermon is found in a b c, further in seven single printings from the year 1523, in the collection: "Hierin findest du zehn nützlicher Sermones. Gepredigt zu Wittenberg durch den hochgelehrten D. M. Luther", from the year 1523, and in the 27 sermons from the year 1523.
D. Red.
2 Therefore, the Scriptures present us with two images: an image of fear, that is, an exuberant image of the severe wrath of God, before which no one can stand; but we must despair where we do not have faith. On the other hand, the image of grace is presented to us, so that faith may look at it and draw a friendly, comforting confidence in God, with this hope that man may not provide himself so much to God, there is much more with him.
Now you have often heard that there are two kinds of goods: spiritual and corporal. This gospel is of temporal and corporal goods, teaches us childlike faith, and is an image for the weak, by which they may obtain all good things from God, and from which they may learn to trust in Him and rely on Him for spiritual goods. For if we are now instructed in the gospel how Christ would feed our bellies, we may thereby decrease that he
will also feed and clothe our souls with spiritual goods. For if I trust him not to preserve the body, much less can I trust him to preserve the soul for ever; as, if I cannot trust a man to give me one florin, how can I trust him to give me ten florins? If I cannot trust one to give me a piece of bread, much less would I trust him to give me my house and farm and all my inheritance.
4 Now, whoever cannot have childlike faith with the young milksops, will hardly think that God will forgive his sin and save his soul eternally; for the soul is unspeakably more than the belly, over which He has mercy, as this gospel shows. Therefore St. Peter 1 Ep. 2, 1. 2. 3. rightly said: "Dear brethren, lay aside now all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and hatred, and all after-talk; and be eager for the sensible and unadulterated milk, as the little children that are now born, that ye may grow up by the same; if ye have tasted otherwise that the Lord is kind." For it is not enough for a child to suck milk, but it must also grow up and become strong, so that it may henceforth learn to eat bread and hard food.
5. But "to eat milk" is to taste the favor and kind grace of God. "To taste the kindness of God" is to experience it with one's life. For if I preach about God for a hundred years, how He is so kind, sweet and gracious, and helps people, and yet have not tasted it through experience, it is all nothing, and no one learns to trust God properly through it. From this you can see what a strange thing a Christian man is. For there are many who say that they trust God in the belly; but it hovers only on the tongue and hangs in the ears, but it does not enter the heart where it belongs.
Now let us look at the example here, what kind and nature faith is. The apostle in the epistle to the Hebrews, 11:1, writes: "Faith is a certain confidence of things to be hoped for, and is directed toward things that do not appear. This is said so much: Faith is a reason, through which
I am to wait for a good that I can neither see nor hear, but only I must hope for it; as also happened in today's gospel. There were many men, as there were four thousand, who, with their wives and children, had not eaten for three days (I mean that they also fasted), but were quite hungry, far away from home, and deprived of all the goods in which the body lives. Now the apostle says that faith is such a thing, by which I hope for goods I cannot see. The great multitude of the people here have such faith: they see no food, and yet hope that God will feed them.
Now, what does Christ do about it? how does he relate to this transaction? He must not have been wise, for he goes to the apostles and asks how they are to be fed. Then they say, "Oh, who will feed such a great multitude here in the wilderness? But there you see how human reason and faith run together; there you see that the wiser the reason, the less it is directed to the works of God. For this reason he asked his disciples, so that each of them might experience his own reason and see how reason and faith do not come together in any way. Here we learn to blind reason when it comes to the beginning of faith, and then to give it no leave at all.
(8) For example, if I were a man, and had a wife and child, and had nothing, and no one would give me nothing, I should believe and hope that God would preserve me. But if I see that my thing is nothing, and that I am not soon helped with food and clothing, then, if I am an unbelieving fool, I despair, and go and take a thing before me, and steal, and carry, and cheat men, and penetrate as I may. Behold, this is what shameful unbelief does. But if I have faith, I close my eyes and say, "O God, I am your creature and your work, and you have created me, and I want to take it home to you, who care more about how I am maintained than I do myself; you will feed me, clothe me and help me where and when you know best.
(9) So faith is a certain reason by which I expect what I do not see. Therefore he must always have enough; for before he should lack, the angels would have to come from heaven and dig bread out of the earth, that such a believing man might be fed. Indeed, heaven and earth would have to melt before God would let such a man lack clothing and other necessities. This requires and demands the comforting, powerful word of divine promise. David boasts of this in the 37th Psalm, vv. 18, 19, 25, when he says: "I have been young and have grown old, and have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed going after bread. And soon before, "The Lord knoweth the days of the righteous, and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be put to shame in the evil time, and in the theure they shall have enough."
(10) But if you ask reason for advice, it would soon say, 'It is not possible. Well, you may wait a long time until roast ducks fly into your mouth; for it sees nothing and grasps nothing, and there is nothing there. So did the apostles here, who said: Yes, who will feed them so much? It is not possible. But if they had seen a heap of money, with bread and meat banks, they would soon have found good counsel and been able to give good comfort; this would have been very reasonable in their mind. But since they saw nothing, they could find no advice, but considered it an impossible thing that one should feed so many people and yet nothing would be available.
(11) That is enough said about faith, by which we trust in God's belly and that He will not let us lack temporal goods. Now, of the spiritual goods, if we are to die, let us also say; there we shall find and see death before our eyes, and yet we would gladly live; there we shall see hell before us, and yet we would gladly have heaven; there we shall see God's judgment, and yet we would gladly have His grace; in sum, all that we would gladly have, we shall see none before our eyes. Against death, hell, and against the judgment of God may be
no creature can come to our aid; but if I believe, I say, "Faith is such a reason that I obtain what I do not see; if I believe, nothing will harm me. Even though I see nothing but death, hell and the judgment of God before my eyes, I must not look at any of them, but trust completely that God will give me life, salvation and grace by virtue of His promise, not because of any merit.
This is finely depicted here in the bodily image of the four thousand people who cling to God in this faith alone: God will feed us well. If they had reasoned, they would have said: "Oh, there are so many of us, here in the desert, with empty and hungry stomachs; it is no use. They have no need to speak of these things, but they have a good confidence, without all human disputation against God, command themselves to him, and put all need freely into his hands. Then Christ also comes, before they care and ask, and takes care of them much harder than they do themselves, and says to his disciples:
I am sorry for the people, because they have stayed with me for three days and have nothing to eat. And if I let them go from me without eating, they will faint on the way.
(13) Behold, how we have a kindly Christ, who also careth how he shall preserve the vile belly. Now hope is raised up, and man is comforted by the words of Christ, when he says, "They lie waiting for me until the third day, and I must give them enough. There you see that all those who diligently adhere to the word of God are fed by God Himself, for this is the kind and power of faith that flows from the word of God alone.
Therefore, dear friends, let us begin to believe, for unbelief alone is the cause of all sin and vice, which have now taken over in all classes. How is it that there are so many foolish women and boys everywhere, and so many land cheats, thieves, robbers, usurers, murderers, and sellers of profiteers? It all comes
from unbelief. For such people judge only according to human reason; reason only according to what it sees; but what it does not see, it cannot understand; therefore, if it does not put its trust in God through faith, it must despair in itself and thus make knaves and husks. Note that this is what happens when people let their reason and not their faith rule.
15. As ye have learned faith, so shall we learn love: for Christ is patterned after us in two ways, that is, as the image of faith, that we should not be careful; and as the image of love, that as he doeth for us, he may be careful for us; and as he feedeth us, and watereth us, and clotheeth us, out of free love only, and not for his profit, or for our gain: so we also ought to do good freely to our neighbor, out of pure love, so that as Christ is to you, so you also may be Christ to your neighbor.
Therefore, you see that all the works of priests, monks, and nuns are in vain and condemned, for they are not directed to serve their neighbor, but only to earn much in the sight of God through their works; for true Christian works must go freely to do good to the neighbor, only freely given and thrown into the Rappuse; as Christ also did, who threw his good deeds into the Rappuse, and gave his teaching, word, and life to the church. Blessed are those who accept this gift with thanksgiving.
17 I say this only so that you may see how all evangelicals press on and want nothing else, and how God demands nothing else of us, except that we give ourselves to our neighbor to serve him, and then take him for God, do him good in God's stead, and render him service; for he is not allowed to do our good works, as the 50th Psalm vv. 7-13 says: "Hear, my people, let me speak, Israel, let me testify among you: I God am your God. I will not punish you because of your sacrifice; for your burnt offerings are
otherwise always before me. I will not take oxen from your house, nor goats from your stables. For all the beasts of the forest are mine, And cattle upon a thousand mountains. I know all the birds of the mountains, and all the beasts of the field are before me. Where I hungered, I would not tell thee: for the ground is mine, and all that is therein. Do you think I want to eat the flesh of the oxen or drink the blood of the goats?
018 So saith he unto us also, Behold, O Israel, that is, thou believing man, I am thy God, and not thou my God; I will give unto thee, and not thou unto me. Hear, O Israel, I will not be angry with thee, that thou sacrifice not much unto me: for that which thou hast in the stable, and in the house, and in the court, is all mine before: for I have sent it in. There he has finely struck the Jews, who insisted on their sacrifices. Now, if he rejects the sacrifice, what will he have? Says the Psalm, "Offer sacrifices of thanksgiving unto God, and pay thy vows unto the Most High; and call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt praise me." That is, thy heart will I have, set thee upon me, and think me a kind gracious God, that I may be thy God: so have I enough. Therefore he also says in the following 51st Psalm v. 16-19: "Save me from blood debts, O God, who art the God of my salvation; that my tongue may praise your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare thy glory. For thou hast no pleasure in sacrifice; otherwise I would give it, and burnt offerings are not pleasing to thee. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and bruised heart thou, God, wilt not despise."
(19) In confidence and hope you shall let your faith go, recognize him as a kind God, cling to him, and in the greatest need flee to him and to no one else. Believe it and expect it, and he will help you, you shall not doubt it; then you shall serve your neighbor freely and without charge. These two things are held out to us in this gospel.