Marc. 7, 31-37.
And going out again from the borders of Tyri and Sidon, he came to the Sea of Galilee, in the midst of the border of the ten cities. And they brought unto him a dove that was dumb, and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him. And he took him from the people specially, and put his fingers in his ears, and spit, and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said unto him, Hephatha, that is, open thyself. And straightway his ears were opened, and the band of his tongue was loosed, and he spake aright. And he forbade them, that they should tell no man. But the more he forbade, the more they spread it abroad. And were astonished at the measure, and said: He hath made all things well: he maketh the deaf to hear, and the speechless to speak.
1 Your love, I hope, understands this gospel almost well, for it is easy. But since we have no more than one sermon, and the same is very delicious and cannot be sufficiently treated, we will also go there and say a little about faith and love. First, we will see the simple history; then, if time permits, we will also deal a little with the spiritual mind.
(2) First, the history or example is good in itself. For there we see that many took care of the poor man as their own need, and brought him before Jesus so that he might be helped. This shows us both faith and love. Faith, that they have first heard of the Lord, that he is kind and merciful, and helps all those who come to him. For the word must first be heard, and must first come into the human heart, so that we may know the goodness of God, and so cling to it: therefore Christ's words must also have taught them this; otherwise, if this does not happen, faith and works are lacking.
3 And even though the gospel here, like the one above, does not indicate that they heard the cry before, yet we must draw it from it, and the fact indicates it,
This sermon is found in a b c, further in a single print from 1522, and in the collection: 14 sermons 1523. Cf. Erl. A. 13, 369. ed.
That they must first have heard the good cry and gospel of the Lord Christ, by which they believed. For this is really the gospel, which is called a good cry, a good report: not written on paper, but called and made known in the world, in a living voice. So they have undoubtedly heard about Christ, that he is kind, friendly and beneficial, who wants to help everyone; this is the beginning of their faith. So you must take hold of the gospel, and you will always find that the cry must first go out and bring us to God to lay the first stone, otherwise it is lost. Secondly, that they have joined in the cry, in that they go and make provision for it, when they have heard from him.
4 So now you also have the quality of faith that grows out of the word, for the word first shows us the mercy and goodness of God; faith makes us cling to it with a good confidence and follow the word. This then is in our feeling and in our heart, so we have enough; for if we believe, we are already in the inheritance and are justified.
5 Thirdly, this gospel also describes to us the works of love, in that they go and take care of poor people, just as Christ, without their merit, sends forth his word, spreading kindness and mercy. So now that they have drawn, they flow out again.
free of charge, and share themselves with the neighbor also free of charge and without merit. In this way, love should also do its work, so that it does not need it, but only aims at the benefit of the neighbor; as St. Paul says to the Corinthians, among others, about love, 1 Cor. 13, 5: "Love does not seek its own"; and to the Philippians Cap. 2, 4. He says, "Every man look not to his own, but to another's."
(6) We see this also here in the case of the pious people: they are not allowed to do the work at all, they do not look at themselves but at the poor man, and think how the poor man may be helped; they seek no reward, but do it freely for nothing. So you should also do it for good, if not, then you are not Christians. Therefore, understand well how love is pictured here, that it takes upon itself a foreign care. If we take it on, it is good for us; but if not, God will punish us with blindness, as he has, alas, laughed at us for four hundred years. This is what has been said recently about faith and love. Now we have to deal with the foreign faith, and that would be the fourth part.
(7) You know that this is the reason why man does not become righteous before God nor pleasing, except by faith. So that what they have taught up to now, that we may act against God with our works, is false and wrong. Above this, it is much more foolish that they have placed us on other works and faith: they pretend that the nuns, monks and priests can help other people and thus distribute their treasure with their lamentations (howling), which they do at night in their monasteries. Therefore, notice here that no one intends to be saved by the faith or work of another; indeed, it cannot happen through Mary or through the work or faith of any saint; indeed, not through Christ's work and faith itself, but through one's own faith. For God will not allow Mary or any other saint, even Christ Himself, to stand up for you, that you may be pious and righteous, unless you believe yourself. If Christ's faith and work does not do it, you will do much less with the work or faith of all monks and priests. Therefore there is
To speak the gospel here of the strange faith. For it says here that they bring him before Christ on their faith and work; he does nothing to it, but suffers alone.
8 Therefore let it be known that one can never be saved through the faith of another; but it can happen that one can come to his own faith through the faith of others. In the same way, the works of others serve me, so that I may come to my own works through them. Therefore they lie who say that we can be saved by strange works and faith, we believe or do not believe. No, not so. Unless you exhaust your own faith out of God's goodness and mercy, you will not be saved. So you must go, otherwise no foreign faith or work will help you, not even Christ, who is the Savior of all the world; his goodness, his help will not help you at all, unless you believe in it and are enlightened by it.
(9) Therefore beware of preachers, as you have often heard of monks coming to the dying and saying, "Behold, good man, do not despair; if you have sinned, be sorry for it, but that you may do better, I will give you my good life and my good works. If therefore he that receiveth these is a fool like unto another, he goeth to the devil with his works. Therefore beware of this, and say, If thou wilt serve me with thy good works, stand before God, and say thus, O heavenly Father, I am now a believer by thy grace; therefore I beseech thee, my God, give this poor man faith also. That would help me; but that you would give me your own faith, you cannot do that, it helps me nothing.
010 Now therefore observe in the case of the foolish virgins, which, when their lamps were put out, said unto the wise, Pray us of your oil; for our lamps are put out. Then the wise answered and said, "Not so, lest it break both our lamps and yours," Matt. 25:8, 9. All this I might have more faith for myself: should I then communicate to another? For my
One's own faith must stand before God's judgment, and fight so hard and cling to God's mercy that sweat runs down his mouth, if he is to stand. This is what St. Peter wants when he says 1 Petr. 4, 18: "The righteous will hardly be saved." For when death comes, he will be so afraid and distressed that he will hardly be able to stand by himself with all his hardships and be preserved in faith. Therefore it is a great pity that they have set up so many deceptions, put caps on the dead, and devised other foolish works to lead the poor souls straight to the devil.
11 I say this now, that you may know how far strange faith can help us. Foreign merits make you come to your own merit, and nothing more. And even if all the angels, even God's mercy itself, were standing there for you, it would not help you if you clung to it with a faith of your own; but it can certainly do that, so that it creates a faith for you that helps you. If Christ, though he died for us, and gave his body and life and blood and flesh for us, should stand for us, it would not help, unless thou believedst on him. But this is how he can help us, when he comes before the Father and says: "Father, I have done this for men; give them faith that they may enjoy it. This helps us, if we believe that his works and merits are our own. In the same way, it is said of the other saints that none of their intercession and merit helps, but we believe ourselves. You see that here too. The poor man lies there, unable to speak or hear. But those who bring him to the Lord can speak and hear. But through their hearing and speaking he does not speak. Even if they had all come and said, "We will speak and hear for you," he would still have remained speechless and deaf, and would never have been able to speak.
12 So even if I gave you a letter right away, saying, "Go, this is my work, this shall be yours; yet it cannot help you, but leads you into hell. How does it help you? If I do as they do. They come to Christ and say:
O Lord, help the poor man that he may be able to speak. They do not say, "We will hear and speak for you," but ask Christ to make him speak for himself. So also, if you stand up for me, and need faith to serve me for my own faith, this will help me; there, there, Deo gratias. Otherwise no work nor brotherhood will help.
013 Say therefore, I shall not depend upon thy works, neither thou upon mine: but I will pray with my faith, that God may give thee also one of mine own. This is that we are all priests and kings, that like Christ himself we may continue to stand one for another and ask for a faith of our own. So then, when I see that you do not have a faith of your own, or that you have a weak faith, I go and ask God to help you also to have a faith, and not to give you my faith and not my works, but a faith of your own and works of your own; so that Christ may give him all his works and salvation through faith, just as he has given us in faith.
14 This is what Christ Himself says in John 16:26, 27: "I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you, for He Himself, the Father, loves you, because you loved Me and believed that I came from God. This is a fine addition. As if he wanted to say, "I have asked for you and acted before God to give you what is mine. Therefore know my name. For through my supplication he has accepted you and given you faith that you may henceforth ask for yourselves, that I may not do it, but that you may do it in my name. He has crowned us, consecrated us, and anointed us with the Holy Spirit, that we should all be priests in Christ, and that we should pray one for another. This is the intention of St. Peter's words, as he says in his first epistle Cap. 2, 9, 10: "You are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people of ownership, that you should proclaim the virtue of him who called you from darkness to a marvelous light; you who were not a nation before, but now are God's people.
people, and that God did not have mercy on, but has now had mercy on."
(15) So we may say, Christ was a priest, who asked for me and obtained faith and the Spirit for me; so now I am also a priest, and should continue to ask in the world that God may give faith to this and that. So we conclude, now, that what we ask vigorously in faith, we obtain; as the Lord John 16:24 says, "Ask, and ye shall receive."
(16) But that we should pray earnestly is not in our power; for the Spirit does not give it that we should always pray earnestly. Paul asked for all Israel to be saved, Rom. 9, 1. ff. How did it not happen? Yes, faith turned it around, because the Spirit did not give it to him: if he had been able to do this, it would certainly have happened. For if Paul had said, I pray for all Israel, and had believed, saying, Lord, I am sure thou wilt do it, it would have been done. But now he prayed for them oftentimes out of his heart: but the Spirit gave him not to believe with confidence. Therefore it is not in our power to ask with strong confidence; the Holy Spirit does it. If we ask for anyone, and can add, "It will be done," it will certainly be done; but if we ask, we must add, "Thy will be done. If then I am to put it in his will, I cannot suggest to him the person, time, or manner, but must freely give it to him; for so I am sure. So did Christ. He himself asked: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," but soon added: "Not as I will, but as you will," Matth. 26, 39.
(17) Therefore, if I should ask anything for a whole city or congregation, I should say, Ah, Father, I ask for the multitude; but yet I must do honor to his name or will, and say, Dear Father, I ask for them; I know that thou wouldst have it so, that I should ask, that I should not despise prayer, but that thy will should always be done. For I would ask something for someone who would not be worthy of it in your sight, or I would reject someone who would be worthy of it. Therefore do it according to your
Divine will, you will probably do it better than I ever thought. You see that we cannot always add the words, "It will be done. But if we are so sure in our hearts that we can add to it: It will certainly happen, then it will happen.
18 So we also see here: they come to the Lord with strong confidence and pray for the poor man: this also happens. So also when one baptizes, we see this in the faith of the children. The little children stand there naked in body and soul, having no faith, no work. Then the Christian church comes and asks God to pour faith into the child: not that our faith should help the child, but that it should gain its own faith. If he has it, then everything he does is well done; he sucks his mother, he makes himself unclean, he does whatever he wants. But if it has not obtained faith, our faith is of no use to it.
19 Therefore, my faith can help you nothing else, only that it helps you to your own faith. So, summa summarum, everything stands on one's own faith: as strong as it is, so much must it allow foreign faith and intercession to make it stronger. So you can conclude that the greatest fools have been holding masses and vigils with the brotherhoods; for the wise virgins have oil for themselves alone, and hardly enough of it. This is simple talk about the history of the Gospel. Now let us look a little at what the Lord means by this.
II. Secret interpretation.
20) The people bring the poor man before the Lord; the Lord takes him especially to a place, and puts his fingers into his ears, spits and touches his tongue with the saliva, looks up to heaven, sighs and says: Hephatha, this is, open up! This figure is bodily and has a subtle meaning. Through those who lead the deaf and dumb to the Lord, the ministry of preaching is signified to us. The preachers and apostles lead the poor consciences to God. This is done in three ways: by preaching, by good living and by intercession. With the word they are urged to God; the
The good life serves that the word may be the more powerful in its power. But the word leads from itself, even if it is preached by a sinner. But 'nevertheless the good life is a sharpening and a furthering of the gospel; the evil life makes it dull. Third, that they pray for the people also promotes them both to believe and to work.
Now, if the word thus goes forth in three pieces, it cannot fail, it must bring forth fruit; as God says in Isaiah chap. 55, 11: "My word that goeth forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void. This means that the pious people carry the mute before Christ: these are the preachers, who bring the sinner here; so God comes and gives the prospering and the increasing, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 3, 7, breaks open his eyes, ears and mouth. This happens with a hui; for God's word is a lightning that goes in an instant from the morning to the end. So where they are brought, God gives them the grace to believe.
22) This is when he puts his fingers in his ears and blows the Holy Spirit into him through the word, making the heart faithful, chaste, and devout, for through the finger the Holy Spirit is understood.
(23) Then the saliva that he puts on his tongue is the word of God. The
he puts into his mouth, that he may speak. And this saliva, the word of God, is a noble thing, but almost strict to the old Adam.
(24) Then they praise God, saying, "He has done all things well. For where there is righteous faith, the spirit does not let you rest, you break out, become a priest and teach other people also, as the 116th Psalm v. 10 says: "I believe, therefore I speak. The heart is full, therefore the mouth must overflow. Then they are persecuted; they do not respect that.
25 Since he says that he led him to a place and looked toward heaven, this is: if God does not take me to a place alone and give me the Holy Spirit, so that I adhere to the word I have heard, then all preaching is in vain. But what is the cost for him to look up to heaven and use divine power, to call on divine grace to come and work? In this way he shows that such things must come from heaven and work in the heart of man from divine power, so that he will be helped.
(26) Now in these two things, in the historical and in the spiritual or secret sense, you see that we must hear God's word beforehand, and so come to our own faith through the intercession of Christ, and then break forth, confessing the same and praising God forever. That is enough said about this gospel, we want to call upon God for mercy.