Luc. 17, 11-19.
And it came to pass, as he journeyed toward Jerusalem, he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And when he was come into a market, ten leprous men met him, which stood afar off, and lifted up their voice, and said: JEsu, dear Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them: Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned again, and praised God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at his feet, and gave thanks unto him. And this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were not ten of them clean? But where are the nine? Has no one else been found who has turned back and given glory to God, except this stranger? The priest said to him, "Get up and go; your faith has helped you.
1. saint Lucas held this before the other evangelists, that he did not only teach Christ's work and doctrine as the others, but also
describes the order of his journeys and ways. Thus his gospel points to the thirteenth chapter, how Christ began to preach and to perform signs in Capernaum, where he had gone from Nazareth and dwelt, that same city being called his city in the gospel. And from that city he went out into all the villages and towns.
He preached and did miracles. When he had accomplished all this and had preached in the country, he set out and journeyed to Jerusalem: which journey, as he preached and wondered on it to Jerusalem, he describes from the end of the ninth chapter to the end; for the same journey is his last and was accomplished at the end of his life in the last year. This is what he means here when he says that Jesus went to Jerusalem through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. That is so much said, that he has done this miracle on the journey to Jerusalem.
002 Now this is not the right road from Capernaum to Jerusalem: for Galilee lieth from Jerusalem toward the north, and Samaria lieth on the side of Galilee toward the east; but Capernaum lieth in the midst of Galilee. And the evangelist also wants to indicate with special diligence that he did not travel the right road, since he names Samaria and Galilee, and says in addition that he traveled through the middle of it, not at the border on the next road. So Christ's journey from Capernaum toward the morning to Jordan and Samaria, from Samaria toward the evening and Galilee, from Galilee toward Jerusalem at noon, was a slow, long, circuitous journey, taking his time and leisure. For he traveled not for his own sake, but that he might preach much and help many. For this reason he travels through the midst of the countries, that he may walk openly, that everyone may be ready, that they may come to him on every side, that they may hear him, and that they may be helped; for to this end he was sent, that he might be given to everyone, and that everyone might freely enjoy his goodness and grace. Now the evangelist describes the miracle, saying:
And when he was come into a market, ten leprous men met him, which stood afar off, and lifted up their voice, and said: JEsu, dear Master, have mercy on us!
(3) Would anyone like to ask the evangelist how these lepers stood afar off and raised their voices, since lepers naturally cannot speak aloud, so they must use the cot or clappers? He will answer that they did not stand a mile away from him, but that they did not speak.
that they did not come so near to him as those who went with him; nor are all lepers so utterly voiceless that they cannot be heard at a distance. But here the evangelist, according to the custom of the Scriptures, only wants to indicate the great earnestness of their desires, that their heart's voice was great, which compelled them to call even bodily, as much as they were able.
(4) Now this whole gospel is a bad, easy history or story, which does not need much exposition. But how bad it is, so great is the example that is shown to us in it. In the lepers it teaches us to believe, in Christ it teaches us to love. Now faith and love are the whole essence of a Christian man, as I have often said. Faith receives, love gives; faith brings man to God, love brings him to men; through faith he lets God do him good, through love he does good to men. For he who believes has all things from God, and is blessed and rich: henceforth he may do nothing, but all that he lives and does, he orders for good and use to his neighbor, and does to the same through love, as God has done to him through faith; thus he creates good from above through faith, and gives good from below through love. Against which nature the works saints, with their merits and good works, which they do only for their own benefit, fight horribly; for they live only for themselves and do good without faith. Let us now see these two things, faith and love, in the lepers and in Christ.
(5) First, the nature of faith is that it relies on God's grace and creates a good delusion and confidence in Him without doubt, thinking that God will look at it and not let it go. For where there is no such delusion and confidence, there is no right faith, nor is there right prayer or seeking of God; but where there is, it makes a man bold and meager, so that he may freely present his distress to God and earnestly ask for help.
(6) Therefore, it is not enough for you to believe that there is a God, and pray many words, such as
But see here in the lepers how faith should be formed, how it teaches to pray quite fruitfully without all masters. You see here that they have a good faith in Christ and a comforting confidence in him, and they firmly believe that he will look upon them graciously. This presumption makes them bold and humble, so that they freely present their distress to him and ask for help with all earnestness and a loud voice. For if they had not first gained such a delusion and presumption toward him, they would probably have stayed at home, or would never have run to meet him, nor would they have asked him with a raised voice; but doubt would have advised them thus: What shall we do? who knows whether he is pleased that we ask him? perhaps he will not look at us!
7 O such a wavering and doubting lazy thing asks, does not raise its voice, does not even run to meet. It mumbles many words and sings many songs with great unwillingness; but it does not ask, it only wishes, would like to be sure beforehand whether it will be heard; which is nothing other than trying God. But the right faith does not doubt the good gracious will of God; therefore his prayer is strong and firm, as faith is. That St. Lucas does not say three things of them in vain; the first, that they ran to meet him; the second, that they stopped; the third, that they raised their voices. With the three, their strong faith is praised and presented to us as an example.
8. running against is boldness, which is driven by comforting confidence. Standing is the firmness and sincerity against doubt. Calling is the great earnestness to ask, which arises from such presumption. But the impotent doubt does not run, does not stand, does not call, but turns and bends, beats its head down, grasps its head in its hand, opens its mouth, and always slurs: Who knows, who knows? if it were certain; how, if it were lacking? and similar timid words; for he has no good sense nor presumption of God, does not think of him, therefore nothing comes to him; as St. Jacob Cap. 1, 6. 7. says: "He who will ask, ask in faith.
and do not doubt, for whoever doubts," he says soon after, "does not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. Then they come, like the foolish virgins who spill the oil, with their empty lamps, that is, with their works, thinking that God should hear their throbbing and put it out; but He will not,
(9) Behold, such a good delusion, or comforting confidence, or free presumption against God, or whatever you want to call it, that is, a Christian faith and good conscience in the Scriptures, to which one must come if one wants to be saved. But one does not get there by works and teachings, as we will see in this example, and without such a heart no work is good. Therefore beware, there are many talkers who want to teach about faith and conscience, and they know less about it than a coarse block. They think that it is a dormant, idle thing in the soul, that it is enough for the heart to believe that God is God. But here you see that there is a mighty living thing about faith; it makes a different heart, a different man, so that he turns to God for all graces; that is why it drives him to run and to stand, makes him bold to call and to ask for all needs.
(10) The other kind of faith is that it does not want to know or be assured beforehand whether it is worthy of grace and will be heard, as the doubters do who reach for God and tempt him. Just as a blind man gropes for the wall, so the same grope for God, and would like to feel him first and be sure that he will not escape them. The epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 1. speaks: "Faith is a certain confidence of things to be hoped for, and is directed toward things that do not appear," that is, faith dwells on things that it does not see, feel, or sense, either in body or soul; but as he has a good presumption of God, he surrenders himself to it and defends himself against it, not doubting that it will happen to him as he presumes; so it certainly happens to him, and the feeling and sensation come to him unsought and unhonored precisely in and through such presumption or faith.
11 For, tell me, who had given these lepers a letter and a seal, that they might
Christ would hear? Where is the feeling and sensing of his grace here? Where is the scouting, science or certainty of his goodness? The none is here. What is here? A freely surrendered and cheerful chariot on his insensible, untried, unrecognized goodness. There are no footsteps in which they would feel what he wants to do; but only his mere goodness is seen, and makes in them such a presumption and carriage that he will not let them. But whence had they knowledge of his goodness? for they must have known beforehand how inexperienced or insensible it must always be. No doubt from the cry and word that they had heard many good things about him, but had never felt them; for God's goodness must be proclaimed through the word and thus built upon without trying or feeling it, as will follow.
12. The third kind of faith, that it does not present any merit, does not want to buy God's grace with works, as the doubters and gleamers do; but presents vain merit, hangs and relies on the mere, undeserved goodness of God; For faith cannot suffer works and merit to stand beside it, so completely does it surrender, soar, and take refuge in the goodness of which it is assured, and cannot respect its works and merit before it; indeed, it sees that the goodness is so great that all good works are nothing but sin, esteemed against it. Therefore he finds in himself such unmerit that he is more worthy of wrath than of grace. And this he does without all pretense, for he sees that in reality and truth there is nothing else.
(13) These lepers here are a fine proof of this, who have given themselves to the grace of Christ without any merit. What good would they have ever done him before, since they had never seen him, let alone served him? They were also lepers, so that he would have avoided them according to the law, Deut. 13, and would have spoken to them as was right and just. For there was no merit and cause in the matter and truth, that he should have nothing to do with them, and they with him. Therefore they also stand afar off, as they well know their unworthiness. So the
Faith also is far from God, and yet runs to meet him and calls; for he recognizes himself in the bottom of truth, that he is unworthy of his goodness, and has nothing to rely on but his highly praised and proclaimed goodness. And such a soul also seeks his goodness, which is far off and empty; for it cannot suffer our merit and work beside itself, it wants to come for nothing, like Christ in this market to the lepers, so that its praise may remain free and pure.
(14) Behold, the love of God is well balanced in that it freely gives its goodness, neither taking nor seeking anything in return, and faith also receives it so freely that it gives nothing in return, and thus the rich and the poor come together. Their words also testify to this, when they say: Have mercy on us! He who seeks mercy neither buys nor changes, but seeks pure grace and mercy, as he who is unworthy of it and deserves much else.
(15) Behold, this is a fine and living example of the Christian faith, which sufficiently teaches us how we must approach it if we want to find grace and become pious and blessed. This teaching is now followed by the stimulus to faith, that we should gladly believe as we are now taught to believe. The stimulus, however, is that we see how such faith does not fail, that it happens to him as he believes, and is certainly heard. For St. Lucas writes how graciously and willingly Christ looked upon them and heard them, saying thus:
And when he saw them, he said unto them: Go and show yourselves to the priests.
(16) How kindly the Lord draws all hearts to Himself in this example, and provokes them to believe in Him; for there is no doubt that He will do to everyone as He does to these lepers, if only we will freely give ourselves to Him with all kindness and grace. As a true faith and a Christian heart should and does do, as these lepers do and teach us to do. For how gladly he would have us to rely cheerfully and freely on his goodness before we know or feel it,
He has here sufficiently testified that he hears them so willingly, without any delay, that he did not say beforehand that he would do it, but as if it had already happened, he did to them what they wanted. For he saith not, Yea, I will have mercy upon you, ye shall be clean; but badly, Go and show yourselves unto the priests." As if to say, "There is no need of supplication; your faith has already obtained and acquired it before you begin to supplicate; you were already pure before me when you began to presume such things of me; there is no more need, but only go and show your purity to the priests; as I esteem you, and as you believe, so are you, and so shall you be. For he would not have sent them to the priests, if he had not esteemed them clean, and so would have dealt with them, that they might be clean.
(17) Behold, so mighty is faith to obtain all things from God that he wills, that it is counted as done before God before it is asked. Isaiah Cap. 65, 24. said: "It shall come to pass, before they call, that I will answer; and before they speak, that I will hear them." Not that faith or we should be worthy of it; but that he should shew his unspeakable goodness and willing mercy, that he should provoke us to believe him, and comfort all that is good to him with a cheerful, unruffled conscience, which doth not grope after him, nor tempt him. So you see here also that he hears these lepers before they call, and is ready before they speak out to do whatever their heart desires. "Go your way," he says, "I say nothing to you, it is farther with you to come than that promise is needed; have what you have asked, and go your way. Are not these strong provocations, which can make a heart cheerful and meager? Behold, then his grace feels and is groped for, yes, it gropes and strikes us. Let this be said of the first part.
Now we must also look at the other part of this example of Christianity. The lepers taught us to believe; Christ teaches us to love. Love now does to the neighbor as it sees Christ has done to us, as he says John 13:15: "An example have I given you, that ye should do as I have done unto you." And soon after he says v. 34: "A new commandment.
I give you to love one another as I have loved you, so that everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. What else is this said, but this much, Ye have now through me in faith all things that I am and have: I am your own, ye are now rich and full through me: for all things whatsoever I do and love, I do and love not unto myself, but unto you, only to think how I may be useful and helpful unto you, and to supply the things which ye have need of and shall have. Therefore remember the example, that you also do to one another as I have done to him, and think only how he may live for the benefit of his neighbor from now on, and do what he sees is useful and necessary to him. Your faith is sufficient in my love and kindness; so let your love also give to others.
(19) Behold, this is a Christian life, and briefly written, needing neither many doctrines nor books; it is wholly in these two. So also St. Paul says Gal. 6, 2: "Bear one another's burdens, and you will fulfill the law of Christ." And to the Philippians Cap. 2, 4. 6. he says: "Each one does not look at what is his own, but at what is another's." And there he sets as an example Christ, who, though he was God, yet became our servant, served us, and died an ignominious death for us. The evil spirit is hostile to this Christian, easy, joyful life, and does it so much harm with no other thing than with the teachings of men, as we shall hear. For truly, a Christian's life has recently been told, namely, that he should have a good heart toward God and a good will toward men.
The good heart and faith teaches him from himself how he should pray. Yes, what is such faith but vain prayer? For he makes use of divine graces without ceasing: but when he makes use of them, he desires them with all his heart. And the desire is actually the right prayer, which Christ teaches and God demands, which also acquires and is able to accomplish all things. And because it does not rely on itself, its works or worthiness, but on God's righteous goodness, it relies and comforts, and so it is done to him as he believes,
that the prophet Zechariah calls the Spirit a Spirit of grace and prayer, since God says Zech. 12:10: "I will pour out on the house of David and on the citizens of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and prayer," so that faith recognizes and desires God's grace without ceasing.
21 Again, love teaches him of himself how to do good works, for good works are only those that serve the neighbor and are good. Yes, what else is such love, but the same work without ceasing toward the neighbor, so that the work of love also has a name, like the faith of prayer? So Christ says John 15:12, 13: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." As if to say, "I have done all my works for you so well that I also lay down my life for you, which is the greatest love of all, that is, the greatest work of love. If I had known greater love, I would have done the same for you: therefore you also shall love, and do all good to one another. I ask no more of you; I do not tell you to build churches for me, to worship, to fast, to sing, to become monks and priests, to take up this or that profession; but to do my will and my service, if you do good to one another, and if no one looks out for himself but for the other; that is all within.
22 And he calls them friends. By this he does not mean that mau should not love the enemies; for he speaks clearly thus: "He who gives his life for his friends." "His friends" is more than bad "friends". It may come to pass that thou art my friend, and yet I am not thy friend; that is, I may love thee, and receive thee for a friend, and give thee my friendship, and yet thou hateest me, and remainest an enemy. Just as Christ says to Judah in the garden, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" Judas was his friend, but Christ was Judah's enemy; for Judas thought him an enemy, and hated him; Christ loved Judam, and thought him his friend. It must be a free round love and benevolence toward everyone.
23 See, this is what St. James means when he says Cap. 2, 26: "Faith, if it does not work, is dead." And as the body without the soul is dead, so faith without works is dead. Not that faith is in man and does not work, which is not possible, for faith is a living, restless thing; but that men do not deceive themselves, thinking that they have faith, when they have nothing of it; but let them consider their works, whether they also love their neighbor and do him good. If they do, it is a sign that they have this right faith; but if they do not, they have only the hearing of faith, and it happens to them as it does to him who looks at himself in the mirror; when he goes away, he sees himself no more, and by looking at other things forgets the face of the mirror, as St. James also says. Jacobus says Cap. 1, 23. 24. [The deceivers and blind masters have taken this saying of Jacobi so far that they have eliminated faith and have only focused on works, as if righteousness and salvation were not in faith but in works. To the great darkness they then added a greater one, and taught only the good works that are of no use to man, such as juicing, saying many prayers, celebrating, not eating meat, butter, eggs, milk, building churches, monasteries, chapels, altars, masses, vigils, horas, wearing gray, white, and black clothes, becoming spiritual, and the countless like of which no man has either use or enjoyment, all of which God also condemns and approves. But St. James wants this, since a Christian life is nothing but faith and love. Love is nothing but vain doing good and being useful to all people, enemies and friends. And where faith is right, it certainly loves, and does to others in love, as Christ did to him in his faith. Let every man therefore take heed lest he have a dream and a poem in his heart instead of faith, and deceive himself. He will not know this to be true of any thing but the works of love. Just as Christ also gives the same sign, saying, "By this it may be known that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." Therefore St. James will say: Behold
If your life does not serve others and you live for yourself, if you do not care for your neighbor, then your faith is certainly nothing, for he does not do as Christ did for him; indeed, he does not believe that Christ did him good, otherwise he would not do good for his neighbor. - This is also what St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:2: "If I have such faith as to move mountains, and do not have love, I am nothing. All this is said, not that faith is not enough to make one devout, but that a Christian life must link the two, faith and love, and never separate them. But the presumptuous mean to separate them, wanting only to believe and not to love, despising their neighbor, and yet wanting to have Christ. This is wrong and will fail. - So we also say that faith is all things and makes man blessed, so that he needs nothing more for his blessedness. But because of this he is not idle, but does much, but all this for the good of his neighbor and not for himself; for he has no need, he has enough in Christ. But if he does not do so, he is certainly not right. And such his work is his loving. But the blind leaders want to teach and make works necessary, so that the worker needs them for salvation. This is the main perversion and error of all errors, for in this way they disturb both faith and love, the whole Christian nature and example. They take the works from the neighbor and give them to the person himself, as if they were necessary to him. Faith cannot remain there, knowing that its works are not necessary and useful to itself, but only to its neighbor. So they are contrary to each other: faith casts works from itself onto its neighbor through love; thus they tear the blind masters away from the neighbor and drive them onto their own person, thus stifling and dampening both love and faith, making man love only himself and seek only his own blessedness, and rely on his works. There must then follow evil, stupid consciences and many own exquisite works of fear, of building churches, praying a lot, fasting the saints and the like, which are of no use to anyone; and all sorrow and
Misfortune must follow here, as is now the case in monasteries, foundations and high schools].
(24) Now let us see the works of Christ's love in this example. But what is there in Christ that is not love? as every man can easily see of himself. First of all, what did he need to travel through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, or who gave him anything for it, or who asked him to do it? Is it not obvious that he does everything voluntarily for nothing, takes nothing for it, and comes of himself, unsought, so that no one may say that he has earned it for him or acquired it by request? So we see here completely that he does nothing for himself, but everything for the sake of others, in addition unsolicited and purely in vain, out of pure goodness and love.
25. the same that he just went into this market, what was he allowed to do? Who asked him for it? Who gave him something for it? Is it not true that he comes before all merit, all prayer, and offers his love and kindness freely, and seeks nothing in it that is his, but only serves others with it, that he may draw to himself all hearts to believe in him. Behold, such virtue is love, which only does good and lives for the good of others, seeks nothing of its own in it, and comes before anyone. If you want to be a Christian, you must look at such a life and work and direct your life, and forcibly put out of your sight all works that are not of this kind, even if they were so great as to move mountains, as the apostle says in 1 Cor. 13:2.
26 Secondly, see how he does such good without harm to others, even with the prevention of other harm. For there are some who do such good that it harms others, offering a penny to our wives, as they say, and stealing a horse from her, as there are who give alms from unjust goods, of which God says in Isaiah Cap. 61, 8: "I am a God who loves justice, and hates the sacrifice that comes from robbery. Almost all monasteries and convents are now of such a nature, consuming the sweat and blood of the people, and then paying God with masses, vigils, rosaries, or sacrificial offerings.
They also give alms from time to time. All this is loved by other people's property and served God in good days and full riches with all sufficiency. And this shameful charity is a widespread plague. But Christ here does no harm to anyone, but rather prevents it, and directs the lepers to the priests, so that nothing may be taken away from their rights.
27 And so he shows his good deed to the lepers, as if he had gone to this market for their sake; he looks upon them graciously and helps them willingly and gladly. He also prevents the priests from harm, even though he was not guilty of it. For since he cleansed them supernaturally, without the priests' help, he might not have sent them away, saying, "If you have not exercised your ministry with these according to the law, you shall not enjoy the benefits of the ministry, as is right and just. But love neither judges nor fences; it exists only to do good; therefore it does more than it is due, and transgresses justice. Therefore St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:1 that Christians should not be right with one another, since love neither seeks nor demands nor respects its right, and only looks to do good. In another place he says in 1 Cor. 13:1: "If I spoke with the tongues of angels and did not have love, I would be like a bell that only rings" and yet does nothing. Thus, verily, are now the scholars who teach much in rights, which is yet a vain unchristian thing against love. I do not say of those who have to judge; for since justice goes for love with some unchristian people, they have to be there and do justice, so that no evil happens. It is not Christian to execute and to execute; but that one may prevent the murderers, one must also do this. It is not Christian to eat and drink, but nevertheless one must do it. These are all necessary works, since the Christian nature does not go in; therefore one must not be content with them, as if one were a Christian. Marital work is also not Christian, but it is still necessary in order to avoid evil works. And so on.
28. third, he shows the love still
It is greater that he also puts it on, since it is lost and deserves ingratitude, the multiple part: he makes ten lepers clean, and only one thanks him; his love is lost on the ninth. If he had wanted to use justice for love, as men do and as nature teaches, he would have made them all lepers again; but he lets them go and uses his love and good deeds, even though they give him enmity for thanks. The same priests he has not hindered their enjoyment, he has sent home to them their honor and right, though without need and guilt; so they thank him, and turn from him the lepers, believing that Christ has not made them clean, but the sacrifice and obedience of the law; and so they disturb the faith in the lepers, and make Christ despised and disagreeable to them, as if he were taking a foreign possession.
29 For the fact that the priests interrogated these lepers is believable, and the text also gives it; therefore they must have spoken many evil words against Christ to these lepers, and exalted the works of the law and sacrifices, that they might destroy the great fine faith in them, and put themselves in Christ's place in their hearts. And the lepers received these things, and held Christ, as the priests spake of him, that they became quite hostile to him, and ascribed their cleansing to God, as obtained by sacrifice and merit, not to Christ and his pure goodness. And so they were delivered from leprosy in the flesh, and over it fell into spiritual leprosy, which is a thousand times worse. But Christ lets both parts go and enjoy his goodness, keeps silent about his right, takes hatred and disfavor for praise and thanksgiving; so that one may learn, as we sometimes ask, that it would be better if it were not given to us. It would have been better for these lepers to remain unclean than to come to such great spiritual uncleanness through their bodily purity.
30 Behold now the example, stir up now thy life, that thou do thy good works not only without harm to others, yea, even with profit, neither only to the friends and
If thou dost not do the works of the pious, but dost suffer them to be lost, and thou receive ingratitude and hatred for thy reward, then thou goest in the right way and footsteps of thy Lord Christ. Until thou comest hither, thou shalt not think thyself a perfect Christian, and shalt not consider whether thou wearest ten hard shirts, fastest all the days, keep mass all the days, and pray the psalteries, and laud in the churches, or make up the feast of the year; for Christ would have done such works also, if they were the righteous ones. Behold, this is actually a Christian life. [But now you see where his works are executed. Therefore pay attention to it with all diligence and look at your own life rightly. If thou findest any work in thee that thou mayest perform, or thinkest thou mayest be for salvation, tread thou under foot, bless thyself as from all devils, and rest not till thou come out of such a being and work, and strive that thy life be not for thyself, but only for thy neighbor's need, profit, and service. Let him be damned who lives and works for himself, if Christ himself has not willed to do his will, nor to live for himself! For surely such works of thine own lead thee away from love and faith. You have no other work that is necessary and useful to you for salvation, except that you believe and practice the same faith daily, and see to it that you remain in it continually, and do not let the priests snatch you away from it, as they snatched away these nine, for they have smooth tongues and pretty colors. Let all the other works go freely among the heaps, they will be lost or well invested, do not let that challenge you; abide thou in the faith that gives thee Christ, there thou hast much enough, and in the love that gives thee to thy neighbor, there thou wilt find enough to do, that thine will be much too little; for what thou doest about this is nothing, if thou hadst all the works of the saints. Listen to what St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:3: "If I give all I have for the food of the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, if I have not charity, it is of no use to me." It will not be enough to help the poor and to martyre yourself: you must also show love to your enemies and share your goods with yourself.
Do not choose whom you do good in front of another. - Here you might say, "Where will the clergy, priests, monks and nuns stay? They are of no use to anyone and do nothing but their own vain works! I answer, "Why do you ask about priests and monks? Christ did not call you to follow priests and monks, but Himself! If they do not do their works in accordance with the preaching, so that one serves the other and clings to the faith, you must not doubt that they are against Christ and are just the foolish virgins with the empty, dark lamps. For their sake no other Christ will come. St. Peter proclaimed 2 Ep. 2, 1: "There will be false masters among you, who will raise up pernicious sects," that is, spiritual orders and ranks, in which souls will only be damned. And St. Paul, 2 Thess. 2, 10. 11.: "Because they have not received the love of the truth, God will inflict upon them strong error, that they may believe the lies, who would not believe the truth, but consented to unrighteousness." In these words the spiritual orders and estates are proclaimed, as they are and where they come from. For they pretend to be something special from other orders in the Christian life, and are further from it than any other order, that they need more to be brought to Christianity than any people on earth. Marital status and authority are freely ordered; for there is wife and child and subject, who practice and give cause to love, and in the same way force you not to live and work for yourself, but to do vain foreign work for the good of others. If you only know faith and put yourself right in it, you have no work of your own and so much to do that you must forget your own works. For that you fast, work, eat, drink, sleep, take a wife, lately all that you do for the need of body and good, is all directed that you may live here and preserve the body, but therefore preserve that you may only serve others. Behold, this is actually a Christian life. Therefore St. Paul says Rom. 13, 8:
You owe nothing but to love one another and to serve one another in love. From this you may see how now all the world is full of spiritual states, that is, pits of hell and murder pits, but no one knows Christian life anymore, unless one should find an example of it. This is all the fault of the Pope and his accursed law, whom God's wrath has given us to be a master, as St. Peter and St. Paul proclaimed]. Let this be said enough of the first part of the Gospel; now let us see the other part also. The evangelist speaks thus:
And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed.
So far we have learned how faith works, what its nature is, where it comes from, what its beginning is, what it brings and how pleasing it is in the sight of God; that is all that has been said about the raising of a Christian being. Now it is not enough to raise, but to increase and to remain constant; for Christ says Matth. 24, 13: "He who perseveres to the end will be saved"; item Luc. 9, 62: "He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not sent to the kingdom of God." Therefore, this other part teaches about the increase and perfection of faith.
The faith or confidence of the heart in God is a very delicate thing, and it can easily be mistaken, that it begins to fidget and waver, if it is not almost practiced and accustomed. It also has innumerable impulses and dangers from sins, from nature, from reason and conceit, from the doctrines of men, from the examples of the saints, from devils; recently, behind and before, and on all sides it is challenged without ceasing, that it should falter and waver or fall on its works. That St. Peter says 1 Petr. 4, 18: "The righteous will hardly be saved." So hostilely do the temptations tear themselves around such a believing heart. Therefore also St. Paul says 1 Cor. 10, 12: "Whoever lets himself think that he is standing, may well see that he does not fall." And teach on all oerterns how to cope with sorrows and
For, as he says in 2 Cor. 4:7, we carry such treasure in an earthly vessel, which is easily broken if God does not preserve us.
Therefore we must not be sure, but stand in the fear of God, and pray with Jeremiah, Cap. 17, 17, that he will keep us in faith, and not let it come to pass that we will tremble at him and be afraid of him. This gospel also sufficiently illustrates this journey with a terrible example, that among these ten believing lepers, nine fall away, and only one survives and remains to the end. It is like a beautiful tree that is full of blossoms, so that it is thought that it will not bear all of the fruit; but afterward, because of a storm, so much blossom is spoiled, the fruit falls off, and becomes worm-eaten that hardly the tenth part ripens: so there are many who receive the word and begin to believe; but, as the Lord says Luc. 8, 13, it is a stony field, and they have not deep enough, or they stand among thorns and thistles, that is, through temptation and irritation they fall away and do not remain. For as soon as things go badly for them or God attacks them, they forget His goodness and look only at His wrath; so faith perishes and remains a wriggling, despondent and frightened conscience that flees from God, not to mention that it should run toward Him as it did in the beginning.
34 **) So we see here, when the lepers had begun to believe and to do good to Christ, he pushed their faith further and tried them, did not heal them by and by, but tells them a word, that they should show themselves to the priests. If there had not been faith in them, reason and natural conceit would have said, and soon would have murmured, "What is this? We have shown great kindness to him and sincerely believed in him that he would help us, but now he does not touch us as he used to do to others, but only looks at us.
*) Instead of "depth", which is, "depth",.has d "juice". D. Red.
and passes by with it; he may despise us; in addition, he does not say whether he will cleanse us or not, but leaves us in doubt, and speaks no more, because we are to show ourselves to the priests. What shall we show ourselves to them? they know well beforehand that we are lepers. Behold, thus nature would be angry and capricious with him, that he would not soon do what she would, and would not certainly tell her what he would. But here is faith: it strengthens itself and only increases through such trials, not caring how ungracious or uncertain Christ's giving and words are; but clings firmly to his goodness, not allowing itself to be deterred. And truly there was great and abundant faith in them, that they went freely upon such words; for if they had doubted, they certainly would not have gone: and yet there is no clear promise.
35 And this is also the way that God needs to strengthen and test faith in all of us, that he deals with us in such a way that we do not know how he will deal with us; which he does only so that man may command himself and surrender to his mere goodness, not doubting that he will give us what we desire or something better. So these lepers also thought, "Well, we will go as he commands us; and though he does not tell us whether he will cleanse us or not, yet the same shall not move us to think less of him than before. Yea, let us now think the more and the stronger of him, and cheerfully wait, that if he will not make us clean, yet he will make us better than that we should be clean: therefore let us not forsake his goodness. Behold, this is a right increase in faith.
Such trials last because we are alive, therefore the increase must also last so long; for if he tries us once in one piece, in which he makes us uncertain how he wants to do with us, then he always takes another one after that, and always for and for increases our faith and trust, if we otherwise only remain firmly attached through and through. Peter calls this being "growing in Christ" when he says 1 Peter 2:2: "As the children that are now born, so shall ye receive the newborn.
seek unadulterated milk, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation"; item 2 Pet. 3:18: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ". And St. Paul in all places desires that we increase, abide and become rich in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. This is nothing else than to become strong in faith in this way, when God hides His goodness and presents Himself, as here Christ presents Himself against the lepers, so that we do not know how we are with Him; for faith should be its argumentum non apparentium, to be certain, and not to doubt things that are hidden and not felt, Hebr. 11, 1.
37 Therefore, see here: when God seems to be farthest, He is nearest. This word of Christ is that one may not know what he will do, and says nothing about it, nor does he agree to it; so that the lepers, who before had certainly taken care of his goodness, may have been offended by it and fallen into doubt, and may have received a different understanding from it than Christ thinks. Christ speaks it out of such superfluous goodness that he thinks it is not necessary to tell them that they have already obtained what they want. But since the opinion was not obvious to them, they would think that he was of a much different opinion and more distant from them than before.
(38) So all his abundant goodness is in his works and words, that it seems to us that he was kinder and more gracious before than after he began to deal with us. It also happened to the people of Israel in the wilderness that they thought God had not led them out of Egypt, whom they called upon in Egypt and recognized that he wanted to help them out. But all this happens so that we do not remain in the soft beginning and milk faith, but grow and always increase, until we may also drink the strong wine, and thus become drunk and full of the spirit, so that we not only despise and overcome property, honor and friends, but also death and hell.
39Therefore it befalls the faithless and unbelieving, as it befalls the unfaithful, who with great confidence begin to seek and dig much: but when they have almost come upon the treasure, that yet for one thing they have found it.
If there is something small to be done, they leave it, look at how much they have worked in vain so far, and think that there is nothing available; then another comes who is worthy of it, who has never begun, strikes at it and finds what the one has sought and dug for him. It is the same with God's grace: whoever begins to believe and does not always want to increase and grow, it is taken away from him and given to another who begins with it; if the same does not want to continue, it is also taken away from him and given to another. It only wants to be believed. And here our high schools speak of faith in a blind, foolish, poisonous way, teaching that the beginning of faith and only a small degree or piece of it is enough for salvation.
40 Therefore these words of the text, "And it came to pass that they went, and were clean," mean this much: It is impossible that faith should be lacking, but it must happen as he believes. For if these lepers had not believed, and had not persevered, they certainly would not have gone. Therefore, not because they walked, but because of faith they were cleansed, for which they also walked.
(41) I say all this lest a blind master come upon this text, and put his eyes into the work, and see not the faith; pretending then that the works make us acceptable and blessed, because these lepers have walked, and so have been cleansed. Which error is to be met, that the faith of these lepers is rightly seen, it is found that it was not the work of this walk that obtained cleansing, but faith. [The Lord also meets the same error by cleansing them before they have done the work, for he not only commanded them to walk, but also to present themselves to the priests. Now they have ever been cleansed before they come to the priests and before they have done the work. If they had been made clean only after they came and offered the sacrifice, the priests would have had a pretense that they were made clean by the sacrifice and the work, as they did and deceived the poor people].
42. even so it is now often said that
are two kinds of works, some before and some without faith, some from and some after faith. For as little as nature can be idle and effectless apart from faith, so much less can faith be idle. And as natural works neither make nor precede nature, but nature must precede and make works of itself and from itself: so also works of faith do not make faith, but follow and are made by faith. Therefore there must ever be works, but they do not merit nor deserve salvation, but all salvation and merit must first be in faith.
(43) Hence it is that the works of faith are free and not elect works. For these lepers were so free that if Christ had told them to do something else, they would have done it. And if they had been asked whether they went to be cleansed, they would have said no, which would have been the case if the cleansing had been done for the sake of the work. Just as if you ask the saints of works whether they work to be saved, they say, "Yes, and without works they would not be saved. [But these lepers will not say so, but they hope that he will make them clean out of pure goodness, without regard to this work, which they do only to please him, that he may do the law enough, though without need. For all lepers might go to the priests in this way, and yet not be cleansed, which should be the case if the work were necessary and useful for cleansing. Just as the saints of the work observe that he who works shall be saved, so it should be here also: he who goes shall be cleansed. But as cleansing is purely for the sake of faith, so also blessedness comes purely for the sake of faith]. But as the lepers must go, not for their own sake, but for the priests' sake, that it may be done to them sufficiently, though they were not guilty of it: so all believers must work, not for their own sake, but for the sake of others, that they may minister to them; though they owe them nothing, but freely do good, as Christ hath done to us.
But one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back and praised God with a loud voice.
44 This coming again must have happened after he showed himself to the priests with the others. The evangelist is silent about how they came to the priests and what happened. But because of their return and gratitude, he tells how it happened. There is no doubt that he did not like to come back alone, for since he gives thanks to Christ with all his heart, there is no other way to think of it than that he will have pleaded with the others, exhorted them, urged them, begged them, and made the utmost effort so that they would go with him and recognize such great good deeds; he will also have been sorry that he could not move them, and will have left them weeping and displeased. All this and the like compels us to think of the love he had for Christ, which leaves no stone unturned, fears no one, looks at no one, that it may only honor and praise Christ worthily.
(45) What kind of weather may have come here that has separated them so strongly from this one, since we have heard that they all had such a fine increase and growth in the faith of Christ? They will not have fallen away so far from themselves; someone in them must have overthrown the faith beforehand, so that they now turn away from him the honor they so freely and honestly gave Christ before, and deprive him of it, and turn friendship into enmity. Nor must it be a bad apostasy that resists so severely and resists this one, and all his exhortations and entreaties. Behold, this is what the priests did. They could not suffer that the glory should be given to Christ: therefore they will have preached against him very strongly, that they might destroy such faith.
46 But what may they have said unto them? Because they argued against Christ and the faith, it is good to think what they said and did, namely, the contradiction of the faith, that is, they blasphemed to the poor people how they should not believe that Christ had cleansed them;
But they should thank God, who would have considered their sacrifice and the priests' prayer, and would have heard them and therefore cleansed them. And whatever other words they used to turn away the hearts of the lepers. But this one would not let himself be turned away from Christ, remained steadfast and overcame all the impulses of faith.
47. *) About this they overturned their hearts with two strong blows. First, that to cleanse leprosy is impossible for a creature, and only a divine work, therefore it cannot be given to Christ in any way; whom they saw as a man, and did not consider as God: therefore they should be careful not to blaspheme God, and make a creature God. O what a beautiful appearance and mighty impact that was! How great must be the faith that is supposed to stand there when God Himself, God's glory and God's work are set against it, and threatened not to deny God! What heart does not think that it is doing the very best here to follow such a challenge?
48) The other offense, that they preferred the Law of Moses, in which it was commanded that the priests should hear at death what they judged according to the Law, Deut. 17:12. Because here the priests judged that the cleansing had been done by God, not by Christ, they violently arrested their conscience and violated the faith in powder in the ninth; for to do contrary to the Law is also to do contrary to God.
(49) Behold, what a terrible trial this has been, when the conscience is confronted with bodily and eternal death, the wrath of God and man, the highest and greatest sins along with the greatest punishments. What heart should not fall or tremble before such terror, especially when the law of God is presented as a sign? Thus these nine fell, and would rather have denied ten Christ, before they would anger God and transgress the law; thinking they were almost doing well.
50. after that, a desolate ge-
They will also have pleaded diligently, begged and threatened that he would never anger God, believe the priests, not despise the Law of Moses, take care that he would not be killed as a blasphemer. The poor child had to be a fool or foolish, if it had been so good for him, or a heretic and apostate; he had received cleansing, but he had to risk life and limb, property and honor, friends and companions; he had to burden them with the name of being pious, doing good and honoring God; he had to be a sinner and dishonor God. And because he was a Samaritan, perhaps they respected him the less, and thought, Let him go, for he is a Samaritan, a lost man, and not of Israel; or had mercy on him, as on a mad, possessed man. [Behold, this is the last and greatest trial of faith. He that abideth here abideth for ever: for there is conquered death and the fear of hell, with all the terrors that are in this world and in that].
51 Thus the divine name must always do the greatest harm and be the greatest cover of shame through the abuse of the devil and evil men. For since they know that nothing is so much feared and honestly held than God's name and honor, especially among good-hearted people, they take the same and put it on their thing, so that God should be what they pretend to be; so the poor people, who do not think otherwise, follow that everything should be feared and taken in order that God's name or word may be presented. Therefore, a great understanding is necessary in such temptations, so that one is not mistaken about whether we are threatened with God's name. Even the idols have taken God's name and honor for themselves. Thus the pope has also always used the divine name for all sin and shame, and all his disciples and false teachers follow him, first the clergy, who pretend that their unchristian, unbelieving status and works are divine and Christian.
52. But things are much tougher there when
the evil spirit distresses the conscience in deathly distress, and reproaches how God is angry and does not want to be; of which David says Ps. 3, 3: "Many say to my soul that God does not want to help it" etc.; or as the Jews said to Christ on the cross Matth. 27, 43: "Let me see, if he is God's son, let him help him now; he has trusted God, let me see if he will save him. As if they should say: It is impossible that he helps him, it is completely lost with him.
Or, if God Himself tempts and abandons a man in such a way that he feels no other way in his conscience than as if God has renounced him and never wants him again; as David says Ps. 31, 23: "I said in my sorrow, Now I am rejected from your eyes. Which also Abraham Gen. 15, 12, and Jacob Gen. 32, 24. tried to do. Here faith suffers the last misery and is in the torment of hell. Here it is necessary to hold fast, and not to be mistaken, that God Himself is presented to him. Behold, this is the last and greatest challenge of faith: whoever remains here, remains eternally; for there is conquered death and the fear of hell with all the terror that is in this and that world. These are the strongest Christians and greatest spirits.
I say all this so that we may learn to hold fast to the faith that we have begun, and always remain in the same good faith that measures all good things to God, and not allow ourselves to be pushed or forced away from it, whether it be man, the devil, sin, the law, God's name, or even God Himself; which we are all the more able to do if we only remain that the true nature of faith is, as St. Paul says in Heb. 11:1, substantia sperandarum, argumentum non apparentium; non autem substantia fugiendarum, nec argumentum visibilium. Paul Hebr. 11, 1. says, substantia sperandarum, argumentum non apparentium; non autem substantia fugiendarum, nec argumentum visibilium; that is, the nature of faith is that it relies on the goodness of God, and imagines nothing else than that which is to be hoped for and desired. Therefore, the other thing that is to be fled and dreaded is not the example of faith, but of temptation; for God has not built our faith, or good conscience, or confidence on wrath, but on grace: therefore all His promises are sweet and gracious; again, His forbearance, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God, and the love of God.
terrible and bitter, which one must also believe; but the Christian faith cannot build itself on this, it has to be formed by vain good things.
The other, that one may be certain. The same good which faith has before it, and on which it relies, need not be seen or felt. Therefore, whatever he feels, whether it is good or bad, he must know that it is not what he is supposed to believe, but it is temptation and temptation; and so he swings and leaps over it, closing his eyes and all his senses, clinging only to the good he neither sees nor hears, until the temptation passes away. Just as Elijah covered his face with his mantle in 1 Kings 19:13, when the great wind and earthquake and fire passed before him.
(56) As much as this leper's trials and temptations have been greater, and he alone has been abandoned and persevered in them, so much has his faith been greater and more perfect, and has become completely mature; no doubt it is an example to us that we should not let ourselves be moved by such priests and ministers, even if the whole multitude of the world were to fall to them. It was ever a great reputation that the priests resisted him, who, after all, owed it to other people to teach them the right way, who were supposed to be the most learned.
57. And here we learn a good answer, which we may give to the pope, clergymen and scholars, when they set themselves up with their authority, authority, office and dignity, pretending that one must believe them, and only listen to what they say; They can well understand that Christ directs the lepers to the priests, but they pretend that they do not also see how this certain man, who was not a priest but a layman, and not even an Israelite but a Samarian man, judges the priests' teaching and opinion, and is more learned than all of them, and does not ask anything about the fact that he is alone and the multitude falls to them. If this were enough, as our papists say, that they are called the clergy, scholars, and rulers, and have authority, and the multitude with them, and one should not contradict what the authority, worthiness, authority, the multitude pretends, then this Samarian would have done wrong.
But God be foremost! The Gospel teaches that no one is more likely to err and deceive than the priests, the clergy, the most learned, the rulers, the most worthy, and the most, and therefore no one is more to be guarded against than they.
(58) But Christ, in directing them to them, states that not their ministry but the abuse of their ministry is to be avoided, and sets a rule as to how they are to be believed and followed, namely, if they teach according to the law, they are to be heard; as Moses Deut. 5:17, 11, 12. 17, 11. 12. that the priests should judge according to the law, and then, whoever would not listen, should be stoned; but where they pretend to be without law and their own doctrine, neither office nor authority should be regarded, and only the Scriptures should be followed. People say that no one writes falsely except the scribes; so no one preaches falsely except the preachers; and as it is said again, "The learned, the perverse. If the priests, who are appointed by divine order and teach God's law, err more than once and most of all, what should our pope, cardinal and bishop do, who are appointed neither by God nor men, but by themselves, neither preach nor study, nor do more than teach the doctrine of men and establish their own dreams? Therefore neither office nor doctrine is good here, vain error, from top to bottom, that only to avoid, not much to dispute is their doctrine and being; for they are not the priests who are witnessed here; as we shall hear.
(59) But why does St. Lucas say that some of these have seen that he has been cleansed; have not the others also seen it, since all ten of them have been cleansed? So the nine, as we have heard, also praised God with the priests and spoke highly of Him, so that they would not give glory to Christ as a creature; why then does he say that this one alone praised God greatly, with a loud voice?
60 In the first place, this is St. Luca's common way of speaking, where it is said of the ungrateful, "He does not see the good that has been done to him," that is, "He does not want it.
They do not see it, nor do they take it to heart, nor do they think of it, so that they may be grateful; but they act as if they knew nothing about it, despising it and not looking at it. So these nine did not want to look at and consider the good deed of Christ, they despised him as if he had done nothing for them. Again, the grateful one will not and cannot forget, does not stop looking at and recognizing his benefactor and benefit. With such eyes did this Samaritan look upon his cleansing.
The other nine also praised God, but with their tongues, and at the same time blasphemed Him in Christ. It would also not have been a crime if they had not yet considered Christ to be a god at that time; for he had not yet been glorified, as St. John chap. 7, 39 says. And some of them may have considered him to be a sincere man. But they wanted Christ to be considered a sinful man and a blasphemer and to be utterly despised. They brewed such poison in the nine. They did not seek Christ any more than to receive him as sent to them by God, so that they would believe how God dwelt, spoke and worked in him. They did not want this, nor did they want others to accept him in this way, but he was to be regarded as coming from the devil, as being full of devils, and as speaking and working through devils. And the nine were driven to such faith. But this one remained firm that God should be with Christ, who spoke, worked and dwelt through him and in him. Therefore his praise and thanksgiving is described, and that praise is silent. We have heard above about the strife and temptation through which he remained in such faith. It is a great faith that he held fast to him who was despised, condemned and blasphemed by the priests, scholars, rulers, best, greatest and most of all the people. Who would now hold Christ if the pope, bishops, doctors, monks, priests, and princes, with all their multitude, had condemned him and had issued a bull against him?
(62) And here the gospel teaches what works tried and experienced faith does, and what right worship is.
and honor that may be shown to God. Some build churches for him, some establish masses for him, some ring bells for him, some light lights for him, so that he may see; and do nothing else than as if he were a child in need of our goods and services. Although churches were built and masses were said at first for the reason that the Christians would come together there to perform the proper service, after that the same service was discontinued and completely forgotten. So far, we have been stuck with the penning, building, singing, ringing, lighting, dressing, burning incense, and all the other preparations for worship, until we considered such preparations to be the right main worship service and did not know of any other. And so do wisely, as if he who would build a house and build up all his goods on the scaffolding, and would never get so far all his life as to lay a stone for the house; guess where he will live at last, when the scaffolding is broken down?
But this is the right service: to return, to praise God with a loud voice. This is the greatest work in heaven and earth, and the only one we can show to God, for he cannot do any of the others, nor is he capable of them; only we can love and praise him. Psalm 50:8, 13, 14 says: "What wilt thou give me? for all is mine beforehand; offer me the sacrifice of praise, which is the work that honors me. Do you mean that I want to eat beef or drink goat's blood?" So now he would like to say to the founders, incense burners, singers, ringers and candlesticks, "Do you think that I am blind and deaf, or that I have no shelter? If you love and praise me, you will burn incense and ring bells for me.
64. to return is to take the grace and goods received back home to God, not to keep them, not to fall upon them, not to exalt themselves before others, not to boast of them and not to glory in them, not to be better than others, not to please themselves nor to delight in them, but to have all such pleasure, favor, glory, and honor in Him alone who gave them, and willingly, evenly, to take them back.
If he wanted to take them from him again, they would love and praise him no less. Oh, how few are they that return, scarcely one in ten. If one has a more beautiful hair than the other, he pleases himself in it before others; what then should he do in the great goods of reason, of the spirit etc.? These are the ravens of Noah, which fly out of the ark, and come not again, Gen. 8:7. Summa, coming again comprehends the two parts: not adhering to God's gifts, but to Himself alone, who gives them.
So also, the praising of God understands the two parts. The first is to think highly of Him in the heart and to have a sweet delight in Him, so that we taste and feel how sweet the Lord is; of which St. Peter says 1 Ep. 2:3 and Ps. 34:9: "Taste and see how kind the Lord is." All this is taught and brought by tempted faith at the end of temptation. For as long as the strife and the temptation last, faith is at work, and if all is hard and sour, neither feels nor tastes sweetness in God. But as soon as the evil hour is over, we persevere and remain: then comes the sweetness of God, then God becomes so sweet to the heart, and pleasing, and sweet, that it no longer desires, but tries more strife and temptation; and now immediately has a thirst and desire for suffering and misfortune, since all the world fears, and he himself also feared before; of which Ps. 26, 2. says: "Lord, try me, and test my kidneys and heart." This is how a different man, a different taste, becomes out of the chivalrous faith, that he is not well without suffering from now on, and lives contrary to all the world: that he has pleasure in suffering, until he becomes hostile to this whole life and even desires to die.
66 See, this is what St. Paul means when he says: "I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me," Gal. 6:14, that is, my desire and life is its suffering and death, and its desire and life is my suffering and death. Therefore he says again Phil. 1, 23: "I desire to die, and to be with Christ." No saint of works can come to such a taste and knowledge; for temptation
and suffering they do not want, so they must also remain faithless and completely inexperienced people in spiritual matters.
The other piece is to break forth with the voice and thus confess before the world how the heart of God holds inwardly. This is nothing else than to invite the enmity of all the world upon oneself and to send many messengers after death and the cross. For he who wants to praise God with his voice must condemn the praise and honor of all the world, and say that the work and word of all men is not worthy of all the honor they receive from it, but that only God's work and word is worthy of praise and honor. Behold, the world cannot suffer this; then you must be a heretic, a deceiver, a blasphemer, who promises so many good works and spiritual life with all God's service. Then you are told to be silent, or make a fire for you. And if it is not possible for them to suffer it from you, because they want to have their thing unthrown from you, it is also impossible for you to stop and be silent, but rather confess with a loud voice, like this leper, only God's praise and glory in his works and words; so you go to ruin and become ashes. So then the pope goes and makes his calendar bigger with red ink, elevates you to saints in heaven and erases you from the book of life, casts you four thousand miles beyond hell, and you are a rotten member, cut off from holy Christendom, lest you poison the holy church with your stench and devilish doctrine.
68 Christ says Matth. 24, 9: "All the world will hate you because of my name. Why for my name's sake? They do not want nor like to suffer God's name, praise and honor; for thereby they and all their things would be disgraced. And if God alone were wise, good, just, true and strong, they would have to be fools, wicked, unjust, liars, false and unprofitable. Who would want to suffer the great injustice, the devilish heresy, that so much of God's service and divine life should be abolished and changed for the sake of God as a foolish, unjust, false, incompetent thing? Not so, it must not be God, but the devil, who pretends such things.
Behold, in the street all the prophets are slain, and Christ himself. The world does not want to be a fool or to be wrong, so God does not want to suffer from it, and sends His messengers to it and punishes it for it. So the saints must shed their blood because of it. Therefore, it is a great thing to praise and exalt God before the world with a free and great voice.
(69) Now the false saints and murderers of Christians also praise and exalt God and His works with a loud voice; yes, they preach and shout more about God than the true saints; as we now also see all the corners full of preachers who exalt and praise God, that He alone is to be praised and honored, and use the very voice and words that the true preachers use. Why then is it not true, or what is the fault in it? No doubt none other than that they do not fall under Christ's feet with this leper and thank him, but want Christ to fall under their feet and thank them. For the Jews gave all glory to God, but they did not want to suffer Christ. So also these: as long as one lets their thing remain and does not reject it, they shout and praise almost highly; but if one also wants to judge them according to such teaching and make their own cry about them, that they are nothing and all their thing is false and foolishness: then the praise and cry goes out, then their false heart breaks out, and it becomes obvious that they honor and praise God only with their mouth and themselves with their heart.
(70) It is not enough that you almost shout and cry out that God does all things and that our thing is nothing; you must also suffer this to be said of you and your being. You can suffer that Christ and your enemy are nothing, and that everything he does is rejected, and think that it is right and well done, because his nature is not of God but against God: but you do not want to be rejected with him. Your thing shall be God Himself and not rejected; how then is it possible that you should suffer the rejected Christ, much less fall at His feet, and consider yourself unworthy who would be rejected with Him? Forasmuch then as God hath hidden Himself in the despised man Christ.
If you want to live and dwell there, you must not intend to find it elsewhere than where there is contempt; yes, you must come to the point that you become glad that you are worthy to be despised, and must still fall at the feet and give thanks to the contempt that does not want your thing to be anything, so that it is not words but deeds: that you say that God alone is to be praised and no man, and that such a doctrine is first proven in you, and that you suffer such things for the very sake of this doctrine and do not recognize yourself worthy of it all.
(71) So Christ also taught these things, and lifted up the name of God alone; he also passed over him first and most, that he was utterly destroyed, that none should be like him therein. Oh, this is a great example, of which much could be said. But now let it be enough that we see with a little how great a thing it is to prove by the deed of God Loh, and Christ, the despised man, also fall to the face; as the apostles Apost. 5, 41. were glad that they were worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Christ's name; of which Ps. 72, 9. says that Christ's enemies shall lick the earth and worship the footsteps of His feet, that is, as St. Paul also says, to boast in the suffering and cross that is encountered for the sake of such praise of God and man's punishment. For because Christ himself suffered in this way, the suffering became so delicious that no one is worthy of it, and it is to be accepted and praised as a great grace.
From this we see how far a Christian life surpasses the natural life. First, it despises itself; second, it loves and thirsts for contempt; third, it punishes everything that does not want to be despised, so that it falls into all kinds of misfortune; fourth, it is also despised and persecuted for the sake of such contempt and punishment; fifth, it does not think itself worthy of such persecution. Now the world and nature flee from your very first piece, when should they come to the last? But there is another and greater thing behind, from the falling of Christ on foot, which the priests neither know nor want; for not any faith is enough, but Christ's faith must be there, which humiliates rightly.
And that was a Samaritan.
73) Why did the evangelist need to write that this man was a Samaritan? With this he opens our eyes and warns us that God has two kinds of people who serve him: one that has the name and appearance of the great, spiritual, holy life, almost labors in it, and yet is nothing behind it. They are no more than ravening wolves under sheep's clothing; nor do they have the honor of it, nor are they considered before anyone that they are the true servants of God. Therefore, good, honor, friendship, and all that the world has, flow to them for God's sake; for he is considered to be there, and whoever holds them otherwise is worse than a pagan, heretic and apostate.
74. the others are without all appearance and name, even in appearance, that none are less God's people than they, and lately, they are vain Samaritans; which word is evil among the Jews, as if one were now to call someone a Turk, a Jew, a Gentile, or a heretic. For the Jews alone had the name of being God's people, of having God's service and God Himself with them alone above all people on earth. And before all nations they were enemies to the Samaritans, for they also wanted to be God's people beside them: therefore a Samaritan was with them, as with us a denied Christian. And though it is true that the Samaritans did not believe aright, and the Jews had the right law of God, yet it came to pass, as the custom of man is, that they only who boasted of Judaism, and despised the Samaritans, were less Jews, and worse Samaritans than the natural Samaritans. But since God loves the truth and is hostile to glitter with all its glory, He also turns it around and accepts the Samaritans and lets the Jews go. Thus it comes to pass that they are not his people, who have the name, appearance and honor of it; and again, they are his people, who have the name and appearance of being heretics, apostates and the devil's own.
So it goes now also. The clergy, priests and monks call themselves, and are also considered, that they are God's servants, and no one is a Christian who is not
believes as they believe; yet no one is less Christian and God's people than those who among them so exalt themselves and boast. Again, those whom they consider heretics, of whom they have also burned and driven out many, such as John Huss and his like, must not be Christians; if they alone are the true Christians. Then this gospel goes by force, so that no one returns, no one lifts up God with a loud voice, no one falls on Christ's face, but only the Samaritan, the most despised, the damned, the cursed, who must be heretics, apostates, false ones and the devil's own. Therefore let us beware of all that seemeth to be false, and not reject that which seemeth not, lest we run and reject Christ and God under them, as the Jews did. This is also what Christ wants when he says:
Were not ten of them pure? But where are they? Has no one else been found who would turn back and give God the prize, but only this stranger?
The stranger does it, he gives the glory to God pure and whole. O a terrible example is this! Among ten, only one, and the same among them the least and the most insignificant. How God does not look at that which is great, wise, spiritual and honest. Nor do such people fear, but harden and harden in their nature. It is also terrible that the Lord knows that ten of them have been cleansed, but they did not mean it; he does not keep silent about it, but asks about it and searches for them: "Where are the nine? O what a terror it will be when they feel the question one day, and shall answer where they have gone, that they have not given glory to God. Then they will say, "Yes, we have praised and thanked God, and our priests have taught us so. Thus it will be found whether it will help that one has followed man's teaching under God's name and has left God's teaching for God's sake. We are sufficiently warned in the Gospel: therefore no excuse will help if we let ourselves be deceived. We have all vowed in baptism to follow Christ and his teachings; no one
has vowed to follow the pope, bishops and clergy. Thus, Christ has thoroughly rejected and forbidden human doctrine.
But here Christ comforts his poor Samaritans, who for the sake of his name must dare to live against the priests and Jews, and strengthens their hope with the judgment and sentence that he demands and judges the nine as the thieves of God, who steal God's honor, and justifies the Samaritan. For it gives them strong courage to hope that their cause will be right before God and will stand, but the cause of the adversary will be condemned and will not stand, no matter how high they soar on earth and will be right.
(78) Therefore, before he vindicates the Samaritan, he judges the nine; that we may ever be sure, not hastening nor desiring vengeance, but only returning it to him, and passing it for us; for he is careful of himself to protect the right, and to avenge the wrong, that he should do the same first, before he rewards his Samaritans.
79 For this he needs almost many words about this judgment, more than to the Samaritan; that we should ever see how great his concern is, and not forget their wrong and our right. Nor does he wait so long for them to accuse him; but demands them of himself, that without doubt the unbelievers' nature moves him more and sooner than it affects or harms us. Of this God says in Genesis Deut. 5, 32, 35: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay"; and St. Paul to the Romans Cap. 12, 19: "Do not avenge yourselves, my beloved, but give place to the wrath of God." Now these are the words that the Lord says to the Samaritan, as he makes his cause right.
Get up, go, your faith has helped you.
80 Behold, is not this a strange saying, that he giveth purification unto faith? This is against the judgment of the priests, who said to the nine that their sacrifice and obedience to the law had cleansed them. But Christ's judgment stands and overcomes, that they are not cleansed because of their going to the priests, not because of their sacrifice, but because of their faith.
were cleansed for the sake of their faith alone. Therefore faith suffers no works apart from itself, which should help it to be justified and saved; for faith of all things must and will do this alone, and needs works for another purpose, namely, to help its neighbor as Christ helped it.
(81) And concluding here, we see that this gospel sufficiently instructs and exemplifies the whole Christian life with all its accidents and sufferings; for the two main things are faith and love. Faith receives good, love gives good. Faith offers us to God as our own, love gives us to our neighbor as our own. When such a life has begun, God begins and improves it through temptation and challenge, so that man increases more and more in faith and love, so that God becomes so dear and sweet to him through his own experience that he no longer fears anything. Then hope grows, which is certain that God will not abandon it; of which St. Paul says Rom. 5:3, 4, 5: "We also glory in tribulations, because we know that tribulation brings patience, but patience brings experience," that man is found righteous, basically good, just as fire proves that gold is really good; "but experience brings hope, hope does not bring to shame." And he always refers to the three pieces in his epistles. To the Colossians Cap. 1, 3. 4. 5. he thus says: "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and pray for you always, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven"; and even more finely he says to the Thessalonians 1. Ep. 1, 2. 3. "We thank God always for you all, and remember you in our prayers without ceasing; remembering your work in faith, and your labor in love, and your patience in hope, which is our Lord JESUS CHRIST, in the sight of God our Father."
How beautifully he divides the three pieces, that faith in the work, love in the work, hope in the suffering or patience therefore.
go. As if he should say: Your faith is not a dream and a poem, but it is life and deed; and your love does not rest, does not go idle, does much with your neighbor; but all this still goes on in good: your hope, which exercises itself in suffering and patience, and all this in Christ; for no faith, nor love, nor hope is outside of Christ. So a Christian life in good goes through evil to the end, and yet does not seek revenge, lets God rule, judge and avenge, only grows more and more in faith, love and hope.
And love, which naturally follows faith, is divided into two parts: it loves God, who does so much for it through Christ in faith; and it loves its neighbor, so that it does to him as God has done to it. Therefore, all the works of such a person go to his neighbor for the sake of God, who has loved him, and does no work that is due to God, but only to love and praise, and this
confess everything freely before the world, for God has no need of other works. Thus, all service to God is in the mouth; although everything that is done to one's neighbor is also called serving God. But I am now speaking of the service that is done to God alone, of which no man may have a part, who is only to love and praise; but for this he must give himself completely in all repugnance. See, what more do you want to know, how you should be a Christian? Have faith and love, abide therein, and thou shalt have and be able to do all things; the rest shall teach and give itself. This gospel of the ten lepers is further interpreted*) in a booklet or postilion, which you can also see: there you will also find the secret interpretation or spiritual interpretation.
*This explanation can be found in the tenth part, under the sermons, which do not belong to the church and house postilion.