Luc. 14:1-11.
And it came to pass, that he entered into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, on a sabbath day to eat bread; and they kept watch over him. And, behold, there was a man before him, addicted to water. And Jesus answered and said unto the scribes and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? But they held their peace. And he took hold of him, and healed him, and let him go, and answered and said unto them: What man is there among you whose ox or ass falls into the well, and he does not immediately bring him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again. He said the same thing to the guests, when he saw them sitting upstairs, and said to them: If you are invited to a wedding by someone, do not sit at the top, lest a more honest man than you be invited by him; and when he comes who has invited you and him, say to you, "Leave this one," and you will have to sit at the bottom with shame. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down at the bottom, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up. Then you will have honor before those who sit at table with you. For he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
(1) We have two things to do in this present gospel; the one is something common, that is, common to all the gospels; the other is something peculiar. The first, which is common to all the Gospels, is that it models for us the Lord Christ, what he is and what we have to expect from him. And in it faith and love are shown to us.
*) This sermon is found in all editions. D. Editor.
2. faith in the fact that this water addict had heard the gospel before, namely, how the Lord Christ was such a kind, gracious, benevolent man, who helped everyone and did not let anyone go away unhelped and unsoled. For if he had not heard such a cry from the Lord, he would not have followed him into the house. He must have had a message from him and heard something great from him, and believed this hearing.
3 And this is the gospel, as I said, which must be preached and heard before we believe, namely, how God is so kind and merciful to us, having sent this Son down from heaven to help us. This must be heard and believed by the conscience: otherwise, even if all creatures were friendly to us, it does not help us if God is ungracious and unkind to us; again, if God is pleased with us, no creature can harm us; as St. Paul says to the Romans Cap. 8, 31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Let death, the devil, hell and all creatures be angry, nothing can harm us. Therefore the gospel must do it, which graciously models for us the man who is God. From this our heart draws faith and a friendly confidence in God that he will help him through death and life.
(4) We see the same thing here in this water-addicted man. He had heard the kindness of Christ before, and so he believed that he would also prove his kindness and goodness to him; for it would have been impossible for him to be helped if he had not believed. The gospel resounds throughout the world, but not everyone hears it. For the Pharisees also sat there, [ahen with eyes and grasped it, that he was a friendly man; but they believed it not, [therefore it could neither improve, comfort, nor help them *]. So the gospel is very mean, but the grasping is not mean. This is what is said of faith.
(5) After this we have also pictured love in Christ, which goeth forth and bringeth forth fruit, not unto itself, but unto others, as true love doeth. This is what is said in general about the first part of this gospel.
(6) In particular, this gospel teaches us another necessary lesson, which we must have if we are to use the laws [which govern outward bodily things and beings to be kept in the churches **]: we must be very wise and careful about the following
where one wants to go right with it, especially where weak and stupid consciences are *]. For there is nothing more tender in heaven and earth, and which can suffer less reproach, than the conscience. It is said to be a tender thing about an eye; but the conscience is much more tender and soft. That is why we see in the apostles from time to time how they treated consciences so well that they did not make them crazy with laws.
(7) Forasmuch then as a man cannot live without the law, and yet there is danger in dealing with the laws; for the conscience soon becomes closed and entangled in them: therefore let us say a little how the laws ought to be dealt with, and how far they ought to be kept. It is said in Proverbs, "Everything depends on a good interpreter," which is especially true here when dealing with laws; for where there is not one who knows how to interpret and interpret the laws correctly, it is difficult and dangerous to deal with them. Behold, where there is a ruler who is so tyrannical and leads by force, when he gives a law and presses it so hard, methinks heaven falls in; he deals with conscience as if he had a sword in his hand and always stabs it dead. [As one has experienced so far with the tyrannical regiment of the papal laws, how consciences are plagued with it and are only brought to hell and damnation.] It is such a great danger where one does not know how to alleviate and control the laws properly.
Therefore, we finally conclude that all laws, divine and human, do not bind †) further, because love goes. Love should be an interpretation of all laws. If this is not the case, then it is already over, and the law soon does harm, be it as it may; as is also written in the Pope's book: If a law wants to run contrary to love, it shall soon cease. And this, in short, is said of divine and human commandments. Cause,
For all laws are given only to establish love, as Paul says in Romans 13:8, 10, "Love is the fulfillment of the law"; for we owe nothing more than to love one another. For if I love my neighbor, I help him, protect him, keep him in his honor, and do to him what I would have done to me.
(9) Now, because the laws alone establish love, they must immediately cease if they want to go against love. Therefore, it all depends on a good ruler who interprets the laws according to love. Take a temple from the priests and monks. They have written in the law that they say mass at this hour, that they pray at this hour; and if a poor man should come and ask them for service at that hour, when they are to say mass or pray, they say, "Ease up, I must say mass now, I must wait for my prayer," and would not do the poor man any service if he should die right away. This is also done by the most holy monks and Carthusians. They keep their commandments and statutes so strictly that if they saw a poor man's soul go out, they could help him, but they would not. But the good people, [if they were Christians, *] should be so skilful, and interpret the law or their statutes according to love, and say: Go to mass, go to sacrament, go to prayer, go to order, I will gladly do without the work, I will serve my neighbor; the love which I practice for my neighbor is golden compared to the work.
(10) And so all laws are to be governed, according to which love shows that they are to be kept where they are useful and beneficial to the neighbor, and to be abandoned where they are harmful. Take a rough example: If a householder had such an order in his house that he now ate fish, now meat, now wine, now beer, according to what he had and what he could get; and perhaps one of his servants became ill and could not drink beer or wine, could not eat meat or fish; and the householder would not give him anything else, but
*) (d)
said: No, my law and order thus points it out, I give you nothing else: what kind of a householder would that be? One should give him hellebore, so that he purgates the brain. For if he were a man of understanding, he would say, "It is true that my law and order require you to eat meat or fish today; but since this food is contrary to you, eat what pleases you. Behold, how the father of the house regulates and bends his law according to the love which he bears to the servants. In the same way, all laws are to be directed and bent according to the love of one's neighbor.
Therefore, since the Law of Moses was not understood in the Old Testament, and it was not executed according to love, God promised the people through Moses that He would raise up a prophet for them, who would interpret the Law; for thus Moses says in the fifth book, Cap. 18:15: "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you, like me, from you and from your brothers, and you shall obey him. God raised up the prophets in the first place to interpret the law, and to guide it not by sharpness but by love. We have an example of this in Moses. Moses led the children of Israel from Egypt to and fro in the wilderness for forty years. Now Abraham was commanded in Genesis 17:12 to circumcise every male on the eighth day, and this commandment stood clear that it must be done; yet Moses obeyed it, and circumcised no man all the forty years.
(12) Now who gave Most the authority not to keep this law, and God Himself had given it to Abraham? It gave it to him that he knew how to direct the laws to the love of his neighbor, namely: that the laws should serve him and the people, and he nor the people should not serve the laws; for in the journey they had therefore to go all the days in armor. Therefore, that they might be the more skillful to travel [and not be hindered*], he remitted the circumcision, saying, Though this law be commanded, and it be kept, yet may it be directed, if love require it; and so he remitted the be-
*) (d)
until they had left. Thus all laws are to be interpreted according to love and according to need; therefore only a good interpreter is lacking.
13) It was the same with David, when he ate the consecrated bread, which no one was allowed to eat except the priests, 1 Sam. 21:6, as Christ himself often uses the example in the Gospels, Matth. 12:3. David was not consecrated, neither were his servants; still, when he was hungry, he came to Abimelech and asked him to give him and his servants something to eat; Abimelech said, "I truly have nothing, for there are the shewbreads lying there; so David runs and eats them freely. Has David sinned here [against God's commandment, which publicly forbids eating the holy bread to those who are not priests *]? for there is God's commandment. No. Why? Because necessity forced him and he had nothing else to eat. So necessity and love abolish all laws.
(14) So does Christ here in the gospel, healing the dropsy on the Sabbath, which was commanded to be kept very strictly in the Old Testament. See what the Pharisees do: they stand there, waiting for the Lord, and see what he will do. They would not have helped the water addict if they could have helped him with a spoonful of wine. But Christ reaches into the law so that it cracks, and helps the poor water-addicted man free, and shows them the public reason why he is doing this, and says: "It is indeed commanded to celebrate the Sabbath; but where love is concerned, the law must give way. And gives them a gross example, and concludes that they must approve it, neither can they answer him a word; and thus saith:
What man is there among you whose ox or donkey falls into the well, and he does not immediately bring him out on the Sabbath?
15 As if to say, "You fools, are you not mad and foolish? Do you do this to an ox or a donkey that may be worth a few guilders; rather, you should do it to your neighbor where it is necessary to help him.
*) (d)
For the Sabbath, as he says in another place, was made for man's sake, and not man for the Sabbath's sake; so the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath, Marc. 2:27.
(16) Among the Jews the laws were harshly enjoined; even the kings almost insisted that they should be kept. When the prophets came to interpret the laws according to love, saying, "Moses meant it this way, so the law should be understood," the false prophets were there with the kings, holding fast to the text, saying: There, it is written, it is God's word, one does not have to interpret it differently. But when the prophets cried out that it should be understood in this way, it did not help. Then the kings went to the poor blind people and killed one prophet after another. So do the papists, monks, and priests: if someone says, "You must not keep their laws, but put them on love," they immediately cry, "Heretic, heretic! and if they could, they would kill him," yes, they are already doing it viciously.
(17) Now as Christ here does with the Sabbath, making it serve man; so we also should continue in all laws, and not keep them any further, for if they serve love: if they do not serve love, they are soon to be torn up, whether it be the commandment of God or of man. Take an example [from our previous error of Pabstism *]: One has vowed to go to St. Jacob. Now there is the commandment: He who vows something must keep it. This man has a wife and child, servants and household at home. How shall he do? Shall he go away and go to St. James, or shall he stay at home and feed his wife and child? Decide for yourselves which is the most necessary and which is the most attractive to love. I think it would be more useful for him to stay at home and work, and wait for his food and look after his wife, children and household; with his going to St. Jacob, [even if it would not otherwise be wrong and not idolatry**,] he will
little benefit; indeed, he will consume and miss more than he gains.
(18) Another example: A woman is with child who has vowed not to eat meat on Wednesday, as many a fool does. This woman may therefore be in great danger of her fruit and also of her body; so the fools come here, the confessors, and say: "Dear daughter, it is written in the Scriptures that what you vow you must keep; this is God's commandment, you must truly keep it. Soon the good woman is caught and bound in her conscience, goes there, keeps the vow, and harms both herself and the fruit. Both she and those who teach her are wrong, because she does not respect love more than the vow, for which she does neither serve nor please God; on the contrary, she angers him by keeping her vow. Therefore say to the fool, Behold, thou bearest fruit, and thou must serve it, and cease from the work of folly, lest any great evil come of it; for all laws are ordained in love.
(19) In the same way one should deal with the priests, monks and nuns. If they say, "Yes, we have vowed," and it is written, "If you vow, keep it to the Lord your God," Psalm 76:12, say, "Behold, there is also a commandment, 'You shall serve your neighbor. But in that state thou canst not serve thy neighbor, neither canst thou live therein without sin; therefore go out freely, and take unto thee a state where thou doest not so much sin, but that thou mayest serve thy neighbor, and help and counsel him, and see not the vow which thou hast made, not unto God thy Lord, but unto the devil, not for the salvation and happiness of the soul, but for the damnation and destruction of both body and soul.
(20) And there you have power to dispense with all the commandments, where you alone are a Christian, if they want to hinder you in love; as Christ does here: he goes freely, even though it was the Sabbath, and helps this water addict, also showing sufficient and apparent cause why he would do such work on the Sabbath.
21. there is one more piece in the gospel,
From sitting on the top, we must also touch a little. When the Lord noticed how the guests, the Pharisees, were choosing to sit on top, he said this to them:
When you are invited to a wedding by someone, do not sit at the top, lest someone more honorable than you be invited by him, and when he who invited you and him comes, say to yourself, "Move away from him, and you will have to sit at the bottom with shame. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the bottom, so that when he who invited you comes, say to you, "Friend, move up, and you will have honor before those who are at the table.
(22) This likeness is based on the commandment and statute of the Pharisees and scribes, that one should do honor to the great and mighty, yield to them, and let them sit on high. Christ turns it around here and says: Whoever wants to be the greatest, let him sit at the bottom. Not that a peasant should sit above a ruler; Christ does not want that, nor is it fitting. But the Lord does not speak here of the worldly, but of the spiritual government, which wants humility from all; although the worldly and outward government holds thus that the rulers sit on top: but this is nothing to do with the spiritual government, nor does it give it anything to do; for it acts only in the heart. Christ does not make mayors and judges, princes or lords; but commands the same to reason, which deals with outward things, there must be authorities, and to them is due the honor of their station; but the spiritual government holds that one must come to the ground, if one wants to be great.
(23) Therefore the Lord said to his disciples, who were disputing about which of them should be the greatest, "The kings of the world reign, and the mighty are called gracious lords; but you are not so; but the greatest among you shall be as the youngest, and the chiefest as the servant," Luc. 22:25, 26, 27; and now he gives an example of himself, saying, "Which is the greatest, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is it not so, that he sitteth at meat? But I am in the midst of you as one who serves." And in another place he said:
"If any man will be counted mighty, let him be your servant; and if any man will be chief, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many," Matt. 20:26, 27, 28.
24 Our papists have interpreted these sayings in a fine way and have given the gospel a nose, saying, "Yes, the pope should be the least or the youngest, sitting at the bottom and serving others, but this should be done in the heart. They have written how they sit with their hearts at the bottom, how they are also the least and serve others: but after that they have gone down on all emperors, kings and princes, even trampling them underfoot; as if emperors, kings, princes and lords should not also have this Christian humility, of which the Lord speaks here, in their hearts. So with their spiritual interpretation they make carnal, worldly splendor and hope; if they had humility in their hearts, they would prove it by deed. Christ does not speak here only of outward humility, for the inward drives the outward: if it is not in the heart, it will hardly be outward in the body.
(25) Therefore the gospel wills that all, as they are and who they are, should come down, that none should rise up, except he be lifted up by proper authority. And this is what the Lord wants to have here, too, with this likeness, which he says to all, and all shall do it, whether they be high or low. That is why he punishes the Pharisees and the great men, who wanted to sit on top, striving for it and always choosing the highest place. But then they shall accept it, when they are called to it with proper force, and are pulled up as though by the hair. Therefore I say all these things.
that one should despise their false and spiritual interpretation.
(26) But now they go on and mix the spiritual government with the worldly, and think that it is enough if they are humble in heart, then they may well sit on top. Yes, dear one, the humility of the heart must flow into the work and show itself in this way, otherwise the humility is false. Therefore let each one sit at the bottom, throwing himself under the feet of the other, and not come up, unless he is urged to do so. If he does, it is good for him; if he does not, he will be put to shame. This is what the Lord wants when he concludes the parable and says:
For he who exalts himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
27 St. Augustine has made a gloss here; I wish he had laughed it off, for it reeks of Adam's barrel; as when he says: A ruler should not humble himself too much, lest the prestige of the authorities be reviled. It is spoken paganly and worldly, not Christianly; but one may well forgive such a man, for not everything is perfect even in the saints.
28 This then is the sum of this gospel, that love and necessity have mastery over all laws; and that no law should be, it should be bent and directed according to love; and if not, then it should be finished, even if an angel had made it from heaven. All these things serve to strengthen our hearts and consciences. Then the Lord teaches us how to humble ourselves and submit to others. That is enough of this gospel.