John 4:47-54.
There was a king whose son was sick in Capernaum. And when he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea of Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him to come down, and to heal his son: for he was sick unto death. And JESUS said unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. And the king said unto him, Lord, come down before my child dieth. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and went his way. And as he went down, his servants met him, and told him, saying: The child lives. Then he inquired of them the hour in which it had become better with him. And they said unto him, Yesterday about the seventh hour the fever left him. Then the father realized that it was about the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is alive. And he believed with all his house. Now this is the other sign that Jesus did when he came out of Judea into Galilee.
1 In this gospel we have a special example of faith, for St. John indicates three times that this magistrate believed; so that someone might be moved to ask what kind of faith he must have had, that the evangelist speaks so much about it. We have now taught so much about faith and the gospel that I think it is almost easy to understand it; but because it is always repeated, we must also act on it often.
(2) First, I have said that faith through the gospel brings home to every man the Lord Jesus with all his goods; so that one Christian has as much as another, and the child baptized today has nothing less than St. Peter and all the saints in heaven. We are all equal in faith, and one has the treasure as fully as another.
(3) Now this gospel goes on to speak of the increase of faith, where it becomes unequal. Although faith has Christ and all his goods completely, yet it must always be urged and exercised, that it may be sure of them and hold fast the treasure. There is a difference between the two: he who has one thing, and he who grasps it well, that is, under one thing.
*This sermon is found in all editions of the Kirchenpostille and in five single prints from 1522, 1523 and 1524. Cf. A. 14, 249. ed.
strong and weak faith. Such a great treasure needs to be well held and kept, so that it is not easily lost or taken away; I have it all, even if I had put it in a poppy leaf, but it is not as well kept as if I had put it in an iron box.
(4) Therefore we must live on earth, not thinking to obtain anything better than we now have, but striving to lay hold on what is good with certainty and firmness from day to day, more and more: we must seek nothing else but faith; but there we must see how faith increases and grows stronger. So we read in the Gospel that although the disciples of Christ believed without a doubt (for otherwise they would not have followed the Lord), yet Christ often chided them for weak faith: they had faith, but when it came to the meeting they let it sink and did not keep it. [So it is with all Christians, that where faith is not always exercised and exercised, it diminishes, so that it must perish; and yet we ourselves do not see or feel such weakness, unless it comes to trouble and temptation, when unbelief arises too strongly, and yet for this very reason faith must have temptation, that it may contend therein and increase.]
*) (d)
(5) Therefore it is not so, as the useless babblers have taught us, who make us lazy and careless, saying, If any man have the least drop or particle of love and grace, he shall be saved. The Scripture teaches that one must increase and continue. It is true that thou hast Christ by faith, though thou holdest the treasure in a poor cloth: yet see that thou lay hold on it, and that it be not taken from thee.
6th So this officer or king, whoever he was (I think he was King Herod's servant), is so far from faith that he thinks that if he could bring Jesus into his house, he would surely help his son; for he had heard God's word, or the gospel of Christ, that he would gladly help anyone who was brought to him, and would not refuse his kindness to anyone: this his faith grasps, which makes him go to Christ. For if his heart had been so set that he had thought: Who knows whether he can or will help you? he would not have gone to him; therefore it is certain that he imagined Christ beforehand and believed that he would help him.
(7) This is the nature and manner of faith, that it forms the heart of man and reflects the goodness of Christ. Thus the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 1. writes: "Faith is a confidence of that which is to be hoped for", that is, of a good thing, [the grace and goodness of God **]. Now this man's faith is such that if he had remained in it, he would undoubtedly have been blessed, and the Lord is also pleased with it; nevertheless, he drives him a little hard, still having a lack of faith, punishes him and says:
Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.
8. how does this go together? So, as I said before. [Faith and good assurance bring the king to Christ; how then saith he: Ye believe not, except ye see signs? But, as I said
He wants to show him that his faith is not yet strong enough, because he still clings only to the seeing and feeling of the present Christ. *] So he also rebuked the disciples in the ship when the storm came, saying to them, "O you of little faith, why are you so fearful?" Matth. 8, 26. As if he wanted to say, Where is your faith now? Therefore, however good and righteous faith is, it falls away when it comes to the meeting, if it is not well practiced and has increased.
(9) Therefore you must not think that it is enough when you have begun to believe; but you must be diligent to keep the faith firm, or it will fall to the ground; you must see how you may keep the treasure you have seized, for the devil uses all his skill and power to pluck it out of the heart. That is why the increase of faith is as strong **) as the beginning, and probably stronger †); but it is all God's work. The young milk faith is still sweet and small; but when the traits come and the faith is challenged, then God must strengthen the faith, otherwise it will not receive the puff.
10 Therefore this man would not have been helped by the faith he had in the beginning; he would have fallen back if Christ had not come and strengthened him. But how does he strengthen him? The magistrate thought that if he came to his house, he could help his son; so Christ gives him a blow, a sour and harsh answer: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe." With the words he gives faith a puff that it cannot suffer. The poor man is frightened, and his faith is already beginning to sink and go out, so he speaks:
Lord, come down before my son dies.
11. as if he wanted to say: Ei, you must hurry [and be there yourself, ††] my son will die otherwise. Now Christ gives him a stronger faith (as then God with all
*) (d)
**) Instead of "start", d has "noth." D. Red. f) Instead of "stronger", d has "nöthiger". D. Red.
††) (d)
(He does this to those whom he strengthens in the faith), and so brings him to a higher degree or state, that he becomes strong and now believes in a different way than before; and thus he speaks to the Father:
Go, your son is alive.
12 Before, if he had said to him that his son was alive, he would not have been able to believe; now he believes, because the word leaps into his heart and makes a different faith in him, so that he becomes a different man. So the Lord gives him a greater strength to go along with the great thrust. For now he must cling to that which he does not see, for he did not believe before that Christ was so strong that he could help his son if he did not see him and was not with him; this is only a true strong faith, that a heart can believe what it does not see and understand, against all senses and reason, and clings to the word alone. Since nothing appears, he has no other remedy than to believe. In faith one must put all things out of sight without the word of God. Whoever allows something else to be formed in his eyes is already lost. Faith clings to the word alone, pure and simple; it does not turn its eyes away from it; it looks at no other thing, neither its work nor its merit. If the heart does not stand thus, it is lost.
(13) So that we may see it by way of example: If a priest, monk or nun stands on the fact that he has kept virginity, or read many masses, fasted much, prayed much and the like, and does not imagine God's word, but his good works, and thus builds on it that he thinks God must therefore hear him, he is lost; for as long as the image is before his eyes, faith cannot be there. Therefore, when a man is about to die and death comes, and he looks around to see where he should go and where he should take the first step, the devil comes and shows him how horrible and terrifying death is, and he sees hell and God's judgment before him: the devil has won, for there is no help as long as he sees this before his eyes. If he would be wise, and thus act, that he would not have any other image.
If a person lets himself be formed in the heart and only clings to the word of God, he would remain alive, because the word is alive. Therefore, whoever adheres to it must remain where the living and eternal Word remains.
(14) But this is mighty hard to do, for here thou seest how it is so sour to this man; as it was to the apostles in the gospel, Matt. 8:25, 26, when they were going in a ship upon the water, and the ship was about to go down, and the waves therefore beat into the ship, that they had death before their eyes, then they let go the word. If they had firmly believed and said, "Here is the word of God, here is Christ, and where He abides, we abide also," there would have been no need. But because they did not have such faith, they had to fall and would have been corrupted if Christ had not helped them. So also Peter, when he was walking on the sea, and came to Christ: as long as he held to the word, the water had to bear him up; but when he turned his eyes from Christ, and let the word fall, he saw a wind roaring, and he was afraid, and began to sink.
(15) Therefore I have said that all things must be abandoned, and that we must cleave to the word alone; when we have grasped it, let the world, death, sin, hell, and all calamities rage and rage after it. But if you forsake the word, you must perish. We see this also in the people who seek temporal food: when there is enough and house and yard are full, they trust God well, saying that they have a gracious God; but when they have nothing more, they begin to doubt, so it is over; for they imagine that there is nothing and that they have no supply, and they do not know how they are to feed themselves; so worry drives out faith. But if they take hold of the word of God, they will think: "My God is alive, He has promised me that He will feed me; I will go and work, and He will do it well, as Christ said in Matt. 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. If I would keep this word and put that out of my sight, there would be no need. But as long as thou formest thy poverty in thine eyes,
1768 D. 14, 256-259. on the twenty-first Sunday after Trinitaüs. W. XI, 2369-2362. 1769
you cannot believe. This magistrate would have had such an eye-image that he might have thought, "He will not hear me, gives me a sour answer, will not go with me, and turns me away evil. If he had taken this into his eyes, it would have been lost; but if he takes it out of his eyes, Christ gives him good comfort, saying, "Go, your son lives.
This is the nature of faith: God also deals with us in this way when he wants to strengthen us. This is also what St. Paul means in 2 Cor. 3, 8, when he says: "The clarity of the Lord is reflected in us from the unveiled face, and we are transfigured into the same image, from one clarity to another, as of the Lord, who is the Spirit. The clarity of the Lord in Paul is the knowledge of God. Moses also has clarity, that is, the knowledge and understanding of the Law. When I have the knowledge of the law, I look into its clear face and into its bright light. But now we have passed through and have a higher knowledge of the Lord Christ; whoever recognizes him as the man who helps, who gives power to fulfill the law, through whom we have received forgiveness of sin, his clarity is reflected in us, that is: As the brightness of the sun is reflected in water or in a mirror, so Christ is reflected and gives a brightness of himself into the heart, so that we are transfigured from one clarity to another, so that we increase daily and recognize the Lord more clearly; then we are transformed and transfigured into the same image, so that we all become one cake with Christ. We cannot do this by ourselves, but God, who is the Spirit, must do it. For if the Holy Spirit would begin such clarity and enlightenment in us and then leave us, we would be as before.
(17) Therefore we must be prepared that we do not remain in one degree, but always increase; therefore the cross, temptation and adversity must come, in order that faith may grow and become strong. And as the clarity of faith increases, so also the mortification of the body increases: the stronger the faith is, the weaker the flesh becomes.
the less faith, the stronger the flesh and the less it is broken off. So we think: If I should always help my neighbor, where do I remain? Where do I want to go in the end? But if we had the right faith and Christ reflected in us, we would not doubt that we would not have enough, but would think: God will counsel us when we are in need. But if we lose in such a small puff, what shall we do in the great? Behold, thus faith should be exercised and increase; so we go and remain today as yesterday, tomorrow as today, that is not a Christian life. Now this is the other degree of which John commended this man, that he had increased in faith.
018 Thirdly, he saith, When he was come home, his servants met him, and told him that his son was alive; and he knew that his son had recovered at that very hour, when the Lord had said unto him, Thy son liveth: and he believed with all his house. Then the evangelist says again that he believed. Why did he not believe before he came to Christ? This is perfect faith, which is confirmed by the miraculous sign. This is how our Lord God deals with us, so that he makes us more perfect and always puts us in a higher position. So when we pass through, we come into experience and become certain of our faith; as we see here that he tears through the images and wins the punches, becomes so certain of the matter that he experiences and finds that he is helped by faith, and agrees time, sign and word together with faith.
019 What then hath he now believed? Not that the son had been healed, for this belief is now over, it has happened and is now over, for he sees before his eyes that the son is alive; but from experience now comes another belief, that Christ would continue to help him in other needs, and whatever dark image he suggested to him, that same he believed. If now the Lord had said to him: Go and die, he would say: Even though I
I do not know where to go or where the inn is, but because I have tried it before, which is faith, I will cling to the word again; you helped me before, when I also could not see or understand it; but now you will help. So also, if Christ had said to him, "Leave house and home and all your possessions, and come and follow me," would he not have thought, "Yes, how am I to support myself? There would have been a picture before his eyes: There is all kinds enough, here is nothing; shall I let that go, where will I go out? But he would now think: Although there is nothing and I see nothing, I will still keep my word, he will help, I have tried it before. Such a thing is impossible for reason, but faith can do it all.
(20) Therefore faith is exercised in various temptations, and new temptations come every day; for the former experience does not always return, as is seen here. This man has already used that work of faith, which is now gone and will not come again; but he must now try another. Therefore, the more a man has these temptations, the better off he is; the more he wins the punishment, the stronger he grasps Christ, and becomes so skilled that he is ready to bear everything that Christ lays out for him.
(21) It was the same with the holy patriarchs, and so it is still: that I now believe what happened before is of no use, but my faith must always wait for things to come. So when God told Abraham to go out of his country, he did so, and believed.
Gen. 12, 1, ff. When he came to that land, he was told to go to another, and after that to another; so his faith always increased, and after that he became so certain, and felt and experienced how God dealt with him, and became such a perfect man that he also wanted to sacrifice his son. From this it also follows that whoever tries so much, he also prefers to go to death.
(22) So you see, as described here, an example of increasing faith; that is now clear enough, so take it to heart. Every man has his exercise, so that he may exercise faith, that he may trust God to help him; so he may also test how God helps him, and so he may continue and believe more: there is always one thing going out and another coming in, that we may see and grasp that our Lord God is true. If we have faith that he will feed and sustain our bodies, we can then also believe that he will save our souls. That is enough talk about faith.
The other part of the gospel, about love, can be seen by everyone; it is clear enough that it is not necessary to speak much about how Christ serves and helps this man; he does not benefit from it himself, but does it for nothing, out of love. Item, so you see, how the royal also becomes a servant of his son. What is more in this gospel belongs to the spiritual interpretation, and the interpretation from word to word we will leave to the calm and wise spirits.