Dear friends, you know that the gospel is nothing else than a sermon about the one person, who is called Christ. And although many other books have been written from time to time and many sermons have been preached by various people, both pagans and Christians, yes, even by the Mother of God,
*) This sermon is found in a b c. D. Red.
**Marginal gloss to v. 23: Piper, who was needed to the corpse, and mean false teachers.
of St. Peter, of the angels, and of many other saints: but these are not evangelia; but this alone is the true gospel, when it holds up Christ to us, and teaches us what good we ought to do to him.
(2) It is also written at times in the gospel of John the Baptist, of Mary, and of the apostles: but this is not really the gospel; but for this cause they are remembered, that the more fully they may be remembered, the more they may be remembered.
would show more commonly from where Christ came and what his ministry was. Thus Lucas describes the history of John the Baptist from the beginning, how it happened with his conception and birth; item, of the virgin Mary: all this is not written for her sake, but only for the sake of the one person of Christ, so that everything that is written in the gospel is only about this person. In St. Paul's Epistles nothing is written about the saints, only everything is about Christ. The evangelists describe the miracles and wonders that Christ performed, but they do not write about any works that John or Mary did, but only about what Christ did, how he helped people in body and soul, and how people clung to him.
For God has decreed that all men should cling to the one man Christ, hoping in him and grasping him, if they want to be saved in any other way; so that they should know of no other but Christ, who alone has been presented to us by God as a seat of grace, as St. Paul says in Romans 3:25. Paul says Rom. 3, 25. Until now, one has clung to this saint, another to that one, one has had Mariam, another St. Barbarians, and there have been various sects and orders; but of Christ nothing has been kept, only the name has remained. We have had many intercessors, all of whom we should have left and clung to Christ alone. That is why St. Paul says in Romans 1:2 that the gospel was promised by God through His prophets of His Son. It is so hard and tight that nothing is valid in the gospel except this one person, Jesus Christ. He who knows this may well thank God that he knows where to place his comfort, help and confidence; he will then despise all other foreign preaching and throw it away.
4 For this reason the Lord is presented to us in today's Gospel as being mingled with the people and drawing all the world to himself with his kindness and sweet teaching, so that they may also cling to him with their hearts and rely on his goodness and hope to be saved from his evil.
to get both spiritual and physical goods from him. You do not see here that he takes anything from those whom he benefits; indeed, he receives nothing from them but scorn and ridicule, as we have heard. Beneficence goes out from him, but mockery and scorn he takes again.
(5) This is now preached and recited to the whole world, that they may ever learn to know this man aright, and that we may know how to become Christians, not how to become godly. Others teach outside the Gospel, urging that people should become devout through them, as the books of the pagan masters and the secular law; item, the legends of the saints, which especially urge that people should also live as the saints lived. Making pious people does not belong to the Gospel, it only makes Christians. It is much more to be a Christian than to be pious. One can be pious, but not a Christian. A Christian knows nothing to say about his piety; he finds nothing good or pious in himself. If he is to be pious, he must look for another and strange piety.
6 For this purpose Christ is presented to us as an inexhaustible fountain, always overflowing with goodness and grace; and for such goodness and mercy he takes nothing, except that the pious, recognizing such goodness and grace, thank him for it, praise and love him, and others mock him for it. Therefore a man is not called a Christian because he does much, but because he takes from Christ, creates, and is only given. If a man no longer receives from Christ, he is no longer a Christian, so that the Christian's name remains only in receiving and not in giving or doing, and that he receives nothing from anyone but from Christ. If you look at what you do, you have already lost the Christian name. It is true that one should do good works, help others, give advice and give; but no one is called a Christian by this, and therefore he is not a Christian.
(7) Therefore, a Christian, if he is to consider the word aright, must be recognized as taking only from Christ, and as taking from the Lord.
Christ in himself, for this is what the word actually implies. Just as one is called "white" from the whiteness that is in him, "black" from the blackness, "great" from the greatness; so also a "Christian" from Christ, whom he has in him and from whom he receives good things. Now if anyone is called a Christian by Christ, he is not called a Christian by his works; so it soon follows that no one becomes a Christian by works. If this is true, as it is true and certain, it must follow that our orders and sects do not belong to the Christian name and do not make Christians.
(8) Therefore, those who preach or teach in the church, and handle with commandments, with works and statutes, these are deceivers, they do not; though they pretend to the Christian name, yet under that name they want to burden and encumber us with their commandments and works which they pretend to do. I may be called a fast, a prayerful, a pilgrim by my works, but not a Christian. Even if you put all your works together, even if you add all other works to them, you still do not have Christ and are not called a Christian by them. Christ is another thing and something higher than the law and the commandments of men. He is the Son of God, who alone is willing to give and not to take away. If I am so skilled as to take from him, I have him: if then I have him, I am justly called a Christian. So you have a difference between what a Christian is and what Christ is.
Now this gospel teaches us that Christ is the greatest and highest person, exalted in the whole world, not that he terrifies people, but that he pours out all earthly and heavenly goods, so that all men should rely on him, trust in him, and only take from him forever. If I am troubled by some sin in my conscience, and the preachers of the law come here and want to help me with works, they do nothing for me; Christ alone can help, no one else. Yes, the others only make it worse, be it St. Peter or Paul, even Mary, the Mother of God herself. Christ alone can do it, who is ordained by God to preach a sermon that proclaims,
how my sins should be forgiven in vain, without any works or merit, only by grace through faith in this Christ. If then I accept the sermon, I have a consolation that my sins are forgiven me before God and before the world; if I cling to it with my heart, I am a Christian, and for this reason I thank God through Christ, who always gives me the Holy Spirit and grace, so that sin will not harm me, either here or there at the last judgment.
(10) If I am afraid of death and do not like to die, I will find comfort and medicine here in this Christ, so that I will not fear death. If I am afraid of the wrath of God, I have a mediator here. Some run into the desert or put on a hard garment, and think they want to force God not to be angry with them; but nothing comes of it: whoever does not have this Christ, the wrath of God remains over him forever, John 3:36; so it is decided.
(11) Therefore, whosoever will have a happy conscience, not fearing sin, death, hell, nor the wrath of God, must not cast out of the way this Mediator Christ; for he is the fountain overflowing with grace, which giveth life temporal and eternal. If you only put out your heart and keep him, you will have it all: he quilts and flows out, and can do nothing else but give, flow and well up, if you can only believe it. For if thou art rightly called a Christian, then that thou art a Christian with taking; if not, but thou wilt give him much, then thou art not a Christian. This is the rich, precious word, which St. Paul praises highly and can never praise enough, that God so graciously menters His Son among us, that He may pour out His grace on all who will receive it.
(12) From this it follows that if a Christian does good works and shows love to his neighbor, he does not thereby become a Christian or pious, but must first be a Christian and pious. He does good works, but the good works do not make him a Christian. The tree brings or makes good fruit; the fruit does not make the tree. So here, too, no one becomes a Christian by works, but by Christ.
013 Now from this you understand what kind of people the Christians are and what their kingdom is, namely, that it is a multitude that clings to Christ and has one Spirit and gifts with him. And by this all Christians are equal, and one has no more of Christ than another: St. Peter is no more than the thief on the cross; Mary, the Mother of God, no more than Mary Magdalene the sinner. In outward deeds and works there is a difference between them; Mary the Virgin had a greater work than Mary Magdalene; St. Peter a greater one than the thief. Yes, to be reckoned by the work; but of this they are not Christians. Mary, the virgin, is not a Christian because of her great work, that she bore Christ, such a precious, ineffable treasure, in her womb; as Christ himself said to the woman who cried out among the people to the Lord, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou hast sucked." "Yea," said he, "blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." There you see that he exalts the faithful above his mother. For Christians are called Christians because they believe in Christ. Virgin and mother are finer two names, but it is nothing against the name of the believers. Item, St. Paul is so proud that he in the epistle to the Galatians Cap. 2, 6. he may call the office of the great high apostles a prestige in which God is not much concerned, except that it be used for the benefit and piety of others.
14 For this reason we are all equal in Christ through faith: although Peter has a stronger faith than I, it is the same faith in Christ. For the same Christ is cast into the midst of all by his Father; he who gets him has him whole, whether he gets him strong or weak, there is nothing in it. The woman here in the Gospel, who had been sick for so long, took hold of Christ as well as Mary, the virgin, his mother. That is why Christians have the same spirit, one is born as high as the other. St. Peter must call me his brother and I, in turn, may call him my brother. Yes, Christ takes care of us Himself and keeps us.
for his brothers, as he said to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection: "Go to my brothers and tell them: I ascend to my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and to your God," John 20:17. And St. Paul calls Christ the firstborn among many brethren, Romans 8:29. He also speaks of this in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, Cap. 8:9-12, where he speaks of the weak brethren, saying: "Take heed that this liberty of yours be not turned to the offence of the weak. For if you, who have knowledge, see someone sitting at table in an idol's house, will not his conscience, because it is weak, cause him to eat the sacrifice made to idols? and will the weak brother perish because of your knowledge, for which Christ died. But if ye thus sin against the brethren, and smite their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ." Here you see that when a Christian is angered or offended, it all happens to Christ Himself.
(15) This then is the sum of the whole gospel, that we may thus learn to know Christ aright, and that the mere name may not remain, but that we may know that we have all our being from him. If we are Christians, we have everything, and God is our Father, and we are lords over all things in heaven and earth; no work can bring this to us, however great and delicious it may be. Now you see how far from a Christian name are those who live under the Pabst's kingdom. The gospel shall preach nothing but the only person Christ, not even Mariam, let alone the pope, or any other work, be it as great as it may. Christ alone, no one else, is to be preached; God the Father has thrown him into the Rappuse for us, only that we should take from him and wait for his grace and goodness.
016 If therefore he be preached unto thee as a judge (as he shall be at the latter day), and how thou shalt do many good works, that he may reward thee; and thou receive it, he shall surely be a judge unto thee, and not a savior: and if he be held up unto thee, as it is wont to be painted, that the mother shew him her breasts,
This is actually preaching the devil, and not Christ, who alone gives and does not take away. This is true, when you have taken from him, then good works follow of themselves, freely and without demand; which you see finely illustrated here in this gospel of today.
17 For here you see that Christ preaches the gospel to the people. Now preaching is not a small work, for he does us a great favor by becoming our teacher. He becomes our teacher and instructs us how we may come to his knowledge. This is a part of his great grace and goodness. Because he is here on earth, he does not stop teaching, so that we may ever receive him as a savior and redeemer; then he follows with his works, which he demonstrates to everyone wherever it is necessary. You will find no one in the gospel who was denied help, who ever asked anything of the Lord and was not given it: as many as came to him, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the gout-ridden, the dropsy, he accepted them all, and helped them according to their desire, and healed them of all kinds of sicknesses, as Lucas Cap. 6:19 says: "All the people sought the Lord, that they might touch him; for power came from him, and he healed them all."
18 He does the same with this woman. The woman hears him preach, and sees that he is a kind, gentle man, who is friendly toward all the world; then she also begins to cling to him and to win a heart, because he does not strike anyone from himself, she will also enjoy his kindness and goodness. Therefore she forsakes all apostles, and casts her heart's trust and confidence in the Lord alone, and says within herself:
If I only wanted to touch his dress, I would get well.
See what kind of heart the woman has had. That is a good, great faith and trust. She has not thought otherwise in her heart: He will surely help me, if I even touch his garment with my hand; and yet she is not so bold that she may go under his face. She thinks herself unworthy to speak to him or to look at him, for she knows,
that she had earned nothing and had never done nothing to the Lord. That is why she also stands behind him, falls at his feet and touches only the hem of his garment. All in all, there is a lack of skill and merit. Who deserved that the Lord preached the gospel to the people? There is no preparation, there is no work: the poor woman is still there, and she looks to the Lord to deliver her from her sickness. She had been bleeding for twelve years in a row. What could she earn with it? How could she be worthy of anything from it? Yes, she was worthy, but only to receive and not to give, for she could not give anything at that time.
020 And this is the righteous disposition to the grace and goodness of Christ, that I have need of the same; and then it rhymes well, that two of them come together, the rich and the poor, Christ and a sinner. But it is a great art to persuade people that they are poor and in need of grace. It is hardly done, nor does the devil suffer it in this way; but he always draws men to works, lest they should come to it as needing the grace and mercy of Christ.
21 The text says that the poor woman had the issue of blood for twelve years, and consumed all her goods with the doctors about it; and the more she did, the worse it became with her. Lucas and Marcus make a point of this, indicating that the more we preach the law and works, the worse it gets for us, and we have nothing to gain from it, but always one harm over another. Our conscience can never be satisfied with works: if one sin comes out of the conscience, another is soon there; yes, the medicine and works often make us sin, since there is none else, until we come to Christ; as here this woman, who had lain sick so long, and would never have been helped if she had not come to Christ, with whom she gets health without all works, gives him nothing, but only takes from him and lets him give.
(22) So it is with all sermons that do not preach Christ, and so it is with them.
1844 V-14, 341-343. on the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. W. xi, r4so-24ss. 1845
that one should always act on the word and do it without ceasing; for these people are still found at all times, who have such troubled and distressed consciences. For this woman means all poor consciences, which have the issue of blood, that is, they feel their sins. And the course of blood flows on and on, cannot stand still; for blood and flesh do not do otherwise than what they desire. When the feeling gets out of hand, the poor people fall down and want to help themselves; one does this, the other that, and yet they do nothing.
There are so many orders and foundations, so many works have been conceived that it is almost impossible to tell them all. Who has been the cause of all this? No one but our conscience about sin, which has driven us and frightened us so much, thinking that we wanted to redeem our souls with it and get rid of all sins, but Christ has not been there, because we have only wanted to give and not to take. Therefore it has become worse and worse with us, as with this woman, who tried all doctors to help her, but never found one. So we also believed all doctors: if one came with a little work, we accepted him. Dear God, we would have liked to be healthy, to have a happy conscience and to be rid of our sins.
(24) The physicians are the preachers of the law and the rulers of the Christians; now if one would have liked to be saved from sins, what did they do to him? They gave him medicine, which only made him weaker and sicker. We have seen this and in part felt much of it, to our great noticeable detriment, as people wanted to become pious with works and thereby redeem themselves from sins. But it has been of no avail, we have become more and more despondent against sin and against death, so that no more despondent people can be found on earth, but just priests, monks, nuns, and those who deal with works. When they have an ulcer, the pharmacy has to be used; there is such medicine, such running and running, as if they wanted to run out of soul; so they are afraid and so despondent. And no one is particularly afraid
as much before the last judgment as the same spiritual people. They show this finely when they act with the works in such a way that they always do one work over the other and do not persist in any work; and the more they do, the worse it becomes with them, the more despondent and doubtful they become, and it happens to them just like this woman.
(25) It is a beautiful similitude, and rhymes well with us. We have not only turned to temporal goods, but have also stretched our bodies with fasting, casteism and other heavy, unbearable burdens, so that some have often gone mad over it and lost all their strength, even losing their souls in the end. I, too, have been such a one, and have been stuck deeper in this pharmacy than probably many others. I could not come to the point that I would have slackened off as soon as the Pabst's law was given. It was sour and hard for me that I ate meat on Friday and that the Sabbath's law and order should not apply. Help God, how hard it was for me before I dared to do it! Therefore, if a man is to get rid of this thing from his conscience and despise the Pabst's statutes, he must truly have a strong, firm foundation of faith; if he does not have this, he will look around once or several times before he is allowed to dare.
26 All this is like that woman who killed all her possessions among the physicians, and yet she did not get well; indeed, she only got worse. So it is also with us; there all our works, toil and labor are lost, there all our human obedience and the whole order falls away, and all we have done has been in vain. Now we see that the statutes and bylaws of the pope and the bishops are nothing, against which we trembled and prayed before. All this has helped us as much as the poor woman, who has staked all her goods and possessions, even her body, on it. Oh, what must the woman have needed for medicine and drink? How weak, faint and sick she will often have become from it? Yes, if she had been able to get well, she would have had all the medicine she needed.
But it didn't help, she had to drag herself along with the disease for probably twelve years.
(27) How then is the poor woman helped at last? When she came to the man called Christ and put her hope and comfort in him, she was healed. But who directed her to the man? Certainly not the physicians. For if our preachers preached about Christ, then the Pabst's stuff and all his statutes would be lying low. Who told her? She heard it from someone who had also been healed, and not from the doctors. He undoubtedly told her how there was one called Jesus, who was a kind and gentle man, who helped everyone and left no one unhelped by him, and for this very reason he was sent by God to help everyone; and he would have told her about many people he had helped, so that he would bring her to him. When the woman heard this, she left the doctors and ran to Christ.
(28) It is the same now: Christ is not preached, but only vain works, do this, do that; nevertheless it comes among the people what Christ is, what we have to expect from him, and that he alone must do, without our works and merit. When we have the cry, we follow him and listen to this word, and always let the doctors go, and then turn no more to the preachers of the law and the preachers of works, and ask nothing of their commandments and statutes; but run with all the eagerness of the heart to this man who is called Christ, and then say: Yes, it must be taken from the man without all merit; ei, how foolishly I have done, that I have dared so much! God bless you, dear pope! God bless you, dear bishops, monks and priests! I may never have your medicine, your works and merits, your commandments and statutes, you have long tormented me with them; I have received one who gives me for free what I had to buy from you before with great money. He gives it to me without works and merit, since I had to put my body, strength and health into it before. Good night, I will not come to you again.
(29) So then one becomes a Christian not from the pope's decrees or from works.
and human statutes, but from the grace and goodness of Christ. Whoever then has a troubled, weighed down conscience, fears sin, is afraid of death, or otherwise feels no good in himself, let him come here to the man and confess what is wrong with him, call upon him, and he will surely help, Psalm 50:15. Pour out your heart before him, as the Psalm says, and say to him: "Behold, here is an empty barrel that needs to be filled; my Lord, fill it: I am weak in faith, strengthen me; I am cold in love, warm me and make me hot, that my love may flow out to my neighbor; I do not have a firm, strong faith, I doubt at times and cannot completely trust God. O Lord, help me, increase my faith and trust. In you I have locked up the treasure of all my goods. I am poor, you are rich, and have come to have mercy on the poor. I am a sinner, and you are righteous. Here with me is the river of sin, but in you is all fullness and righteousness.
030 When once thou shalt learn this, the laws of the pabst shall not catch thee, from which laws and commandments thou shalt not take, but shalt consume with this woman all that thou hast, thy body and goods, yea, at the last the soul also; and then shalt thou say: I will have him from whom I may take, not to whom I may give.
31 The other evangelists write about this woman: When she was healed, Jesus felt that a power had gone out from him and turned around among the people and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"And how the disciples answered him, that the people pressed and pressed him so hard: but the Lord was not satisfied with this, but answered, "Somebody hath touched me: for I feel that a power is gone out of me," Luc. 8:45 ff. Marc. 5, 25. ff., I know that someone has received something from me. The Lord did all this because he was pleased with the woman's faith, which he wanted to make known to all the people; for he loves nothing better than for people to trust and believe in him.
to confirm the story. Therefore Marcus writes how the woman, when she realized that the Lord knew, was afraid and trembled, and came and fell at the Lord's feet and told him the whole truth about what had happened to her from him. Then the Lord also came and absolved her, saying to her, "My daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be well from your affliction."
32 Aren't these kind words? What joy will the woman here have had in that she lets another do her good? This joy and peace come over all who do good to this man. Where there is this joy, there must follow immediately the works that prove this joy. So this peace and joy must also come forth in the woman; for as soon as she received the benefit from the Lord, she confessed it before all the people, and was not ashamed to preach that she had received something from him, and yet had given nothing for it. But these works and thanksgiving are what God wants from us, namely, that we confess and shout out His goodness, grace and mercy before everyone, so that others may also come and receive mercy, as has happened here.
(33) Therefore my Christian life compels me to do good to others, as God has done good to me through Christ, so that only this Christ may be known; but by this I do not become a Christian. Just as here this woman does not get well from confession, for she was well before all the work and confession: but afterwards, when she is well, she confesses Christ and praises him, only for the betterment of others, and so goes on in good works, always doing one good work above another. For this reason we also live, if we are now Christians, so that one may serve the other, whereby we can do more and more. Therefore, as this woman was made whole before all works, so we also should become Christians before we do any work.
Followed by the chief's maiden.
34: As therefore in this woman the gospel is pictured, so also in us it is pictured.
to the daughter of the chief here. This chief of the school, whom Marcus calls Jairus, had a strong faith and trust in the Lord that he would bring his deceased daughter back to life. For if he had not had the heart to him, he would not have come to him and asked such a thing, impossible of nature, from him; therefore he shows his faith with this request. When the Lord saw this faith in him, he could not let it go, he had to be at his will; therefore he soon arose and went with him. This is the story of the woman who had been sick for twelve years, as we have just heard.
035 And when the Lord came into the chief captain's house, and saw the pipers and the tumult of the people, which were there according to the law of Moses, blowing with horns and trumpets, as they ring with bells in this country, to call the people together, he commanded the people and the pipers to depart, saying, The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth: and they laughed him to scorn, and mocked him. This is that when this sermon goes out, that one preaches that Christ is the man who helps, our works do not, the world cannot leave it alone, it must laugh, it must mock, it must be angry at it, 1 Cor. 1:23; for it does not occur to it that Christ should help; as here the people do, who have said without doubt: A fine master or physician is this! What should he help? he does not know what sleeping or dying means!
The title of the gospel in the world must be that it is a foolish preaching, despised and mocked; for the devil cannot bear that this preaching should have honor in the world, for it brings no piety to his kingdom, as he well feels: therefore he also attacks with all cunning, that he may ever hinder it and make it worthless among his own, whose hearts he has completely blinded and taken over, so that the illumination of the gospel of the clarity of Christ does not shine to them, as St. Paul says to the Corinthians, 2 Ep. Paul says to the Corinthians 2 Ep. 4, 4. For it is impossible that this preaching of Christ should not bear fruit, it will not be in vain.
Isaiah 55:11; though they be few that receive them, there is none.
Because Satan feels that this escapes him, and that this preaching has just been set up against his kingdom, he has no rest, he persecutes it, despises it, and attacks it on all sides; just as he is raging and raging in the whole world. For the preaching of Christ overthrows everything that pleases only the world and the devil, even what the world considers most holy and most precious. For it imagines such a God, who accepts our good works, and allows himself to be pleased with masses, vigils, pens, rosaries, caps, plates, hemmed ropes, and what is more of fool's work, so that the pope may go about. If then one comes, brings the gospel, and preaches against the foolish work of the pope, as he must do, and says it is nothing, it is seduction, it is against Christ and against the Scriptures: he must be held up, he is called a heretic and a knave, even a traitor.
And then they say, "Do you want to rule the whole world? Do you think you are the smartest? Our ancestors were not fools either. Many holy and pious people have done these works and preached about them, but should you come here and destroy them first? Then it begins to rage and rage, to destroy and kill, and the devil wants to be right, so be it.
(38) That is enough of this gospel for this time, and take heed that ye learn from the gospel how all things stand in the one person, whom thou art called Christ. And mark this almost well, that a Christian hath the name of Christ alone. I do not say this in vain, for I know what it costs to keep it this way in the midst of temptation and adversity. Let us call upon God for mercy, so that we may one day take it seriously and grasp it with our hearts, amen.