Second Sermon.
This history is further and more diligently described by the other evangelists, Marco and Luke, and is a beautiful and rich gospel, both in doctrine and comfort; for it teaches the right knowledge of divine will in spiritual wisdom and understanding (as we have heard in the epistle), and gives comfort and strength of hope in cross and suffering. We will see some pieces of this.
2 First of all, the Lord is pictured here as he is mixed in the midst of the people as a friendly, affable man,
As St. Paul says in Titus 3:4, that the kindness and happiness of God appeared through him, so that he showed himself willing and ready to serve and help everyone, and also demonstrated his help to those who sought it from him with firm faith.
(3) Now these are the wretched, afflicted, afflicted and afflicted: with these he will be and be found, for with such alone can his word and work have place and place. To the rest of the secure, the powerful, the rich, the affluent, his preaching and miracles are in vain and lost; for they are not capable of his grace and good deeds, because they are full and full beforehand and seek their comfort and salvation in other things or in themselves. There must be people here who have no consolation and help, nor
and feel nothing but misery and distress; that it may remain true, as His church sings of Him, Luc. 1:53: "He feeds the hungry with goods, and leaves the rich empty."
4 From this you see how graciously and fatherly God shows Himself toward us, that through His dear Son He draws near to us and finds Himself among the poor and miserable, so that He may pour out His grace on all who will accept it; for for this reason He sent His Son to us, that through Him He might dwell with us and among us (as St. John chap. 1:14) and take care of us as His own blood and flesh. and to take care of us as of his blood and flesh, having borne their misery and distress upon himself, that he might save us from the affliction that brought us into it, that is, from sin and death. For this reason also he wants us to look to him for such help, and to wait on him through faith, as he says in John 6:40: "This is the will of my Father who sent me, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life."
(5) This is the knowledge which Christians learn and know, and by which alone they are Christians and become the children of God, as Isaiah Cap. 53:11 says: "By his knowledge he, my servant the righteous, will make many righteous," and John 1:12: "He has given them power to become the children of God, who believe in his name. For whatever else one may teach, do or undertake, however great, beautiful, praiseworthy, exquisite and holy it may seem, does not make one a Christian, that is, such a man as has forgiveness of sins and a gracious God, without this alone, that this Savior, the Son of God, sent into the world by the Father for this purpose, that through His blood He might take away our sins and atone for God's wrath, should be known and grasped by faith.
(6) For this reason, this doctrine and knowledge of the gospel should be loved and praised by all the world, because it alone proclaims to such consciences the joyful comfort that God will surely take care of poor, unworthy, miserable sinners and will not impute sin to them, but will forgive them out of pure grace.
and give; which no other doctrine nor preaching on earth can ever say nor give; as all the world, Jews, Gentiles, and Turks must confess.
7. Therefore, no man can get rid of his anxious doubt and fleeting conscience before God, and call upon God from the heart, and certainly conclude that God will hear him, without this knowledge alone of this Christ, whom God Himself has appointed as a mediator, and has publicly testified of Him that He will be gracious through Him, and hear and save whoever calls upon Him; and thus Christians alone are the people who can do the right service to God, and comfort themselves with joyful confidence that He is truly their God, and is with them and wants to help them; since all others, who do not recognize Christ, are truly without God, and can do no heartfelt, comforting calling, but must perish in eternal, terrible doubt and flight from God.
(8) Now in this gospel there are two beautiful examples, both of the help of Christ, and of the faith that clings to Christ and comforts, and also obtains help. First of all, this is a fine faith of the head of the school, that he comes to Christ in his distress, since his little daughter is already in the last stages, and cannot say otherwise than that she must already give up the ghost and be gone before he can come home again; as he then says: "My daughter has already died"; and with all men there is no more hope nor thought that help or counsel should be found here. Still he does not despair, but because the others in his house despair of her, weep and wail, and now think nothing more, but how they order the dead corpse with pipers and others: he goes to Christ, and still has the good confidence, where he may bring him to his little daughter, so she will live again. And so he believes that he is the man who can not only help and preserve a person's health, because he is still alive and well, but also restore life to a person who has been deprived of life and whose soul has departed.
1854 V- it, 352^st. On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. W. xi. 2474-247". 1855
An example of faith, because the like had not yet been seen or heard, unless the one about the dead young man who was raised, the widow's son, Luc. 7, 11. ff, had happened before and had also been heard. It is even greater faith that he can conclude without doubt in his heart that this Christ will also bring his daughter back to life. For if he had doubted, or followed his human thoughts of reason, he would certainly not have gone to Christ, but would have thought that he had waited too long; or even if he had raised another from the dead, it would not have followed that his little daughter should come to life again, because so many sons and daughters die daily to so many parents, and none of them come to life again.
9. This is a virtue and a right kind of faith, which is also praised afterwards in the blood-fluid woman: that she clings to Christ without wavering, grasps and firmly holds on to the word that she has heard from him, does not look at or ask what her own reason and thoughts persuade her to believe, nor what other people believe or do, but rather concludes straight away according to what she has heard from Christ, that she is such a man who can help in times of need and has helped others, so he will also help her. Such a heart and faith meets Christ rightly, finds him and experiences him as it believes.
10. On the other hand, his faith in the person of this Jesus is such (which was a great spiritual knowledge) that he certainly considers him to be the true Messiah sent by God: Not such a one, like the rest of the Jews, especially his companions, the scribes, who would appear as a great, excellent Lord and King in great splendor and glory before all the people, so that everyone would have to look at him and accept him as the Lord, sent to them by God; and for this he would wait that he should redeem them from physical imprisonment under the foreign rule of the Roman Emperor and make them great and mighty rulers of the world. But against such dreams and Jewish thoughts, he considers this man to be the right Lord and Messiah, whether or not he has been called by his
He is not regarded nor accepted as one of God's own Jews, who is sent by God not to give power, goods, honor and freedom in time, but to help in things and needs where no man can help, namely, to redeem from the distress of death and the power of the devil, yes, to make life out of death and to give it. And therefore this man must not only be regarded as a bad man, but as one who truly has divine eternal power and authority over all creatures, because he believes that he has both life and death in his hand, that is, that he is truly the Son of God, as the Scriptures testify.
The other example of faith is no less praiseworthy in the case of the poor woman who had the flow of blood for twelve years, so that she must have lost all her body and all her strength and long since despaired of all human help and comfort: She also comes to Christ as soon as she hears from him and can come to him, with a certain undoubted confidence that he can help her in her distress, and the heartfelt confidence that he is so pious and kind, and wants to help her and will not let her lack; of this she is so completely sure and certain that her heart has neither worry nor distress about this; although she has found great cause in herself and has also undoubtedly felt strong pain to doubt it, as we will hear. But she is troubled only with the thought of how she may come to the Lord Christ; she lacks nothing, except that she thinks, "Alas! if only I would touch the hem of his garment." She has already firmly and surely concluded in her heart that she would say, "Then I would be healed. But here she does not know how to get to him, because she sees that the crowd of the people was great around this man, and she, as a poor, sick woman, cannot well break through the crowd; moreover, she was separated by the law that she was not allowed to come among the people: still her faith and desire drive her, that she nevertheless does not let up, searches so long and works her way through the people, until she reaches him from behind and touches his garment.
12. here see how big two obstacles
Her faith overcomes. First, that he is so strong and can believe that she will be helped so surely if she only touches his garment. For she does not think it necessary that she should come before him and complain to him in many words of her distress and ask that he have mercy on her and help her, nor that others should plead for her, but only that she may reach him and touch him, for if this happens, she will certainly be helped. She does not doubt his power or his will, so much so that she no longer thinks it necessary to speak to him, but is so sure of his help that she will not lack it, if only she can reach the utmost in him. That is why she does not consider it necessary to meet his eyes so that he can look at her; indeed, she does not consider it worth his while to talk to her: Nor is her heart so full of good confidence in him that, regardless of the fact that she cannot come under his eyes and that he neither hears nor sees her, she is quite content to come to him from behind, secretly and hidden in the crowd, and has no doubt that she is already helped; just as her faith soon finds out, when she touches the hem of his garment, that the fountain of her blood dries up.
13. Now this must be a great, excellent enlightenment of the spirit and knowledge of faith, that a poor, simple woman should see and believe that this man's help and power are such that it is not necessary to talk to him long and much; but that he can also see into the hidden world, even if he obviously does not show himself as if he knew something about our need or wanted to do something about it; nevertheless, her faith holds it as certain as if she had already gotten over it, that if she could only reach him by the smallest means, then she would be helped. This means that she believes that there must be divine, omnipotent power and strength in this man, that he can also see and understand the secret thoughts and desires of the heart, even though nothing is said to him, and that he can also prove his work and help, since she neither sees nor feels anything outwardly without the word or the sermon that we have heard from him and which has awakened her faith in her heart.
14 She has nothing more to this word, nor does she desire anything more than to touch the garment, which she needs as an outward means and sign, so that she may come to Christ by it. Just as we have nothing else in this life and in the kingdom of faith, but the outward word and sacrament, in which he gives himself to us to touch and grasp outwardly as in his garment.
16 So you see what faith is and does when it clings to this person of Christ, namely, such a heart that considers him to be the Lord and Savior, the Son of God, through whom God reveals himself and promises his grace to us, that he will hear and help us for his sake and through him. This is the right spiritual, inner service of God, when the heart acts and calls upon Christ, even though it does not speak a word, and gives him the right honor, considers him to be the right Savior, who also knows and hears the secret desires of the heart, and proves his help and power, even though he does not outwardly let himself be felt and groped in such a way as we think.
The other feat of her faith is that she is able to overcome her own unworthiness and cast away the great stone from her heart that pressed her hard and yet makes her so shy that she may not come publicly before Christ like other people. This is the judgment of the law against her, according to which she is an unclean woman and forbidden the fellowship of men. For thus saith Moses, Cap. 15, of the 3rd book, v. 19 and following, that such a woman shall be unclean, as long as she hath the issue of her blood; and all that she hath about her shall be unclean; and whosoever toucheth her, or any thing that she toucheth, shall be unclean. etc. This was not a small affliction for her, not only because of her pestilence and bodily uncleanness, but also because she saw and felt God's punishment, which was inflicted on her in front of all the people, that she had to be separated from the congregation of God's people; and this for the whole twelve years, when she tried everything with all the physicians, and nothing helped, but became worse and worse; so that she had to think that God had punished her especially because of her sin and did not want to help her, and now had to
despair of human counsel, and consider that she must die of this plague and punishment.
(17) Therefore it was not without struggle and strife that her faith might obtain that which she seeks from Christ. For she had to think: Behold, I am an unclean woman, punished by God, and everyone knows me; now, when I come before this Lord, everyone and even he himself will condemn me, that I should come before his eyes in such a presumptuous and impudent way, and would therefore rather find more wrath and greater God's punishment than mercy from him, and would have to say herself that it would be right for me if he pushed me away with wrath. Such a struggle and challenge is also shown by the fact that afterwards, as the text says, when she saw that she had been revealed, she was frightened and trembled, since she had already been helped; and she still had to worry that he would lead her away in anger, so that she would not be afraid to approach him and secretly steal away help.
(18) But against all this, her faith, which completely imagines the good and merciful heart of this Christ, pulls her through; and her distress, yes, her despair, drives her to become insolent even before God, and in spite of the law's prohibition and judgment and her own shame, she pushes through, thinking: This Savior must be taken, the law says so, her own heart and all the world, yes, even he himself, what they want. Here is the man who can help, a pious, kind, faithful savior; so I am a poor, miserable woman who needs his help: he will not become another man in me, nor will his grace and help be lacking in me; and let it be to me as it is his good will, so it is better for me that the shame should come upon me than the pity that I should miss him, because I may be helped by him. And so she sets her whole heart on it, if she only takes hold of the man, then there is no need and she is already recovered; then she will speak with Moses and the law, so that she remains undamned by him etc.
019 Behold, this is a fine faith, which recognizes its unworthiness, and yet does not allow it to hinder its trust in Christ, nor doubts His grace and mercy.
He will tear through the law and everything that wants to deter him; even if all the world wants to prevent and hinder him, he will not let go of this man until he has seized him. That is why he penetrates and obtains what he seeks from Christ, and as soon as the power and work is experienced, even before Christ begins to speak to it. For he cannot fail with this man, as Christ himself must bear witness to her and say: "Your faith has helped you.
20 This faith is so pleasing to Christ that he does not want it to remain hidden in her alone, or the power and work done through it to remain hidden; but it must also be revealed to everyone what is in her heart, so that her faith may be praised before all the world and also strengthened in her. Therefore he begins to look around, asks and wants to know who touched him, because he feels that a power has gone out of him; that she is really frightened by this and becomes full of trembling, now she sees that she must be revealed. For such a heart, under the great, fine trust that she has in him, yet still mixed with humility and recognition of her unworthiness, must admit guilt that she has done against Moses, that he would speak and be angry with her for it, that she may be so bold and press herself so brazenly toward him. And so, in the midst of the work, since she has already received help and now her heart has rejoiced in herself, her faith still has to struggle with fear and anxiety, but all so that it may have all the more comfort and joy in Christ. For he does not want faith to lie in the heart alone, but also to be publicly confessed, so that God's glory may be praised by it and others may also be provoked to believe by it.
(21) Therefore, since she is in fear and trembling, that she must be put to shame before everyone and be condemned according to the law, even that she herself must publicly confess it, Christ begins to confirm such faith that she has done right and well in that she has been torn against Moses and the law, that is, against the judgment of her unworthiness, and he himself also torn through it publicly, wanting her unaccused and uncondemned.
He even exalts such faith so highly that he attributes to it alone the power and the work that helped her, just as if it had done nothing here. Just as he is wont to speak elsewhere, as to the centurion Matth. 8, 13: "Your faith has helped you"; item, to the Gentile woman Matth. 15, 28: "Be it done to you as you have believed" etc.
(22) So then we should also learn from this woman of faith the power of calling upon her in our struggles and temptations. For as I have said, this alone is the reason why we become Christians, and makes the difference between them and all other people on earth, Turks, pagans, Jews; that one must know that it is a different thing to be a pious man, to do great and much work, to lead and practice a beautiful, honorable, virtuous life, and another thing to be a Christian. For in the matter of our life and work, Jews and Turks also often have great praise and glory before men, as many great and excellent people are highly praised in the histories of the Gentiles for all honorableness and virtue; item, among the Jews there were many, as Gamaliel, Paul before his conversion, Nicodemus and others, who lived with all diligence according to the law etc., that with such an outward life before the world they also far surpassed many of those who were true Christians (such as this poor woman).
(23) But in this respect there is a difference and a wider difference than between heaven and earth, that a Christian is such a man who has another light in his heart, which is faith, which rightly knows and grasps God, and has to do with him through true invocation. For he knows and recognizes his own unworthiness from his word, and has the right fear of God; and again comforts himself with grace, believes and trusts that he has forgiveness of sins and redemption in Christ, the Son of God, and for his sake God is pleased and chosen for eternal life, and in all troubles, where he feels weakness or is challenged, he can take refuge in God, call upon him and wait for his help, and knows that he has an answer etc.
24. behold, this none can and cannot
no other man, whether he be a Jew, a Turk, or a Papist etc., however pious and good of life he may be, and may boast that he serves and worships God, and seeks eternal life; for all such people's worship, calling and life still have these two great defects, for which it cannot please God: first, that they do not meet the right God, that is, do not recognize Him as He has revealed Himself and wants to be recognized, namely, as a father of this Lord JEsu Christ, His Son. Thus, in their blindness, they miss God altogether, because they seek Him through their own thoughts apart from and without Christ, and are deprived of the knowledge of the true divine essence.
(25) Secondly, they also lack the ability to know anything certain about God's will, because they do not have the gospel; therefore, they cannot conclude that God will certainly hear them, always remaining in doubt as to whether God will take care of them and hear them. And so their appeals or prayers are nothing but vain thoughts or chatter, since the heart does not take comfort from God, nor does it wait for anything from Him, but rather flees from Him, and thus is truly without God and uselessly uses God's name.
(26) But Christians call upon the true God, namely, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who reveals Himself to men through His Word, and in addition have a certain trust and confidence against doubt that God is gracious to us and hears our prayer for the sake of this Mediator, His dear Son.
This is the beautiful example of this woman. Now we come to the daughter of the head of the schools. But here the faith must also dispute and increase. For even though he had a fine faith, as we have heard, it would hardly have existed if it had not been strengthened. For while Christ is still talking to the woman, says Marcus Cap. 5, 35. 36. and Lucas Cap. 8, 49., he is told that his daughter has already died, that he should not trouble the master any further, that is, that nothing will come of it, that he has waited too long, that he should now go and think about how he will bring his daughter to her grave.
1862 s. i4, S60-SS2. On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. sv. xi, 2484-2487. 1863
28 His faith has been given a hard push, but so that it does not sink, this must fall into it, so that the woman with the blood may be helped to strengthen her faith against the temptation of despair for her little daughter. So Christ himself is soon there, strengthening and comforting him against such opposition, to show that he does not want to push even the weak faith to its head, but has raised and strengthened it, and even herewith admonishes and strengthens everyone, when he says: "Do not doubt, only believe," etc.That it may be seen how well it pleases him that only faith holds fast to him, that he also takes care where faith is weak that it does not perish; as he also says to the apostles, and especially to Petro, who soon fell away: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail," Luc. 22, 32.
When Christ comes with him to his house, this man's faith must be stormed, for he sees and hears nothing but the tumult, weeping and wailing, and the blowing of the drums (which they also used for their dead corpses, as we use our bells), all of which screams into his heart that there is nothing but death here, and no life to hope for. And once again, faith has nothing to sustain itself against despair, neither the word that Christ speaks against such tumult and cries of death: "The maiden has not died, but is asleep," for which it must let itself be laughed at and mocked by others as a fool; for they all saw and knew that the maiden had died and that there was no breath nor spark of life left, so that they must think: Behold, is our master or priest mad or foolish, that he brings in this fool, who wants to persuade us that the maiden is not dead, since everyone sees publicly that she lies there stretched out from death, a dead corpse, only to be scraped under the earth.
For they are gathered here in the synagogue as in a common house, as with us are the parish churches, where they preached on the Sabbath and taught the Word of God, because otherwise there had to be no church or temple in the whole country, except in Jerusalem. And this head of the school is the one who has been...
The priest must have been a priest, and the others next to him as his chaplains or preachers, who read or preached Moses, circumcised the children, taught the youth, etc., item, been with the sick, mourners, to comfort them. These must be with one another in the school, and bear witness to this work of Christ, even with their mockery and ridicule, that the maiden has truly died and been raised from death, and this chief must, before and before he learns of such work, against this mockery and ridicule, once again hold to the mere word of Christ, and also be a fool with him, and in foolishness learn this spiritual wisdom, that the death of Christ is truly not death, but only a sleep.
(31) Now let us also learn to be fools with Christ and this schoolmaster, that we may understand these words. For where this man's words are mocked by the world and considered foolishness, they are deliciously good; for surely hidden therein is the highest wisdom in heaven and on earth. For this saying teaches you (as a common saying) that even your death in Christ is nothing but a sleep, so that you can see through and over the ghastly sight and terrible shell of death and the grave into life, yes, grasp the same in death, if you also hear such words with faith and let Christ be true.
(32) For these are not the eyes of cows, nor of calves, neither of men: but such eyes as Christ seeth with, and such ears as Christians hear with, even such senses and hearts as Christ himself hath. A sow, when she sees a man's dead body lying before her, cannot say otherwise than that there lies a carrion like another carrion, which must be eaten by birds or animals, or decompose by itself. So also a man without faith sees and understands nothing more here, and is nothing to distinguish from a sow, without that he carries the head up, but the sow under him. For he can have no other thoughts than as far as this life goes. Therefore
it is not a wonder whether reason therefore is smarting: How can a man sleep who has neither breath nor life, who lies buried under the earth and decays. But it is said: Whoever wants to learn to understand and experience God's kingdom, power and work, must use his mind and senses, purify his eyes and sweep his ears, and here hear and see what Christ says about it, how it is before him apart from this life, where our mind, sense and thoughts may not reach.
(33) Now here thou hearest Christ saying that the death of man is not death unto him, but sleep; yea, there is none dead before him of them that are alive and buried before us unto this day, or that are yet to be buried, but all are alive as we see them before us: for he hath determined that they should all live; yea, he hath already their life in his hands. For you must separate Christ's thought and work from this worldly appearance, thought and understanding, as I have said: that you do not remain in the animal blind senses and thoughts, as the body lies there and rots; but first of all remember that he is the Lord of all creatures, whether dead or alive, and all their life flows from him and exists through and in him, so that if he did not receive it, none of them could live for a moment.
34 He must receive it daily without this when we sleep in the body, since man himself is not powerful of his senses and life, and does not know how he sinks into sleep or comes out of it, and thus life is received in him without his knowledge and assistance. Therefore it is not difficult for him, even at the hour when body and soul part, to hold man's soul and spirit in his hands and bring them back to the body, even if we neither see nor feel anything of it, yes, even if the body decays completely. For as he can keep the breath of life and the spirit apart from the body, so he can also bring the body together again from the dust and powder. He proved this with this and similar examples, when he separated those who had truly died and the soul from the body,
He raised them up again with one word, so that it must be said that even when they are dead he keeps their life in his hand, for if he did not have it in his power, he could not give it again.
35 Secondly, in this matter also, you must not reckon and count how far life and death are from each other, or how many years pass before the body decays in the grave, and always one dies after another; but here also take other than human thoughts in Christ, as it goes beyond this time and hour. For he does not count time by tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, nor measure it by degrees, one before and another after, as we must do in this life; but comprehends all in one moment, the beginning, the middle, and the end of the whole human race and of all time. And what we look at and measure according to time as a very long, drawn-out measuring line, he sees everything as wound together on a single needle, and thus both the last and the first man's death and life are no more than a moment to him.
36. So we should also learn to look at our death in the right way, so that we are not frightened by it, as unbelief is: That it is truly in Christ not a death, but a fine, sweet, short sleep, where we shall rest from this misery, sin and right death distress and anguish, and all the misfortunes of this life, safe and without all care, sweet and gentle, for a little moment, as in a little resting-place, until the time comes that he will awaken and call us with all his dear children to his eternal glory and joys. For because it is called a sleep, we know that we are not to remain in it, but are to awake and live again, and the time when we sleep cannot be longer to us than if we had only now fallen asleep this hour; that we shall also have to punish ourselves for having been terrified or afraid of such a fine sleep at the hour of death, and thus in a moment come out of the grave and decay alive, completely healthy, fresh, with a pure, bright, transfigured body to meet our Lord and Savior Christ in the clouds.
1866 L. iä, 36S-M7. On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. W. n, 2490-2493. 1867
(37) Therefore, with all confidence and joy, as our faithful Savior and Redeemer, we must trust and commit our souls, bodies, and lives to him, just as we must commit our lives to him without any care in bodily sleep and rest, certain that we will not lose them as they appear before our eyes, but that they will be safely and securely kept in his hand, preserved and restored to us. For here you see that he proves by deed how easy it is for him to awaken a man from death and to restore him to life, since he comes to the maiden and takes her by the hand alone and grasps her as someone else would awaken a sleeping man, and in one word calls out to her, "Up, maiden!"and the maiden is as soon raised as if she had been called out of her sleep, and here she is neither asleep nor dead any more, but is fine, alert and fresh, just as Lazarus is going out of his grave.
Behold, this word of Christ is not a laughingstock and foolishness to the faith. The word of Christ is not laughter and foolishness (as it is to the rest of the wise men and saints under the law, who always remain in fear and terror of death, with vain thoughts of death and works), but a high wisdom, from which death and all images of death are swallowed up and vain instead. Comfort, joy and life are seized. And certainly this word of Christ must be followed by action and experience, and the faith of his word cannot be lacking. And let this also be to thee an excellent alchemy and masterpiece, which will not turn copper or lead into gold, but will turn death into sleep, thy grave into a gentle resting place, the time from Abel's death to the last day into a short hour, which no creature has nor is able to have but this faith in Christ. If you can also believe this, that is, let Christ's word be true and not be a lie, then you have already overcome both death and the agony of death and made a sweet rest for yourself.
39 This comfort is given to us everywhere in Scripture, which also speaks of the death of the saints in this way, that they fell asleep and were gathered to their fathers, that is, in this faith and comfort in Christ they overcame death.
They waited for the death of the dead and the resurrection together with the other saints who died before them. Therefore also from time immemorial the Christians (no doubt from the apostles or their disciples) had the way that they kept their burial honestly, and had with each other, where they could, and called the same not, burial place or death yards, but, coemeteria, dormitoria, dormitories, hence also such name remained until us; and we Germans from time immemorial call such burial God's Acre, after the way, as St. Paul 1 Cor. Paul 1 Cor. 15, 44. speaks: "A natural body is sown" etc.; for that we now call churchyards, that were first of all not burial grounds etc. Behold, this is the teaching and comfort of the gospel.
(40) Here, too, as in a painting, both in the bloody woman and in the maiden are depicted, how it goes in the regime where one wants to rule the consciences with the law and Christ is not recognized. For there are two kinds of people: one part is the sick, poor, stupid consciences, who feel their secret misery of sins, and the judgment and curse of the law, that is, God's wrath upon them, would like to be rid of them, seek help and counsel from all physicians, turn to it all their fortune, body and life, and yet everything helps nothing, neither improves nor comforts, but only becomes worse, so that they must finally despair and consider death, until Christ comes with his gospel. This is what many good-hearted people have experienced under the papacy, who earnestly set out to become pious, did everything they could to be instructed and disciplined, and only became more anxious and despondent in their consciences, and would have gladly run away from the world because of the fear and terror of death and the last day. This was the fruit of all teaching, where it is best apart from the knowledge of Christ.
41 The other group, like the chief's daughter, are those who are without law, whether Jews or Gentiles, that is, who walk freely and safely, not feeling the terror of the law, thinking they are well off until they are suddenly struck and die; as St. Paul says of himself
Rom. 7, 11. says that he also vowed without the law, but afterwards sin came alive through the law and killed him etc.
(42) Now that these two may be helped out of their distress and death, there is neither counsel nor help, except that Christ may be known, and his comforting, living voice of the gospel heard, which has power to cast out sin and death, and to give comfort, joy, and life forever to the conscience, if it be received with a believing heart. And in this the article is clearly shown that we are saved from sins and death without our merit, free of charge, justified and saved by faith alone. For the poor little woman brings nothing before Christ without great unworthiness, so that she must also be ashamed, yes, full of fear and terror, when she must be revealed; much less is there any worthiness and merit of her own in the case of the chief's little daughter, because she lies there, cast into death, and is without life and work at all.
Summa: Here must be the confession that we have nothing in ourselves, nor are we able to do and live, that may please God and bring us to grace and life; but His pure and simple grace, given to us.
43 Now that we have forgiveness of sins, comfort and life, let us also begin to teach and do good works. Just as the woman, now that she is well, and the maiden, now that she is alive, have done the work of one who is well and alive. For in Christ we now have the power to live according to God's will, and to know that the work and life we have begun in Christ is pleasing to Him. What more could be said here, how Christ does his works and miracles in his church, by which the fruits of the gospel are proven, but secretly and hidden (as he did with this woman and maiden), so that the world does not have to see it, would now be too long.