(1) This Gospel is appointed to be read on the first Sunday in Lent, because it is written how Christ fasted forty days. That from this example people should be exhorted to fast at this time. As the forty days of fasting are assumed and appointed from this, though it was not done for such an example by Christ nor described by the evangelists, nor can anyone keep such fasts as Christ fasted forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, nor did he require such fasts of his disciples and Christians, nor did he impose them on them.
Now we should also say here about fasting: but I have never seen a real fasting; therefore I know nothing to preach about it. For the fasting of our papists has been a bad, even mocking fast, as the Latin proverb testifies: Italorum devotio et Germanorum jejunia fabam valent omnia: The devotion of the Whales and the fasting of the Germans would both be paid for with a bean. But even if one fasts rightly, such fasting is not suitable, because the Pope's teachings make it a more righteous sanctity to atone for sin and to obtain forgiveness. And in short, fasting, whether done by one's own choice and devotion or enforced by man's command, does not rhyme with this example of Christ. For there is neither God's word nor command, neither temptation nor necessity, of God's sending; as happened here with Christ: but all that is done with such fasting is done with false confidence of our work, without Christian understanding and opinion.
3 But Christ speaks much differently about the right Christian fasting, Matth. 9, 14-17. when the disciples of John came to him and said, Why they and the Pharisees fasted much, and his disciples did not fast at all? Then he gave them a short answer, saying, "It is not rhyme or reason that an old garment should be fasted with a new one.
A new wine and a new vessel, a new skirt and a new cloth belong together. etc. As if he wanted to say: You praise your self-chosen fasting very highly; but it is a loose fasting, which I would compare to a torn and mended fur. But let not my disciples fast unto me, because I am with them: they shall have fasting enough, when they have me no more.
4. There he indicates what he calls a real fast, namely, not the children's fast, yes, lying fast, which only has the name, because one does not lay the tablecloth in the evening, or does not eat meat or eggs; and yet fills the belly with the best fish and wine, so that some would rather have such a fasting day than their eating day, and only with such fasting both God and the people are mocked; nor the hypocritical fasts, such as the Pharisees chose for themselves, without all need and commandment, only so that they would be considered holy people before others who did not fast in this way: But this is what he calls a true Christian fast, which he calls "mourning and suffering," that is, suffering all kinds of hardships and misfortunes imposed by God, which are painful to a person and which he would much rather have overcome. As when a man must suffer hunger and sorrow with his wife and children, or be chased away or imprisoned, because he often has to eat with good teeth; or even when he lies sick on his bed, and would have well to eat, and yet cannot and does not eat. Which St. Paul tells 2 Cor. 6, 4. 5: "In afflictions, in distresses, in anguish, in beatings, in prisons, in riots, in much labor, in watchings, in fastings" etc.
5 I wanted to praise such fasting, when one patiently suffers lack and need for the sake of God. For so Christ also fasted here, being led into the wilderness, not of his own counsel or discretion, but by the Holy Spirit, when he had to fast because he had nothing to eat. The other fasting, which is nothing else but a
Loud hypocrisy, yes, a lie and a mockery, is not worthy to be spoken of in Christendom.
(6) Therefore, let us now look at the main part of this gospel, namely, the three kinds of temptations, so that the devil challenged Christ in the wilderness. And this gospel is indeed frightening enough in that part, if we would only look at it rightly. For here the devil is painted with all his colors; and in the person of Christ is pictured here, not only what every Christian must suffer for himself, but also what the whole Christian church must suffer from the devil.
(7) In the first temptation, from the stones, the black devil is painted; in the second, the beautiful, white and holy devil is painted, who leads Christ in the air and to the temple, but not into it; in the third, the supreme and heavenly, and even divine devil is painted, who poses as if he were God himself, and offers Christ all the kingdoms on earth, but with the condition that he falls down before him and worships him. This is very terrible; without it being comforting in that the devil lacked Christ, and must also lack us if we cling to Christ by faith. But where this person is out of sight, these three devils have such an upper hand that it is not possible for a man to stand.
Now, the first devil, as I have said, is the black devil, whom people know and call the devil. He fights with hunger, and says: "If you are the son of God" and so holy, then you will be able to do everything. Well then, let us see if you can make these stones into bread etc. This is the devil, who has almost physically afflicted every Christian in particular, and then all holy Christendom, with hunger, thirst, and all kinds of trouble, affliction, fear, and distress.
This, as reported before, is the right fasting, of which Christ says Matth. 9, 15, that his disciples, when he is gone from them, will have to fast more than they would like; that is, they will have to suffer hunger and sorrow, and all kinds of bodily deficiencies and hardships from the devil and his bride, the world.
(10) As in the beginning of Christianity, soon after the ascension of Christ, such a trial began, and lasted almost longer than three hundred years; since the dear little band of Christians not only had to suffer hunger, thirst, and all kinds of bodily deficiencies, but were also driven out by their own, robbed, and miserably murdered. And at last the raging and raging of the tyrants against the Christians (especially those who were preachers and pastors) became so much that in one day (as one finds in the histories) seventy thousand martyrs were strangled by the Roman Empire. As one still finds in Rome a churchyard where, as they say, eighty thousand martyrs and six and forty bishops are buried. Thus the black devil went up in the beginning, attacked the church with the right fast, so that one had to feel that it was the devil himself, who had in mind to turn the Christians away from faith and word with his black color and even to exterminate them.
(11) And his attack was also quite successful. For many Christians, when challenged for their faith and forced either to deny it or to stick their necks out, retreated, denied their baptism and recanted their faith. Nevertheless, there remained many of them who dared everything and suffered for the sake of faith. So that the same first time of Christianity is called the time of the dear martyrs, that they were horribly executed with heaps. And yet Christianity has remained in such strangleholds and tyranny; and the tyrants, on the other hand, have fallen to the ground over it. Of this the 9th Psalm, v. 6, 7, sings joyfully and comfortingly: "Thou reproachest the heathen, and destroyest the wicked; thou destroyest their name for ever. The swords of the enemy are ended, the cities thou hast turned back, their memory is perished, with them" etc.
12) The text tells us how the dear martyrs defended themselves against the tyrants, when Christ answers the devil and says: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes through the mouth of God. From this answer one hears that the devil with
The people of God, who in the first place stood by Christ and then by the Christian church in the face of his temptation, did not see how they could keep this present fleeting life, but went under the eyes of the devil and his troops, stood up to his tyranny and said, "This is not only for this temporal life here on earth, but rather for the dear and precious word of God that they may keep it and not deny it: It is not only for this temporal life here on earth that they are concerned, but rather for the dear precious word of God, that they may keep the same and not deny it; because Moses says that man does not live by having bread and grain alone, but there must be a greater supply than bread and grain, so that man can also remain after this life. There is no other way to come to this conclusion than that man, if he is to remain in the right and eternal life, has God's word, so that he can protect and comfort himself against such bodily temptations, by which the devil wants to force him to leave the word.
(13) These, I say, are the defences that the holy martyrs have strengthened themselves against the tyrants, saying to them with joyful courage, "If you take away my money and my goods, my wife and my child, even my life, what more do you have, or what less do I have, because I have food for eternal life, which you cannot take away from me? If thou bring me to fasting, whereof the body must waste away and die; yet there shall remain unto me the everlasting meat, the word of God, which, as Peter saith, 1 Ep. 1:23, is preached orally, but it is an incorruptible seed, and the living word, which abideth for ever. Therefore he who believes has food that nourishes him to eternal life. For where the word abideth, there shall he abide also: for it is, as Paul saith, "the power of God, which causeth all them to be saved that believe. So Christ also says John 4:14: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." There he calls his word a living fountain, springing up from this life into that.
14. although the black devil will soon be
in the beginning with all his might against Christianity, led them into the wilderness and intended to exterminate them, not only with hunger and all kinds of lack of bodily life, but also with chasing away, robbing, murdering etc.., and thus also made them much weary, so that they fell from the faith: but nevertheless the majority stood firm, confidently resisted the devil, and overcame him also by the word of God alone, which they had grasped by faith, and freely concluded from it, according to the example of Christ: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that passes through the mouth of God." For because it is a living and eternal word, it can also sustain those who believe in it forever, even if they have died etc.
15 There were also heretics at the same time who took it upon themselves to divide and mislead Christendom, but they could not do anything special. For the physical persecution was too great, by which the true Christians only became more practiced and more certain in the faith etc. Afterwards, under the emperor Constantine, the church was pacified and the gospel was preached without persecution, so that the strangulation had to stop and the black devil had to hide. For Constantine held so firmly over the Christians that he also chased out Licinium, the fine warrior who ruled the empire with him, to the empire, just because he did not want to leave the Christians satisfied. Then the first persecution of the black devil ceased.
16 Soon after such hunger, choking and killing, the other devil came, thinking: "If I cannot scare you off with my black ugly color, I will try something else. And so he became a light devil, who disguised himself so that he shone like a heavenly angel, and immediately attacked the matter in the way he had done with Christ. Since he did not want to succeed with him at first, he thought, you want to trust God, that even if you have no bread, he can still feed you, if you only have his word. If thou wilt do so, I will help thee, and make thee believe etc. Take him, and lead him not further into the wilderness, but out of the wilderness, that is, out of hunger, and
Fasting, into the holy city. Jerusalem is called the holy city because God's dwelling place and temple were there. For as a house is called by the name of its Lord, so the temple of our Lord was called the throne and tabernacle of God, when he had fire and furnace, Isa. 31:9, that is, he kept the house of Jerusalem.
(17) The devil brought him to this holy city, when he also wanted to be pious and help Christ; he put him on the top of the pinnacle of the temple. For in those countries the houses are built so that they are square and paved at the top, and have steps so that one can go up and down. Now when he has set him up, he says, "If thou be the Son of God, let thyself down." He does not attack him here with hunger or sword; but leads him into the Scriptures and lets himself be heard as a doctor of the Scriptures, leading the beautiful text from the 91st Psalm v. 11. 12.: "God will command his angels over you, and they will carry you on their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." As if to say, "If you will keep God's word so steadfastly and not let any challenge take away the Scriptures from you, listen, here you have the Scriptures: God has ordained His angels to make a pavement for you with their own hands, and to keep you safe, so that you may go down like an angel, without danger or harm.
18 This is the other, namely, the glittering devil, who poses as an angel of God and attacks Christianity, not with bodily persecution, but with their own armor and weapons, that is, with the Scriptures, so that they resist all bodily challenges against him. He can pretend and twist these so wonderfully and masterfully that he soon drives one astray if he does not diligently pay attention to them. Here he holds up the Scriptures to Christ and wants to persuade him to descend from the pinnacle of the temple, because he would not be able to do so, since it is written that God commanded the angels to carry his children on their hands. etc. Scripture is there; but see what the cunning serpent and the father of all lies needs for a masterpiece. Scripture he leads; but the most necessary he leaves
outside. For this is the saying he leads from the 91st Psalm v. 11. 12: "God has commanded His angels over you, to guard you in all your ways" etc. These words: "in all your ways", the rogue skips, because it was against him.
(19) Therefore Christ beat him back and said to him: "One should guide the Scriptures in such a way that one nevertheless does not tempt God; as if he wanted to speak: Where a man walks in his ways, that is, waiting for his command and office, there the angels are commanded to guard him and to keep him from all evil. But you, the mischievous, leave such things outside, and show me a door where there is no way. It is a right way for doves, sparrows and other birds to let themselves down from the heights to the earth; they have feathers for this and can fly. God did not give such things to man, but ordained stairs to go up and down, and not to seek a new way in the air.
20 It is true that Christ could have done this as well as walked on the water. But because he was in human nature and wanted us to endure such a challenge too well, God made human nature in Christ fight with the devil, and for our comfort strike him with his own sword and overcome him, saying, "You shall not tempt God your Lord," as if to say, "You mischievous one, you teach me to sleep down in the air; that is not a way for me, for men should not sleep down in the air, but go down the stairs. But because I am a man, I will use such means; otherwise, following your counsel, it would be trying God etc.
This, I say, is the other challenge of the Christian Church. For as soon as Constantine became a Christian, the real heretics were found: not the young disciples, as Ebion and Cerinthus were, but the main heretics, as Ariani, Macedoniani, Eunomiani, Manichaei etc., all of whom made themselves at Christ and stormed against him, some challenging his humanity, the others his divinity etc. These all did great murderous harm, in addition they persecuted, drove out and murdered the pious bishops, the
could have fended off such damage on their own. And if the devil was much stronger then, he also did greater harm than before. For since he attacked Christianity with the physical challenge of hunger and sword, one could know the black devil and beware of him. But when he set himself against Christianity with the spiritual sword, that is, with the Scriptures, that he might thereby adorn his lies and bring them to the people with a semblance of great wisdom and holiness, he did not present himself as ugly and cruel as before, so that he was no longer regarded as a black devil, but as an angel of light.
22 For as he did not bring Christ into the wilderness, when he set the Scriptures upon him, and sought to master him with other arts, but brought him out of the wilderness into the holy city, and set him up in the temple: so also at that time he ceased from persecuting and slaying the Christians, and gave them peace and good rest, and caused them to be abundantly provided for by the pious Christian emperors. He also made the people, especially the pastors and preachers, holy, wise and learned in the Scriptures, so that in time they became sober and secure, never diligently pursuing God's word with teaching, exhorting, comforting, nor practicing prayer. For they were outwardly at peace. From this it must finally follow that they lost the right understanding of the Scriptures, and got into strange and strange questions, how this or that could be true etc. And began to master the articles of faith according to their own conceit, and to rhyme the Scriptures with them. In this way the devil led them out of the wilderness, not into the temple, but onto the temple, from which they fell down and broke their necks, almost leading all of Christendom with them into horrible error and eternal destruction.
(23) For so it is with all heretics, that they first conceive a conceit, which seemeth good and right unto them. When they have made this up, they go to the Scriptures, search and believe in them, as they adorn such conceit. This is a very dangerous thing. So that I give an example of it: When the heretic Arius wanted to make the person
Christ's first thought was that Christ was born of Mary of virgins; therefore he is a natural man. Secondly, it is also natural that there is no more than One God. As the Turks still stand to this day and say: As there is only One World and One Sun, so there is also only One God; item: One Regiment shall have no more than One Head. There they stand up; and in short, whoever teaches otherwise must be wrong.
This is a thought that comes easily to the mind, especially to those who are not well versed in words. When such a thought has been conceived, it is quickly followed by a look at the Scriptures. There Arius finds that Moses says Deut. 6, 4: "Israel, your God is one God." Item, Jesus Sirach speaks in the 24th chapter v. 14: "Let wisdom be created" etc. Then Arius was caught, and on such arrogance, he directed the terrible great lamentation, and persuaded the people that Christ was not a true natural God. Constantinus, the emperor, would have gladly defended himself, attacked Arium and expelled him from the country so that he should no longer preach. But the devil soon got rid of him, and confidently helped his poison to spread the longer the further, so that at last it came to the point that at the same time not more than two pastors or bishops in the whole Orient remained untainted by such poison. The others all adhered to it until the son of Emperor Constantine, called Constantius, fell to Ario. He first made a rift, so that all princes, rich men, and scholars fell after him and advocated Ario's heresy, and did great harm to Christianity, which the whole church in the Orient never really overcame. For more than three hundred years later, the devil Mahomet came and confirmed such error of Arii, and taught other things besides, according to reason. This was the white and very evil devil. The black one wielded the sword, but this one took away the Christians' sword, the holy scripture, and said: "This is what your God says. Who would not fall when he hears, "This is the word of God, this is what God Himself says"? etc.
25 Now this is the other challenge
Christianity, after the time of the dear martyrs, when the church was miserably torn apart. And from the same single error of Arii the world became full of heresies, and at that time only those remained steadfast in the right Christian faith, who kept the word badly and simple, and spoke and believed about Christ as the Scriptures testify about him. This was their armor, so that they not only protected themselves against the poisonous villain, Arium and his great followers, but also confidently strengthened themselves and finally overcame him.
(26) For although all heretics know how to adorn their lies and errors with the Scriptures, and thereby make a mirror image of the people, so that they think it is all truth, and soon do noticeable great harm; "for their word," says St. Paul, "eats away like cancer," nevertheless their foolishness cannot last long, it must come to light in time. Cause, they let God's word go, or interpret it according to their liking, that it must mean to them what they want. In sum, they take on something special, invent their own faith without God's word, and form or shape a special God for themselves: not as the Scriptures paint him, but according to their thoughts. Let him then accept their doctrine and life as holy and divine alone. What others teach and do, if they had ten times the Scripture for themselves, it must be wrong and sin. In time, Christians will realize this and beware of them.
(27) These are the ones whom the devil leads high in the air and puts on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to them, "Let yourself down," (2c).This is: "You are a highly enlightened man, gifted by God with great spiritual gifts, much more pious, learned and holy than all the others; as you think of God, it must be certain that you cannot lack it: therefore, because God has revealed this to you, you must not only keep it to yourself, but also communicate it to others. This devilish hopefulness then makes them sure and presumptuous, so that without fear of God and without command they spew out their own slobber and pour it out to the people, that is, teach something new,
without and against God's word. This is called "tempting God" and wanting to fly in the air without feathers. Nothing else can follow afterwards, but to fall down in the devil's name and to break the neck.
(28) Therefore all heretics, when they rely on their own thoughts, or turn their noses at the Scriptures so that they rhyme with their lies, do no differently than if I or another were to cross the Rhine without a bridge, and say: I will believe and trust in God, I have His word that His angels will keep me safe, so that I will not drown. No, here you have no command to: so the way, on which the angels are to keep you, does not go through the water, but over the bridge. If you fall over it and are drowned, it will serve you right, for you have tempted God.
(29) This is an art, not of flesh and blood, but of the Holy Spirit, that one may discern the Word of God rightly and surely, and see whether it is rightly or wrongly conducted. For the devil also knows the art, and proves it in the highest master, Christ himself. For this reason, you should not soon be frightened when the heretics and heretical spirits boast about it: Here Scripture, here God's word etc.; but rather: hold Scripture against Scripture, as Christ does here. For the very heretics themselves, who are the most vehement enemies of the Word and persecute it the most, act as if they wanted to help promote and handle it. To them one must answer, if they make use of the Scriptures and adorn their lies with them: No, I do not turn to this alone, that you say that you have God's word for yourself; for one must also see that one does not tempt God. And if it were already God's word for you to help yourself, you might have done something about it or to it. Therefore, let it be seen whether it is the opinion of the Holy Spirit and whether you conduct it correctly; for our Lord God will not be angry with me if I do not accept His word as you conduct and interpret it. For the devil and all heretics, even though they adorn themselves with God's word, still conduct it wrongly. Therefore my Lord Christ has warned me both with his example and otherwise against it etc.
(30) But, as I said, it is the art and gift of the Holy Spirit to resist false doctrine; as the holy bishops and other Christians by the Holy Spirit with the word of God have resisted the devil and his apostles, the heretics. It is true that many are deceived and seduced by their hypocrisy and lies, which they boast of for holiness and truth: but on the other hand, there have always been those who have recognized the glittering devil and have not allowed themselves to be moved by his apostles' high art and wisdom; but have noticed that it is all hypocrisy and deception, even if they adorn themselves with the Scriptures and God's name.
(31) Let this be said of the other time when the white and angelic devil challenged Christianity through heresy, and the
poor conscience miserably shattered and driven mad. And no wonder. For how should the common man, who is not particularly instructed in God's Word, defend himself when he hears the great titles: God's Word, God's Name, God's Glory etc.? Therefore, God must help here especially through pious and faithful preachers, or through special infusion of the Holy Spirit to preserve His own; otherwise there is neither help nor counsel. Nevertheless, Christianity has endured and overcome such harmful and perilous times, that it has remained to this day; and both through God's Word and pious preachers our faith has been preserved, that Jesus Christ is true God from the Father in eternity and true man born in time of Mary of virgins.