John 20:19-31.
Now in the evening of the same Sabbath, when the disciples were gathered together, and the doors were shut, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them: Peace be unto you! And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands, and his side. Then the disciples were glad to see the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them again: Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Gemini, was not with them when Jesus came. Then said the other disciples unto him, We have seen the Lord. And he said unto them: Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the marks of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it. And again his disciples were there eight days, and Thomas with them. When Jesus came, and the doors were shut, he entered into the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord, and my God! saith Jesus unto him, Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that see not, and yet believe. Also many other signs did Jesus before his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name.
Dear friends, I will leave the history of St. Thomas for another time, but I will look at the words said by Christ: "Have peace, and see my hands and my side"; and: "As my Father has sent me, so have I sent you.
*This sermon was preached by Luther on his trip to Worms in the Augustinian church in Erfurt. Many listeners had to stand in front of the church doors. Because of the overcrowding, one of the rood screens threatened to collapse, causing a great noise; Luther, however, spoke to the congregation with undaunted courage, telling them not to turn to such a creature, which is the devil's game, and finished his sermon without any accident. Probably the sermon was printed according to the postscript of an audience member. - The Roman theologian Johann Cochlaeus took particular offense at this sermon of Luther's, because in it he "said too much against the merit of good works and against the statutes of men". Cf. Cochlaeus Com. de actis et scriptis Martini Lutheri. p. 31. sgg. - In the years 1521-1523 eight printings appeared, the second of which (1521) we follow. - Cf. Altenb. A. I, 714; Leipz. A. XII, 483; Erl. A. 16, 249.
I send you" etc. Now it is clear and already in the day that every man would like to keep himself so that he would become pious and come to eternal bliss; of this I will now say. You also know that all philosophers, doctors and scribes have endeavored to teach and write how man should hold himself to godliness, have tried very hard to do so, but, as you can see, have achieved little.
(2) Now right and true godliness is in two kinds of works: in works of others, which are the right; and in works of your own, which are the small. So that you have a reason for it: one builds churches, another worships St. James or St. Peter, the third fasts or prays, wears caps, goes barefoot, or does whatever else there may be. Such works are nothing, and must be destroyed in the ground. And these words, mark them: that all our works have no power. For God has chosen one man,
The Lord Christ Jesus, that he should crush death, destroy sin and break hell; for no one was before, he had to be given to the devil. So he also means that he wanted to be part of the Lord, since he hung between two murderers, Joh. 19, 18. and suffered the most reviled and blasphemous torture, which was also vile to God and man, Deut. 21, 23. Gal. 3, 13. But the Godhead was so strong that death, sin and hell were destroyed.
(3) Wherefore mark ye the words which Paul writeth unto the Romans, Cap. 5:12 and following. Our sins have an origin from Adam; and as Adam broke the apple, so we have sin from him. But Christ broke death for our sake, 2 Tim. 1, 10, so that we are saved by his works, which are foreign to us, and not by our works. But the papal authority does much differently. They command fasting, praying, eating butter; thus, if one keeps the commandments of the pope, he will be saved; if one does not keep them, he is of the devil; and thus they deceive the people with the delusion that piety and beatification are in their own works. But I say that all saints, though they have been holy, have not attained blessedness by their works. Neither did the holy Mother of God become pious or blessed with her virginity or motherhood; but by the will of faith and by the works of God, and not with her purity or own works. Therefore notice. This is the very reason that salvation is not or cannot be in our own works (let them be what they are) without faith.
(4) If anyone should say, "My dear, you say much about faith, and that our salvation lies in it alone," I ask you: How may one come to faith? I will tell you this: Our Lord Christ said: Pax vobis, videte manus etc. (Peace be with you!). (Peace be with you! Behold my hands!) Behold, man, I alone am he that hath taken away thy sin, that redeemed thee etc. Now have peace, as thou didst receive sin from Adam, not that thou didst it; for I did not eat the apple, so have
you did not eat; nor were we in sin: therefore we also did not suffer, and thus became free from death and sin by God's work, not by our works. Therefore God says: Behold, man, I am your salvation, Is. 43, 3; as also Paul says 1 Cor. 1, 30: Christus est justificatio, redemptio etc. "Christ is our justification and redemption", as he says in that place. There our masters say: Yes, Redemptor or Redeemer, it is true, but it is too little.
Therefore I say as before: Strange works make us righteous. I am, saith the Lord Christ, your justification; I have destroyed the sins which ye have upon you: believe me therefore that I am he which hath done this, and ye shall be justified. For thus it is written, Rom. 4:5, Justitia est fides: Righteousness is faith, and by faith. Therefore if we would have faith, let us believe the gospel, Paul etc., and not the papal letters or the decretalibus, but beware of the fire. For everything that comes from the pope cries out: Give, give; if you do not, you are of the devil. It would be a small thing if one alone treasured the people. But this, alas, is the greatest evil that can be in the world, that men are judged that bodily works can make them blessed or pious.
6. the world is now so full of evil that it passes over, and is now especially in an annual judgment and punishment, that God decrees that people perish, and deceive themselves in their own minds. For building churches, fasting, praying etc. has an appearance of a pious work; but in our heads we deceive ourselves. Let avarice, temporal honor and other vices stand still, and be helpful to our neighbor, poor man. So God will arise in us, and we in Him. This is called a new birth. What is this, that we commit a fresh sin! If we do not despair as soon as we do, but think: Oh God, you are still alive! Christ, my Lord, is a destroyer of sin; as soon as sin is gone. Also as the wise man says Prov. 24, 16: Septies in die cadit justus et resurgit: "They-
Once in a day the righteous falls and rises again. Hence it is that the world is so utterly perverse and in error that no right preacher has been around for a long time.
There are probably three thousand priests, among whom four are not found: God have mercy on the wretch! And if one already has right preachers, then one says the Gospel above, and after that a fable of the old donkey, or a history of Dieterich of Bern; or mixes in the pagan masters, Aristotelem, Platonem, Socratem etc., who are completely against the Gospel, also against God; for they have not had the knowledge of the light that we have. Yes, if you come here and say, Philosophus says, "Do many good works," then you will come to practice and finally become pious. Then say I, Do no works to become godly; but if thou be godly already, then do works, but with diligence and with faith. There you can see how they are against each other.
008 The devil hath in time past brought great temptation upon men, and out of the temptation they have fallen under faith, and have held to the head which is Christ; so that he could not make anything. So now he has devised another way, and blows into our young men to give them law, and to give it to the people: so it gains a good form outwardly, but inwardly it is full of poison. And so the young children grow up in delusion, go to church, think that salvation is in it, if one prays, fasts, keeps mass: then it is the preacher's fault. But there would be no need if only the right preachers were available.
9 The Lord says three times to St. Peter: Petre, amas me? etc. Pasce oves meas: "Petre, pasture, feed, feed my sheep." Now what does pascere mean? It means "to feed." How is one to feed the sheep? No other way, but the word of God, that is, proclaiming the faith. Then our Junkers come and say, Passers heißt, leges dare, Gesetz geben, allein mit Verführung. Yes, it is well pastured: they just pasture the sheep, sam (as) the butchers do on Easter Eve. If one should say the word of God clearly, to tax the poor, weak of faith, one interferes with the dear Aristotelem, who is against God.
Paul Col. 2, 8. says: "Beware of laws and philosophia" etc. Now what does philosophia mean? If we knew Greek, Latin, German, we would see clearly what the apostle says.
Is it not the truth? I know well that people do not like to hear it and that it annoys them a lot, but I still want to say it. I will also advise you to be whoever you want, if you do not have preaching in mind, or can help to do so, then do not become a priest or monk; for there is a saying in the prophet Ezekiel Cap. 33, 8. and 34, 10. which reads thus: "If you trust your neighbor, and see him err, and do not help him, do not preach to him, then I will have an account of his soul from you. You don't read that saying. But I say, you become a priest, a monk, because you pray your seventh day, say mass, and think that you want to be pious. Oh yes, you are a fine fellow! You will miss it. You pray the psalter, you pray the rosary, you have many other prayers and say many words, you want to say mass, you kneel before the altar, you say confession: so it goes, murmur, murmur, murmur, and you think you are free of sins, and yet you have such great envy in your heart. If you wanted to strangle your neighbor with gluttony, you would do it, and so you would say mass. It is no wonder that thunder would strike you to the ground. But if you had drunk three grains of sugar or other spices, you would not be brought to the altar with red-hot tongs. So you make yourself a conscience! That is called then^ with the devil to heaven gone. I know well that one does not hear it gladly. I still want to tell the truth, and I must do it if it costs me twenty necks. So that the sentence will not be spoken to me.
(11) Yes, you say: There were also learned people a hundred or fifty years ago. It is true; but I do not ask about the length or quantity. For even if one knew something about it, the devil has always been a mongrel, preferring the pagan scribes to the holy gospel. I want to speak the truth and must do it, that is why I stand here and do not take money for it. For this reason, one should not rely on human law or works, but rather on the
If we have a right faith, which is a destroyer of sin, we feel ourselves growing in him. Thus, everything that was bitter to us before is sweet. God wants to know our heart. If this happens, we will be despised; we will give nothing for the law of men; the Pope will come and banish us; we will be bound in God in such a way that we will completely disregard all misfortune, banishment and law.
12. After this, someone might ask further, and say: Should one not keep the laws of man altogether? or: Can one not nevertheless pray, fast etc., if the right way is present? I answer and say: If there is a right Christian love and faith, then everything that a man does is meritorious, and everyone may do what he wants, Rom. 14, 22, 23, but in the opinion that he does not consider works as anything, because they cannot make him blessed.
(13) That I may conclude, Let every man consider and think that we cannot help ourselves, but God,
Even if our works are small, we have the peace of God; and every man shall do his work in such a way that it is not only useful to him, but also to his neighbor. If he is rich, his goods shall be useful to the poor; if he is poor, his service shall be useful to the rich; if there is a servant or a maid, her work shall be useful to her lord. So that no one's work is of use to him alone. For if thou knowest that thou doest thy good alone, thy service is wrong. There is no need for me, I now know well what human laws are: let the pope give as many laws as he wills, and I will keep them all, if I so desire. Therefore, dear friends, remember that God rose from the dead for our sake. So let us also arise to be active to the weak of faith, and direct our work so that God may have pleasure in it. In this way we will receive the peace that He has given us today. May God grant us this at all times, amen.