On the first Easter, in the afternoon.
About the previous text.
In today's Gospel we have heard about two things: the first is how the women come to the grave; the second is how the angels spoke to them, and through their preaching the resurrection was revealed. These two pieces we will take before us this time, and deal with them as much as God gives us grace; for it would be a pity to drop such a beautiful example of the women and such a delicious sermon of the angels.
In the first place, we see in women a fine example of faith and love. And in the Gospel we are presented with a righteous type of Christian faith. The pious women, therefore, as if they were drunk, refrain from visiting the tomb, which was so guarded by the Romans that it could not have been without great danger if someone had made himself available. The governor's servants were lying there; so it was truly no joke with the Romans, they passed briefly through where they had an order, and did not joke so with the lords' commandments as we do. So now at the grave the Roman and Jewish authorities were at odds with each other, so that the grave was to be left without anointment for a short time; nevertheless, regardless of all this, the dear women go there as if they were drunk, and also carry the ointments with them quite splendidly and want to anoint him. But they must have beaten the Romans away before they could finish the job.
(3) Who then drives the pious children out blindly? No one else, but faith and love for the man who is called Christ, so that they are drowned in it. They look neither to the power of the Romans nor to the deceitfulness of the Jews. This is what faith does, it can make such a heart that pleads for nothing but Christ alone. Although it
nevertheless was not the right Christian faith. For they could neither believe nor think that Christ should rise again and become an eternal king; nevertheless, because they clung to the word, they had such faith that they loved his life; this is to be counted a child's faith, according to the faith that we should now have, because Christ rose from the dead. So we should think that there is nothing, neither in heaven nor on earth, but Christ alone. Wherever there is true faith, it occupies the heart in such a way that nothing else is seen, that where Christ is, there it is everything, and where he is not, there is nothing at all. Let the faith of these women therefore be little faith.
When we hear of the Turk, the Pope, or other misfortunes; when we feel hardship, hunger, sorrow, and the like, we let ourselves think that the world wants to become too narrow for us. Thereby we notice that we either have no faith at all, or even a weak one. Oh, we are still far from these women! They precede not only us, but all at Jerusalem, even the dear apostles. How then we see how faith is so pleasing to Christ that he alone sees how it comforts such a heart. Therefore they also have the honor of seeing him first, that one must grasp how heartily it pleases him, if one puts everything out of sight and looks at him alone. We see this before in the case of the dear Magdalene: he deals so kindly with her, and helps her to joy, after which she would never have thought. Then the guardians all had to leave the grave; they quickly reached into the Roman Empire, so that not one of them was allowed to be seen there anymore. He can do the same today, if one would only trust him. Does it seem impossible to you?
It does no harm, for faith must be a drunken thought that the world despises, as if nothing would ever come of it. But don't let anything challenge you; you shall see and experience that such a thought, even if it seems foolish, shall bring the greatest comfort. That is enough of the example of these pious women; now let us also reach for the sermon of the dear angels.
Do not be dismayed etc.
The dear angels preach very well, for they are also able to do so. But the sum of their preaching is this: You are looking for Jesus in the grave, but he has now become a different man. You believe in him crucified, but we will tell you what he is now. "He is risen from the dead, and is not here." This is said as much as St. Lucas writes Cap. 24, 5. "Why seek ye him that liveth among the dead?" In this life you will not find him. "Here," that is, in death, you do not have to look for Christ; there must be other eyes, fingers, feet, which see Christ, grasp Him, or want to go to Him. I will show you the place," he says, "where it is located; but it is no longer there; it is now called: Non est hic, that is, "He not here"; as St. Paul also speaks of it to the Colossians in 3 Cap. V. 1. 2. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above; seek those things which are above, not those things which are on earth."
(6) This means that a Christian is finely purified and lifted out of this world, so that he no longer belongs in life, neither under the pope, nor under the emperor, nor under any creature; but since Christ is, a Christian should also be. But Christ is not here, so a Christian must not be here either. Therefore no man can put either Christ or a Christian into certain special rules. It is said: "He is not here", he has left the shells here, worldly righteousness, piety, wisdom, law and what is more, all purely undressed. You must look for him, not in the things that are found on earth; therefore you will not find him in a carthouse or otherwise in a monk's cap; you will find him
not find in your fasting, vigilance, clothes, they are vain shells. The same old habits and customs, fathers, lawyers, wise people, pious people, and what it can be more, are vain shells. It is always said: "Not here", he never puts on the shells. Therefore a Christian cannot be grasped in this, as far as he is a Christian; one should not paint a Christian, nor grasp him, for one cannot; but as Christ is over all, so is a Christian over all. Christ has overcome and forsaken all things by Himself; and for this very reason that we believe this, we are called "not here" as well as He. As St. Paul also says, "Do not seek the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden in Christ." A very strange speech. So also here Christ separates himself from the world in the words of the angel, as St. Paul also says: "Your life is hidden"; in no box, otherwise we would probably find it, but in him who is nowhere. Our life shall be above all human wisdom, righteousness, godliness. As long as you remain in yourself, you are not pious. This means that our life is highly hidden above all our feelings, heart, eyes and mind.
(7) Then the spirits of the mob go to them, and say: Since we are above all things, and may do neither this nor that, let us do what we please, for it is one thing, and one thing helps as much as another. As the peasants did in the uproar, they tore down castles and monasteries and washed out the cellars; that was Christian freedom and Christian brothers. Neither sin nor good works are valid in the sight of Christ, therefore only let it pass freshly: so they went, the good fellows.
(8) But, beloved, let it be said unto thee, if thou canst grasp and know one thing, know and know the other also. If this does not make you a Christian, that you become a monk, pray, fast, sleep little, etc., then this will certainly not make you a Christian either, that you tear down the monasteries, despise authority, eat your fill and get drunk. Round off one with the other, because they are all down in the
world. For a Christian, whether he be a prince or a subject, a lord or a servant, a woman or a maid, is above all that is on earth; for therefore he is called a Christian, because he hangs in the Man who died and rose again, and is not here; which goes no further than into the heart and conscience. As if the dear angels wanted to say: Nothing helps from sin, neither carthauses nor masses nor fasting, but you must come to the point that you say: I believe in Christ JEsum, who rose from the dead and is not here; let a Christian stay there, and nothing else.
9th After this, if thou then hast this treasure and riches, which are above all things, go down and say, A Christian must yet also live and be with men; as St. Paul also saith Col. 3:5, "Mortify therefore your members which are of the earth." My body must have wife, child, house, clothes and food; so God does not want to destroy or abolish the worldly rule through the gospel: he wants to rule only the spirit and the heart; these are to be left unsworn with laws; and in the things that belong to it, that one may be delivered from sins, death, the devil and hell, neither emperor nor pope shall rule in them; nevertheless he lets hands and feet remain as he created them. Just as one who sits down in a foreign city must keep to the order and civil law of that city, so it must also be done here. If I now believe in Christ, I am at home in my fatherland, but in body and life I am like a sojourner; therefore I must also keep myself as other people keep themselves, do good to the world, help protect, handle and keep the common peace. There is a different nature and status; as St. Paul also says: "Being free, I was nevertheless everyone's servant, and served everyone. I have hands, feet, and a tongue, eyes, and ears, which belong to me; with these I am to be a servant, and so live that I may be useful to others as in a service.
(10) This is what the spirits of the wicked should preach, and not mix them together in this way.
seek only outward freedom: the devil taught them that, the Holy Spirit did not. We have to separate from each other; Christian freedom does not belong on earth, it belongs to the best place. I cannot serve you by believing in Christ; so you cannot see it either. It is a thing that is mine own; if thou wilt have it also, believe it also. This is the life that God alone touches, there is no going out of it. And if the emperor bids me put on a cap again or be damned, I shall not do it.
(11) It is the evil of the devil that these two things should be mixed together, as the pope and the riffraff, and indeed the whole world, are mixed together. But when one comes down among the people, there is now another life, there it is important that one behaves as the others behave. A guest does no sin if he behaves as the host wants him to, for he is not the master of the house. God wills that we should not be as idle-eyed on earth as we are in faith, but that we should have our hands full. If you are a man, a woman, a son, a daughter, a master, a servant, do what is your due. This then is called a hospitality, a hospitality justice, which dies with us. Lawyers may now act and set down, as they also do, that one should not steal, not deceive, not lie; there it goes in a different being and house; there each one also keeps to himself, and let the host be master in the house. Believe me, it is difficult to separate and divide the two kingdoms and lives, the two righteousnesses in this way: the devil cannot quite leave it alone, and in this kingdom that now exists, nothing else will be done, except that these two will be thrown into one another; for they do not know what a Christian is. They think that a Christian is one who does this or that, who keeps himself thus with eating, with drinking, with clothing, with sleeping etc. But the angel speaks differently here, he speaks badly of such things: "He is not here. So they throw it into each other, just so that they can say: I live like this, I fast like this, I pray like this, dear Lord, you would see such my deeds etc.
(12) Then we must work and defend ourselves, saying, Our name is thus, Non est hic, "He is not here"; but these things, of which thou sayest and praisest, are here; the cap, the plate, the chasuble, the chasuble, the fasting, the praying, the order, the rule, are all called "here"; it is an earthly, human thing, which one stands and grasps, as one sees and grasps a wood. If it is called "here" and "is here," then, indeed, one must not look for Christ there. Dear friends, let us learn this, and let no one think that he can already do it, as there are many such people now. I am still learning and working on it, but I cannot grasp it as strongly as I would like; our flesh and the old bag are so spoiled. I have often thought that I wanted to impose on our Lord God so much preaching and writing that I have done. But if I look at it right, it is all called "Here"; so I must conclude that it does not belong before our Lord God. What one does now, one should do in obedience to God; for the forgiveness of sins one should do nothing. This is what is said of human righteousness, that each one should do what he is commanded to do and what he is called to do by God. A prince, a captain, father, mother, son and daughter, servant and maidservant are all pleasing to God, and he also wants us to do them, so far from calling it righteousness, as I have often said.
(13) Now under this righteousness is another, which is called paedagogiana, that is, a gross and childish holiness, inferior to the former, and yet also good, though it is a human and worldly righteousness, which belongs down. So now you have heard before about human righteousness, which does not stop with us when we die, and does not go with us, it has had its day here; when we die, we must have another, namely, the righteousness of Christ. Now the third is paedagogia, the discipline of children; as, in former times, young children were taken to a learned man and kept there with proper food and clothing; after that it came to be abused, and monks and priests were made of it; but all is first of all
For the sake of discipline, one should not eat and drink so much, nor dress so deliciously. This is still necessary today, because the young servants must be provided with food and clothing, otherwise nothing good will come of it. And such discipline is necessary not only for children, but also for peasants, citizens, and even for noblemen. Not because it is such a noble work, but because discipline demands that a peasant does not walk like a bourgeois, a bourgeois like a nobleman, and so on.
(14) The pope has served this purpose well, only that he, in the name of the devil, has brought such discipline and ceremonies out of the houses into the church, and has preferred them both to the secular and divine rights; as he still does today, and thinks that it is a divine service that goes far beyond the Scriptures, when a priest stretches the plates so far and thus walks in his chasuble. Oh, this is a far better and greater work than when a man or woman, servant or maid, does what she is supposed to do. But it is far from it. For there is no other service, but faith alone. So then this discipline of children is not to be a law. A householder shall have power to feed his servants one way today, and another way tomorrow. A prince shall have the power to command one thing now, another thing now, and then to change it again, as the case may be. For example, a householder has a servant and feeds him in this way, but he may be so pious that he gives him better food and drink afterwards; or he may be so wicked that he gives him less. Let no one understand this; it is up to each one's power and will. If a prince has undertaken something and does not want it to work out, he should let it go, knowing that it is not a forced thing.
(15) Some think that because we have done away with some things in the church, we have also done away with this discipline; but they do us wrong. We have not abolished it, but praise it as a good, useful thing, provided only that it be kept, that no holiness come of it. No father makes a skirt for his son,
that he thinks he will be saved by it; just as no one eats morning soup for the sake of being saved, but for the sake of seeing that it serves for nourishment and discipline.
(16) Now this discipline and righteousness is the least of the other two, as I have said before; but it may well be profitable, that after it a man may have his people. Thus human righteousness may serve to send a man to become a Christian, though he be not yet, that he continue not in works, but be lifted up above them, and believe in Christ Jesus, that he only hath done, and hath given us afterward. Such a man is then fit for heaven, for God loves him because of his faith. After that he is also fit for the people on earth, because of his good works. Last of all, he is fit for the house and for the government, because of outward discipline. But this is to be noted, as I reported many times before, that the last two do not make a Christian.
17 The pope did the last one alone and let the others both go, so that even St. Gregory, who is supposed to be a great man, does not write anything about this feast in his homilies, he mocks badly.
I don't know what. So it has risen, they have drawn the discipline and customs from the school into the church, until at last a louder idolatry has come out of it; but it is not at all good that way. Let it be seen whether such customs and ceremonies are suitable for discipline or for the common people; if not, just knock their heads off and let them go, and let them go to the young world, so that they may afterwards become fine preachers, pastors, chancellors, schoolmasters and such useful people. What is the use of palm shooting and dirt? The angel has taught us that I should not look for Christ there, since it is called "here"; and yet the same "here" is something, and yet temporal. So it is also with child discipline. Dear, do not love it higher than God has set it; you will not find Christ anywhere, he is always higher and more secret, namely, in the word that he is risen; the same word is not "here", does not lead you there either, since it is called "here"; one does not see it and cannot see it either. This is what I want to say to your love this time, so that you may live your lives a little according to it and not become swine, and also train your people to learn to recognize Christ and to be useful and helpful to everyone. Amen.