Held 1516.
Dir. 14, 14.
Food went from the eater, and sweetness from the strong.
001 This proposition did Samson set before the sons of the Philistines, and it is strange and full of contradiction. For it is contrary to nature that food should go out from the eater; but rather, if he is a eater, the food goes into him and is consumed by the eater. For if the food goes out from him, he is not a devourer, but one who spits out something and gives it away; but if he is a devourer, the food does not go out from him, but goes into him. Now what is the meaning of this parable? He eats and the food goes out from him; how then will his hunger be satisfied? We would die, if we should eat thus.
(2) And so it is with what follows: How can sweetness proceed from the strong and hard? On the contrary, the opposite is found, that the hard and the strong tend to be lightened by sweetness; and this is just as much as if one says: From warmth comes cold and from cold comes warmth; from adversity comes adversity; since like comes from like. For who has ever been warmed by the snow or ice? Who has ever felt, sitting by the fire, that cold comes from it? So also, who has ever taken honey and oil from a rock and the very hardest soil? Who has brought forth water from the rock? Who hath brought forth water out of the jaws of an ass? But this we read in the Scriptures, and now all will be easily resolved.
The lion was the Jewish people who raged against Christ. This has
*) Löscher I, 275 ff. and 745 ff.; Erl. A. opp. var.
It killed, and in whose mouth is the sweet honey, that is, in the writings of the law, which they carry in their mouths, is always found the gospel. In this way food has gone from the eater of Christ and his saints, who was killed by the killing of the letter, because they themselves, the Jews, do not have this food, and yet they have eaten Christ. For as we receive our meat by the mouth, so the law, or every scripture, is a mouth, and a hole, and a gate, whereby a people is accepted and incorporated. Thus it is said in Prov. 3: "The mouth of a stranger is a deep pit." Hence also the gospel is Christ's mouth; whose two lips are the Old and New Testaments; but the teeth are the punishments so found in the same. For by the gospel, which is a strait gate, and a fountain of living waters, we enter into the gates of Zion, whose bars the Lord hath fastened; and so also is the holy scripture a city.
4 But no sweet honey would have been found in his mouth, if the lion, that is, the people of the synagogue, had not been killed by the letter. For as long as the law lived, the mouth of the lion and the lion itself lived; but now that the law has been fulfilled and the letter has been killed, the people who lived in your law and letter no longer live. In this way the sweetness came from the hard and strong, because the law is hard and heavy, but after it was killed, its letter became sweet; because the law demanded such things that man could not do, and because it gave that by which it rather hindered its performance, namely, temporal goods that the heart of
Turn away from God. So from the rock came honey, from the hardest stone oil, from the rock water. So is this very writing of the people, who have a sluggish and lazy heart, an ass's jaw. But God has opened its molar and water comes out. "He casteth his locks like morsels, who can abide before his frost? He speaks, so it melts; he lets his wind blow, so it thaws", Ps. 147, 17. 18.; and all this happens through the death of Christ. So everything is clear that was said above, how from heat comes cold and from cold comes heat, and how the opposite comes from the opposite.
Now let us look into the mysteries. First of all, let us speak of Christ, who came out of the mouth of the devil that devoured him; for he is our meat, our Passover, and our bread which cometh down from heaven. For the lion devoured him, and if he had not devoured him, the meat for our souls would not have come out. Neither would this food have come out if he had not killed the lion. But after he had killed the lion, sweet honey came out of his mouth, because Christ had to suffer and come out of the lion's mouth through the resurrection, and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins, that is, the gospel. From him comes the sweet honey; for he is preached to us for the remission of sins. And we have an inestimable blessing, that just as Christ entered into glory through suffering, after the lion was overcome, and was given food from the devourer, so we have the sweet honey.
So all persecution is good for us, because we too will go out after the lion is overcome, and will be sweet honey to God and the angels; for all persecution works comfort in us, as it is said in Ps. 4:2: "You comfort me in my anguish"; and Ps. 94:19: "I was in great distress" etc. Therefore, if sweet honey pleases and amuses you, do not let the mouth of the devourer frighten you; indeed, see that you slay the lion, which you will do through patience. So joy comes out of sorrow, peace of conscience out of bodily persecution. For as in tribulation merit increases, so also joy.
6. in the area of our spiritual life (moraliter), food comes from the devourer, when a man who has been converted and has died to sin, and who previously ate dirt, now gives the food of the divine word to others. For he that liveth in sins eateth carnality, and drinketh iniquity like water: but when he is dead, he feedeth others also. So does St. Paul, St. Augustine; and the psalmist in the 51st Psalm, v. 15, says: "I will teach the transgressors thy ways," since he had just before said, v. 14: "Comfort me again with thy help, and the joyful spirit keep me from thee." I will teach others, and give them the sweet honey; as I was before dead in sins, so also ye, when ye are risen after the new man, and are dead after the old, depart from you meat and sweetness, and eat no more that which is foul and stinking.