Preface.
Because we are now in the time in which the Easter feast of the joyful resurrection of the Lord Christ is still celebrated, and it is now proper to preach also about the wedding, in honor of the married state and to praise and thank God, instead of the bridal mass, which was held until now, but which was of bad service to God, and which was not.
We are pleased with it because nothing was preached about it, which is the greatest and most pleasant service: so let us now draw these two pieces (of the resurrection and of marriage) together, and take before us the following text of St. Paul, in the 5th chapter, to the Ephesians.
Eph. 5, 22-33.
Let the wives be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife; even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of his body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives are subject to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives; even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it, and purify it with the bath of water in the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and blameless. So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man hateth his own flesh at any time; but cherisheth it, and cherisheth it, even as the Lord cherisheth the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. The mystery is great; but I say of Christ and the church. But ye also, yea, let every man love his wife rather than himself; but let the wife fear the husband.
Here St. Paul has summarized and interwoven these two parts, the marriage state and the resurrection, together with the whole kingdom of Christ in his Christianity. And holds up to the married, both man and wife, this certain example, that Christ is the head of the church, as a husband to his wife, and Christendom his bride or wife. Teach us, then, and all who wish to have a Christian marriage and to make it better than the Gentiles, to take into their eyes this image that God has presented to them in Christ and His Christianity, and to keep to it in their married state, praising and thanking God that they are in the
Both divine states are found, namely: in the high spiritual marriage with the Lord Christ etc., and in this low bodily marriage in the world or in the flesh.
(2) For even though the Gentiles praised the marriage state and kept it honest against fornication and adultery, they did not know about this high honor, that God holds it so high that He has bound Himself to it through His only Son and thereby united Himself with us. Therefore, they could not hold it as high and glorious as the Christians, who know that Christ Himself is our bridegroom, and they (as the Christianity, His bride, members) belong to this spiritual marriage.
(3) Therefore let this estate be kept with us all the more beautiful and honest, as much higher, more glorious and more precious is this example of Christ and his Christianity. And in honor of it, let us be the moreware of fornication and other sins, and let us keep marriage pure and holy; as St. Paul has said.
lus 1 Thess. 4, 3. exhorts: "This is God's will, your sanctification, that you avoid fornication, and that each one of you know how to keep his barrel in sanctification and honor." "Your sanctification," he says, "is that you keep yourselves holy, and your bodies and limbs, in which the soul is kept and lives as in a barrel, and do not do as the heathen do, who know nothing of God and hold the marriage state in low esteem; even as among those who are called Christians there are many who live like swine of all things and unreasonable cattle. But you should honor your body and this bodily life in the married state and outward being, and look upon it as it was created by God, according to the high and glorious image of Christ and Christianity, and thus be honored and sanctified; so that you may also be conformed to it, and be thankful for it, that you enjoy it and are partakers of it.
4. for this is no small honor and glory of the marital state, that God presents it and paints it as an image and example of the great unspeakable grace and love that he shows and gives us in Christ, as the most certain and sweetest sign of the highest, kindest union between him and Christianity and all its members, the closest of which cannot be conceived. And hereby sufficiently indicates that this state is a divine state and pleases him, because he chooses and sets it as such a holy example or model of the spiritual marriage, in which his heart and will should shine towards us and we should all be reflected in it daily, and especially the spouses in their state should keep to it among themselves, as St. Paul exhorts them here.
For this reason St. Paul here sets forth these things with many beautiful and glorious words about the Christian wedding, how Christ loved Christianity and made it into a pure and beautiful bride. etc. Include therefore (as I have said) his resurrection, by which he has accomplished this. For so he himself speaks in the gospel (if one reads this time) to his apostles Joh. 20, 21: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven them" etc. There he himself arranges this wedding as a fruit and consequence,
That is why he was resurrected. For this sending of the apostles is nothing else than what we say in German: to send out suitors who are to court the bride and bring her to the bridegroom etc. So Christ has chosen a bride for Himself (says St. Paul), the church or Christianity, and prepared it through the word and water baptism. This was done through the apostles sent by him. Which ministry is ordained, that we may be called and appointed unto Christ, and also be cleansed and sanctified thereby, that we may be joined and united unto him.
Thus St. Paul boasts that he is such a messenger or suitor sent by Christ when he says 2 Cor. 11:2: "I am jealous for you with divine zeal. For I have trusted you to a man, that I might bring a pure virgin to Christ. "etc. With this he shows that the apostleship is nothing else than the office of a suitor or bride-servant, who daily prepares and brings his bride to the Lord Christ. Just as the servant Abraha fetched a bride for his son Isaac, Genesis 24. Christ first commanded and imposed such an office on them, as if to say, "I am sending you to claim and fetch my bride, but first to prepare her or wash her from sins, and so make her pure and holy.
(7) Now this is done daily in Christendom by the ministry of preaching, wherein it is preached and said, first, as St. Paul saith here, that Christ gave himself for them etc. Which came to pass when he suffered and died on the cross, and rose again the third day. For by the same he hath obtained for us grace and remission of sins. But if this alone had remained, we would still not have been helped. For though he had purchased for us the treasure and done all things, we had not yet received it. But how come we that the same sanctification, which he hath wrought, may come unto us? For he is now gone up to heaven, and leaves us here.
(8) Thus it is, saith he, that by word and baptism it must be brought home to us, which he commanded the apostles.
To bring to us the forgiveness of sins in his name. Thus he remains at the right hand of the Father, and yet brings us to himself through his apostles and preachers of the gospel; as he brought to himself through St. Paul the church at Corinth, Ephesus and many others. So sanctification, acquired through him, comes to us through the preaching of the gospel and through baptism. And where the word is preached and heard, there the suitors of this bridegroom are heard. And whoever accepts it and believes, and is baptized into it, has already been given to Christ as a bride, and has been prepared, cleansed, washed and made holy, just as Christ wants her to be. And so from this command of Christ (that all who believe the apostles' preaching of the forgiveness of sins should be absolved from sins and be clean) the whole world, and finally we too, have been brought, and have been incorporated into his bride, Christendom. For even though we do not hear the apostles themselves, we hear the same word and receive the same grace and sanctification.
(9) For both (the word and its effect or power) are not the apostles', but Christ's own word and work. As St. Paul also says here, "He (himself) has cleansed and sanctified them," not the apostles, nor other messengers and preachers. For they are all far too little that they should wash and cleanse me, yea, they may not even themselves of bathing and cleansing, neither as I, nor any other. But by this, saith he, we are made clean and holy, that he, Christ, "hath given himself for us," and now preacheth these things by the word, and usaketh them. Therefore it is of no importance to me by which person (holy or not) and when or where he preaches to me and baptizes me, but only that it is the word and baptism of the Lord Christ. Wherever this is preached to me, I hear his servants coming to me for his sake and bringing me to him, so that I may become his bride.
(10) Now this is the great unspeakable grace and gift, as St. Paul calls it, which God has given to Christians, though it does not appear before the world. For count thou thyself what honor and glory this is.
It must be a matter of great importance that Christ, the Son of God, lets himself down so deeply and joins us so kindly that he does not let himself be called our Lord, nor even a father, brother or friend, but with the name of the highest love and closest friendship on earth, that he wants to be and be called our bridegroom and with us one body (as it is said of man and woman), but with the name of the highest love and closest friendship on earth, that he will be and be called our bridegroom, and be with us one body (as they say of husband and wife), or as the Scripture says, one flesh and one bone; which is said of no other relationship or friendship. Thus he has shown himself to us in the most loving and friendly way, and has offered his highest love and promised that we should be called his dear bride, and should and may call him our dear bridegroom and praise him with all confidence.
(11) That is why St. Paul preaches such a glorious sermon on it, and makes it so great, as if he could not get it sufficiently in words, that he concludes badly, "This mystery is great. As if he should say: It is exceedingly a high, glorious, ineffable thing that God signifies in the marriage state. "But I say," he says, "in Christ and Christendom," that is, in this spiritual marriage. But this is called a "mystery," that is, a hidden secret thing, which is known in the spirit, by faith alone, and according to the word, not by reason or by sight. For no one can see or presently feel what a queen I have become (if I believe in Christ) through the Word and baptism or water bath, because these two things seem so very small and bad. In short, the wedding and also the bride and bridegroom themselves, and all the treasure and goods received therein, are secret and hidden from us both. It is too high and far from human reason and senses that such a great and glorious thing should be arranged in it, so that it cannot be known or grasped except by the two outward parts, word and water.
For this sermon I hear well, how God thus graces me as His bride through Christ, and makes me a partaker of all His heavenly eternal goods etc. See also that you are baptized with water:
But when I look at you, I see nothing of the kind. For there I see nothing else, but that you live bodily, eat and drink, work and do everything in this outward life, like another man, that in it even a heathen is like you. But this glory and adornment, which is applied to you and hung on you through Christ, I cannot see, nor you yourself (without as much as you can grasp with faith), and if we could see it and feel what we have in it, I think we would already be in heaven.
(13) For what greater joy and blessedness could a man have, than to be able to trust in it with certainty and without doubt, and to boast of it with all his heart? Christ is one body with me, and shares with me all that he has and is able, as a bridegroom to his bride. All things are common and one, body, goods, honor, and they are undivided with everything. All other friends and estates separate and divide, children from their parents, brothers and sisters from one house and estate. But this estate binds and keeps everything to each other, so that one leaves father and mother and everything over it, and here one adds his own life to the other, if it is a true conjugal love.
14 Thus Christ, says St. Paul, did to his church. He loved her, and gave himself for her, that we might be made one body with him, and all things in him lodged, and that we might receive and be comforted in his glory, and in all his glory which he hath in heaven, as ours. O a great glorious thing is this, who can sufficiently pronounce it and comprehend or consider it, that a poor sack of maggots, conceived and born in sins, should come to such glory that he is called a bride of the Majesty in heaven, namely, God's Son, and he so unites himself with us that all that he is and has is ours, and in turn, all that we are and have in us will also be all. But what is he? or what are we? He is the beautiful bridegroom, completely pure and without all infirmities, the Lord of all creatures, the eternal righteousness, eternal strength, and eternal life; summa, vain eternal incomprehensible good, which no heart can ever grasp and remember enough, and both angels and men for eternity to come.
have seen. On the other hand, we are poor wretched creatures full of sin and filth, from the foot up to the crown, thoroughly corrupt, subject to the devil, condemned to death and damnation under God's wrath.
15 Therefore it must be an unspeakable grace, yes, a fire and fervor of love, that he lets himself down so low and willingly gives himself to us, and lets it cost so much that he brings us to himself. He is not afraid to shed his precious blood and to suffer the most shameful death so that we may be called his bride and possess his goods, namely, eternal righteousness, freedom, blessedness and life for sin, death and the devil's power, in which we lay. He puts on us all his purity, that he may make us sinless; all his glory, that he may cover and take away our shame; his body and life, that he may save us from death; all his heavenly goods and power, that he may bring us out of this miserable wretched state to his glory. So also: that the sin and infirmities which are still in us shall not hurt us, the devil shall not accuse us, the law shall not condemn us, death shall not choke us etc. For he standeth for us, saying, Satisfy me my bride: if there be any infirmity in her, that will I satisfy. If she is not beautiful and pure enough, I can make her beautiful and pure. If she is not pleasing to you, there is no power in it; it is enough that she pleases me. For I have chosen her and purified her for myself, and still purify her daily by word and baptism. If she still has sin, death and other infirmities, I have righteousness, life and all eternal goods, and I adorn her with them, so that she may and should accept them as her own.
(16) Behold, these are the high heavenly treasures and goods, which are here extolled, and indeed are and remain (as St. Paul calls them) a mystery or hidden secret good, which the world seeth not, neither knoweth; and so great, that even Christians, who by faith comprehend it through the word, cannot attain unto it, nor understand it. And whoever could grasp it rightly in his heart would not be able to live long on earth for joy. But there is the miserable lamentation in our
2026 is, 253-255. second wedding sermon on Eph. 5, 22-33. w. xii, 2570-2572. 2027
Flesh and blood do not give us the glorious thoughts that we could consider it rightly, and consider it as great as it is in itself. Our heart is far too narrow and weak, and the glory of this spiritual wedding far too great for us to grasp; just as the bridegroom Christ, and his purity and glory, which he has, is all too great, and the love he demonstrates for us in this is incomprehensible.
(17) But we still have the great consolation that he also bears our daily weaknesses and holds them in good stead, if only we hold on to him. For he must still cleanse us daily and forever, and where there are still wrinkles or blemishes on us, he will brush his righteousness and purity over them, so that we can still keep the glory, and may happily confess him as our bridegroom and say: "Whatever happens to me, I will remain where my dear bridegroom remains. If any man find fault with me, let him speak unto him: for he will and saith unto me, that if I believe in him, I shall be his bride. He has brought me to this through the word and baptism he has given me through my dear preachers.
This is and should be the preaching of Christians, to praise, honor and thank God that he has shown himself so gracious toward us and has given us; for (as has been said enough) in this spiritual marriage all that he has and can give has been decided, and so all the common goods and all the possessions have been made one between him and us, that all his righteousness will be ours, and all our sins and infirmities will be ours again'. As he has abundantly proved and still proves in us. For in Christ He took upon Himself and bore the sins of the whole world (that is, also mine and yours); and as St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:21, "He Himself made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him we might become righteousness in the sight of God"; and to this end He sent His preachers to bring these things home to us through the Word and baptism.
19 Therefore let us also learn, as Christians (who are to know their treasure and glory) to glory, comfort and rejoice in this wedding, that by the grace of God we have come to the
high honors, that we are and are called the bride of His Son Christ. This is what I conclude. For I have ever had the word and baptism, and have begun to believe; and if I continue in this, I am sure that God has accepted me for this, and adorned me with his ornaments, and taken away all wrinkles and spots, and is still purifying me more and more. So then, if you have become His bride, you have the keys and are the wife of the house, and sit in His heavenly goods, as St. Paul says in Eph. 1:3, that neither sin, nor death, nor the devil will henceforth have any right or power over you.
(20) Behold, St. Paul teaches us such high preaching and exquisite examples concerning marriage, or the marital state, that those who enter into it, or are already in it, may be instructed and reminded of it when they consider their state, that they may remember these words, and hold up this image or example of the spiritual marriage to themselves. For this may well be called a great glorious marriage or wedding and a delicious noble adornment (yet secret and hidden), by which we are given not bodily goods, but redemption from sin and death, and communion of all divine goods. But bodily adornment and worldly treasures are much too small, even if you get many tons of gold, yes, all emperors' and kings' treasures. For all these things can still be overlooked and understood. In the same way, the bride and bridegroom in the flesh are not so precious, for they are poor mortal men. But such an outwardly visible nature of the bodily wedding and the marriage state should serve to teach us to see and consider the spiritual, whose glory and adornment no one can overlook. And again, we are to be reflected in the spiritual union of Christ and Christianity, and learn how married couples should relate to one another in their state.
For this reason St. Paul also gives the married their text and says: As the church is subject to the Lord Christ, so also let the wives be subject to their husbands etc.; item: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church" etc. This is said so much: that they
on both sides should see how the two, Christ and his Christianity, hold themselves against each other (because this is the highest, most perfect example, and a right pure mirror) and to follow it diligently. For there it is that Christ loves his church, so that he also gives himself for it etc.
(22) We shall not attain to this love for a long time; for it is, as I have said, far too high and too great. And as the marriage in the flesh is small, so also the love in it is small in comparison with it; and it must be enough that one only follows this example and strives for the measure of this marriage: so that each one in the marital state is so minded that he shows and practices love towards his bride or husband; and whether there is any infirmity or defect in her, that he can hold it in good stead and act with reason, and also think: How should I do to him? It is my bride; I must also cover, cleanse, adorn and improve as much as I can, and show the small love in this small wedding, as Christ shows the high unspeakable love toward his bride, whose member I also am.
23 Again, he says, the woman should be subject and obedient to the man, "as Christ is to the church. He does not command the bride or the woman to love, but to honor the man and be his subject, which cannot be done without love. For whom I do not love, I will not give him honor or good, nor will I show him much obedience or service. Therefore, if it is to be true honor and submission, it must come from love, so that the woman knows and believes that the man is higher and better than she. For to the man belongs the rule and supremacy, as to the head and master of the house; as St. Paul elsewhere says: "The man is God's honor and God's image"; item 1 Cor. 11:9: "The man is not for the woman's sake, but the woman for the man's sake" etc. Therefore let it be so distinguished, that the man may love the woman, but not be subject to her; but the woman also honor and fear the man, with all restraint and timidity.
24. for so Christianity holds itself
Also that she has the bridegroom Christ, as her Lord and Head, in all honor, and is obedient and subject to him in all things; that is, she remains in the pure faith, lives according to his commandment, and does everything she knows he wants. Unless the devil comes and deceives the bride; as St. Paul takes care of his church, saying 2 Cor. 11, 2.I have set you up as a proper bride and given you to Christ, but something bites me and I am concerned for you, yes, I am envious and jealous for you (but with godly zeal, not out of anger or hatred), so that I do not want you for anyone else; for I fear nothing so highly, lest the devil should come and woo you and tear you away from Christ. Just as happened to Eve in Paradise, who was also a beautiful bride, adorned with all kinds of both outward and spiritual divine adornment, and obedient to God and subject to Him. But the devil deceived her and brought her down, so that she became disgusted with God and followed the adulterer, and brought us all with her into the harm we are in.
(25) Thus, saith he, have I care for you, who are now brought again unto Christ, and have become his bride. For the danger is great, because the devil is attacking Christianity without ceasing, and we are weak; and you must take care and guard yourselves with all diligence, lest you be led away from the word and obedience of your dear Lord Christ (who loved you and gave himself for you) by Satan's cunning and mischievousness. As we see that now and always many Christians have been deceived by various sects and cults, and until now under the papacy the whole world has been full of spiritual fornication and adultery, and Christ's bride has been so corrupted that she was no longer known until Christ began to purify her again through his word. See, this is what he calls Christianity, to be obedient to Christ and subject in all things, to adhere to him completely and to judge only by his word, and not to follow those who want to teach or lead them differently.
26 Accordingly, even in the conjugal state, the woman must not only love her husband, but also be obedient and subject to him; that she may
In short, they should keep to him alone and be guided by him, and not only look at the man's hat as their head, but also look to him as an example, reminding them to think: "My husband is an image of the right high head of Christ, for the sake of which I will honor him and do what is pleasing to him.
(27) In the same way a man should love his wife with all his heart because of the great love he sees in Christ, who gave himself for us (2c), And also to think: Neither I, nor any man, have not done the like; wherefore, according to the example, as much as I am able, I will also keep myself thus toward my wife by love, as toward my own flesh, that I may care for her, nourish her, and wait upon her, and not be bitter nor strange toward her; but whether she be infirm and somewhat defective in her, bear with reason and patience, or by kindly admonishing and punishing better etc. This would then no longer be a worldly and human, or reasonable, but a Christian divine marriage, of which the heathen know not; for they see not the high ornament and honor of the marriage, that it is an image of the high spiritual marriage of Christ. Therefore, as I have said, it behooves us Christians rather to honor and glorify this estate than to know and know the great ornament and glory attached to it. Do not be surprised if the world (as lying in fornication and adultery), yes, even the false foolish saints hold this estate in low esteem; but we ought to hold it justly for the very greatest estate. For no one else is set in such a high image by God, and we know that those who despise it (especially those who want to be called Christians) not only disgrace the world, but also bring dishonor and dishonor to the high holy wedding of Christ and Christianity, and show that they think much less of it, because they despise this lowly external one.
28 Let this be said of this text of St. Paul, in which he exhorts Christians to consider these things, and not to regard their status according to outward appearance alone, as the world and the carnal heart do, but to consider something further and more important.
We should consider the higher things in it, namely, the beautiful, comforting image of Christ and Christianity; and thus hold this marital state in high esteem and honesty, not only for the sake of God's order and command, but also in honor of the great spiritual wedding; so that it may also be felt that they would also like to be found in it. For we are not to let such glory and comfort be taken from our eyes and hearts, nor cast into a corner, as the monks and nuns have done, drawing it to themselves alone, and raising their false self-declared spirituality for it, and presenting it as if they alone were the brides of Christ, to the contempt and diminishment of the conjugal state: when St. Paul draws it out as a contradiction, and preaches just such a high example to married couples.
The blessing over the groom and bride in front of the altar.
Thus Moses writes Genesis at the other chapter:
And God the Lord said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate to keep herself with him. Then God the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he fell asleep. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh. And God the Lord made a woman of the rib which he took from man, and brought her unto him. And the man said, This is bone of my legs, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, And cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
Prayer.
O Lord God, who hast created man and woman, and ordained them to be married, and blessed them with the fruits of the womb, and ordained therein the sacrament of thy dear Son JESUS Christ, and of the church, his bride: we beseech thy unfailing goodness, that thou wouldest not suffer such thy creature, order, and blessing to be disfigured or corrupted, but that thou wouldest graciously preserve them in us, through JESUS Christ our Lord. Amen.