At the funeral of Prince John of Saxony, held at Wittenberg.*)
1 Thess. 4, 13-18.
But we will not keep you, brethren, from them that sleep, lest ye sorrow, as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, God will also bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For this we say unto you, as the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the future of the Lord shall not appear unto them which sleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall always be with the Lord. So comfort yourselves with these words among yourselves.
First sermon.
My dear friends! Since the case of our dear sovereign has now come to pass, and the custom and manner of celebrating Masses and funerals, when they are confirmed on earth, has ceased, we nevertheless do not want to let this service linger, so that we preach God's Word, in which God is praised and the people are improved. For we must act on it and do justice to the times, because our Lord God has once again taken our dear head and claimed it with grace. Therefore, let us take the text of St. Paul before us, as he thus says in the first to the Thessalonians in the 4th chapter v. 13. 14.
But we will not keep you, brethren, from them that sleep, lest ye sorrow, as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, God will also bring those who have fallen asleep with Him through Jesus.
*) Luther preached the first sermon on August 18, 1532, the date of the second is unknown. In 1532, two printings appeared, the first of which we follow. - Cf. Jen. A. Ed. 1557: V, 510; Ed. 1593: V, 497; Altenb. A. V, 972; Leipz. A. XII, 228; Erl. A. 18, 189.
D. Red.
I. Let us now take so much before us that I do not overload myself and you. You know that the greatest service of God is preaching, and not only the greatest service of God, but also our best that we can have in all cases; but especially in such high afflictions. So now St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "Let them not be grieved, as others are, who have no hope. For there were some pagans who thought it was a manly virtue not to grieve or weep when a good and dear friend died. Just as in our time, the spirits of the mob began and wanted to make vain stones and blocks out of us, pretending: One should strip the creature completely and take no care of nature at all; God would give that father, mother, son, daughter, etc. would die, so one should go there badly with dry eyes and a quiet heart; thus they wanted to re-establish this pagan virtue. But it is basically a made virtue and invented strength, which God did not create, nor does it please Him at all. The reason for this is that such a hard heart, which does not soften when a good friend falls away, indicates that he has never been serious about having a real desire or love for a good friend.
Or he wants to be a hypocrite and stand so firm before the people that they praise him and say: "This is a man who can stand firm! We condemn this pagan virtue, which is red in spirit and fictitious, and say, "It is not right. For it is vowed not only by the examples of the dear holy fathers, but also by the word of God in the Scriptures, that it is right and proper, yes, even divine, to grieve over a good friend who has departed with death. As St. Paul himself indicates with these words, when he says at the end of this chapter v. 18: "Comfort one another." If one is to be comforted, there must have been mourning, sorrow and lamentation. Now, of course, the same people St. Paul writes about were Christians who pleased God and had the Holy Spirit; nor does St. Paul allow them to grieve, but they should do it Christianly and in good measure.
2 Since this is the case, why should we not also grieve and mourn because our head, the dear sovereign, lies there? For this is not a strong man, who thinks himself so strong that he does not want to feel when a good friend falls away from him: but this is a Christian, who is in pain; but if he keeps himself, that the spirit may rule over the flesh. For God did not create man to be a stone or a piece of wood. He gave him five senses, and made him a heart of flesh, that he should love his friends, be angry with his enemies, and be grieved and sad when his dear friends are unhappy. So St. Paul also says to the Philippians Cap. 2, 25. ff: He was heartily sorry for his servant Epaphroditum; God also had mercy on him and had restored him, so that he did not have one sorrow over another. So Christ also had mercy, Joh. 11, 33, when Lazarus was dead. These and similar examples are much more certain and better for us than such useless talk, so that they want to turn us into stone and wood, so that we should not weep or grieve over the dead. Let this be said for a preface and entrance to this sermon. Now let us hear the text as it comforts us. So the dear Paul says:
But we will not restrain you, brethren, from them that sleep, lest ye sorrow, as the rest have no hope etc.
(3) Then St. Paul throws in a good sugar, and mixes the bitterness that is in such a case with sweetness, and says: You are sad and grieved about the dead; it is true, it hurts to lose a good friend like that; I do not punish it, but praise it. For it is a sign that they are good pagans who take care of the deceased in this way. But nevertheless make a distinction between your death and the death of the Gentiles, between your sorrow and the sorrow of the Gentiles: they have no hope after this temporal life; but you know that you do not die, but only sleep. For if you believe that Jesus died and ascended, it is certain that God will bring those who have died with Him in Christ, and in short, will not leave them where we think they will stay, but will bring them where He is.
(4) Notice, however, that he does not say, "If you believe that Christ has fallen asleep," but makes Christ's death more severe than ours, and says, "If you believe that Christ has died," but says of us that we do not die, but fall asleep alone: he does not call our death a death, but a sleep, and he calls Christ's death a true death. Thus he gives Christ's death such excellent power that we should regard our death as a sleep. For this is the right way to comfort, to take the death we suffer out of our sight as much as is always possible, least of all according to the spirit, and to look straight into the death of Christ. That is why St. Paul wants to say so much with these words: "Why do you think so much about your death; look at him here who is really dead, compared to whom all other dead people are nothing: they did not die, but he died. That is why we want to be concerned, we should also be concerned about Christ's death. This was called a right death, not only in itself, that it was so bitter, shameful and great; but also because it was so powerful, that it baptized all the other dead, so that they
shall not be called dead, but sleepers. For this is true, as it is seen in the Passion, that Christ died in such a way that no one ever dies or will die in the same way. Therefore St. Paul says, "If you are grieved and distressed because of your good friends whom you have lost, look here at this death, and mix it up with Christ's death of all other men's deaths, and make this death so great that the other deaths are to be regarded as sleep. For if this is true, what is it that we care much for others, or that we ourselves die and are buried? If only one person dies, and yet not the whole person, but only the one part, the body; but here is the Son of God Himself and dies the Lord of all creatures. Therefore, my death and yours will not have the bitterness that Christ's death has, because it is immeasurably separated from all other deaths, in itself and in person.
5 So St. Paul wants to pull us around and draw us into the death of Christ, so that we may see how immeasurably great it is, so that when your heart grieves for a good friend who has died, you may learn to say, "Why, then, do you grieve so much for your friend, who at last had to die, why do you not also grieve for this death? Why do you not weep and mourn for your Lord Christ, whose death was so much greater and more miserable than that of any other man? As the dear apostles had to do, who were at his departure, and also had the thought that he would remain so. As we think when we judge with our five senses. No better consolation can be found than to look upon this death as having become so mighty and glorious, and having eaten up all other deaths, that they are not called death, but only a sleep, in comparison with this, which was the only, heaviest, and most horrible death. Therefore follows further:
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then also God will lead those who have fallen asleep with Him through JEsum.
(6) As if to say, Be of good cheer and good cheer, for if this is true, be of good cheer.
there is no need for those who have fallen asleep. It is only necessary that we grasp this article, that Christ has died and risen, properly in the time of need, when there is mourning and lamentation. Just as now, when our sovereign, our dear Lord and Father, has fallen to us, under whose protection and umbrella we have been sitting in good peace and from whose hands we have eaten our dear bread, and now from now on another ruler and regiment will become, and no one knows how it will turn out; God alone knows, who has now taken our head from us and has not revealed what he wants to do with us. Therefore, in this case, we may well be frightened and distressed. Although I do not doubt that there are some who are not particularly concerned about it and think that it is easy to take up a regiment. But to change and to improve are two different things. We want to leave it to the people to change the regiment, but the improvement is up to God alone.
7 Because all this is so, it is the best consolation to say with St. Paul: Dear, do not look at the dead corpse here; you have something higher and better to look at, namely, Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. If you remain steadfast in this mirror and image in the Lord Christ, who died and rose again, you will see where you are going, and where those go who have not fallen asleep in Christ; namely: That God intends to take with him you and all others who have been baptized and have fallen asleep in Christ; because he has wrapped them up in Christ's death and taken them into his resurrection; and does not intend to leave them like this under the earth; without it having to go and seem like this to reason and our five senses, so that faith finds room to trust God even over that which we do not see.
(8) Therefore, though it be hard, let us be accustomed to look upon the death of Christ, by which our death is strangled. And though it may seem otherwise to our eyes, yet the Holy Spirit mixes this sour vinegar with honey and sugar, that our faith may be exercised in God, and we may not learn to look upon him that is dead in the grave and in the coffin,
but in Christ. So when he is buried, the dead corpse is no longer in the coffin; although the carcass is rotten and stinking, it does not lie there, remove the eyes and nose and all five senses, and remember, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:42, "The body is buried in all dishonor," which is true; but do not look, for it will rise again in all glory. "He is buried and sown corruptible, and shall rise incorruptible. He is sown in weakness, and shall rise again in power. It is sown a natural body, and will rise a spiritual body" etc. Thus he always leads our heart (because he cannot lead the eyes in this way) from that which the eyes see into that which God speaks and into Christ, so that we should have no doubt that he will lead us with Christ. He who could only believe this would have a good comfort in his own death and in the death of others.
(9) Since St. Paul praises the dead in this way, as you have heard, we should thank God diligently for the grace that he has also comprehended our dear Elector in the death of Christ and in his resurrection. For you know what kind of death he suffered in Augsburg at the Diet. I do not want to praise him now because of his high virtue, but also let him remain a sinner, like all of us, who also intend to walk the road, and want to hand over many a strong sin to our Lord God, so that we also remain with the article that is called forgiveness of sins. Therefore, I do not want to make our dear Lord so pure, even though he has been a very pious, kind man, without any falsehood, in whom I have never felt any pride, anger or envy in my life, who could easily bear and forgive everything, and has been more than too much mild. I now drop this virtue. Whether he has sometimes failed in the regiment, how can he be treated? A prince is also a man, and has ten devils around him, where otherwise a man has only one, so that God must guide him especially and place his angels with him. When we see that at times they stumble in the reign, we are soon there, thinking, "Well, so and so.
That is how I wanted to do it; and we should probably lead the cart right into the muck, or even throw it over and over, if we were to govern. So that no one can do us right; and when we look at ourselves, we ourselves have never been right. Let us now leave all this behind, and let us continue to praise him, as St. Paul praises his Christians, that God will lead him with Christ, and let us not look at him according to his temporal death, but according to Christ's death, and his spiritual death, which he did according to Christ.
(10) For you all know how he, according to Christ, died two years ago at Augsburg and suffered the true death, not for himself alone, but for all of us, since he had to eat all the evil soups and poison that the devil poured into him: the same is the true horrible death, since the devil also wears you out. Our dear prince publicly confessed Christ's death and resurrection before the whole world, and stayed on it, staking his country and people, even his own life and limb on it. This dying, however hard it was, he undoubtedly felt in his heart. Since this confession is now publicly known, let us praise him as a Christian. But if there was something lacking in his person besides this, we let it go. For we do not want to count such a small sin in such a great person, but want to praise the fact that he confessed Christ's death and resurrection, so that he swallowed up death and hell with all sins, and remained firm in this confession. This passes over and swallows up the multitude of sins as a great sea swallows up a little fire. Therefore, all other sins are nothing compared to this one piece, that one does not deny Christ's death and resurrection, but confesses it publicly.
(11) Let us therefore take comfort in the fact that Christ has died, and that our dear Prince has passed away and fallen asleep in Christ's death, and has suffered a much harsher death at Augsburg than he has now suffered; a death which we must still suffer daily without interruption from tyrants and mobs, and even from our own conscience and the devil. This is the right death.
The other bodily death, that one goes on the bed, is only a child's death and a cattle's death; but that is the right male death, which is still before our eyes, that we would rather give up one more neck (if it were possible), before we would deny the man who is called Jesus Christ. This may be called a manly and right death, since St. Paul also says of 1 Cor. 15:31: "By our glory which I have in Christ JEsu, I die daily." The other death is only when the reason and five senses die, that the eyes no longer see, the ears do not hear, the hands do not feel etc. So dies a cow also, is only an external dying of the body and poor sack, it is a child dying against that.
Our dear prince has now also passed away, so that it must be assumed that it was only a child's death. For our Lord God has so seized him in his death that he has not suffered any of the right blows, nor has he argued much with the devil; as some fall into despair before the heavy thoughts that the devil gives them of sin, of the last judgment, of hell and the like, and work so that the sweat of fear breaks out, and they also freeze over it. That is called a right death, and not a child's death. But if it happens as it did with our dear prince, when only the corpse remains on the bed, without all fear and trembling, because he claimed the kingdom of Christ through baptism, and then freely confessed Christ, and diligently heard God's word with all his heart, so that only the five senses die, that is the least dying and only the shell of death, since one struggles only with bodily death; although it seems the greatest to us untried people.
Therefore, whom God takes away in such a way that he may not feel the poisonous arrows of the devil, he dies right and well. So God also took this one away: there was nothing, as I have seen, but only the death of a child. That our dear Lord God has thus thought: The pious prince has his rightful death before Augsburg.
I have included him in my death; therefore he shall die no more than in the flesh. That he thus passed away as in a sleep, as the children and unreasonable animals also die; without the animals have no hope of another life. Therefore it is a comforting death, what dies so gently, only by its five senses, where a man only sees it right, that one so goes wrapped in our Lord Christ's suffering, that our Lord God says so: I will let the devil strangle you in the flesh alone; therefore do not look so hard upon your death; behold, my Son died for you, and you were also spiritually seasoned before; so now I will send death to you in such a way that you die in your five senses alone, as in a sleep.
(14) Therefore let us count our beloved Prince among those who sleep in Jesus Christ, especially because he did not fall away from the confession of the death and resurrection of Christ, but suffered all kinds of harm and shame because of it. Therefore, we do not want to make him a living saint. If there is some sin involved, let it go its way; we want him to remain a man, but we want to put such an adornment over him that the devil will not see such a small sin, and such great works that all the angels in heaven will praise. For what will the devil raise against his personal justice, since Christ stands beside and for him with his death and resurrection, which is more than the sins of the whole world? As I hope, we also want to die in this way and bring a poor sinner with us to heaven, if we only keep this adornment, and wrap ourselves in the death of the Son of God, and cover and wrap ourselves with his resurrection. If we stand firm on this and do not let go of it, our righteousness is so great that all our sins, by whatever name they may be called, are like a little spark, and righteousness like a great sea, and our death much less than a sleep and a dream. In addition, our shame, that we are buried so unrighteously, is covered with a glory, which is called the resurrection of Jesus Christ; with this it is so adorned that the sun
She will be ashamed of it when she looks at it, and the dear angels will not be able to look at it enough. We are adorned and decorated with beauty, so that all other disgraces of the poor body, such as death and other things, do not count for anything against it.
(15) Therefore the death of a Christian must be looked upon with other eyes, as a cow looks upon a new gate, and with another nose smell it, not as a cow smells the grass, that it may be spoken of and remembered according to the Scriptures, that Christians who have died may not be reckoned as dead and buried. In the sight of the five senses it seems so: as far as they lead us, it is painful. Therefore go out and hear what Saint Paul says here, that they sleep in Christ and God will lead them with Christ. With such words you may be comforted, and you may well imagine that it is much more certain that Duke Hans of Saxony will come out of the hole again, and much more beautiful than the sun is now. For that he lies here before our eyes is not so certain as that he will live again and sail along with Christ. God cannot lie. But imagine it so. For he that hath not consolation cannot otherwise comfort himself, nor be glad; but as much as he lacks words, so much he lacks consolation.
16 Therefore we are comforted in this affliction, knowing assuredly that he will come again with Christ. For here the sayings of Christ stand firm, Matth. 10, 32: "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess again before my Father." Otherwise, if the man had not gone to heaven, we would have little hope. But that one wants to come much with the law and argue: "Dear, who knows whether God also wants to consider you pious? that is the tiresome devil himself, who always wants to lead us ad personalem justitiam (to personal justice), how pious I am and how wicked I am. For this is all his art, that with the image of our piety he snatches from our eyes the man who died and rose again. Therefore, it has served our prince well that he did not enter into the disputation.
Otherwise, the devil would have attacked him: Do you hear, how have you lived? how have you ruled? etc., and should have presented him with a register, before which he would have been severely frightened and would have had to stand a hard fight. This is the devil's art, which he also often tries on me: asks me how pious and how wicked I am, and can finely master the Scriptures and the law to do so: You shall do this and that, you shall be pious and keep the law; but you have not kept it. Where from? With these thoughts he brings one into such fear that one wants to despair. Even if I have done something good from time to time, he can still bring my holiness to nothing. Then I run and take hold of the article of the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, who died for my sin and rose again; he does not want to let it into my heart. But this enters into the heart, that I have done this and have not done that, have given alms, have been pious etc. As I can also say of our dear prince, that he had a faithful, pious heart, without all poison and envy. But by all means beware that at death's bed you are not imagined to be so; for the devil is not far away, he can bring a small sin before you, which destroys all such beautiful virtue, so that one must finally come and say: Devil, be as angry as you like; I boast nothing of my good works and virtue before our Lord God, nor will I despair on account of my sin; but console myself with the fact that Jesus Christ died and rose again; as the text here says.
(17) Behold, if I believe this in my heart, the highest treasure remaineth unto me, which is the death of Christ, and the power which he wrought; and there I am more concerned than in that which I have done. Therefore, devil, go away both with my righteousness and sin. If I have sinned, eat the dung of it, it is yours, I care nothing for it; for Jesus Christ has died; St. Paul tells me to comfort myself, that I may learn to defend myself against the devil and say: If I have already sinned, it does me no harm, I will not argue with you about it,
what I have done evil or good; now is not the time to speak of it; go and do it at another time, if I am a bad fellow, or go to the hardened, there shrink as thou wilt: but with me, who am before in anguish and distress of death, thou findest no place now. It is not a matter of disputing now, but of being comforted with the words that Jesus Christ died for me and rose from the dead. So I am sure that God will lead me together with the other Christians with Christ at His right hand, and will pull me through death and hell. Just as he will deal with all who believe and abide in his death. Therefore they shall not be called dead men, but asleep; and death shall henceforth be called no more death, but sleep, and so a deep sleep, where nothing is dreamed of. Just as no doubt our dear Lord and Prince lies in a sweet sleep and has become a holy sleeper. And all this not because he was a mild, merciful, kind lord, but because he confessed Christ's death and clung to it and remained so.
(18) Now here is the devil's right art, as I have said, that he snatches us away from comfort, and in the meantime leads us into a disputation as to how pious we are. On the other hand, you have now heard that you are to direct him to those to whom such thoughts belong, who ask nothing about Christ's suffering and death and live in a drunken stupor; let him dispute with them. But he does not want to go there; for he already has them, they are his before: therefore he would also like to have these, the despondent, stupid and frightened consciences. Those he has by their being presumptuous, sure and without all fear of God; these he wants by despairing and despairing. But thou shalt learn to say, Devil, thou comest at an unseasonable time, let no devil now dispute with me, but my Lord Jesus Christ; that I may learn how he suffered for me, and died for my sin, and rose again, how God will lead me with him.
on the last day. I have as a sign his baptism, his gospel, his word and sacrament, to which I have been called and have confessed them before the whole world. I cannot lack the seals and letters, as little as I can lack God Himself. If, in addition, some sins occur, that you have lived and done wrong, they shall not be counted, so that Christ's death and resurrection may be glorified over my sin and the sin of the whole world, and I freely say: Even if I had done as much sin, yes, more than ten worlds could do, I know that Christ's death and resurrection is much greater. And only then did I quickly protest and insist, not on yourself or your righteousness, but on the fact that Jesus Christ died for you and rose from the dead. If thou believest this, be joyful and sure that he will lead thee with Christ; and as thou hearest that Christ is risen, so shalt thou also rise.
19 Behold, beloved friends, this is this text, that we should be concerned for our dear Lord after the outward man. For who knows why our Lord God took him away? You know how we are all wicked, ungrateful boys, and how the people, both young and old, are so wanton that there is no more discipline or restraint: if our Lord God shows Himself in this way, and takes away the head, and will not spare a prince, then He truly gives you to understand that it is for your head. Therefore humble yourself and improve your life, so that you too, like him, may be among those who suffer and die with Christ. As I hope that there are many who die and suffer as my Lord did at Augsburg, they will then also die so gently that sleep will come to them cleanly and easily. This will be the end of all those who believe in the death and resurrection of Christ and confess the same, that they will finally rise again with Him and be led with Christ. God grant us this, amen.