About the previous text.
Since we are still in the week of mourning and have begun to comfort ourselves with God's word from St. Paul's epistle, we now want to talk a little further about it for more comfort, and to complete the text we have chosen. In the first part of this epistle of St. Paul, we have heard how he admonishes and comforts the Christians that they should not make themselves too hideous with weeping and lamenting over their deceased; but make a distinction between those who have nothing to hope for, that is, pagans and unbelievers, and among us who believe in Christ, and have much different minds, hearts and thoughts than those. For a Christian is to be a new creature or newly created work of God, who speaks, thinks and judges differently about all kinds of things than the world speaks or judges about them. And because he is a new man, everything should and must also become new to him, here in this life through faith, but there in the future through revealed being. Now the world cannot and cannot do otherwise than judge death according to its tradition and old nature, that it is the most horrible and terrible thing on earth, and the end of life and all joy; just as it does not regard all other misery and misfortune otherwise than according to such old delusion, as an evil and unpleasant thing from which it should flee, and when it happens to it, it is frightened, wants to despair and despair.
(2) But on the other hand, a Christian, as a new man, should be so skilled as to have many other, even perverse thoughts, and may (as St. Paul Rom. 5:3. (as St. Paul says in Rom. 5:3), that he may also be defiant and joyful or boastful when things are evil, and his heart may vainly take hold of such thoughts: that he may have a great treasure when he is poor; be a mighty prince and lord when he is in prison, and excellently strong when he is weak and sick; soar in vain honors when he is defiled and
He is also to become a new, living man only when he must now die; and all in all, he is to gain a new heart and courage, and to make all things on earth new with him, and thus to begin here a prelude to the future being, since everything will become new in the day and before our eyes in the same way as it is now exhausted and conceived through faith, according to its new nature. And all this not in us, but in Christ, as St. Paul shows here. For he alone has brought it about that he already has everything new in his public and sensitive being, "and henceforth," as St. Paul says Rom. 6:9, "dies no more, and death has no power or authority over him"; but all that he was able to do is taken from him, even bodily, so that he can no longer bind him or take him captive, nor afflict him with hunger, thirst or wounds. Summa, he has lost all his poison, rope, spear and sword, and what evil he has, to Christ. In the same man we are to let ourselves believe that everything has become new, and we are to become accustomed to the strong thoughts of faith, and we are to always take the dear image of the dead and risen Christ into our eyes and carry it with us, against the old nature, which still attacks us and pushes us under the eyes, and wants to frighten us with misery and distress, misfortune, poverty, death, and whatever it may be.
(3) Behold, therefore the apostle hath need of these very words: You are to be different people, neither the others who have no hope, because you believe that Christ has risen from the dead and that death has been overcome through him. As if he were to say, "By this you have become much different people than you were when you came from your father and mother and earthly being; and because you were baptized in the name of Christ as into his being and kingdom, death and resurrection, think that you adorn yourselves differently with all your being from that which has been baptized into his being and kingdom, death and resurrection.
The world is terrified before you, and you have different eyes, ears, senses, and thoughts than you had before from Adam, when you were afraid and grieved, as if you had no hope, but now you no longer do so; but you have just thought the contradiction and said, "Certainly, because he overcame death, he will also snatch us out of death and take us with him. For this is why he rose from the dead, that he might also take us out of death into life and eternal glory.
4 The dear old fathers, who presented to us the work and image of Christ rising from the dead, had not yet experienced it, but had seen it only in faith and from afar, as through a blue, dark cloud, when the clear, bright sun shines into our eyes; they still had to cling to Christ, who was still far away, and also to the comforting thought that through his resurrection they would also come forth from death and live with him. Therefore they sang such a comforting little song: Pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum ejus: "How precious and valuable in the sight of God is the death of His saints," Ps. 116:15; item Ps. 72:14: "Their blood is precious in His sight"; and in the 9th Psalm, v. 13: "He remembers and asks for their blood." Thus they speak, the pious hearts, and from such words they will have spun many a strong sermon (although they are briefly written, and only as a theme or conclusion of their sermon). For there is mighty rich consolation, so that one can lift up a heart, because they conclude so powerfully: Dear, it seems to you otherwise, and is to be seen before your eyes, that the death of the saints is a pure destruction and perdition, and it seems as if they are now completely forgotten and silent, and have no God to take care of them, because he did not take care of them when they were alive, and let them die so miserably, as they are torn, eaten, burned and pulverized, that no reason can say otherwise, but that it is a miserable, wretched, shameful thing about their death; but in the sight of God, say the dear Fathers, you must certainly consider that when a saint (that is, any Christian) dies, that he is forgiven.
Let there be an excellent, costly, and delicious sacrifice, the sweetest and sweetest aroma of incense, and the best and highest service that may befall it.
For he does not think as much of the living saints as he does of the dead; indeed, because they are alive, he lets them go so weak and miserable, and toil with sin, the world, the devil and death, as if he did not see them and did not want to help them etc. But quickly, when they are out of people's sight, and are now a rotten stinking carrion, which no one can stand, or pulverized and atomized, so that no one knows where they have remained, and are even secluded and forgotten by all the world, as they have nothing more to hope for: Only then do they begin to become a precious thing in the sight of God, and not only a precious life, but such a precious treasure, which the Majesty himself esteems precious and high, and does not know how to praise anything more precious; and the more they are forgotten in the sight of the world, the higher he takes care of them and praises them.
(6) Of which thou hast a good example in the first two brothers, Genesis 4: When Cain, the rogue, had secretly murdered and buried his brother, he went and wiped his mouth, saying that no man should know it, and that it should now be hid, as Abel had no man to take care of him; and when God asked him, Where is Abel thy brother?"he made himself so holy and pure that he also boasted that he was not guilty of caring for him, and said, "What do I know? How can I be my brother's keeper?" But there came he who is called Quaerens sanguinem, who demands and avenges the blood of his saints, and said, "Thy brother's blood crieth unto me in heaven. "etc. Who is called God to speak now then? Can he not forget that he is now dead and gone, must he still cry out from heaven and scream about the blood, as if it caused him so much trouble that he could not suffer nor keep silent, even though he could have resisted or spared it before, that Cain was now alone and had neither brother nor heir; but punishes him so horribly that he must be cast out by his parents and the earth must also be cursed for his sake? That is to say, he took the blood that was now rotten in good faith.
He did not show such earnestness and concern when Abel was still alive, without accepting his sacrifice; but now that he is gone and lies under the earth, he must quickly live and speak in heaven, so that God Himself preaches for him, and so shouts out to all the world that both he and his murderer must stand eternally as an example in the Scriptures and never ever be blotted out.
(7) Behold, thus the dear fathers looked upon such examples, and took their sayings from them, that the dead saints must surely live before God, and come forth again much more glorious than before. For so he does not take care of living animals or cattle, and what has no hope; nor of tyrants and the wicked, who die in the name of the devil: but of his poor saints, who perish so miserably and shamefully, and esteem their death much more than their whole life. For the same cannot be without sin, though it be under forgiveness, and under Christ: but it is nothing to this, that when a man departeth from this life, and dieth unto sin and the world, then God openeth both his eyes, and all the angels must be there waiting for him, above, below, and round about him, being clothed with the baptism of Christ, and with faith, and the word of God, that he may be numbered among them which are called saints of God.
8. For you know, praise God, what are called God's saints, that the Scripture does not mean the saints above in heaven; as the Pope makes saints, whom one should call, fast and celebrate their days, and set them as mediators; nor those who have sanctified themselves, such as the Carthusians, Barefooters and other monks or forest brothers, and such devils, who want to become saints of themselves by their works: but whom God has sanctified without all their works and attentions, by being baptized in Christ's name, sprinkled with His blood and washed clean, and gifted and adorned with His dear Word and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All of which we neither have nor can produce, but must receive from him by grace. But he that hath not these things, and believeth in
The one who seeks holiness is a vile stink and an abomination in the sight of God, as the one who denies that such a bath of the innocent lamb's blood does not make him holy and pure. Now those who are such baptized Christians, who love his word and hold fast to it, and die in it, may God grant that they are hanged, broken straight, burned, drowned, or perish from pestilence, fever, etc., only include them in Christ's death and resurrection, and quickly speak the text over them: "The death of his saints is worthy and precious in the sight of the Lord. If the devil strangles you on your bed or the executioner on the gallows, it is decided that such a death is a holy death, and so precious in his sight that he will not leave you unspotted; but will bring the devil who murdered you to trial and torture him with eternal torment, cut off the head of sin, and bury death in hell, and avenge all that his saints have had to die for. And because he takes such great care of them, he certainly does not want them to remain stuck in death, decayed and rotten in the earth, but will bring them up again, so that their death will not be a death, but a new life with Christ in eternal clarity and glory. As we comfortingly and undoubtedly hope for the sake of our dear Lord, even though we have lost him in the flesh and according to the old nature, but in the sight of God he is undestroyed and unforgotten in Christ, who took care of him and brought him to rest, so that he is safe from the devil and all enemies, and will lead him with all the saints before our eyes and the eyes of the whole world on the last day.
(9) See, this is what Saint Paul wants with this text, so that he may call his Thessalonians to comfort one another, and we also should comfort ourselves as they have comforted themselves, and thank God for it, when we see that he takes away a man in the knowledge of his word. Although it is true that after the outward man it is not without sorrow and mourning. For we have not yet holiness altogether, but only in the heart through faith, but we do not yet grasp it in the outward being: for we have it in the heart through faith alone.
If we are still stuck in the mud and filth of our old Adam, who still makes himself unclean, spits and sputters, we must leave him his clinging filth, infirmities and sins until he is buried, and then there will be an end to all misery and suffering. But nevertheless, in such mourning, let faith prevail that Christ died and rose again for the sake of his Christians, and that their death is a precious treasure; that we may well learn to distinguish between the eyes of the world and the eyes of God, between reason (according to which the old man remains until the pit) and faith (by which we are new heavenly men, and get other hearts and minds from death and all misfortune), and by all means judge not as it appears before the eyes of the world, but as it stands before God in the new being, which we do not see, but only hear about in the Word; And to grasp such an example, as the Scripture shows, that he takes care of the dead Abel with such great earnestness and diligence, as written and presented to us a beautiful mirror, yes, as a sun to all who die, as he died, in God's word; that as he looked upon him after his death, so he will certainly also look upon all who live and die in his faith.
10 Now this was the decision of St. Paul: If ye have believed and understood that Christ died and rose again, there is no doubt that he will bring again with him them which are fallen asleep, where they abode in him, and so died in him, and through him, yea, even for his sake. For if we have been baptized and believe in Christ, we certainly do not die for our own sake, but for Christ's (just as he did not die for his own sake, for no death belonged to him). But that the devil murders Christians and strangles them with all kinds of plagues, he does this only because they believe and are Christians; for he cannot suffer anyone on earth who believes in Christ, although he also gives the others their reward. But he is especially hostile to them, and thinks to strangle them, the sooner the better; creeps after them day and night, and has no rest until he murders them.
and clears away, and uses all kinds of plagues, war, sword, fire, water, pestilence, French, drip, red dysentery etc.; which are all, as the Scripture says, his weapons, arrows, armor and armor, so that he accomplishes nothing more than to kill the Christians, For he is the master of death and the cause of death, who first introduced death, Heb. 2:14, and the chief executioner, to strangle the pious; therefore he also honestly plies his trade through the whole world, and yet kills us all, just as he also killed Christ: so that every Christian owes him a martyr. But Christ, on the other hand, is Lord and Duke of life, over all the power of the devil," therefore he will bring forth his own and lead them with him to heaven, because they are in him, live and die, and lie in his bosom and arms, not in the grave nor death's power, but only according to the old nature. Just as Christ, though he lay in the grave, was dead and alive in a moment, and came out again like lightning in the sky. In the same way, before we look around, he will take us out of the coffin, powder, water, in an instant, so that we will stand there before our eyes completely clear and pure, like the bright sun. St. Paul would certainly have concluded and believed this (although it is unbelievable and ridiculous to reason), as a certain consequence of the fact that Christ died and rose from the dead. Now he continues, and wants to explain how this will happen, and says:
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.
With these words he makes a preface to strengthen their faith all the more. For he is concerned, the dear apostle, that such a sermon would be regarded too little, and too much would be taken away from the word of God, which speaks of such glorious, incomprehensible things, because he himself does not let it resound from heaven with a glorious splendor through many thousands of angels, where we would all have to fall on our knees, and accept and believe with trembling; but commands a little poor man, as Saint Paul commands a poor, unsightly woman, to believe.
As he himself testifies in 2 Cor. 10:1, that they say of him, "He preached and wrote as if he were a god, and yet was such a little person, scrawny and thin in body; wherefore the false apostles proudly despised and diminished him. Therefore he says: I know well that I speak such high things that the world and reason are offended at them; therefore I beseech and exhort you not to look upon us, nor to accept as our word what we say to you, but to forget our person, and to listen as the word of the divine majesty spoken from heaven. For this is a great hindrance to faith, when one pursues with the eyes the flesh and persons, as the flesh and reason do, so that one cannot look at the word and regard it as great as it is to be regarded. As also in holy baptism, where nothing is seen but the finger of man baptizing, and the water which he poureth upon the child, as a creature, and nothing is heard but the poor voice of the Baptist's mouth; that it is too small to be regarded in the sight of us men. Therefore see to it," he says, "that you do not take offense at how small the person or creature is, but know that the word I speak is the word of God, which he himself speaks. And if it be the word of God, it shall be mightier than heaven and earth, and all angels and devils. For what is all the power in heaven and earth compared to that which God speaks? If you believe that the Word of God is what we preach to you, you will easily believe what it says. It is only a matter of effort that you believe it to be the word of God; there is no lack of it. For with one word he created heaven and earth, and all that is in them, when nothing was yet standing everywhere, and he is still creating new fruit every year and what the sweet summer brings.
(12) So also here, whether you see that everything dies and less of man remains than in the summer in the coldest winter, when there is not a leaf or grass, not a leaflet or fruit on a tree from the summer; nor is there much less of life here, since what man has been, either burned to powder by fire or in the fire, becomes powder and dust.
Nevertheless, you should firmly believe (as surely as God's word is true) that he will bring us forth again with a whole transfigured body; just as he now annually, as an example, brings back a beautiful green summer from the dead winter, and has made everything out of nothing. Therefore, only think that you accept it in this way, not as the word of man, but as the word of God.
13.. So it shall come to pass, saith he, that we which are alive and remain until Christ come shall not appear unto them which sleep etc. This is a periphrasis, spoken with a digression; but briefly so much is said: We shall all pass away together at once, both of us who died before and lived until Christ's coming, and so in a moment we shall all pass away together and see each other again at the same time; So that we who are still alive will not see the Lord Christ sooner than those who have died, although we will be drawn there with open eyes and will still be alive, but they will have decayed for a long time and, according to our opinion, will no longer be anything, so that it seems that we who are still alive should be the first and see the Lord much sooner than those who have died. But he will make it so that the dead will all come forth with us at that moment, and will have and see eyes as pure and beautiful as ours. For he will deal with the Christians just as he did with Christ, whom he brought out of the closed and sealed tomb in a moment, so that he was both inside and outside in a moment; so in the last moment he will bring together both of us who are still alive in the five senses, and all who are decayed, pulverized and scattered as far as the world is, so that we and they at the same time with us will all be drawn up to heaven and float in the clouds (as follows), much lighter than the birds, and much more beautiful than the sun, and the sky will be so full of light and clarity that all the light and clarity of the sun and all the stars will be nothing compared to it, and no sun nor stars will be seen before the light and clarity of Christ and his angels.
and saints. Now this is probably lying, as a sweet thought and human dream; but I have said that it is God's word. Whoever does not want to believe this, must not believe us either. This is one. Now he goes on to say how the Christ will come, how he will accomplish this, and what power he will use for this.
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.
14 This is the opinion that has just been expressed, that it should all happen at the same time: that we who are alive should not be thought to come and see Christ sooner, but that we should be drawn together with them, all in a moment, so that we might be changed and in that moment come alive again out of the grave and dust, and so at the same time, where we are found, fly up into the air, most beautifully clothed. And this He, the Lord, will do Himself: no longer sending an apostle or a preacher or John the Baptist; but coming down in His own person, as a Lord in His majesty, and driving along with a great shout, voice, and trumpet of the archangel etc. These are vain verba allegorica (figurative words). He would like to illustrate it, as one must illustrate it to the children and simple ones, and needs such words, which one is used to use of a magnificent splendid army procession, when an army goes to the field, in great triumph, with its troopers, panoply, trumpets and guns, that everyone hears that it comes: so Christ will also go along with a shout, and blow with a trumpet, which will be called God's trumpet. The archangel will do this with an innumerable multitude of angels, who will be his predecessors, and will begin such a shout that heaven and earth will be burned up in an instant, lying in a heap.
and changed, and the dead from all places shall be brought together. This will be a different trumpet and will sound much differently than our trumpets and cans on earth. It will be a voice or language, perhaps in Hebrew, but even if it is not a special language, it will be such a voice that all the dead will awaken.
15. and I will allow it to be such a voice: "Arise, you who are dead"; as Christ calls the deceased Lazarus out of the grave, Joh. 11, 43.: "Lazare, come forth"; and said to the little girl and the young man, Matth. 9, 25. and Luc. 7, 14.: "I say to you, arise"; and did everything with one word, as when he said to the blind man and the leper: "Be cleansed of sight". "Be cleansed" etc. Here he is called a field cry or voice of the archangel, that is, which the archangel will cry out, so that it will be heard with ears. And yet it is supposed to mean "a trumpet of God", that is, through which God will raise the dead by His divine power, just as He says John 5:28, 29: "The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life" etc. There he does not mean the voice that Christ himself will speak, but the very voice of the archangel and trumpet, which is called God's voice or trumpet. Just as now on earth the voice of the preacher who preaches God's word is not called man's word, but God's word; so also the voice of the archangel, and yet the voice of the Lord Christ, as from his command and power. Behold, he has painted so gloriously how it should be, that we should be confident and bold, and not be too afraid of those who die on us, especially those who die in faith in and through Christ; and hope that Christ himself will come and take them, and us with them, so that the archangel with his trumpet will go before with many thousands of angels (as the angel Luke 2, 9. ff. appeared to the shepherds at Christ's birth, with the multitude of the heavenly host), who will begin the shouting of the field, and Christ will quickly go with them; and after that,
when we are awakened and moved to heaven, sing forever: Gloria in Excelsis Deo: "Glory to God in the highest."
16 We should certainly take care of this (St. Paul concludes) and comfort ourselves with such words among ourselves. And describe it as surely as if it had already happened, and prophesy of things to come without experience, as if it were history and story; So that he may make us as certain as he is, that we will not be afraid of death, and that we will regard all plagues, pestilences and diseases as insignificant, and that we will have a beautiful vision of what is to follow, when he will turn the present winter, in which everything is dead and buried, into a beautiful, eternal summer, and will bring forth the flesh, which lies buried and decayed, much more beautiful and glorious than it has ever been; as St. Paul 1 Cor. 15:15. Paul 1 Cor. 15, 42. ff. speaks of it, "It is sown in dishonor, and shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, and shall rise in power." For "dishonor" and "weakness" is called the miserable, shameful
There is no more shameful and disgraceful carrion on earth than that of man. Which is a great dishonor and shame to the wretched creature. But this shall not hurt. For it shall rise again in honor and glory. Just as the grain, thrown into the earth, must rot and come to nothing; but when summer comes, it comes up again with a beautiful stalk and ears. So we should and will hope that the merciful God will also take away our dear (blessed) Prince and bring him forth again with Christ: because we know that he was baptized into Christ, and that he so confessed the gospel and persevered in the Christian confession, and that he departed from it, that I have no doubt that when the trumpet of the archangel will sound, he will joyfully depart from this hole in a moment, to meet Christ, and that he will shine brightly as the sun and all the stars, with us and all Christians. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit help us to do this. Amen!