Sermon of the Kingdom of Christ, and Herodis.
Matth. 2, 1-12.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, the wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying: Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was afraid, and all Jerusalem with him; and he called together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, and inquired of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea. For thus it is written by the prophet: And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art by no means the least of the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come to me the duke that shall be lord over my people Israel. Then Herod called the wise men secretly, and learned diligently of them when the star appeared, and directed them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye find him, tell me again, that I also may come and worship him. When they had heard the king, they went. And, behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they were greatly rejoiced, and went into the house, and found the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him, and opened their treasures, and gave him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And God commanded them in a dream that they should not turn again to Herod. And they went again by another way into their own land.
1 The evangelist Matthew says: "In the days of Herod the king" etc. In which words he expresses that the prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled, as he speaks Gen. 49, 10.: "The scepter shall not be accepted of Judah etc. until he come that shall be sent, and he shall be a servant of the Gentiles." Since Herod the stranger was reigning, it was an indication that Christ, the right King, was to come; for God did not let King Herod reign out, Christ had just been born, so that the prophecy would be fulfilled.
Now, beloved children, take heed diligently of these two kings, as of the natural king of Christ, and Herodis, who was set on the sword: therefore the kingdom is due to Christ alone, as a natural heir from the family of Judah. These two
Let's paint kings beautifully with their colors.
3 Herod was outwardly a mighty king, blessed in battle; whithersoever he smote, it went well with him: he was wise, sensible, mighty, and rich in outward dealings; but inwardly in his house he was all brokenness, there he had no fortune. Although he had a pretty wife and beautiful children, there was neither love nor favor, so that he slaughtered his wife, sister and children like cattle, so that the emperor Augustus said, "He would rather be a sow than his son. Thus Herod was outwardly blissful, inwardly quite miserable. But Christ, our right king, was outwardly miserable, poor, Zech. 9:9, despised and rejected, inwardly full of all joy, comfort and courage.
4 Now we must strive so that Herod, who is quite happy in the world by heart, does not take away from us the right, completely gracious King Christ, even though he is a
If the poor, miserable child lies in the manger, we have to go there:
(5) That we may yet know and understand the two vile kings, it is to be remembered that man hath two natures, as body and soul, in which he must be godly; yet there is another way of becoming godly after the body alone, than that of doing much work, praying, fasting, and that apart from right faith and confidence in Christ. These are the ones who sing, say and preach about the law alone, and lead people into many works in which they hope and think they will become godly; the hopeful saints, the great offenders, the devil's martyrs, who are all Herod's people; unfortunately, the majority are in the spiritual state, who want to deprive God of heaven with their beautiful works. All of them have a great reputation in the eyes of the world, as if they alone were the righteous and the pious, and so they are happy on the outside, because they seem fine in the eyes of the world. But inwardly they are like Herod. For in their troubled conscience there is nothing but misery, anguish, distress and gnawing worm: there is no peace, no happy, noble conscience; but, as Isaiah writes Cap. 59, 7. 8.They also do not know how they are with God, they do not trust God, therefore they have an evil conscience, and their soul is full of misery inside, like Herod in his house.
(6) Therefore, if we want to be saved and have a clear and happy conscience, we must leave King Herod's way and take on ourselves another king, namely Christ, that is, that we do not subject ourselves to become godly from works, nor put any hope in them, but only imagine in our hearts the good King Christ, who is coming without all pomp. For the dear holy three kings, when they left all works of man and help, and thus on the trust of God and following the prophecy of Michaels, Cap. 5, 1, the holy word of God, went to Bethlehem, they quickly saw the star again, Matth. 2, 5. 9. Thus Paul said to the Jews, Acts 13, 38. 39. 13, 38. 39.: "I proclaim to you, beloved
brethren, that remission of sins through Christ may be declared unto you. In the law of Moses ye may not be justified; but every one that believeth in Christ shall be justified." Thus also speaks Habakkuk Cap. 2, 4: "The righteous lives only in his faith." Now notice that this was a great proud speech and a hard word to the stormy heads; truly Paul opens his mouth wide here when he says, "The law could not make you blessed." For a man does not become pious if he already keeps the commandments of God; and if he is not already a thief, an adulterer, or a murderer, he does not become pious; for he does not have good faith in God, and does not know whether he has a gracious God or not, he is always doubting and does not know whether it is pleasing to God; therefore he does not become blessed, but only those who believe in Christ as their only Savior become blessed.
7. for just notice that God does not withdraw his hand, he keeps firmly what he promises us; who therefore takes hold of this sanctifier in the heart through faith, and forms in himself the promise of God, saying: O God, you have given us your Son, whoever accepts him to believe in him will be saved, Joel 3, 5.Man has a happy conscience who does not waver in his words; if you do not waver, your God will not waver for you, you must not have any doubt.
8 Therefore David praises the goodness of God, Psalm 117, 1. 2. saying: "Praise God the Lord, all nations etc., for his mercy is strengthened over us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever." As if David wanted to say: He has made a lasting regiment over us, as forgiveness of sin, grace and mercy to eternal life. Thereby one learns the right kingdom of God. For one must first come to it, constantly devote oneself to God, and then one will become pious. Therefore it is a great pity that the prophets wrote so much about the mercy of God, which they cannot have enough of and praise and glorify, and we, unfortunately, pass it over so lazily. Truly, dear children, it is a gracious kingdom, where not gold, silver and temporal goods are given, but a happy, secure conscience against the
Sin, death, devil and hell. Which cheerful hearts do not come over the workers, but those who trust in God, believe in him, and are content with him, how much they suffer misfortune by heart. So one must start in Christ, if one wants to make pious people, one should not run far to and fro, to Rome, to buy letters of indulgence, to St. Jacob, to Aachen, to St. Wolfgang etc. The Lord says Joh. 6, 29: "This is the work, that ye believe on him, whom the Father hath sent." All this does not help you: if you devour the pope with all his bulls, and fast foolishly, it is all in vain, if you do not first see that you are pious. This will happen if you believe in Christ as your most loving and faithful Father, who is ready to comfort you and help you in all the adversities of the cross.
9) Then follows in the Gospel, "As soon as Christ is born," which is when it is preached that we do not become righteous by our works, but by faith alone in Christ, as Paul says to the Romans Cap. 3, 28. and to the Galatians Cap. 2, 16; as soon as Herod's people are grieved and terrified, they cannot and will not suffer that they should not save us. Therefore they become angry and impatient, and come with their thunder and lightning of the ban, and want to kill Christ, that is, his right preaching of Christ, and consider him heretic. Who does it to them that they pretend to be wild? Yes, wicked popes, bishops, prelates, priests etc. may not suffer this in any way. They say: O, should our thing be nothing? They do not want to be wrong, therefore they are grieved when the right gospel is preached; for it only touches the great men, and they worry that their thing will perish. That is why some spiritual predecessors teach us nothing but the many works; they do not recognize faith at all; with all their strength they are not able to strengthen the least afflicted heart and make it cheerful. Therefore, if one preaches something else to them, they get angry, because they fear that their beggar's sack will be lost to them. For if the people learned correctly that works do not make them happy, then
The pope would be satisfied with his scribes; parchment, red cords, wax, seals, and such gimmicks would not be so valuable in Rome, nor would butter and indulgence letters be bought from him. If this were to happen, as it would be fair and right for us to hold to baptism alone, things would be much leaner at the pope's regiment and court; so that he would have to go begging with a sated heart (which we German fools lead). From this comes the argument that Herod, with a false heart, dares to worship Christ and yet wants to cut off his neck.
(10) So the false doctors want to worship Christ and preach about him, but they lie and strangle the dear little child, so that they suppress the truth, that is, Christ, and extinguish the faith; and the most wicked of all, under the name of Christ they preach their damned decrees and laws of men, by which they even destroy the evangelical doctrine. And therefore, dear children, beware of the deceitful Herodian preachers; for the Pabst's rule and Christ's kingdom are quite contrary to each other, as water and fire, devil and angel. A tree must be known by its fruit, Matth. 7, 16. 20: if it bears sloes, it is not called a fig tree. If the priest acts against divine Scripture, he is called an end-Christian, that is, one who acts against Christ. The two kingdoms do not coincide; for the pope's rule is based on much action, Christ's kingdom on firm faith alone.
(11) Therefore I will excuse myself; take heed, and learn to understand Christ aright: it is not by works, but by the holy word of the gospel alone, faith and confidence in Christ. Therefore they are great fools who vow to run from time to time and think that they will become godly by doing so; for truly this is Herod's kingdom. So let man set before himself the mercy of God, which he has freely bestowed upon him; in it let him establish his heart, and let that alone be the chief good. For this should be the most noble and noblest work of a Christian man, that he should give to his dear
Trust Christ and believe him; he who teaches otherwise is a liar, just as Herod worshipped Christ.
(12) If then we have the one work of faith, we must work, fast, pray, labor, go to church, etc., and not celebrate anything: which works I do not to become godly or to earn anything in heaven, but only to tame the lazy ass. For the old Adam wants him to be driven and put under the spurs, and so to castigate the lazy ass, that he may walk as the soul walks. And this alone shall be the opinion to do good works, that we register the horny flesh. On the other hand, that we serve our neighbor with it. The preachers of Herod, that is, the Pabst's messengers, do not want to say anything about this, but only do a lot of work in the sermon, saying: "If you make an altar, pray psalms and rosaries, you will not be lost. Who taught you this? Not Christ, but the furious devil. Now if you reject this, you cannot and will not suffer it. For the kitchen wants to become lean; so then they begin to murmur and cry: O will he teach us first; he deceives the people, he rejects brotherhoods, pilgrimage and other good works; he is the devil, with him into the fire!
So Christ, the truth, had to go to the cross as a murderer. Truly, dear children, these are almost dangerous times in this world. It would be necessary for anyone who wants to go to the pulpit and speak the truthful gospel to first be provided with the sacrament. For the Word of God attacks the high ones, against whom one must preach by force: if one wants to plant Christ rightly in the hearts of Christian people, then one must first with earnestness scour out and dig up the pope and his regiment, that is, apparent, worldly splendor in a spiritual person. As soon as this is done, we will be stoned, killed and burned. Well then, we must not consider ourselves more pious nor better than the prophets and apostles of Christ, who all died an ignominious death for the sake of the truth. Now it must be true that every true evangelical preacher must be in the midst of the
But, dear children, it is far better to burn for an hour in this temporal fire for the sake of the truth than to burn forever with those who want to drive out Christ under the guise of spiritual power.
Therefore be bold and strong, you preachers, speak the truth fearlessly; say to the fainthearted, "Be strengthened, perceive that there is a God present. So the gospel must be preached, that we do not become godly and blessed by works, but by faith alone, John 3:16 ff, Cap. 5:24 and Cap. 6:40. So you have it that he alone is a Christian man who believes Christ, not he alone works, Rom. 4:5, and that a good work alone comes and flows from a right believing heart. So a thresher's stroke in the barn counts as much in the sight of God as a psalter sung by a Carthusian. For this reason we may not reconcile the heavenly Father in any work, nor please him, but only in this, which is like him, that is Christ, if we hold him up to the Father and believe that he has redeemed us and made us blessed; in this alone we are preserved.
(15) This most precious treasure, Christ Jesus, the eternal Father will not reject; all other works are nothing. And if thou shouldest build a temple of emerald unto heaven, it would not please him; for it is all before: he would have nothing, but that the heart should cleave unto his word, and not doubt in Christ; to which Christ nothing can lead us, but the star, that is, the word of the gospel, not the pabst's decree etc. Thus Paul writes to Tito Cap. 2, 11. and Cap. 3, 4. 5.: The incarnation and goodness of our Savior did not appear from our works etc., so that we should throw away the unchristian nature, that is, the distrust, if we do not believe in Christ. So Paul teaches us that we must first believe and then live godly. O dear children! Let us earnestly beseech God to send us His living Word again, and to turn away His wrath, so that we may no longer be so ensnared in the
1126 L. 16, 240. 241. two sermons. - Editor's note. W. XII, 1473-1476. 1127
People Poems. God wants to be asked, that is why he taught us in the Lord's Prayer: Give us our daily bread, give us true evangelical preachers, who are not afraid of the wolves to speak the truth.
(16) So Paul asked in all the epistles that one should ask God for the heavenly bread of the right word of God, and that one should say this cheerfully to the poor ignorant people, regardless of whether it pleases the pope, the bishops or the priests or not; and whether we already have to give our necks for it is not due to this: no prophet (with the exception of a few) has ever sat with peace, he has never had to stretch his neck for it. There has never been much standing in the church, for many preachers have been strangled by the Word of God.
For the sake of God: if one man slew one, ten rose up for it, and cried out as almost as he whom they slew. And now, if we will all sit in peace, among good friends, and not among wolves, we shall destroy the words of Christ, who said, Matt. 10:21, 22: Ye shall be despised, and rejected of men. This is a sign that we are not in the regiment of Christ, neither do we preach his word, which the great henchmen condemn and persecute; but we hover over the ears in the kingdom of Herod. May God the Lord grant you and all of us His Spirit, that we may be strengthened and found in His despised regiment and in His words. Amen.