Luc. 19, 1-10.
And he went in, and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man called Zacchaeus, which was a ruler of publicans, and was rich; and desired to see JEsum, who he was, and could not before the people; for he was small in person. And he ran before, and climbed up a mulberry tree, that he might see him; for there he should pass through. And when Jesus came to the same place, he looked up, and perceived him, and said unto him, Zachaea, come down quickly: for I must return unto thy house this day. And he came down with haste, and received him with joy. When they saw this, they all murmured that he was entering a sinner's house. And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come unto this house, because he also is the son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
1 This gospel was taken for the consecration of the church because the Lord says here, "Today salvation has come to this house"; yet the Lord does not speak of stone and wood, but of Zachaeo, the father of the house, and his household. Salvation has come to them, not through the bishops' grease, that the Lord has anointed the house, as the bishops anoint the walls; but through the Lord Christ and his holy word. This is the right Chresam and the right consecration, in which hearts are consecrated and sanctified so that they may know God, receive forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, and be saved.
will be eternally blessed. This is where the gospel should be interpreted and people should be directed to such salvation, that is, to the holy gospel and pure doctrine. But the papists do not, indeed, they cannot, and in the meantime they go about their foolish work, making a special festival and ostentation of the fact that this church is consecrated in his name, another in the name of another saint. Then the idolatry goes with power, and especially the holy scripture must be pulled with the hair; because they interpret it all on the walls, on stone and wood, which God preaches and promises of his living church, the right believing Christians.
2. but the pope has not been able to deal with such a church.
The consecration of the churches was imitated by Moses, who had a special command to consecrate or sanctify the priests, the Levites, the tabernacle, and all the clothing and vessels that belonged to the service of God. Such a command of God made this consecration not only glorious and great, but also necessary; for what God commands, even if it is no more than picking up a straw from the earth, everyone should consider it delicious and glorious. But where will the pope and his bishops prove that God has also commanded such consecration to them? They must confess that Moses was commanded to do it; but what does that bind them to? Why do they accept it? But if they accept this command, then it must follow that they must also do everything else that was commanded of Moses for the sake of worship: that they must slaughter, perform their priesthood at Jerusalem, and do other such things. For it is not to accept this one command and leave the others behind. Therefore, it is only a mere man's work and folly that they have caused such a great pomp and worship with the consecration of the church; for they have no command, God did not tell them to do it. Therefore, if they consider it a service of God, let them consider who will reward them for it.
3 And as the service is, so is the fruit that comes from it, that especially in the countryside the peasants come together, all the taverns are full, everyone revels and drinks, until finally, when they are full, it becomes a fight and a quarrel. So much so that a saying has come out of it: Let the peasants have their church festivities alone. That is a laudable fruit that follows from such a service. For this reason, the Christian authorities should, ex officio, abolish the consecration of churches, such drudgery and disorderly living, and punish them severely, since nothing good has ever come of it.
(4) As for the church and the proper worship, that is, to hear the word of God, to come together, to pray with one another, and to distribute the Lord's supper, the same shall remain proper; for it mends the people, and cannot even be called a "church".
without fruit, although the least part of it takes it seriously.
Therefore, let us look at this time: What comfort and teaching today's gospel holds out to us. In such, we know, God will be pleased, and we will be improved by it, if we perform such service with earnestness. The evangelist says here about a tax collector Zacchaeus, who was the chief among the tax collectors and very rich. But now your loved ones know how hard the Lord speaks, Matthew 19, when he says to his disciples (v. 23, 24): "Truly I say to you, a rich man will hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." You also hear here that the disciples themselves and other people also judge Zachaeus in this way and are therefore displeased with the Lord, because he does not know how to find any other host in the whole city of Jericho than this rich usurer. All of them consider Zachaeum a sinner who is not only not worthy of heaven, but he is also not worthy of being dealt with by a pious man.
But what happens? Our Lord Jesus does nothing about it. And since Zacchaeus could not hope to speak a word with Christ, the Lord asked to be his guest. And when he came to his house, he made an absurd judgment, saying, "Grace has come to this house today. This is said that Zacchaeus has a gracious God; and he honors Zacchaeus with a glorious, beautiful name, calling him a child of Abraha, that is, an heir of the glorious promise made to Abraham, that through the promised seed he would be delivered from the curse and inherit the eternal blessing.
7 Finally, the Lord answers with a very serious word, and wants to be unpunished by the people because he accepts Zachary. My office, he says, is to come to such poor sinners and help them from death and sin to eternal life; as we also heard such responsibility on the day of Matthew.
(8) What else do we conclude from all this, but that Christ Himself concludes with this example by His own testimony: that He does not want to exclude rich people from His kingdom, along with other sinners; but just as poor people should not pay for their poverty, God wants to be their God through Christ and help them to eternal life: so the rich should not pay for their riches either, God wants to accept them gladly and make them blessed; as the Lord also says according to the hard saying of Matthew 19, which you heard before.
9th For when the disciples were astonished at such a severe judgment, and said, "Lord, who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. For that he says, "With men it is impossible," is saying this much: As they are men by nature, they cannot do otherwise than cling to their temporal goods and serve mammon. But if they are to come to God's kingdom, they must become different, so that God may stir their hearts through His word, and the Holy Spirit may work in them. etc.
(10) Therefore, rich people should beware of thinking that God does not want them in His kingdom because they are rich; He only wants to have them if they repent and desire His heart.
(11) And they also have need of them. First of all, because God has blessed them abundantly, they should take care of the churches and promote them, so that they are the better appointed; as Isaiah says Cap. 49, 23: "Let the kings be thy nurses, and their princes thy nurses." For since the church office is a difficult one, in which one cannot wait for worldly affairs and especially for food, it is highly necessary that such persons have their proper providence and can attend to their office. Rich people should do their best, because the poor do not have the means, and it is undoubtedly a special service and pleasure for God.
12) Secondly, our Lord Christ also needs the rich to help raise up fine, skilful boys for teaching and godliness. For this he-
We generally find that the children of poor people are more capable of learning. But where they are not helped to do so by rich people because it is not within their means, they have to stay behind and cannot get ahead.
Thirdly, there are other poor, needy people who cannot provide their food due to illness or other accidents. Rich people should do their best and help them gladly. For this is why God has given them more than others, so that they may be faithful stewards and make good use of such blessings.
14 This is the first thing we are to learn from today's story: that our Lord Christ does not throw away the rich Zacchaeus because of his wealth, but invites himself to him, and thus draws him to himself with special diligence, as if he were more interested in him than in other people. Since Zacchaeus could not have dreamed that the Lord would be so friendly to him, he was content just to see him: the Lord desired to accept him as a guest, and posed as if he could or might stay with no one else but him. "Come down in haste," he says, "for I must stay at your house today." This is as much as if he could not stay with Zachaei, whom all others shunned as a great sinner, and would have nothing to do with him. This is the first teaching. A wonderful, beautiful comfort, especially for rich people, that they should believe that they also belong to the kingdom of Christ, that God will also be merciful to them and make them blessed for the sake of His Son Christ Jesus.
The other, and even more important, is the example of Zacchaei, in which a special useful lesson is given to all rich people: if they want to enter the kingdom of Christ, how they should go about it. In the papacy, your loved ones know what rich people have been exhorted to do. For it has been proclaimed from all pulpits that if they want to be saved, they should build churches, decorate them, buy indulgences, endow masses, and do other such things. And such preaching was well advised to the priests.
For there we have learned that everyone gave most abundantly, and they almost brought the whole world's goods and money to themselves. For everyone thought what money and goods he would have if he had died; therefore he spent it on such worship, which was so highly praised, in the hope that God would pay for it in that life. But such a thing is called being led to the ice, and not only deceiving and lying to the people, but also leading them to eternal harm and damnation.
(16) For it is written in the gospel of this day, which is the only and right way that every man should go if he would be saved. Namely, that we should follow the example of Zachariah, and not let the Lord Christ pass by in Jericho, but run after him, and seek how we may see him. That is, rich people should not care so much about their trade, business and food; they should first and foremost keep to the word, follow it, listen to it diligently, take it seriously, and let it be their greatest treasure. As we see here in Zacchaeus, as soon as he hears that the Lord Jesus is in the city of Jericho, he does not let his trade and business stay at home, but rushes to the square and wants to see what kind of man he is.
17 When he came to the place where the Lord was, the evangelist said that he had to go away again, because he was a small person and there were many people around the Lord Christ. Therefore, thinking of a special advantage, he runs and climbs a tree in the street, where the Lord should pass through, so that he could see him well and truly. From all this we must sense how this man had a special heart for the Lord Christ, and how he was so earnest that he only wanted to see him. Just as he did with Christ, who at that time walked and preached in the flesh on earth, so rich people should also do with the word, esteeming it as the highest treasure, pursuing and running after it; this is the right way to Christ and to eternal life.
18. but here we find two major obstacles
The evangelist reports the following facts. The first: that Zacchaeus is too small; the other: that the people are too many and he cannot see over them. These two defects are found in all the rich, and hinder much beyond measure. For just as Zacchaeus is small in person and is hindered by not being able to see Christ properly, so all rich people have very small, narrow hearts that cling to their possessions and become so entangled with worries about food that they cannot see Christ before them or grasp and keep his word in their hearts. As the Lord also says in the parable of the seed that falls among thorns, that the thorns overgrow it, that it cannot come over itself, it must remain small and be pressed down. Therefore the prophet exhorts with special diligence and says: If great goods fall to you with heaps, do not hang your heart on them. (Ps. 62:11) That is, your heart should not be concerned about temporal things, but should be concerned about God's word and about eternal things; you should diligently pursue them. But most of them, as I have said, have too small, lowly hearts for this, or let their own unbelief and despair drag them down, so that they do not trust to come to Christ; they think that they are lost, they are great sinners; they cling down to the temporal, they do not want to go up to the Word and that which is eternal.
19 The other defect is that Zacchaeus is not only small, but there are many people, which also hinders him, because he cannot look over the people. Now this is the trouble that goes on everywhere in the world, especially for money and good things: everyone does not look to God's word for what it means and wants, but to his nearest neighbor. What he does, we let ourselves think, we also have power. It follows that there is neither a measure nor an end to miserliness, ruthlessness, oppression and scraping. As we can see, miserliness has unfortunately gained the upper hand in all classes. This is the people who stand in the way of Zachaeo, so that he cannot see the Lord Jesus.
020 What therefore doth Zacchaeus? He has the grace to see that it will not happen in that place; therefore he does not stay among the people;
Nor is he deterred from returning, as if he could not come to Christ, but runs ahead to another place where there is room, climbs a mulberry tree, so that, although there are many people around Christ, he may nevertheless remain unhindered and actually see him.
21 So shall we also do. We are not to follow our weak little heart, nor are we to follow it. Neither shall we endure the vexations of the world; but tear ourselves away from such vexations and evil examples, and go to another place, where we are not hindered. That is, if other people do not want to come to the Word and the Lord Christ, we should not hinder ourselves; we should not therefore also become unbelievers, or despise the Word, but rather think, "Well, if the whole world would be covetous and despise the Word, I will not do it. This means to tear yourself away from the people with Zachaeo, and to climb up the tree and into the heights, so that we remain unhindered by the people. Where this happens, and you commit yourself to God's word with all your heart, you let yourself love it for everything, you esteem it the highest and greatest treasure, which you will enjoy for eternity: then Christ will look upon you and become aware of you, like Zachaei; and he will invite himself to you, preach to you in your heart by the Holy Spirit, so that you become a different person than you were before. For it is impossible for anyone who is thus attached to the word with heart and earnestness, that Christ should not dwell with such a man by his Spirit and impart all kinds of grace to him.
22 Therefore it is all up to us to take Zachaeo seriously, and to desire with all our hearts to see Christ, that is, to hold to His word with earnestness; so Christ will look at us again, and come to us through His Spirit. As Isaiah says in Cap. 66:2: "I look upon the wretched, and the brokenhearted, and fearing my word"; that is, he who thinks highly of my word, and would not willingly do or undertake anything contrary to it; he is a dear guest to me, where I love to be; he is my right temple or church, which I will sanctify to myself, that I may have my order there.
Then other delicious fruits will follow. For this guest does not come in vain; he wants to bring great gifts and even make new hearts, as we see in Zacchaeus. Before he came to the knowledge of Christ, he was a stingy merchant who did nothing but think of his own profit. Now he forgets this and thinks of other people, how he can help them with his money and goods. Behold," he says to the Lord, "I give half of my goods to the poor. Where does another heart and other thoughts come to him so soon? Before, no one could fill him; now he thinks it cannot fail him. Before nobody could enjoy his for a farthing; now he wants to give to everybody. It comes from nowhere else but from the word of our Lord Christ, which he has put into his heart. For we must not think that the Lord's only concern was to eat with Zacchaeus and to fill his belly. He had other food to eat, as he said to his disciples at the well in John 4, that he preached a sermon to Zacchaeus in his house over the table, turned him away from avarice, and led him to right obedience to God.
Zacchaeus accepts such a sermon with earnestness; he recognizes that he has lived badly in many ways up to now; he is sorry for it; and since he has previously taken from others and, as the miserly, has maltreated and scraped where he could, he lets go of it and now wants to consider the needs of poor people and help them. For he hears from the Lord Christ how money and goods can be invested and used far better than he has used them so far. For it is common for rich people to spend their money and goods for splendor, to build splendidly, to dress deliciously, and to seek all pleasure with food, drink, and other things. But this is called misusing money and goods; for it is a vain temporal thing, which does not remain, or, to put it right, since we do not remain with it; we go away and leave it all behind. And often we burden those who do not thank us for it and we do not grant it to them, just as much as others whom we do grant it to. Zacchaeus sees this and for this reason wants money and goods.
Do not misuse it in this way, but invest it wisely and buy an eternal treasure for yourselves. As the Lord teaches in Matt. 6:20, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
25 Do you ask how this happens? Christ teaches you very well, Luke 16:9, when he says, "Make friends of unrighteous mammon, that, when ye have offered, they may receive you into the eternal mansions. For Matthew 25 says that what we poor Christians do too well is not lost, but that he himself will praise and pay for it on the last day before his Father and all the angels. Zacchaeus learned this from the Lord Christ; therefore he thinks he will use his money and goods in this way, and says: "I give half of my goods to poor people. That makes me a good holy man.
(26) If you had ten thousand guilders, would you not think that you would become a beggar if you gave away five thousand guilders and distributed them among poor people? But Zacchaeus not only thinks it is a small loss, but he also thinks that he cannot invest money and goods much, nor make a greater profit from them; and this is also the truth. For thus also Solomon says Prov. 19:17: "He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord usurpingly, and he shall repay him with good. This is ever a certain debtor, since we can doubt neither the principal good nor the profit. And we have the advantage that with the temporal we buy the eternal. But no one believes it, except little Zacchaeus and those who desire to see the Lord Christ from the heart.
27 Now Zacchaeus said he would give half, and not all together. This is also right. For God does not want you to give to poor people, so that you and yours also have to beg and then lie on other people's necks. He demands nothing more than that you give from what you can get without harm and is superfluous. As Paul also says: Non ut aliis remissio sit, vobis autem molestia (Not that
The others have rest, and their tribulation), 2 Cor. 8, 13. "Your abundance", he says, "shall serve that lack"; so it goes in a moment.
(28) But let us beware lest we follow the example of the world, in which the eyes are always wider than the belly; if we have many thousand florins, it is called abundance; one, two, or three thousand florins is considered a small thing. Christians should not go so far as this, but should be satisfied with their daily bread and help poor people with the rest. Thus the wise man also teaches, Prov. 5:15: "Drink water out of thy pit, and rivers out of thy well." This is as Paul says, Create something upright with your hands, that you eat not a stranger's bread, but your own earned and acquired, Eph. 4:28. After this Solomon goes on to say, "Let your wells flow out, and the rivers of water upon the guests." This is as Paul also says in the same place, Thou shalt also give to poor people. But such giving shall be with measure, that, as Solomon saith here, thou have thy wells alone, and no stranger with thee. For thou shalt not give it all away, but thou shalt always keep so much that thou mayest keep thyself with thine own, and also give to others that are in need. This is the one fruit that we see in the Zachaeo, and rich people should be accustomed to it and also help the poor abundantly; because it is for God's service. For he has commanded it, and we shall enjoy it forever.
29 The other fruit is that Zacchaeus offers that if he has deceived anyone, he will restore him fourfold. Rich people should do the same, if they want to be God's children and true Christians. For with unrighteous goods, if it is possible, nothing else should be done, except that they should be restored to those to whom they belong. Whoever wants to give alms should do it from his own property and not from other people's property. For, as Isaiah says, "God hates robbery or stolen offerings."
(30) Here again we see how Zachaeus' heart is quite different from what it was before he came to Christ and his word. For before this was his opinion that he could not
He asked whether it was right or wrong for other people, if he could only have great profit; then it was all up to him. As we can see, this is unfortunately the case everywhere in the world. But now not only does he not want to cheat or overcharge anyone, but where he has done so before, he wants to pay for such damage fourfold. Learn to do the same to Zachaeo.
(31) But it will be found that many a one would hardly walk along in a double coat, wearing marten hoods *) every day, if he were to return unjustly won goods only falsely. That is the example of Zachaei followed badly. Therefore, such kingdoms may watch how it will happen one day. For the examples are sufficiently before eyes, how it comes to an end with unjust property and the shameful avarice: that often not only the property, but also body, life and soul together disgracefully.
32 But behold, what a wonderful treasure Zacchaeus has. Through faith in Christ he becomes a child of Abraha, that is, his sins are forgiven and he is a child of eternal life. This is the highest and best good. On the other hand, because he helps poor people abundantly, and protects himself from
*) Coat of tan fur. D. Red.
If he keeps his life from unfaithful, deceitful dealings, he not only has a good conscience about it, but also a certain hope that God is pleased with his life and that he will enjoy it for eternity.
(33) Let this be a great glorious thing, and learn to do the like. If God has given you good food and rich blessings, beware that you do not set your heart on them; seek rather the eternal treasure. Thereby the Holy Spirit will come into your heart, so that you will also become a child of Abraha, and receive the blessing and be delivered from the eternal curse. After that, other beautiful fruits will follow: that you will even lead a new life, help poor people, act honestly and Christianly with everyone, and God will have a special pleasure in you, and will hold temporal and eternal blessings over you. May our dear Lord God grant this to all of us for the sake of Christ, His Son, through His Holy Spirit, amen.*)
*) Here the edition b concludes the sermons with the words: "God the Father, God the Son" etc. The edition d, however, has the following remark: After that follow a wedding sermon and two funeral sermons, put in form for the simple pastors, so that in both cases they can safely see where they should direct their sermons. For it is not necessary to preach such sermons all the time, but it is enough to stick to only one piece at a time, depending on the time and the person.