Matth. 8, 23-27.
And he entered into the ship, and his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, so that the little ship also was covered with waves; and he slept. And the disciples came to him and woke him up, saying: Lord, help us, we are perishing. Then he said to them: Ye of little faith, why are ye so fearful? And he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea; and there was silence. But the people were astonished and said: What manner of man is this, that the wind and the sea obey him?
1 We see in today's gospel that such a history is held up to us in it, from which we do not learn what we should do; for nothing is said here about our works, but about what we should believe and how we should comfort ourselves in hardships and adversities. For this reason, one of the high sermons is about faith, which makes everyone think that he can do it well, as if it were a bad and mean thing.
2 Therefore we will divide it: first, we will speak of the cross and suffering; then of the Lord Christ and of faith in him, so that this alone, as the one and best consolation, is valid and helps; third, of the fruit and benefit that follows from faith after temptation. Such pieces will finely indicate how a comforting history the evangelist holds out to us in so few words, which we should not ever gladly concede.
The first part is that the Lord Jesus enters the ship with his disciples. There is no storm yet, but a fine, friendly, calm weather; so the sea is also gentle and calm. Otherwise the disciples would have been afraid not to enter the ship. But as soon as Christ sits in the ship with his disciples, and they push off from the land and come into the sea, such a great tempest arises that the little ship is covered with waves, as if it were about to sink.
4 Let us take note of this history and make a proverb out of it, saying, "This is how it is; when Christ comes into the world, he will be with us.
ship, it will not remain quiet for long; a storm and tempest will come. For it is certain, as Christ also says in Luc. 11, 21. 22, that the strong-armed man has his palace in peace and quiet until a stronger man comes; then the strife begins, and there is fighting and strife. Thus we see in the Gospel history that when all is quiet before, as soon as Christ is heard with a sermon and seen with a miracle, there is fire in all the streets. The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests are in a frenzy and want him dead, and especially the devil begins to rage and rage. Christ says this long before, Matth. 10, v. 34-36: "You should not think that I have come to send peace on earth. I have not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to provoke a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the cord against her sister-in-law. And man's enemies shall be his own household."
(5) But all this is for the purpose that thou mayest first consider whether thou wilt be a Christian or not. For if you want to be a Christian, send yourself into this storm and this strife, for there is no other way out; he who wants to live godly in Christ, says St. Paul, must suffer persecution. Therefore Jesus also admonishes Sirach, Cap. 2, admonishes all believers, saying v. 1: "My son, if you want to be God's servant, send yourself to temptation, hold fast, and suffer yourself." As if to say, "If you do not want to be God's servant, always go, the devil will leave you satisfied until you reach him.
ner time. But again, if you desire to serve God and to be a Christian, only give yourself willingly: the weather and persecution will not remain outside. Therefore, take courage that you will not be frightened by it, as by an unforeseen accident. Do not be afraid of such weather, but be afraid of God, so that you do not deviate from His word because of the world, and defiantly dare to say: It was not started for the sake of the world's favor; therefore do not refrain from anything because of its disfavor and wrath. This is what the evangelist wants to teach us when he says that the tempest rose first when Christ stepped into the ship and came out onto the sea from the land.
(6) But this also serves us to know how to answer the wicked useless blasphemers, who can do no more than blaspheme and speak the gospel: Before this doctrine arose, all was quiet and full; now there is so much misfortune that no one can tell of it, of the mobs, the war, the riots, the troubled times, the Turks, and all the miseries. Now whoever wants to stop such shameful blasphemers, let him speak to them: Dear, have you never read it in the Gospel, as soon as Christ comes into the ship and on the sea, that a tumult arises?
Now it is not the fault of the Lord Christ, but of the devil, who is hostile to him and does not want to suffer him. So he is also hostile to the gospel, and for this reason he would like to cause so much trouble and distress on earth that it would have to fall to the ground. But the blind, stubborn people do not want to see or notice this. They only stand on the trouble and lack, and blaspheme that it is the fault of the gospel. But what good comes from the gospel, how one can know God through it, come to the forgiveness of sins and become holy, they do not want to see.
(8) Just as the ungrateful, stubborn and unruly people, the Jews in the wilderness, did. When they were in Egypt, and there was work for two of them, they cried out to God to help them out of their misery, and they wanted to be righteous. But what happened? When God delivered them from such misery and they entered the desert, it was all forgotten. But that was the worst thing, that everything was forgotten.
They had forgotten what and how much they had had to work and suffer in Egypt. Only they remembered the flesh pots and the bread in Egypt. They also knew the Pabst's art and picked out the good things they had had, but what they had suffered in addition, they could keep silent. Therefore, when God gave them the bread of heaven, they also despised it and thought it was not as good as the meat in Egypt. Thus our nature and evil ways are corrupted by original sin; God may do with us as He pleases, but He cannot do right to us. Therefore, it requires great and divine patience that he can tolerate such wicked boys for so long.
(9) If anyone had asked us twenty years ago, whether we would rather have a year's drudgery, or let the monks and the priests always toil, toil, and toil us, as was the custom at that time, do you not think that everyone would have gladly chosen the drudgery, so that one could have gotten away from the hard, unmistakable, and, as it was to be seen, infinite drudgery? For there would have been the hope that what one year had not given, the other would; but that drudgery went on for and on, and from day to day increased the longer the more. We have so purely forgotten such and other nastiness, praise the peace and the former being, do not see what a terrible cliff is attached to it, that we have been deprived not only of money and goods in such peace, but also of body and soul, through false teachings and idolatry. And yet they could not have overcome it. For at the same time there have also been great times, pestilence, war and other plagues. Because such things are happening now, they blame it on the gospel.
(10) But how thinkest thou that such things shall please God, who hath no higher treasure than his word, and can neither help nor counsel us better or more from sin and death, than by the gospel: and yet it is so grievously dishonored and blasphemed in him that he is blamed for causing all mischief 2c? ? But what kind of punishment will follow such blasphemy? That God will blind the hearts and eyes of such blasphemers.
that they do not see the glorious, great benefits of God, and must thus become and remain hardened with the Jews, so that they can do no more than blaspheme God and finally go to the devil. Such a reward belongs to them, and will certainly befall them. Otherwise you will have to suffer, even though the gospel is not, so that not everyone will favor you and you will have enmity. So Rome had to suffer war and all kinds of misfortune before the gospel came.
(11) Therefore the gospel is not to blame for such things. All the blame is on the devil and our ingratitude. The devil does not like the gospel and would like to dampen it, therefore he causes all misfortune. And the more powerful the word is, the more angry and furious he becomes about it. If we are so ungrateful against such a great treasure, if we do not want to accept it or need it, or even hate and persecute it, God cannot tolerate it either; therefore he must come with all kinds of punishments and plagues to ward off ingratitude.
(12) This is the first thing that thou shalt learn, if thou wilt be a Christian, to send thyself into the storm. But if thou wilt not, go thy way; thou shalt know when thou shalt die what thou hast done.
The other piece is about the right kind of faith, which goes forth in such a battle and storm, and finds itself in Christ, and awakens him. Let this also be well remembered. For our opponents, the papists, consider faith a very small thing. On the other hand, they think much of free will. But I wish they were also in the ship, that they would try what free will can do in such fear and hardship.
The apostles have learned finely here. Their faith was as weak and small as they wished; nevertheless, if it had not been for such weak and small faith, they would have despaired of free will and sunk into the abyss of the sea. But because there is little faith, as Christ himself testifies when he says, "O you of little faith," they have a remedy so that they do not despair, and they run to Christ, wake him up and seek his help.
(15) If the small and weak faith does this, what should the strong and great faith do? As the example of the leper and the centurion of Capernaum showed eight days ago. Therefore, free will is nothing; it loses itself and cannot stand when the trains come here and it comes to the meeting. For there our thoughts are nothing else but that we scream and wish ourselves a hundred miles away. That is, free will does not comfort the heart, but only makes it more and more despondent, so that it fears even a rustling leaf.
(16) But faith, though small and weak, still stands and is not frightened to death. As can be seen here in the disciples. Death was before their eyes, for the waves were crashing with such force that they covered the little ship. Who would not pale in such distress and danger of death? But faith, however weak it is, still holds like a wall, and, like little David against Goliath, that is, against death, sin and all danger, does not despair, but seeks help where it is to be sought, namely, from the Lord Christ, wakes him up, cries out to him, "Oh Lord, help us, we are perishing."
(17) So faith, though destruction is before the eyes, makes one wait for help, and pray, as the Psalm says, "I believe, therefore I speak. For no one can pray unless he believes. Nor can free will, for it looks only at the present need and danger, but it does not see the person who can help in such need and danger; and therefore, because of free will, man must die in his sins. But it is faith, even if it is small and weak, that takes hold of this person, the Lord Christ, and obtains help.
018 Now if such faith had been strong and steadfast, as that of Jonas the prophet, which abode in the whale unto the third day, they might have said unto the sea and waves, Smite always; ye shall not be so strong as to overthrow the ship: and though ye finish it, yet will we find a vault in the midst of the sea, where we shall sit dry, and not be drowned. For we have
a God who can sustain us, not only on the sea, but in and under the sea.
19 This is true faith, which does not, like free will, look only at the present, and because of this is frightened and despondent, but it looks to the future and to the contradiction. Therefore, even if he is stuck in the jaws of death, he still takes courage and holds on to this consolation that he can be helped, as we see here in the weak faith of the disciples. Therefore, faith is not a small art, nor a bad thing; it is a divine power that does not come from free will, but is given to us by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
20 Our adversaries, the papists, do not know this; otherwise they would not fight it so hard when we speak: Faith alone makes blessed, that is, faith alone finds consolation when sin, death and eternal damnation come along and want to push us to the ground. That is why they are seen to be bold and proud as long as the sea is calm and the weather is fair. But when the storm rises and evil wants to happen, all courage and comfort fall away. For there is no faith, but the powerless, desolate free will, which forgets God and his word, and nowhere knows where from.
Now here it is a special misfortune that Christ is resting in such distress of death, and sleeps of a right, natural, strong sleep, which perhaps came to him from the fact that he had worked and preached himself tired during the day, or had prayed during the night and had his temptation. For I believe that he suffered a great deal of temptation from the devil during the night, as he complains in the 88th Psalm, v. 16: Pauper sum ego, et in laboribus a juventute mea. "From my youth I have been wretched, and have suffered much; I suffer thy terrors, that I almost despair." Therefore he was seldom cheerful, always walking in heavy thoughts, when he was full of sorrow and grief; as the same Psalm indicates before, v. 4: "My soul is full of sorrow, and my life is near hell." And yet, though such sleep is right and natural,
yet he had to serve for the faith of his disciples, as all his works do.
22 This is still happening today, that the Lord is standing against his Christians as if he did not see us, or had even ignored us; as he is doing here in the ship, lying and sleeping, he does not care about the weather, neither for his disciples, nor for the ship. But he is still in the ship, even though he is asleep.
(23) These are the temptations that always strike, that our Lord Christ causes the waves to fall over the little ship; that is, he causes the devil and the world to rage against the Christians, so that one must fear, as it is also before one's eyes today, that it will completely go to the bottom. The pope and his crowd are hostile to the word, always inciting the great potentates against us. So the devil does not let the Turk celebrate either. There we sit in the ship, and have weather and wind, that it would be better. Nevertheless, the Lord should sit quietly and not let it be known that he wants to help us. This is his sleep, which he does in the ship.
(24) But then we must take courage, and think that there is no need yet. For he is the Lord, and is also with us in the ship. Even though he stands as if he does not see us, we must stand as if we do see him and believe him to be able to calm the sea, no matter how much it rages.
(25) So shall we also do in private trials, in our own danger and temptation, which are particular to each one. When the devil comes, reproaches you with your sin, and frightens you with the wrath of God, threatening eternal damnation; think and doubt not: My Lord Christ is not far off, but he sleeps. Then it is necessary that I find my way to him through earnest prayer and wake him up, as the disciples do here. They are more interested in their own destruction than in the Lord's sleep; therefore they think, "In short, we must have an awake Christ now, otherwise we are finished; for this reason they give him no rest and wake him up. So learn thou also to do; for both must be done. If you want to work with
Christ into the ship, the weather will not remain outside, and Christ will want to sleep, so that we may feel the challenge properly. Otherwise, if he were not asleep and would fight the weather as soon as it came, we would never know what it would be like for a Christian, and we would still think that we were doing it out of our own strength. But here faith is strengthened by temptation, so that one must speak: No human power could have helped; only God and his dear Word did it.
(26) Besides this beautiful and comforting teaching, the Lord Christ is also presented to us here as a right, natural man, having body and soul, and therefore needing to eat, drink, sleep, and other natural works done without sin, as we do: lest we fall into the Manichaean error, who took Christ for a ghost, not for a right man.
27) Just as natural sleep is a certain indication that the Lord Christ is a true, natural man, so he proves his omnipotent divinity by calming the sea with a word and causing the wind to cease, which is not the work of man; it takes divine power to ward off the tempest of the sea with a word.
28 Therefore, this miraculous work should be all the more pleasing to us, so that we may see how God and man are one person in Christ. For this reason he is able and willing to help all who seek help from him in all troubles and temptations. Whether we have to suffer and dare something about it, if it cannot be otherwise, what is the point? The wicked must also bear their suffering and cross, yet have an evil conscience and finally await eternal damnation.
29 The third part is about the fruit of such faith, namely, that others also perceive such miracles, and say: "What kind of man is this, that the wind and the sea obey him? Until now, they may have considered him a bad man and not known or believed that one could seek and find help from him in mortal distress.
should. But now they learn to recognize him, that he is the highest and best emergency helper, since no one else can help.
(30) Thus it is that the more severe the challenge, the greater the fruit and benefit it produces. The world is hard on us now, so that we always think that we must endure, that the sea and the storm will overgrow us and tear us to pieces. But let us hold fast to our word and faith. What does it matter, there shall follow a beautiful, glorious fruit, at which we shall laugh and be glad. The bitter hatred that is in the Pope and the Turks against the church, about which we, as a woman in childish distress, are afraid and have to shriek and groan, shall, if God wills, bring something with it. Every person should hope for the same for his own person, if the challenge seizes him, that it will not go away without fruit.
(31) Alphonsus, behold your love, how this gospel is very comforting, and teaches us a good and beautiful lesson, that if we would be Christians, we must enter into the ship with the Lord Christ, and there wait for the weather and tempests. If this is the case, then we should hold fast to the faith and the word, and hope that we will not only be saved from the weather or the tempest, but that a certain fruit and benefit will follow from it; that we should not wish otherwise than we have tried, and have learned strength and virtue through our own experience of the word and faith. Who would complain about the cross, because certain help and fruit should follow? But it hurts the old Adam, who rebels at such bitter and sour drink, and would rather be overridden. For this reason it is necessary that we remember such examples often and much, and handle the word diligently, so that when the challenge comes, we are prepared, and find ourselves in Christ, who sleeps with us and pretends not to take care of us, and seek help and salvation from him through diligent prayer.
32. May our dear Father in heaven, for Christ's sake, grant us all these things through his Holy Spirit, amen.