L "e. 10, 23-37.
And he turned to his disciples, and said in particular, Blessed are the eyes which see that ye see. For I say unto you, That many prophets and kings would see that ye see, and have not seen; and would hear that ye hear, and have not heard. And, behold, a certain scribe stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, How is it written in the law? how readest thou? And he answered and said, Thou shalt love thy Lord God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: do this, and thou shalt live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to JEsu, Who then is my neighbor? Then answered Jesus, and said, There was a certain man which went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among the murderers: and they stripped him, and smote him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And it came to pass about this time, that a priest went down that same street; and when he saw him, he passed by. A Levite came to the same place and saw him, and he passed by. And a certain Samaritan journeyed, and came thither: and when he saw him, he lamented him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, and poured oil and wine into them, and lifted him up upon his beast, and brought him to the inn, and nursed him. The next day he traveled and took out two pennies and gave them to the innkeeper, saying to him, "Take care of him, and if you give any more, I will pay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think was the closest to the one who fell among the murderers? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said JESUS unto him, Go thy way, and do likewise.
(1) This is a long gospel; therefore we will take only one or two pieces from it, that we may the more easily remember and learn from it. The first part is that the Lord Christ here highly praises his word, the holy gospel, and speaks especially to his disciples:
Blessed are the eyes that see that ye see. For I tell you, many prophets and kings would see that which you see, and have not seen it; and hear that which you hear, and have not heard it.
2 With this he wants to comfort us against the misery we see on earth, where there is no more despised thing than the gospel. For all other doctrine, lies and heresies the world may hear and tolerate; but the gospel it will neither hear nor see, but blasphemes and persecutes it to the utmost, putting heartache on those who preach and hear it. How then the examples unfortunately more
*) Held in house, according to a in 1533, according to b in 1532; Röhrer gives the year 1533. D. Red.
for there are too many in all Germany and in many other kingdoms. The Lord sees this, comforts his disciples and says: "The world reproaches and blasphemes the gospel, but he who has the grace to have it and to be comforted by it, has blessed ears, he may thank God from the bottom of his heart that he has come to it and may consider it delicious, which the world despises so highly. Therefore, it is certainly true that you are more blessed than David and all other kings. For this has been the highest desire of all holy patriarchs, prophets and kings, that they would have liked to experience this time, and to see and hear me. But it could not be granted to them. But this grace and blessedness has happened to you; therefore look and thank God that it has happened to you that you can hear and see me.
(3) The Lord sees what poor, miserable people we are. If we do not have such a treasure of the holy gospel, then one error always falls upon another, and it is not possible for anyone to be able to
save. As we have unfortunately experienced too much in the papacy, it has finally come to the point that we have taken the devil for a preacher and believed him, what he has lied about masses, pilgrimages, purgatory, and other things through the poltergeists and his lying preachers. There is no other way, where the word is not, than that one accepts and believes all kinds of error and lies. And if people still think they are on the right path to salvation, they are running straight to hell and the devil.
4 Again, when we have the gospel, we find a misery that is almost more terrible, namely, that everyone despises it, and the least part accepts it for the better. Therefore we are miserable and poor people. If God does not give us His word, we cannot do without it without harm to our souls' salvation. Again, if he gives it, no one wants it. For this reason, nothing would be better than for our Lord God to come soon with the Day of Judgment and smite everything in one heap. For neither punishment nor mercy helps the ungrateful world. But as it says here: Blessed are the ears that hear and accept, for eternal joy shall follow.
This is the first part, where our dear Lord Christ complains that he offers and gives his word to the world, and with the word forgiveness of sins and eternal life; but it does not want it, but despises it. Therefore he turns especially to his disciples and says: "Blessed are you who have the word of God and hear it, and have not long since died before it came. I tell you, the greatest and highest kings and prophets would have liked to have seen and experienced it. The world is still so wicked, if it can have it at once, that it asks nothing about it, and even despises and blasphemes it. Do not turn away from such distress, but think that you need such grace and mend your ways. For this is the very reason why the Lord is here concerned, that he would like everyone to hear the word with earnestness, and not to despise it, as the world does, and we see in all classes, from the highest to the lowest, what the gospel cannot pursue, that it despises.
The least part accepts it with gratitude and improves. They alone have blessed ears and blessed eyes.
In the second part, the Lord shows us the fruit of the holy gospel, namely, the good works that should follow when one has heard the word of God. He illustrates this with a fine example of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and the murderers fell upon him, beat him, and robbed him, and left him for dead. Meanwhile a priest came, and saw the poor man, but took no notice of him, and went his way. A Levite also passed by and saw him, but he did not care about the poor man. Finally comes a Samaritan, who had not the name that he should be holy; but was a Gentile, who belonged nothing to the poor man, who was a Jew; for he was not of his own kind, like the priest or Levite, but a stranger. The latter saw the poor man, and taking his accident to heart, soon got off his horse, poured oil and wine into his wounds, bandaged him up and laid him on his animal, but he went on foot and led him to the inn. When he could not stay there for half an hour, he ordered him to the innkeeper and gave him two pennies to wait until he came back.
(7) This is the true picture in which the Lord illustrates what the true fruit of the word and Christian love is, namely, that the word will make people like the Samaritan here, soft, merciful people who cannot well see that someone is in need. But when they see it, they dare to do their own good, and help with what they can. But I am talking here about poor people who do not go in for begging, like the lazy, useless, idle beggars who can bring no one to any work and run away all over the country. Such pranksters should not be given anything. But where there are really poor people, there is a Christian heart so skillful that it does like the Samaritan here. He thinks, "Even though I am not a Jew like this man, I am still a human being like him, and I have one Creator. Therefore he belongs closer to me than an unreasonable animal, and for this reason I do not want to leave him lying there. On, dear
Brother, stop here, let me help you etc. So do to him as a father does to his child. These are called true saints.
(8) But the saints of the sticks, such as the priest and the Levite here, who think highly of themselves, naturally have no mercy on the poor, but are horrible, hard people. For they think that our Lord God is happy that they serve him; therefore they think that they are not allowed to do anything to other people or to serve them. The priest here was holy by virtue of his office and birth; he exalted himself to such an extent that he asked for no one else; just as the text here says of him that he had seen the poor wounded man, but had passed by and had not taken care of his need.
(9) But now they are the displeased saints, to whom God is especially hostile, who see that their neighbor is in distress, and can help, and yet do not. What can they rely on? Nothing else, but their holiness, that they think that when they have said mass, sacrificed, sung and done other things, they have done it all, not atoning to our Lord God with a sack of oats. These are called cane saints and stone saints, yes, the devil's saints, who make themselves believe that our Lord is indebted to them, and that they are indebted to no one.
(10) This likeness is against such shameful saints. For the Lord also has before him such a proud saint, a scribe, who not only wants to be seen to be pious, but also to prove the Lord Christ false, and to be a better doctor than he is. For since the Lord praises his preaching so highly, saying, "Blessed are the eyes that see, which ye see"; for many kings and prophets have desired to see and hear it, but it has not been so good for them: this seems too much for the scribes; think of themselves: If they had Moses, what can he preach better or higher than Moses preached? He therefore asks and says, "Master, what shall I do that I may be saved?" As if to say, "You will not be able to teach me anything better than Moses taught us. Therefore, not only are those blessed who hear you; those who hear Moses are also blessed.
and have heard are also blessed people. You do him a little too much. It would be enough if you were a doctor, like Moses; but that you throw away Moses as a wicked preacher who does not show the right way to salvation, and want to be a better preacher, that is too much praise.
(11) The Lord understands such a heart and mind very well, and therefore will not answer his question, but makes him so angry that he himself must confess: Even if you have Moses and the law, you still cannot be saved. So he asks him, saying, "How is it written in the Law? How do you read?" The scribe soon finished answering, and said, "Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, etc. and thy neighbor as thyself." This,-he lets himself think,-is the right core and the main teaching, since no one could indicate anything better. And it is true, Moses cannot teach anything higher and better. But what does Christ answer? "Do this," he says, "and you will live." As if to say, "This teaching is good and right, but it does not help you or all men. Cause, you do not and cannot do it. The Christian scholar feels this, but is ashamed of it, for he cannot say that he has done it, and yet he does not want to confess that he has not kept this commandment. Therefore he raises another question, and says, "Who is my neighbor? This is what it means to lead this highly learned doctor to the board. For the fact that he asks who his neighbor is, it is freely known that he has not loved his neighbor, since he has not yet come to know his neighbor. What does Moses and the law help him?
(12) Therefore the Lord took him by the hand in the hood, with the likeness of a wounded man, and said, A priest saw him, and passed by; and so did a Levite. The two were just as pious as you etc. But the Samaritan took care of the poor man. Now say, which one was the neighbor of the wounded man? The scholar answered, "The one who showed him mercy"; he would not name the Samaritan, the trustworthy gleaner.
13. therefore the lord gives him a good
Slack, and saith, "Go thy way, and do likewise." As if to say, Thou art as pious a saint as the priest and Levite; Thou wilt not help thy neighbor with a penny, whether he die now; And askest yet what thou shalt do, that thou mayest inherit eternal life? Hast thou not poor friends, poor neighbors, afflicted people? Is there not misfortune, anguish, and distress enough in the world? And thou art such a rude teacher that thou first askest who thy neighbor is? If you want to be holy, love your neighbor as yourself, as the Samaritan did here. This is called forcing. *) As if the Lord should say, Thou hast not learned so much in thy life as to know who thy neighbor is, let alone to have loved him as thyself. In whom then is the fault? Thou hast Moses and the law. If these things be sufficient unto salvation, there is no more need of thee. But is it not true, though thou hast Moses and the law, yet it is nothing to thee; thou remainest a sinner as before, and hast no more in the law than that it is thy debtor's book, and bears witness against thee, and accuseth thee before God for thy sins. This means that you are still far short of salvation. '
(14) But if any one desires to understand truly and thoroughly why the law does not make us blessed, let him take only these two pieces before him, of which the Christian scholar speaks here, and see diligently what is meant by loving God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself; and he will find how difficult and impossible a thing it is, unless the Holy Spirit be given into our hearts through the Lord Christ and his gospel. It is soon said: I love God; for he does not come to us personally, and therefore does not need to be tasted hard on him and to do much harm. But see how we behave toward poor people, and it will be found out whether we love God.
15 Therefore, if you want to 'know who loves God rightly, do no more, for see whether the children honor their parents, whether the servants are obedient to their lordship, whether one
*) Zwagen, that is, to wash the body or parts of the body.
keep the church servants well and honestly; then you will see finely and actually who loves God or does not love God. For of the children, God's command and word is written: You shall honor father and mother. Yes, says a monk and a nun: I will leave father and mother; I will go to a monastery and honor you and love you, who are God in heaven. No, says God, you have my word and hear my command; if you now love me, you will also love your father and mother, honor them, and show them all love. That is then called loving God. But the unholy people do not ask for such obedience, but want to prove their love for God with other works, since God has not commanded anything of them. So the children, even though they remain with their parents, still want them to be dead and under the earth, only that they might have their will to be brave. One must say that they do not love God.
(16) It is the same in other estates. A prince has his officials, and he commands them to keep the house properly and faithfully. If you ask them whether they also love God, not one of them will say no, but all will boast: Yes, I love God; why should I be an enemy of God? Yes, dear one, tell me, why are you disobedient and unfaithful to your prince? If you loved God with all your heart, yes, with half your heart, you would serve your prince much more faithfully.
(17) So there is no servant or maid in the house, though they know nothing of God, and are negligent and unfaithful, who would suffer this reproach, and confess that they are enemies of God, or that they do not love him; and yet they prove it by being so disobedient to their overlords, to whom God is called to be obedient. But because they do not love God and do not ask anything according to His command, they remain disobedient, unfaithful, lying, deceiving and using themselves of all evil deeds. So learn now that loving God is not as easy a thing as you think. It is soon said, but it does not follow in the work.
For to love God is to keep His word and command. As Christ says, "He who loves me will keep my word."
For if you love God, you cannot despise His commandments. What does God mean and command the servants and maids etc.? Yes, what do they promise their rulers that they will do? Isn't it true that God demands, and they pledge, and take their wages, food and drink, that they will be faithful, follow, and do with diligence what they are obliged to do, and with their service, work and diligence promote the benefit and piety of their lordship. That is why in some places they are called marriage servants, so that they help to keep house and improve the married couple's food by their work and faithful service. But where do you find such servants and maids? The greatest disobedience, the greatest carelessness, pride, evil words, neglect, corruption, doing harm, and often stealing and robbing, is common now. Therefore they do not love God, indeed, they are enemies of God, for they do not respect His word: otherwise they would certainly be more pious and diligent. Just as they love God and are diligent about His word, so it is with them that there is neither happiness nor salvation among such servants; they must remain robbers and beggars all their lives.
There is no need to speak of priests and church servants here; it is known everywhere how the officials, castles, judges, burghers, farmers and neighbors treat them and hold them in lower esteem and contempt than cows and sows. But God has diligently commanded above all things that they be held dear and of value, and especially that they not be deprived of what is theirs, as is seen in the prophet Malachi. And Christ himself says, "A laborer is worthy of his food." Therefore, just as you should be afraid of sins when you steal from your servant or maidservant, so you should be afraid of sins when you steal from your pastor what you owe him, knowing that God will take from you ten times more in another place, with storms, death of livestock, fire, water, and the like, than you steal or withhold from your pastor.
20 Thus it is seen that the world not only does not love God, but hates Him, despises Him, and is hostile to Him. That it is sheer to suffer
that she would not love him, if only she were not also an enemy of him. Oh no, says everyone, God forbid, should I be an enemy of God? Yes, indeed, you are an enemy to him. For if you murmur against your father and mother, against your rulers or authorities, and do not do what you are commanded to do, you despise God, have him, and are an enemy to him. For it is his command that you should obey and honor them by obedience. To the same command thou art hostile; for thou wilt not do it, neither wilt thou hear it. Who can say otherwise than that you are also an enemy of God?
(21) Citizens and peasants also boast that they love God. But when God's command is held up to them that they should not be stingy, that they should not sell too cheaply, that they should act faithfully etc.: the more one preaches, the more foolish they become, and they do only more out of pure defiance and will of courage. What, they say, does it concern the priests how I keep house? should he master me? Well, if it does not concern the priests, it concerns God; but you see how he will reward you in time, with pestilence, with dear time, with fire, with water, with the Turk, with the mercenaries, and with all kinds of other plagues; they will take away your thalers and guilders purely, and will not know how to thank you for it: otherwise, if you were a Christian, you could earn favor and thanks from God and men, and would increase in wealth from day to day.
22 Thus it is seen everywhere that people not only do not want to hear the word of our Lord God with diligence, but they also persecute it. Not only the pope, the bishops and tyrants, but also in our part citizens, peasants, the nobility, and others in all classes. They should honor God's word and abide by it, live kindly with their neighbor, and especially give to the church servants what they owe. But if they could still take much, they would do it with cheerful courage, making themselves believe that they had only done it well.
(23) Therefore, let us learn diligently and remember that whoever has the word of God should also love God, that is, he should love God.
render his obedience, and diligently obey the word, saying, O Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast opened mine eyes unto me, that I might see how thou hast redeemed me from sins by thy death, and hast made me an heir of the kingdom of heaven and eternal life; now, dear Lord, I thank thee for such great unspeakable mercies; I will also gladly do again what I know thou wilt have me to do. You have commanded me to honor my father and mother; I will do it with all my will and gladly. Thou hast commanded me to serve my lordship faithfully, to work diligently and to be obedient; I will do it gladly. You have made me a housemother, a householder; dear God, I will be pious, I will do with pleasure and love what I am to do, and I will rather live over it than not follow you, or not faithfully preside over my children and my servants, or annoy them. This is the right fruit that should follow from the word, and is called loving God rightly from the heart. That God should not honor such pious, obedient Christians, who honor and love God and His word, and should not give them happiness and salvation, is not possible.
(24) But let each one go home into his heart and see how far he loves God. For, as now reported, loving God is not done with thoughts alone, as the mad monks think; but to love God means, as the Lord says in another place, to love one's neighbor. For thus says God: If thou wilt love me, remember and love thy father and mother, thy child, thy wife, thy husband, thy lord, thy wife; this will I have of thee. Then look around you, if you do this everywhere, and you will find out whether you love God or are an enemy of God.
(25) For, as I said, they are few; indeed, Christians alone have the Word of God and love Christ, though not as fully as they ought. They say: Well then, I will again gladly do to my neighbor what I ought to do. But if at times I am overtaxed with anger, impatience, and other things, let me be sorry from my heart, and I will return. Christians do this; others, who are not Christians, do not.
(26) Therefore we can conclude that commoners and peasants, children and servants, officials and subjects, are all of the devil: for they are enemies of God, for they do not respect his word and command (as you can see). That he created them, gave them body and soul, food and drink; yes, that he gave his only begotten son, for this they sing him a little song, that is called Odium, I don't like yours, I don't want yours, and if they could, they should probably still tear him down from heaven, so dear are they to his word and command. Ei now, love in that name! Does that mean to love God, to be so bitterly hostile to God and his word; and on the other hand, to love the devil and follow his will, who has thrown us into sin and eternal death, and takes all pleasure in our being so disobedient to God?
(27) Thus the world in general is a servant of the wicked devil in hell, who delights in making us enemies of God and not doing what he has commanded us to do. The wicked enemy has already hung sin and death on our necks; and if he could spoil grain and wine this very hour, and cause us all to die of hunger, he would gladly do so. Nevertheless, we serve such an enemy, who means us so evil and poisonous, and meanwhile we let the gracious God in heaven, who has given us everything, and especially his Son, and with him has given us eternal life, preach to us in vain, and do not want to obey his command.
(28) Now strike dead and choke, dear God, that we should not love thee, who givest all manner of temporal and spiritual gifts. But with love and will we should gladly serve him who puts all plagues on us here and gives eternal death there.
(29) Therefore, learn what it means to love God. This Samaritan loves God, not that he has given anything to God, but that he helps the poor wounded man as much as he can. For thus says God: If thou wilt love me and serve me, do it to thy neighbor, he needeth it; I need it not. Therefore, this Samaritan serves our Lord God in heaven with his money, animal, oil and wine. Not that our Lord
God for his person, or he does it to our Lord God; he does it to his neighbor. But it is called done to God, and God is served by it, because God has thus commanded and commanded it.
(30) The other thing, that the world should serve God with, he has not commanded to go to St. James, or to Rome, or to build churches, or any other such thing. He wants one to serve and help the other. You must not look for me in Rome, he says, you will find me at home in your house, with your wife, child, servants, rulers, authorities; item, in your neighbor's house, in the gates, in the market and everywhere. Do what you can do for friendship, love and service to anyone, and I will take credit for it and boast that you have done it for me. How could he put it closer to you? But the devil blinds the world so that it cannot see what it really means to love God and to be an enemy of the devil.
(31) Therefore strive to learn to follow the example of this Samaritan, who took care of the wounded man in his distress, helping and caring for him as he would have wanted someone else to do and care for him in such distress, thus bringing praise that he loved God and his neighbor. This, I say, you shall learn to do. For this fruit shall follow in them that have the word. But if it does not follow, they are false Christians; like this priest and Levite here, they are cane saints, yes, devil saints. For he who passes before his neighbor also passes before God. Therefore, beware of the world's example, which is hostile to both God and neighbor, but show love toward everyone, and God will not let it go unrewarded. But whoever does not love God and wants to pass by his neighbor in distress will certainly receive his punishment in due time. Let everyone be guided by this.
32Thus this gospel gives us a beautiful and very useful and necessary teaching on how we should conduct our lives if we want to be among the multitude that loves God rightly, namely, that we love our neighbor.
and prove all good things to him in his distress. God will accept this as if we had done it to Him.
But the Lord gives the scribe the same answer to his answer as before, saying, "Go and do likewise. He wants to indicate once again that he has never done such a will of God, nor can he do it. So that he must confess, even though he has Moses and the law and knows that it is not enough for salvation. But if he is to be saved, he must first have forgiveness of all his sin through the Son of God, and then also receive the Holy Spirit, who awakens the heart to willing, right obedience. For without the Holy Spirit's help, which we receive only through the Lord Christ, it is impossible for us to do even the least bit enough for the law. For where the Holy Spirit is not, the heart remains unclean and in sin. Therefore, even though the outward works of the law follow, it is only hypocrisy, since God cannot have any pleasure in it.
(34) Therefore the judgment of our Lord Christ is sound and certain, that they only have blessed eyes and ears, which see and hear those things which his disciples see; and they only, which see not, neither hear, but Moses and the law, by which the heart is not changed, but abideth as it was in the beginning, wicked and unclean.
35 From this it is easy to answer the papists' objection against us, that they say: Christ says, "Do this, and you shall live," and conclude from this that one can be saved by the works of the law. For the Lord wants to show the scribes and all of us with such a word that it is impossible for us to follow the law unless our hearts receive the Holy Spirit first through the gospel and are cleansed from sins. Therefore these things are spoken according to the law, which also means that we must do God's will, but it does not follow that we can do it. Christ must work this in us through the holy gospel and his Holy Spirit. For this reason the Lord introduces this likeness to the one who fell among the murderers, so that
to indicate how great misery is upon us all, and that only through him, the right Samaritan, can we be freed and delivered from it.
(36) For we poor men have fallen among the worst of murderers through sin, that the devil and death have become powerful over us, and have not only stripped us and robbed us of all the spiritual goods that God has granted and given us, but they have also wounded us and beaten us, that is, because of sins we have fallen into all kinds of misery, calamity and misery. In such misery we should lie down because of the priest and the Levite, that is, because of the law; for they pass by and do not help the poor man. As Paul says: By the law no man is justified, nor absolved from sins. But in the end we find the Samaritan, our dear Lord Christ, whom his own people would not accept, but took him for your heathen and possessed man. He takes care of our suffering, washes and binds up our wounds with wine, and pours the blessed oil of his grace into them, and takes our sin upon himself, which he bears in his body, and thus leads us into the right inn, that is, into the Christian church,
and commands the host to take care of us, that is, those who are in the ministry and preach the word.
But, alas, the greatest number, as we see in the pope, bishops, and the same vermin, maintain such ministry very badly; that the church is like a hospital, which has an unfaithful, industrious, unprofessional hospital master, where the sick are maintained very badly. For they should preach God's word, so they pursue it; they should lead people to Christ and thus help them from sins, so they only put them deeper into it. Nevertheless, we see that our dear Lord Christ does not want to let such a hospital disappear. If the pope and bishops do not want to preach rightly, they may leave it alone and wait how they will be rewarded in the end. Meanwhile, our dear Lord Christ raises up poor, miserable people who are despised in the world, who preach his word and care for the poor sick, so that they may come to forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the gospel. For without this preaching it is impossible that we could come to such treasure. Therefore, we may well thank God for such beneficence, and pray that He may preserve us in such grace and make us blessed, amen.