Matth. 22, 1-14.
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a king that made a marriage for his son: and he sent forth his servants to call the guests to the marriage: and they would not come. Again he sent out other servants, saying, Tell the guests, Behold, my supper is prepared, my oxen and my fatlings are slain, and all things are ready; come to the marriage. But they despised this and went away, one to his field, the other to his handiwork. And some of them took his servants, and mocked them, and slew them. When the king heard this, he was angry and sent out his armies and killed these murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his servants: The wedding is ready, but the guests are not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and invite to the marriage whom ye may find. And the servants went out into the streets, and gathered together whom they found, both evil and good. And the tables were all filled. Then the king went in to see the guests, and saw a man there who had no wedding garment on, and said to him, "Friend, how did you come in and have no wedding garment on? But he fell silent. Then said the king unto his servants, Bind his hands and his feet, and cast him out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth: for many are called, but few are chosen.
*) Held in house, 1S33.
(1) In today's Gospel, your beloved hears how the kingdom of God is like a wedding, and like such a wedding, where guests are invited, who not only do not attend and despise it, but in part they still go, mocking and killing the servants who announce such a glorious wedding to them, and invite and ask them to it.
2 Here one should first learn what the word "kingdom of heaven" means, namely that it does not mean a kingdom on earth, but a kingdom in heaven, since God Himself alone is King within. This is what we call the Christian church/ which is here on earth. For this is why the Lord needs this simile of the wedding, that the Son of the King, our dear Lord, the Lord Christ, takes the church as his bride. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is to be understood in this way, that it is here below on earth, and yet is not a temporal kingdom, but a spiritual and eternal one. For we Christians here on earth are already more than halfway in the kingdom of heaven, namely, with the soul and spirit, or according to faith, until the body also finally comes after.
Therefore, when you hear of the kingdom of heaven, you should not look up to heaven alone, but stay here below and seek it among the people, as far as the whole world is, where people teach the gospel, believe in Christ and have the holy sacraments in proper use. That the kingdom of heaven means as much as the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Gospel and of faith. The kingdom of the gospel and of faith.
4 For where the gospel is, there is Christ. Where Christ is, there is the Holy Spirit and his kingdom, the true kingdom of heaven; and all who have the Word and Sacrament and believe, and abide in Christ through faith, are heavenly princes and children of God. And the only thing to be done is for our Lord God to remove the wall that is still between us, that is, for us to die, and then there will be heaven and blessedness.
(5) Learn therefore first of all that the kingdom of heaven is called the kingdom of our Lord Christ, where the word and the faith are. In such a kingdom, we have life in the
Hope, and are, according to the word and faith, clean from sins and free from death and hell, without the old sackcloth and rotten flesh still being missing. The sackcloth has not yet been torn, the flesh has not yet been taken away; this must happen first, and then we shall have life, righteousness and blessedness.
(6) To such a wedding, says Christ, our Lord God called and invited His people, the Jews, at the time before Christ came, through the holy prophets. For their most noble office was to make the Jews wait for the wedding, that is, they put their people off, that the Son of God would become man, and by his death pay for the sins of all the world, and by his resurrection tear apart the kingdom and power of death and the devil, and after that let the gospel go out through the whole world, and let forgiveness of sins and eternal life be preached in his name to everyone. The holy prophets called the people to wait for such a gracious sermon and to take comfort in it, hoping for forgiveness of all sins and eternal life through Christ.
7 But Christ says here: They remained outside and would not come. Just like the Jews in the wilderness, who desired to come back behind them in Egypt. After this he sends out other servants, because it was now time for Christ to come and be heard with preaching and seen with miraculous signs. For there was John and the disciples of Christ, saying that the supper was ready, and lacking nothing more, but that they should leave all things, and adorn themselves, and send themselves to the marriage. But it was also in vain; they despised it, saith the Lord, and went away, one to his field, the other to his handiwork etc.
(8) But are not these wretched, miserable people who, for the sake of their land or work, despise this glorious meal, namely, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and yet have the hope that it will go well with them? For otherwise they would not let themselves like the field or the work so much that they would miss this meal.
9) But it happens to the dear Gospel in all ways; when it comes among the people, the game is raised, so that the world becomes angrier than before and everyone wants to handle it. With it they make so much trouble for themselves that they cannot wait for this charge. So it shall also go.
(10) Therefore, let no one be angry with the present world, because the citizens and peasants are so shamefully stingy, so proud and arrogant, and especially because their pastors, who invite them to such a meal, are more unkind, even more angry, than their servants. This, I say, let no one be angry enough to think, "It is well with the people in their work of farming or handling; I will do the same to them. By no means! For our Lord God is a kind host, who can borrow the money for a while, but he does not give it away. So, now he is watching, letting citizens and peasants do all they can, despising the gospel and all faithful admonitions and teachings, collecting money, selling all that is needed, wood, grain, butter, eggs, keeping silent about it, as if he did not see it. But if today or tomorrow he comes with a pestilence, so that they often fall like untimely fruit, or with a war, so that the mercenaries fall into your house, take what they find, and beat your skin to the bone, they do not even strangle you, rape your wife and child, and make you watch, and cry out about it: O how does our Lord God deal with us so horribly!
(11) Then it shall be found what pleasure God hath had in thy covetousness, in thy wantonness, and in thy pride. For it will be said: "Dear one, if you were able to be stingy, proud and wanton before, and despise my word; now also take it for good, and look behind you at the score. You have been drinking for a long time. Dear, pay once and hold out your neck. So it will finally go out. Therefore, it would be good to let up in time and to improve ourselves, as we are diligently admonished by the word. We would like to despise God's word and do what we want, and yet God would not punish us. Yes, one would have to
*) Held in the house, 1532.
order it to us in this way. Further follows in the Gospel:
Some of those who were summoned were even more wicked, attacking the servants, putting them to all shame and disgrace, and finally killing them as well. By this the Lord means especially the city of Jerusalem, which strangled the prophets and finally the Son of God Himself.
013 And what happened? The king was angry and sent out his army, the Romans, who had to be in his service, kill the murderers, burn the city with fire, and deal so horribly with the Jews that they sold them more cheaply than sparrows, thirty for a penny. There was a piteous cry and lamentation that God in heaven would have mercy on them. But they wanted it so. They had been drinking for a long time and had been preached to in vain; so they had to pay the bill once: God did not want to hear them again. Beware of that.
(14) Without this we have many other things upon us, which are a grievance to our Lord God: Anger, impatience, avarice, care of the belly, rutting, fornication, hatred, and other vices, are all great and grievous deadly sins, which are everywhere in the world with power and prevail; nevertheless, such sins are nothing compared to the grievous contempt of God's word, which is so great and common among all classes and people that it is to be pitied. Now it is certain and true that God would have patience with the other sins for a while, if only one would let the word go and hold it in honor. But the world does not want to. It soon grows tired of the word, despises it, and turns to it like a sick person for food and medicine; so God must be angry and punish such inequity.
(15) Over and above this misery, that this sin is so wicked, it is also a terrible, infernal, diabolical sin, that it does not want to be recognized like other sins. Everyone considers it a small thing if one is in the sermon and does not diligently pay attention to it; indeed, most of the people go along like this, and let themselves think that the wine tastes just as good under the sermon as at any other time; no one cares about it, much less does anyone make a conscience of himself about the fact that he holds the dear word in such low esteem. Such a thing is
This is not the case with other sins, for other sins, such as beating to death, adultery, and stealing, sometimes bring remorse, so that the heart is horrified and wishes it had not happened, because no one can consider it right. But not to hear the word diligently, yes, to despise, to persecute, no one takes no conscience over. That is why it is such an abominable sin, since country and people must finally be destroyed. Because it remains unrecognized, neither repentance nor correction can follow. This is what happened to the city of Jerusalem and all the kingdoms.
16. Germany also has to answer for it, because sin always cries out to heaven and does not let God rest, so that he has to be angry and say: I gave you my dear Son, my highest and dearest treasure, and would have liked to talk to you, to teach you and instruct you for eternal life; but I have no one who wants to listen to me. Therefore I must let the punishment go. As the Lord himself testifies in John 3:19: "This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their works were evil. As if he wanted to say, "I would gladly keep silent about the sins of all the others, but this is the judgment that breaks the neck of the world, that I have sent my word and they do not ask anything about it. Otherwise they are full of sins; I would gladly help them by my word: but they will not. If they will not hear my word, they will hear the devil's word, and I must let it come to pass; but they will see how it will go over them.
The Christians in the beautiful, large countries that the Turks have now taken over have fared the same way toward the morning. Hungary is also almost gone. We Germans and other nations also do not want to hear the gospel nor suffer. That is why they have to listen to and suffer the devil's hordes, the Anabaptists and the desecrators of the sacraments. So it shall be, where one despises the word of God and does not want to hear it, which is the highest and greatest sin; therefore the highest and most severe punishment belongs to it.
18. our lord god would have us
fell on their knees before it, and wrote it not only in the books with golden letters, but also in the hearts. The world wants it least of all, indeed, can hardly stand that it is written in the books and resounds in the pulpit. It wants to have the devil in the heart, who also rules it, that is probably better suited.
19 Therefore be warned, God has sufficient cause to be angry and to punish for other sins. But this sin is above all, when one despises his word, and holds those in contempt who invite us to such a wedding and banquet. Whoever then is in such a sin, let his conscience tell him that he is not in a small sin, but in the very highest and greatest sin, which God will tolerate least and punish most severely.
Everyone is now crying out about the great infidelity and about the avarice that is in the world. It is not less, such cannot remain unpunished in the length. But that we have the gospel, snore against it, and under the hour of preaching go strolling in the market, before the gate, in taverns, or sit and lie in the playgrounds, that is the chief sin, which far surpasses all others. For this reason, God will certainly punish them horribly, sending them into error and having them tear down the spirits of the mob with power, which will sweep them away in heaps. As has happened in Greece and other countries, where Mahomet now reigns; he teaches them to believe in the devil's filth, since they had God's word before, but still despised it.
21 In the papacy it also happened like this: at first the doctrine was right and pure; but since the people opposed it so foolishly and ungratefully, God punished the sin in such a way that we ran into the monasteries, tortured ourselves there in the devil's name, and instead of divine truth believed gross, harmful, shameful and blasphemous lies. Now it is again on the way (because this sin must be punished physically and spiritually) that the devil throws in the sacrament abusers and rebaptizers. Why does one not want to stay with the word and not accept it with thanksgiving?
(22) Therefore, as dear as your salvation is to you, see that you guard against such sin;
Honor God's word and hear it diligently and gladly. For if you would do it for no other reason, you should do it for this reason, that God has commanded it, and love and serve Him. For it is not a small thing to serve such a great Lord; he can reward it abundantly. Therefore, every Christian should be diligent in such service, thinking: "Because my Lord and God wants me to hear his word, I will gladly render him such service, so that I can also boast that I have served my God for a day or an hour. Such a cause should be enough to move us to the word.
023 But there are other and greater causes. For God promises thee, saying, If thou hear my word diligently, and keep it, thou shalt be the master of the devil, that he may flee thee, and not come nigh thee. For where my word is, there am I also. But where I am, there the devil shall not be found, but shall be trolled.
24. thou shalt also have the benefit of having thy sin forgiven, and of having thy heart kindled to true devotion and right obedience. In sum, my word shall show thee the way to heaven and bring thee to eternal life; for I thus command thee to serve me, that the benefit may be most thine. Without this, if I wanted something from you, you would be guilty of doing it; but now I command you such service that you will enjoy the most. As we know, when we do no more than the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer for an hour before us, there is always a new fruit, that one notices and learns something that one did not know before.
(25) And this fruit in particular is always there, that the devil cannot abide with thee, and hurt thee. Therefore let no Christian think himself so learned as to say that he knows the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments well beforehand; but if such a thought should occur to you, cast it out again, and say, "I have prayed today, I will pray again now; that you may always chase away the devil and sin from you, and give our Lord Jesus Christ.
You must serve the Lord God. If you do not do this, you will cause our Lord God to be displeased; but who would like to have the wrath of such a great Lord?
(26) But there, alas, the greatest multitude goeth, heeding the word less than nothing. If pestilence or war comes today or tomorrow, our Lord God will not take care of you and your need, and will let you cry and howl in vain, just as you let him cry now. As it is written in the Proverbs of Solomon in 1 Cap. vv. 24-30: "Because I cry out, and ye refuse, and I stretch forth my hand, and no man heareth; and ye forsake all my counsel, and will not answer me: so will I laugh at your calamity, and mock you, when it cometh, which ye fear, when it cometh upon you, as a tempest, which ye fear; and your calamity as the weather, when fear and trouble cometh upon you. Then they will call to me, but I will not answer them; they will seek me early, but will not find me. Therefore they hated the doctrine, and would not have the fear of the Lord. They would not have my counsel, and blasphemed all my judgment" etc. So horribly shall this sin be punished.
27. If you come one day with a bloody head, our Lord God will laugh in his fist and say: O right, you would not have it any other way! I preached to you with earnestness, but you did not want to hear me, so now hear the devil. If thou wilt not hear him that saith, Come unto me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest; hear thou brother Lansquenet, who curseth thee all St. Veltin's and torture, and thrustteth a spear through thee. So it goes right. Why then do you despise God's word, which you should hear and send yourself to as the highest treasure? But you run about in your field, you are busy here and there, so that you cannot wait for the sermon; do you think that God should not be annoyed by this? He has given you six days without this, in which you are to work and wait for your food; do not ask for more than the seventh day, that you may do good and serve Him in honor and for your good. Nevertheless he shall not be able to have it from thee.
028 Therefore this earnest preaching of the Lord against the Jews, that they despised this marriage, that is, the preaching of the holy gospel, and mocked and murdered the servants, is well to be noted. For from this we see that the king cannot stand such ingratitude and contempt, so he sends his army, the Romans, and has these murderers killed and their city set on fire. Who can blame our Lord God here for having done wrong?
029 If a mighty prince had a son, and sent him to some prisoners in a tower to deliver them, and they led them, and would not only not receive him gladly, but choked him, and mocked his father also: thinkest thou that he would laugh at this? He would shoot the tower and the prisoners one by one in a heap, and would be justified in doing so. So does our Lord God. He sends his Son to deliver us from sin, death and the devil, and to help us to eternal life. Therefore we should accept him with great joy and all honor, hear his word and believe in him. So we turn our backs on him, despise his word, advice and help, which he offers us through it, and meanwhile go to our fields and to our work, where we are more interested.
30. If lightning, thunder, pestilence, a Turk, a mercenary, or any other plague should come at some time, and we then fearfully lament, howl, and cry foul, and yet no salvation comes to us, we may take it for good and bear the punishment; and then remember: We have only well deserved it in that we have not only been ungrateful to our dear God, that he has given us his blessed word purely and abundantly now in the last and evil time, when faith and the knowledge of Christ have been completely extinguished, but also most shamefully despised it. Let us therefore count one against the other, and let us be content with the fact that he remains outside with the infernal fire for so long, and calls us to repentance through such temporal punishment that we become more pious and stop denouncing him.
31 This is what the evangelist means when he says.
that the king will kill the murderers and set fire to their city; as a warning to us that we should not be angry with the commoners and peasants, nor should we follow their example. For the world is no different; it does not want and does not like the word, its fields and handling are more pleasing to it. But woe! For what judgment and punishment will come afterwards, we see in the Jews.
(32) Therefore let us not follow their example, but hear the word gladly and diligently, and especially hold the wedding charities in all honor and esteem, for the sake of their Lord who sends them; so God will be with us in all our needs, help and protect us, and finally give us eternal life for the sake of His Son, our dear Bridegroom, the Lord Christ.
33. *) This is the first part of the Jews, who are now gone. Now hear further how the Gentiles are. They lay outside in the street, having no law nor word of God, like the Jews; they were not walled up, but were open, like a free place, so that the devil could run through it and back again, as he pleased. This king also called them invite, without any distinction, as they are found, man and woman, young and old, rich and poor. As we still see today, God has ordained his baptism, his word, and his Lord's Supper to be given to everyone who desires it.
34 Therefore this supper means nothing else, but that Christ is preached to us all, and we are carried to holy baptism, that we should be guests, eat and drink, that is, have forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and victory against the devil and hell. So we Gentiles are all invited to this supper.
35 When the tables were all full, for it was clear that the bad and the good were invited together without distinction, the king went in and looked at his guests and found some who were not dressed for the wedding. For among the Christians it is so, that one finds mice droppings under the pepper: that
*) Held in the house, 1533.
Some are wicked, and yet have the name that they are called Christians, because they are baptized, go to the sacrament, hear the sermon, and yet bring no more of it than the name; for they hold it to be no truth.
(36) We must be accustomed to this. For we will never get there with preaching, so that a whole town, village or house becomes devout; there is no end, but, as it says here, good and evil come in. We must suffer this, and grant them the name that they are called Christians. For even if they are not pious, they are still invited guests. This will continue until the last day, when a different verdict will be reached.
(37) Nevertheless, it has been decided that this king will not only invite everyone to his son's wedding, but he will also see whether those who are invited have adorned themselves in honor of the bridegroom. If a sooty man, running from the hammer or from the forge, in his long shirt, in a bathing hat, with his coal-black beard and face, wanted to step among the wedding guests and walk with them in the procession, whether he had already been invited to the wedding, no one would gladly let him walk beside him; everyone, especially the bridegroom, would think either that he was not in his right mind, or that he was doing it as a special mockery. For one should come adorned to the wedding. So, says the Lord, it will be the same here. If you are already an invited guest, you are baptized, hear the sermon, go to the sacrament, and yet have no wedding garment on; that is, you do not believe, are not serious about it, and think to enjoy the Christian name only there, like the pope and his crowd, so that you have the fullness of belly and good praises of it: for God's sake you are not a Christian, nor for the sake of your salvation, just do not think that you will sneak through like that.
038 The king shall take notice of thee, and shall bring thee forth, either at the last day, or at thy last end, and say, Findest thou here, that thou hast the name, and art called a Christian, and yet believest not that which a Christian ought to believe? It is your life
You have never been serious about how you could be freed from sins, become more pious and blessed. All your thoughts have been on good, honor, good days only: that is why you now come like a sooty guest. Always away, you do not belong among those who have adorned themselves, they want to catch cream (soot) from you.
(39) When these things shall be reproached either in the conscience, or at the last day, to such loose Christians, then, saith the Lord, they shall stifle, that is, they shall have no excuse. For with what will they excuse themselves? God has done what he should. He has given you his holy baptism; he has held up the gospel to you and had it brought to your home and court; he has given you absolution and his Lord's Supper; he has appointed his servants for you in the church, your father and mother in the home, your master and wife, who are to tell you what you should believe and how you should conduct your life. Therefore you will not be able to say that you did not know, otherwise you would have believed; but you will have to confess: Yes, I have been baptized, I have been preached and told enough; but I have accepted nothing, I have preferred the world. This means here that the unadorned, black guest is stunned. For who would be able to answer the judge to whom we ourselves must bear witness that he has given us his Son and promised all grace in baptism and the holy gospel? That it is only up to us to hold out our hands and take what he is so eager to give us.
Therefore, the terrible judgment on the unbelieving Christians will have to follow: Their hands and feet are to be bound and they are to be cast out into the outer darkness, that is, they must lie imprisoned with the devil in hell and in the hellish fire forever. For their hands and feet are bound so that they cannot free themselves by works. They must also lie in darkness and be cut off from God's light, that is, from all comfort, in eternal torment, fear and sadness, so that they will never see a speck of light.
This is a terrible pity, if only we would take it to heart, eternally so.
are trapped in hell and torment, since there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth: gnashing of teeth from the frost, and weeping from the heat, as the ancient teachers interpreted it, although the Lord indicates all torment that can be conceived with it. For heat and frost are the two greatest plagues on earth. As if he wanted to say: You will have to suffer more than one can say with words and grasp with thoughts.
This will be the punishment for not recognizing or accepting the time of the visitation, that we are invited, have had sacrament, baptism, gospel, absolution, and yet have not believed it, nor made ourselves useful. Would the dear Lord therefore gladly teach us, and bring us to recognize how great grace has befallen us in that we are invited to such a blessed banquet, where we shall find salvation from sin, the devil, death and eternal weeping. Whoever therefore will not accept these things in thanksgiving, and spurns such grace, shall have eternal death for it. For the two must be one: either to accept the gospel and be believed and be saved; or not to believe and be eternally damned.
43) So that this gospel is the same as Paul's, when he says to the Jews in Acts 18:6, "Let your blood be upon your head. 18, 6. to the Jews who opposed him and blasphemed: "Let your blood be upon your head; I will henceforth go pure to the Gentiles." For since the Jews would not listen, God had them forsaken.
and sent his gospel to us Gentiles. Now that it has come to us, we certainly have to be concerned about it, since it says here that God wants to discard the unadorned wedding guests. So the dear Lord would like to bring us with curls and frights to let the gospel be our highest treasure, to hear it gladly and to believe it. By the promise and great grace he entices, and by the great punishment he frightens. Wherever hearts are so hardened that these two things will not help, let the wicked devil help; he will do it.
(44) If our Lord God were to rain money and make us great lords here, he would find people superfluous, who would run and earnestly persist in trying to obtain something from him. But because he promises us eternal and heavenly goods in his word, which we should hope for and expect with patience, it has no standing before the world, which says, "What heaven, heaven; if I had flour here, who knows what will become of it?
45 This, then, is the summary of today's sermon, 'that the Lord would gladly provoke and terrify us, so that we would grasp the word with earnestness and learn to believe, and thus hope for the joyful future, when he will come again on the last day to deliver us from all distress and to help us in body and soul. May the Almighty God, our merciful Father, grant us this through Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.