Matth. 4, 1-11.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, that he might be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he hungered. And the tempter came unto him, and said, If thou be the Son of God, let these stones become bread. And he answered and said, It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil brought him with him into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, let thyself down: for it is written: He shall command his angels concerning thee, and they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Then said Jesus unto him, Again, it is also written: Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord God. Again the devil led him up into a very high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And said unto him, All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Remove thyself from me, Satan: for it is written: Thou shalt worship God thy Lord, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left him; and behold, the angels came to him and ministered to him.
1. in this gospel you hear how the Lord Jesus was tempted in three ways after his baptism, after he had been in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, and after he had been in the desert forty days and forty nights.
*) Held in the house, 1534.
had eaten nothing; or, as Lucas speaks of it, these three temptations lasted the whole forty days, that he had dealt with one some many days, and perhaps not according to the order as Matthew here relates.
Now this is a broad gospel, especially if one wants to apply it to the whole of Christendom, which, like Christ, is also tempted by famine and persecution, by heresy and finally by the kingdom of the world, as the histories finely show whoever pays attention to it. But we do not want to go so far this time, but stick to the common doctrine. And first of all you should notice the example of our dear Lord Christ and learn from it that every Christian, as soon as he is baptized, is placed here in the army against the evil devil, and through baptism he is charged with the devil, who persecutes him because he lives. If then the poisonous enemy cannot by his temptation bring the Christians to fall and prevail against them, he does as he did with Christ, and sees that he hangs them on the cross and kills them.
(3) All Christians are on such a journey, for the enemy does not cease, but always persists, trying to snatch us away from Christ and baptism by famine or persecution, by worldly honor and wealth, or by heresy and misinterpretation of Scripture, so that we may fall either into despair or presumption. If this does not help, he strikes us to death and strangles us. Therefore we should learn the example of Christ with diligence, so that we may also meet such an enemy as Christ met him, that he may have to desist from us. But this happens only through right faith in God and His Word. Whoever has such armor and needs it rightly will remain safe from the devil; but whoever does not have it or needs it wrongly can neither be advised nor helped against the poisonous enemy.
For this reason, every Christian should diligently attend to the sermon and the Word of God, learn it diligently and practice it, and also always be in God's ears with earnest prayer that He may bring His kingdom to us and not lead us into temptation, but graciously protect us from all evil.
5 Now the evangelist says that the Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, because he had no lord over him to command him, so he had to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Holy Spirit and call him into the wilderness. This is what the evangelist especially wanted to tell us, that we should beware of our own devotion, since Christ himself did not go into the wilderness and wrestle with the devil there out of his own devotion or authority, as many do and undertake many things without God's word and Spirit. But it shall by no means be. Let no one begin anything, nor run to serve God, unless he knows that God has commanded him to do so, either through His word or through men who have power over us in God's stead. For whoever does something without such a profession, as monks and nuns have run into the monasteries, not only does not serve God, but also does something against God's obedience.
(6) Therefore this example of Christ is good for us to consider, that he did not go into the wilderness of his own accord, but was commanded by the Holy Spirit; that we also may do such things, and not do anything of our own devotion, but may boast and say in all that we do, that it is done in obedience to the command of the word. You have often heard this teaching, that one should take special care to be sure that God has commanded it, and not do anything apart from His word.
(7) There is no need for a new command concerning the commonwealth and works of love. For this is already commanded in the Ten Commandments. Our Lord God commands each one to hear God's word, to love God, to pray and to call upon God. If one does this, it is right; for God has commanded it in the first, second and third commandments. Item, God means to be obedient to father and mother, not to kill, not to commit fornication, but to become married. All these things are God's creatures and commandments, therefore one must not ask the Holy Spirit to call me or you specially to the office of father and mother, to the marriage state etc.; for such a command is there beforehand. But to start something special, to run into a monastery and serve God there; item, not to eat meat, eggs, butter during the fast, not to sing Hallelujah during the fast: there is no command nor word of God about it, therefore it is a stinking dirt before God and no service of God.
8 Now let us also consider the temptations one by one. The first is that the devil says to the Lord Jesus, seeing that he hungers: "If thou be the Son of God, let these stones be made bread. This does not seem to be such a hard challenge, for we think, "What harm would it have done Christ? He could easily have made stones into bread; he has done more and greater things! But he does not want to do it because he understands the devil very well in his language, who is not primarily looking for Christ to perform a miracle, but, as can be clearly seen from Christ's answer, he would like to take away his faith and trust in God's mercy, and put the thought into his heart: God has forgotten you, he does not want to take care of you, he wants you to die of hunger and does not want to grant you a piece of bread. Therefore the Lord answers: "Devil, not so! "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So this is the devil's suggestion: he should think only of bread, and pay no attention to God's word, unless he has bread.
9 Such temptation still goes on today, that the devil puts such thoughts into people's hearts: If you are God's son, God cannot be angry with you. Therefore, just be confident, be stingy, and be generous with the world's goods; it does no harm, you cannot sin. For if God should not want to grant you food and bread, he would have to be a bad God and a merciless father. With such thoughts, he turns citizens and peasants into scoundrels, so that they continue to scrape and be stingy, thinking that God will not be angry because it is only a matter of daily bread and nourishment. I must, everyone thinks, take care of my wife and child and provide enough for them etc. So the devil puts a lid on sin with the word, saying: "You are the son of God. As if he wanted to say: You cannot sin nor do wrong. As one sees everywhere in the world, that no one has a conscience about it, that he asks little for the word, and asks only for bread, or
Food. That is why this temptation is still going on in the world, that the devil makes light of the word and drives people not to seek the word as much as the bread.
(10) Then one must learn and resist such temptations, saying, "Devil, you would gladly take me from the word; no, you shall not succeed. For before I would lack the word of God, I would rather lack bread and die of hunger. For it is better that the body should perish, than that it should be preserved by food, and that the soul should die and be lost forever. etc. The devil does not like to let us people think such thoughts, so he always gets in the way with the temptation and works so that we only look at the fullness of our stomachs and despise God's word, and think: There is no need, God is my Father, should He not grant me bread and food?
(11) Now if any man will save himself from such temptation, let him learn here from Christ that a man hath two kinds of bread: the first and best bread, which cometh from heaven, is the word of God; and the other and inferior is the temporal bread, which groweth out of the earth. If I have the first and best bread from heaven and do not let myself be brought by it, then this temporal bread should not be lacking nor remain outside, but rather the stones should become bread. But the others, who, overcome by the devil, leave the heavenly bread and take only the temporal: when they have filled their belly, they lie down after it and die; they cannot even eat the good here, but must leave it behind and die there eternally hungry. But it shall not be so. Therefore, even if the devil looks at you through persecution, lack, hunger and sorrow, suffer and fast with Christ, because the Spirit drives you in this way, and do not abandon your trust in God's grace; then the dear angels will come and become your table servants, as the evangelist says at the end.
(12) This is the first part of the first temptation, that one should learn to esteem the word of God as eternal life. For there is such bread and meat, he that eateth thereof, that is, he that believeth the word hath eternal life.
Life. As Christ also says to the Jews, John 6:27: "Work out meat, not which is perishable, but which endureth unto life eternal, which the Son of man shall give unto you." Mark this well. Again, temporal bread, which all the world hungers for, lasts only until the hour comes, then it is finished, and after that we must die of hunger for eternity.
The other temptation is that the devil brings the Lord Jesus into the holy city of Jerusalem, and sets him on top of the temple, saying, "Let him be brought down, and he will not be harmed, for he is the Son of God; therefore all the angels must wait for him before he should strike a stone. etc.
This is a severe and spiritual challenge to faith: since faith is challenged on the other side with the grace of God, just as it is challenged above with sin and the wrath of God. For if the devil cannot make us despair of God, he tries on the other hand to make us presumptuous, hopeful and too bold, so that we should rely on our own righteousness. As if the devil wanted to say to Christ: "If you want to argue with me on the basis of God's word, stop, I can do it too. Then you have God's word: He will command His angels over you, and they must build you a stairway and carry you on their hands. Now, jump down, let's see if you also believe such a promise of God!
Here Christ must be understood and seen as a man who has hidden the divinity in his humanity. Just as on the cross he presents himself as a pure, honest man, lamenting and crying for help and salvation, as the devil has made him full of sadness; so here he also presents himself as a pure, honest man. Therefore, the devil thinks he wants to make him tempt God with an unnecessary miraculous sign; therefore, he introduces the 91st Psalm, v. 11, as a testimony, but leaves out the most necessary part: in viis tuis: The Lord will keep you "in all your ways. With such a saying, the prankster wants to tear out of Christ's eyes what he was commanded to do, and make him
in a way that he was not commanded to do. For Christ is now as a man in the wilderness, not that he should do miracles, but that he should suffer. Thus the devil wants to lead him out of the way that God has ordained him, namely, that he should be a suffering man, and persuade him to perform an unnecessary miraculous work.
16 But Christ drives him back, saying, "It is written: Thou shalt not tempt God." For there is a stairway or staircase, because of which it is not right for me to go down. Because I can go down the stairs without going, it would be wrong for me to go down and fall without need and command from God.
(17) This is also a necessary and useful doctrine, that it is called tempting God, where someone wants to leave the ordinary command and do something new and special without God's word, as monks and nuns do; they go to it out of their own devotion, take on a special life, and then put the Scriptures on it and say: Christ has commanded it, saying: "Leave everything and follow me. There is not only reason, but also Scripture. But here you see that the devil can also lead scripture and deceive people with it. But he has the defect that he does not lead the Scriptures completely, but takes only so much as serves his cause; what does not serve him, he leaves out and is silent about it.
18 The Anabaptists also do a great deal of writing about how no creature should be trusted or relied upon. Then they say: Baptism is also a creature, for it is nothing but water; therefore one should not trust or rely on baptism. They do not want to believe in God's grace at baptism, but grope with their hands. They do not lack the Scriptures, but they lack that they do not guide the Scriptures correctly. For if God's word were not written, as it is in John 3:5: "Unless one is born again through water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of heaven," then it would be wrong to seek God's grace in baptism or water. But there God's word stands firm, Marc. 16, 16: "He who believes...
who prays and is baptized will be saved. For faith and baptism, word and water must be together. The blind people do not want to see this.
So Christ also contradicts the devil and answers: If I walk in my ways which God has commanded me, I know well that the angels are with me and must watch over me and keep me. Thus, when a child walks in his filial obedience, father and mother, servants and maidens walk in their office and profession: if accident befalls them, God will save and help through His angels. But if they go out of their way, the angels shall not be there, for the devil can break their necks every hour, as he often does out of God's decree; and it hardly serves them right, for they should not make new ways, for that is still tempting God.
020 Now this is a temptation which no man understandeth, except he have tried it. For as the first leads to despair, so this leads to presumption, and to such works as truly have not God's word and command. A Christian should take the middle road, so that he neither despairs nor is presumptuous, for both are contrary to God's word; but remain simple in the word, in right trust and faith, and the dear angels will be with him, and not otherwise.
The third challenge is traditio humana, *) which is very gross, that the devil, by honor and force, subjects us to idolatry against God's word. It helps a great deal that the outward, human holiness has such a great appearance before reason, and shines far more beautifully than all obedience to the Word of God. Our Lord God and right doctrine do not make a shining saint; but the devil and human doctrine make vain shining saints. Whether a person goes to the sermon a hundred times, hears God's word, obeys his father and mother, and does what God has commanded him to do, this does not make him as respectable as if he goes and puts on a gray skirt, does not keep himself like other people, does not eat any
Meat etc. Summa, human righteousness makes such an appearance that emperors and kings bow down to it.
(22) With such his own devotion and self-invented spirituality the pope arose, that he and his company did not want to do what other people do, because it would be too small. That Joseph is obedient to his father Jacob does not appear; for other pious children do the same, therefore it is a common work. But it has a special standing when one runs into a monastery, becomes a monk or nun and our Lord God's own servant, as they praise, since one seeks neither money nor goods and even forgives the world. For this is how the monastic life has been praised, although it has had a different opinion about it, as everyone knows well. This is what Christ calls a grave and diabolical temptation, and paints before us what such traditiones humanae and human doctrines are, namely, the doctrines of the devil, and says that those serve the devil and worship him who handle with unbidden holiness. "Lift yourself away, Satan!" he says, for you are not to be served, but God alone. If one does not serve God alone, one certainly serves the devil.
But what does serving God mean? To serve God is to do what God has commanded in His Word. If you are a child, honor your father and mother; if you are a maid or a servant, be obedient and faithful; if you are a master or a wife, do not offend your servants with words or works, but do what is required for the office and keep them in the fear of God. This is then serving God and His word, and not the person. For there is his word that commands and wants such things. Now call it what you will in the sight of the world, serving masters or wives, fathers or mothers, neighbors or children, but it is a true service of God. For God has ever written his word over my neighbor's head, saying: You shall love your neighbor and serve him.
24) That the pope does not respect this command and makes a special holiness out of it, where one puts on a gray cap, eats neither butter nor meat, but oil and herring during fasting, know that this is a pure devil's work.
They think they want to serve God, and yet everything is served by the devil, because God's command and word is not there; therefore, it rhymes with piety, which is valid before God, just as it rhymes with stone buildings, when children make little houses out of sheets of cards. Cause, you cannot serve God, unless you have His word and command. If his word and command are not there, you do not serve God, but your own will. So our Lord God says: "Whom you serve, reward you also. What devil has called you? I command thee, father and mother, to serve thy authorities and thy neighbor; and thou sufferest this to be done, and doest that which I have not commanded. Am I supposed to put up with that? No, it will not end there.
(25) Thus the pope and his company are pure idolaters and servants of the devil with all their being and life. For he asks nothing of God's word, yes, he condemns and persecutes the word, and directs all his specter to lead away from pure faith in Christ. He pretends to great holiness under the appearance of outward worship, which he has done with caps and plates, with fasting, eating fish, saying mass, and the like; but basically it is the devil's doctrine. But if you ask what the cause is, why the pope
with his own hold so stiffly to such doctrines of the devil? This gospel reports. The devil has shown and promised them the kingdom of the world. This makes him mock our preaching and worship; for we are beggars in it, and must suffer much: but his worship he lifts up to heaven; for there he has money and goods, honor and power from, and is a greater lord than emperor and king can be. There you can see how the devil has so powerfully occupied them with this temptation, and driven them to the point that they have abandoned God's word and have raised up and introduced self-invented holiness. Yet God has preserved some under such devilish specter. But we should meet the devil in the eye and say to him, as Christ says: "Devil, get thee away from me, for it is written: You shall worship God your Lord and serve Him alone," that is, look only to God's word and follow it, and do no worship outside of it. We must await such challenges of all three because we are alive. For this reason, we must equip ourselves well with God's word, so that we can protect ourselves with it and endure it. Our dear Lord Christ, who overcame these temptations too well for us, give us also strength, so that we may overcome through him and be saved, auras.