First sermon.*)
John 3:1-15.
Now there was a man among the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler among the Jews; who came to JEsu by night, and said unto him, Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do the signs which thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he also go again into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised that I said to you: You must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof; but knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it leadeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our testimony. Do you not believe when I tell you of earthly things; how would you believe if I told you of heavenly things? And no man leadeth unto heaven, but he that descended from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I do not know why this Gospel was read on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity, because nothing special is said about the article. The words unitas sunt vocabula mathematica.**) Nevertheless, we cannot speak of God, we need such words. But this is also true: when we speak of God with our words, the same words become completely foreign, and sound much different than otherwise.
2. but scopus hujus evangelii est spiritualis generatio et abrogatio legis, the actual, thorough content of this gospel is of the spiritual birth and abrogation of the law; that whoever wants to go to heaven must have something better and higher than the law and the works of the law; namely, he must be born again. This is what Christ preaches here to the Pharisee Nicodemo, and
*) Held in the house, 1532.
**) The words Trinity, Unity are mathematical words.
says: If you Pharisees want to go to heaven, you must become different people than you have been until now. It will not do, as you have done and lived until now. It does not happen the way you think, if you want to go to heaven. This is quaestio generalis et status causae, the question and the main point in this gospel: How shall one be saved? The dialectici call it propositionem, hoc est orationem, quae vere aut falso significat indicando, when one says clearly and roundly: This is it, or: This is not it.
(3) So Christ here also begins the answer to this question, and first sets the proposition, saying, Wilt thou be saved? Moses did not; and immediately defined and discussed what it is that does this: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This is the definitive: Whoever wants to be saved must be born again. If he is not born again, he cannot be saved.
become. This is the propositio: Quid nos? Quid Moses ? Quomodo intrabimus in vitam? What are we able to do? What can Moses do? How do we enter into life? How do we enter the kingdom of God? Answer: We enter the kingdom of God and come to life not by the law, not by our works, not by our free will and human powers, but by being born again. Lex non est vitae lex: The law is not a law of life, but life is: to be born again. Therefore the disputatio and question in this gospel is: whether the law makes just and blessed, or not? or whether it is enough for salvation to have Moses and the prophets, with the law and with the doing of the law? Here Christ says no: the law is not enough, but one must be born again.
That would be hellish fire, says a Pharisee and hypocrite, if I should have worked, fasted and prayed so much in vain. For these words "to be born again" are a real fallacia to such a Pharisee and saint of works, who understands nothing of spiritual birth. The dialectici call it aequivocationem aut amphiboliam, ut cum dico: Canis latrat in domo ; et canis est in coelo. In German it may be called an ambiguity if I say: The word "dog" means two things: the dog in the house, because he barks, and the star in the sky, which one is used to call the Dog Star, or Margaret Star, from which also the Dog Days have their name. Therefore these words are also a fallacia for Nicodemo. For when he hears that the Lord speaks of being born again, he thinks of a man and a woman, and of the fleshly birth, and says: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he also go again into his mother's womb, and be born?"
005 But the Lord answered and said, I make a distinction, saying thus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. As if to say, I speak of such a new birth, not of flesh and blood, but of water and the Spirit. From this you can see, as I said, that status causae in
hoc evangelio est renascentia, the main thing in this gospel is about being born again. The question is whether one can enter the kingdom of God and be saved through the law, through our powers and works? There Christ answers: No; but one must be born again. To understand such a trade, the antithesis or the opposite helps a lot, as the Lord says to Nicodemo: Until now you Jews have been under the law of Moses, but your fathers did not understand it as you understand it, as if Moses was able to save anyone with his law. Therefore you must have something higher than Moses and the law if you want to be saved. What is that? It is the rebirth.
(6) Then Nicodemus is misled and cannot understand this, as no human reason can come from it or grasp the fact that salvation is apart from the law. It is in our nature and innate in us that everyone would like God to regard him as a pious man who has done much good. As soon as God deprives us of this glory, and reproaches, punishes and accuses us as sinners in whom there is nothing good, we begin to grumble against God. But it is said, "Whoever is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God." The whole man must become new and different. The tree must first become good before it bears good fruit: so man must first become good and pious if he is to do anything good.
(7) That Nicodemus says, "How can a man be born when he is old?" does not rhyme with the matter. For Christ speaks of spiritual rebirth: so Nicodemus understands it of the bodily, fleshly birth. To be sure, this whole sermon was a vain thing to Nicodemus' ears; for human reason cannot comprehend the spiritual birth and such high things of God; as St. Paul says 1 Cor. 2:14: "The natural man hears nothing of the Spirit of God; it is foolishness to him, and he cannot know it." The evangelist John described it in a simple way, and wanted to vex the Jews with it, that they were so coarse fellows, and proudly boasted and said: How? should we
not be pious and enter the kingdom of God, we who have the circumcision and the law Most?
(8) But Nicodemus thinks he understands it very well; therefore, as I consider it and do not understand his words otherwise, I want to catch Christ in his words and say: You say that whoever wants to enter the kingdom of God must be born anew; truly, that would be a beautiful thing, that an old man should go back into his mother's womb and become new and young. Christ answers: "Dear Nicodeme, I am not talking about the mother's womb, as Moses says; but I am talking about a different and spiritual birth, which is not of flesh and blood, but of water and the Spirit.
(9) Then Nicodemus thinks, Who can float up in the air and be born of the wind? But Christ saith, Wind is wind, and water is water: neither speak I of such wind and water; but I speak of the water of baptism, and of the Holy Ghost. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." How am I to understand this, says Nicodemus. If thou, Nicodeme, saith Christ, wilt not believe this, thou shalt never understand it. "Verily I say unto thee, we speak that which we know, and testify that which we have seen; and ye receive not our testimony."
(10) This is the high and sharp disputation which Christ has with Nicodemus; it is not suitable for children and simple people. Therefore let them learn the fine, beautiful text of the serpent of brass that follows this disputation. For St. John especially is such an evangelist above others, who includes fine funny sayings and sermons, that when you read it, your heart will laugh. The same text I will now also act for the children.
No one goes up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal inheritance.
(11) The people of Israel (as it is written in Numbers 21) had sinned against God by becoming displeased and impatient in the wilderness, because they had neither bread nor water, and they murmured against God and Moses. Then God withdrew His hand and sent the devil upon them, who tormented them with fiery serpents. They bit the people so that they were inflamed by their poison and died of heat, as if from carbuncle. For as soon as they were bitten by the serpents, their skin became fiery red, and they fell down and burned like hellish fire. And even though the snakes were chased away, they soon returned. When they were bitten by the fiery serpents and burned with great heat, one here, the other there, and died in great heaps, the people cried out to Moses, and Moses to the Lord. Then God said to Moses, "Set up a bronze serpent on a pole for a sign; whoever is bitten and looks at it shall live."
There are three noticeable pieces inside. First, the serpent that Moses is to make by God's command must be brass or copper, that is, reddish in color, and similar in all respects (but without poison) to those that, when bitten by the fiery serpents, were red and burned with heat. Second, the bronze serpent must be erected on a pole as a sign. Third, those who want to recover from the fiery snake's bite and live must look at the bronze snake erected on the pole, otherwise they cannot recover nor live.
(13) This is the figure that our dear Lord Christ presents to us, saying, "Just as the bronze serpent was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness, so must Messiah or Christ be hanged on the cross or on the gallows. And as the serpent of brass, which was lifted up in the wilderness, was like unto men that were bitten, but without poison: so must the Son of man, which is without sin, be reckoned equal unto sinners. Just as the Jews in the desert, who were bitten by fiery serpents, were not helped but by looking at the bronze serpent raised on the pole, so the Son of Man must become a serpent and be like the sinners.
exalted. If you want to be redeemed from sin, death, the devil and hell and be eternally saved, you must believe in the exalted Son of Man, in Christ crucified.
You are bitten by the old serpent, the devil, who has so wounded you with his poison and bite that you lie there condemned to eternal death under God's wrath. With your sins you have deserved, and still deserve, that you must die. If you now want to come from such poison of the devil, to be healed and saved from sin and death, so that sin does not condemn you and death does not devour you, then you must believe in me, who will be raised on the cross. Until now you have undertaken various ways and paths, and will also undertake more ways and paths in the future; as I well know that you will not cease, so that you may be freed from sins and become blessed (as experience also shows that this has happened, not only in Judaism, but also in Christianity under the papacy, with monasticism, nunnery, clericalism and all kinds of orders). But this is the only way: that I am lifted up, and that you look at me, that is, believe in me. I must take your form, I must become as red as your tumor is. I must allow myself to be tortured and crucified, I must suffer death as if I were a sinner and such a man who deserves death. Therefore, only look at me and believe in me, and you will recover from the serpent's poison and live.
This is the only way to escape the fiery, hellish poison of the devil. If we are to be saved, our works, free will, human strength, pain and suffering will not do it, but the glory of Christ, exalted on the cross. For just as nothing healed the Jews, and no medicine helped them against the bite of the fiery serpent, but the appearance of the serpent of brass on the stake: so also nothing helps us from the poison of death and the devil, but the appearance of Christ on the cross. I believe that the Jews have tried all kinds of medicines, have smeared themselves with ointments, have quenched themselves with delicious cooling water, have laid the bitten and the sick in cold earth, as they say,
that this is a powerful remedy against poison and inflammation. But none of this helped; only the sight of the lifted up serpent on the stake made them well. So nothing helps us from our bite, by which the devil has poisoned us, but Christ alone, lifted up on the cross, to be seen.
(16) But such a vision is a spiritual vision, as the Lord himself interprets it, saying, "All who believe in me shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is a spiritual sight, namely, when I look at Christ, exalted on the cross, in such a way that I believe he was born to me and became man, died for my sin and was raised again for my righteousness' sake. In sum, that he is God's Lamb, who also bears the sin of the world for my sake. That is, he was "lifted up," that he bore the color of my poison on the cross, and yet there was no poison in him; as St. Peter says, 1 Peter 2:22-24: "He who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth; who reproached not again when he was reproached, neither grieved when he suffered; but brought it home to him who judges aright. Who himself offered our sin in his body on the wood."
(17) He that believeth these things hath everlasting life. Just as the Jews had this temporal, perishable life when they looked upon the bronze serpent raised on the pole in the wilderness, so all who look upon Christ as having died for them and risen from the dead have eternal, imperishable life. Thus we are healed from the devil's bite and poison. Just as the Jews were bitten variously by fiery serpents, this one in the head, that one in the eyes, the third in the hand, the fourth in the foot, and so on; and no one was healed and made whole, except by looking at the bronze serpent which Moses had raised to a pole by God's command: So we are also challenged and afflicted by the devil in many ways, and have many kinds of poison on us, falling here into this sin and there into that sin; over which the devil has bitten us through original sin and wounded us in body and soul, poisoning and corrupting us.
has. And none of us can be freed from such harm and deadly poison, unless he looks at Christ, on whom God has cast all our sins.
(18) This piece and image of the serpent of brass, in which Christ is depicted, is somewhat easier and better understood. But the previous part, where the Lord disputes with Nicodemus, is sharp and not so easy to understand, especially by children and simple-minded people. For this is the way of the Lord, that he speaks sharply and from wisdom to the wise and prudent. Because Nicodemus is a Pharisee and also a master and teacher in Israel, the Lord speaks sharply to him about regeneration, knocks down everything that concerns salvation, nature, reason, free will, human powers, yes, even the law of God, and says: "All this does not help; whoever wants to enter the kingdom of God must be born again.
Nineteen: But Nicodemus understands nothing of this. I came," he says, "out of my mother's womb and was born; what shall I do now? Shall I be born again? How can that be? How can I become different from what I am now? My mother has already died; and if she were still alive, I am great and old. How can I become a child again and be put in the cradle? It must be so, dear Nicodeme, says Christ; you must become a little child, and be suckled, and swaddled, and carried. For whoever is not born anew cannot enter the kingdom of God. - "How may this happen?" says Nicodemus. It happens in a different way than you think, dear Nicodeme, says Christ, namely, from the water and Holy Spirit.
(20) Nicodemus does not understand this at all, indeed, it is a ridiculous thing to him in the first place, that Christ says man must be born of water and the Spirit if he wants to enter the kingdom of God. For he thinks: water is never a woman, and spirit is never a man; and shall the two, water and spirit, become my father and mother. How can this be? Do you hear, dear Nicodeme, says Christ, what I have said of
of the new birth out of water and the Spirit, you must believe it; with your five senses and with your reason you will not understand it nor grasp it, it must be believed. And sets a likeness of the wind. "The wind," he says, "blows where it wills, and thou hearest the sound thereof; but thou knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." As if to say, "You hear the wind blowing, but you do not know where it comes from, where it begins, and where it ends. Just as you cannot understand the wind with your reason, what it is, and whether you already hear its blowing by heart, yet you can neither know its beginning nor its end, nor how far it began before you, or how far it ends behind you; so you will much less understand with your reason how the rebirth takes place, by which a man is born into God's kingdom. You hear the word I speak, but you know neither its beginning nor its end. Just as you do not know where the wind begins and where it ends, so you do not know where the word comes from and where it goes out. You hear the bodily voice and the outward word, but you do not see the power of the word, what it does, how the spirit works with and in the word. Therefore the word must be believed, against all seeing and feeling of reason. If one wants to argue a lot about how things should be, then it is over.
21 Let it be well known that faith is necessary if one is to understand these divine things. Just as the Jews in the desert, bitten by fiery serpents, had to close their eyes, blind their reason and look at the bronze serpent on the pole, and keep the word that God had said: "Whoever is bitten and looks at the bronze serpent shall be healed and live: so must we also shut our eyes, and take our reason captive, and look upon Christ on the cross, and believe the word which he said, He that believeth on me shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Many Jews will no doubt have laughed at the must and mocked it with the brazen serpent. Because they have it with
They wanted to grasp and grasp with their reason, item, they wanted to do it with other remedies, but they were unsuccessful. Therefore, we should not argue from our reason about these great things, how they are to be done; nor should we subject ourselves to be delivered and saved from the devil's power by other ways and means. For we will not be able to grasp or accomplish it by these means. We must keep to the word that Christ says: "He who believes in the Son of Man, raised up on the cross, shall be saved.
22 From this we see that it is one thing that Christ says first about being born again of water and the Spirit, and that he says afterwards about the serpent of brass. Without first disputing more sharply with Nicodemo how he must be born again if he wants to be justified and saved in any other way. For where one is to be rid of the old serpent, the devil's bite and poison, there belongs a new, spiritual birth; or that is just one, there belongs the sight of Christ being crucified and that one believes in him. Therefore it is one when the Lord says, "He who is born again enters the kingdom of God;" or when he says, "He who believes in me shall not perish but have eternal life."
23 Therefore no human work or merit can help against the power of the devil and against sin and the power of death; just as the Jews, bitten by the fiery serpents, could find neither help nor counsel: but just as the Jews were healed in time from the bite of the fiery serpents without all human help and counsel, only through
the likeness of the serpent of brass, set up on the stake; so we are eternally healed and saved from the devil's poison, without all our works, own righteousness and holiness, through faith alone in Christ alone, exalted and crucified for us.
(24) Nevertheless, one must also be pious and do good works, just as the Jews had to work and do something in the desert: one had to wait and take care of the other, because they were bitten by the fiery serpents and were sick; they had to lie down in bed, eat and drink etc. So also in this life we have to work, to do our job and office, to serve our neighbor etc. But by this we do not earn blessedness; but blessedness and eternal life come to us only through the sight of Christ exalted and crucified. Just as the Jews' praying, waiting, caring, and working did not save them from the bite of the fiery serpent and keep them alive, neither do our works save us from the devil's power and give us eternal life.
This is the summa summarum of this gospel. The whole article is that we believe in Jesus Christ crucified for us, who is our serpent raised up by God, whom we are to look upon, that through him we may be healed and live forever. May our dear God and Father, for the sake of His dear Son Jesus Christ, keep us in this doctrine through His Holy Spirit, and let us grow in it from day to day, so that we may increase in the right knowledge of Christ and faith, and finally be saved, amen.