First sermon.*)
That on Sunday we honor our Lord God and thank Him for His good deeds, because He has ordained the day for this purpose.
that he may be spoken of, we will hear his word in praise of him. Thus writes Saint Lucas:
Luc. 7, 11-17.
And it came to pass afterward, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. And when he was come nigh unto the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was carried out, which was an only son of his mother; and she was a widow; and much people of the city went with her. And when the Lord saw her, he was sorry for her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the coffin, and the bearers stopped. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And the dead man arose and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. And fear came upon them all, and they praised God, and said: A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has afflicted his people. And this speech of his went forth into all the land of Judah, and into all the surrounding countries.
*) Held in the house, 1532.
From this gospel we are to learn two things: the first, of faith, that we should know our Lord Christ by his works, and believe in him; the second, of Christian mercy and compassion, which we should have one for another.
2. from the first part. The evangelist Lucas says at the end of this gospel how all the people, when they saw Christ raise the young man from the dead, feared and praised God, and how this speech of his resounded throughout all the Jewish land and all the surrounding countries. This is an example that we should uphold and praise God's word and miracles. We are to regard the works of our Lord Jesus Christ as different and higher than the works of men. For for this reason they are prescribed for us, that we may know by these works what manner of Lord he is, that is, such a Lord and God as is able to help where no one else is able to help, so that there is no man so high and low fallen whom he is not able to help, no matter what the need may be.
He proved this enough with this poor widow. For things could not have gotten worse with her. First of all, she is an abandoned widow, which is already misery enough; for a widow is otherwise afflicted enough in the world and has enough suffering that one must not afflict her further, as the Scriptures testify. After this misery there is another misery, that her only son is taken from her, so that he dies, and so that he died, that they now want to carry him out and bury him. There is no hope of life left, and even if the whole world were to be consulted, there is neither help nor counsel. The best advice is to have him carried to the grave, laid in the tomb and locked up; for no doctor, no king, no emperor can help. Then Christ lets himself be seen, what kind of a Lord he is, and helps the poor widow so that her son, who was already lying in the coffin and had been carried out of the gate and was now to be buried in the grave, comes to life again and she brings him home with her to her house.
4. such and such works, from Christo
are intended to teach us to have great courage and an undaunted heart in sickness, pestilence, danger of death and in all kinds of hardships. When all the world says and must say: Now it is lost; that a Christian may always say: It is not lost, God still lives, Christ sits at the right hand of God and still reigns. Thus the 112th Psalm praises the hearty confidence and defiance in God's grace and help of the godly and pious, that they are undaunted and undaunted, and says v. 7, 8: "When a plague is about to come, he is not afraid; his heart hopes undaunted in the Lord. His heart is confident, and fears not, till he see his delight in his enemies."
(5) And what is impossible with our Lord God that we should not trust in him? He has created heaven and earth and everything from nothing; he still makes the trees full of cherries, pears and apples every year, and needs nothing for this. It is impossible for us, when the snow lies in winter, to bring a few cherries out of the snow. But God is the man who can make all things right: who can make alive that which is dead, and call that which is not, to be. In sum, let it fall as low as it may, so it has not fallen too low for our Lord God that He could not lift it up and raise it up. It is necessary that we recognize such works in God, and know that nothing is impossible for Him, so that when things go badly, we may learn to be fearless in His omnipotence, whether it be the Turk or some other calamity, so that we may think that there is a Helper and Savior who has a hand that is almighty and can help. And this is the right, true faith.
(6) This is the first thing we should learn from today's Gospel, namely, to praise and glorify our Lord God, who is able to help, no matter how great the need, and that we do not despair of Him. We should and must despair of ourselves and of people. For the need is often so great that no man can help; especially death is too powerful that no one, be he emperor, king, rich or mighty, can control it. But in God one should be bold and not despair.
For what I and other people cannot and cannot do, he can and can do. If I and other people cannot help me, he can help me and save me from death. As the 68th Psalm says v. 21: "We have a God who helps, and the Lord HERN who saves from death." So that our hearts may always be bold and confident, and hold fast to God. And these are hearts that serve God rightly and love Him, namely, those who are undaunted and undaunted. The others, who are timid and despairing, do not love Him, but are hostile to Him; indeed, they do not consider Him to be God, they throw His word and work to the wind.
The other part is that we should learn from the Lord Christ to be merciful. You have heard often and much, and still hear daily much, about love, that one should serve another. But to be merciful is something more, namely, to take care of other people's miseries. If I have a poor or sick neighbor, I should not only help him gladly, but I should also complain about his misery as if it were my own business. As we see here in the Lord. He is a stranger, an unknown guest, but when he sees the misery of the widow, he takes care of it as if it were his own son, weeps with the mother, comforts her and helps her.
(8) This is also the example of love, which is to follow faith; nor will it remain outside, provided faith is righteous. Lest we do as the wicked, reprobate people, peasants and burghers, of whom there are now many, even among us, who have hearts of stone and iron, and still make merry of it, and rejoice when they see that their neighbors are in a bad way; for it grieves them that any man hath a penny. But it shall not be so with Christians: they shall have mercy where they see need, and be glad when they see that other people have food, drink, clothes, shoes, and that they are well. As Paul says that one should weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. A Christian should not be a devil's head, doing like the blocks and stones that rejoice in other people's misfortunes.
Things are when the neighbor suffers hardship and distress, and again grieve when he is well.
(9) But mercy is twofold; as need is twofold, spiritual and corporal. In bodily needs one should run to, help and advise as best one can, when one sees that the neighbor is in need of clothing and care, is naked and sick, the child is unclean and wants to perish, and poor people cannot advise help and cannot help themselves.
10 Spiritual distress is when a person suffers distress of the soul. As when I see a young man growing up who understands nothing of the gospel, cannot pray, is lewd, disobedient, and full of vice. If one admonishes such a person and, if it does not help, punishes him with stern words, yes, even gives him rods and shillelaghs, so that the sin and naughtiness may be reduced in time, this is called practicing mercy. For this is a great disease; where the soul has such evil upon it, it is far more dangerous and worse than when the body is sick. All pestilence, thunder and lightning in the body is not so bad and terrible as the soul's iniquity. Therefore, it is one's duty to show mercy to such a person as one can, with words, rods and blows.
(11) Yea, saith thee, it is an abominable mercy to put ruths upon the skin. Answer: How should one do it? If it is necessary, it cannot be avoided. Doctors sometimes have to remove a leg or arm so that the body can be saved. It is the same here. For such punishment is inflicted so that you may become pious and be destroyed from the devil and his kingdom. Is it not true that if you fell into water, you would think too well of me and thank me for catching you by the hair, or for grabbing you by the eyes and keeping you strong, and would not ask that the tussle hurt you? For it is better to be caught in the hair or in the eyes than to be drowned. If then thou canst suffer in bodily afflictions, and sufferest gladly to be afflicted, because it is thy profit: why then wilt thou not suffer in spiritual afflictions to be punished, if thou wilt not be punished?
you sin and do wrong; since it is not for temporal life but for eternal life, and not for the body but for the soul?
(12) It is also a work of mercy, which God wants to reward, where there are wicked children or servants in the house, to take an oaken butter roll in the hand and spread it over their skin so that it becomes soft. This is a spiritual ointment against the sickness of the soul, which is called disobedience to father and mother, to masters and wives in the house. It is a work of mercy to look at a man in his misery and suffering and help him.
(13) Let pastors and ministers in the church look to such mercy with their parishioners, fathers and mothers in the home with children and servants, the authorities in the regiment with their subjects, and each one with his neighbor, where need and love require it; and be careful that they do not become unwilling or lazy in their office to show such mercy, as commonly happens. For whoever would be so merciful as not to punish sin and wrongdoing would be proving a twofold lack of mercy to his neighbor, and for that reason would incur God's wrath. The physical sorrow can also be great; as when someone falls into the water or fire, one does not look for how to attack him quietly and not hurt him, but how to save him. Why then would one look for the same in spiritual distress and need? Therefore hard words, hard blows and all seriousness should be used to save the poor people and to bring them out of the devil's net into obedience. When a father beats his disobedient son, he does not do it to beat him to death, but to perform a work of mercy on him, so that he will not perish in disobedience and sins and suffer damage to his soul.
14 Therefore observe the example of our dear Lord Christ here, and learn what mercy is, namely, such a virtue that takes care of the neighbor's sorrow. But sorrow, as I have said, is of two kinds. A bodily sorrow, as being sick, being poor
and the like. If you let such misery in your neighbor go to your heart, so that you do your own harm to help him, it is right and well done, and is called serving not only your neighbor, but also God, who will also reward it. Spiritual misery is sin, as there is a multitude of disobedience, indiscipline, evil words and deeds. This is called mercy, when one speaks evil to the servants and smites them. If it does not help, order the rest to the executioner; for it must be punished. For the executioner is also a merciful preacher, since otherwise there is neither advice nor help for bad boys. They corrupt themselves and other people with themselves, where one did not exercise mercy on them and defended them with the sword; as God has ordained the temporal sword for this purpose.
(15) So also beheading and execution, though it looks terrible and hurts, is a work of mercy; for if it were not, you would not be able to eat a morsel with peace and keep a whole spot on your skin. So that this does not happen, our Lord God must give the sword into the hands of the executioner, the rod into the hands of the father and the mother, so that they may punish and ward off, so that the evil may be controlled. Therefore, learn to practice mercy, each in his own profession, and help not only where there is bodily misery, but also where there is spiritual misery.
16 These are the two teachings of today's gospel. One is a doctrine of faith: that we should be undaunted when things go wrong, and especially when we are about to die; and think that we have such a helper in the Lord Christ, who has a hand that is almighty. Therefore we should not despair of him; we can despair of ourselves and of people, indeed we must despair of them, for they cannot control death, it is too powerful for them. But in God and His Son Jesus Christ we should be bold. For what we cannot do, He can; what we do not have, He has. If we cannot help ourselves, he can, and will do it very gladly and willingly, as can be seen here. Where there is such a heart, which confidently holds on to the Lord Christ, it goes on in the
right service that pleases God. The others, who despair and despair, are enemies to Him and do not consider Him to be God, otherwise they would be able to comfort themselves. The other doctrine is that we, like Christ, should accept our neighbor's distress and allow ourselves to lament it.
be it bodily or spiritual. May our dear Lord grant us His grace to learn both, and to join with the pious people here in the Gospel in praising the Lord Christ for His good deeds for ever and ever, and in showing mercy to our neighbor, Amen.