First sermon.*)
Isa. 9, 1-7.
For it will be a different trouble for them than in the former time, when it was easy in the land of Zebulun, and in the land of Naphtali, and afterward it was harder by the way of the sea, on this side Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people that walk in darkness behold a great light, and upon them that dwell in the land of darkness it shineth brightly. Thou makest the Gentiles much, but thou makest not much joy. But before thee shall they rejoice, as one rejoiceth in harvest; as one rejoiceth when he divideth the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the staff of their driver, as in the days of Midian. For all warfare with fierceness and bloody garments shall be burned up, and consumed with fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, whose dominion is upon his shoulder; and he is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Power, Hero, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; that his dominion may be great, and that there be no end of peace, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; that he may establish and strengthen with judgment and righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Of the infant JEsu and his six names.
1. now we celebrate the beautiful, lovely feast of the holy birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is right that we celebrate such a great grace of God with such a glorious feast, and well consider, so that the article, where we confess and pray in our Christian faith: I believe in Jesus Christ, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, may not only remain known to Christianity, but also that the sorrowful, sad hearts against the devil and all misfortune may be comforted and strengthened by it.
First, we celebrate this feast in faith for the sake of the article. For it is a great, inexpressible art that we should believe and consider it the highest wisdom that God, who created heaven and earth, is born of a virgin. Such
*) Held in the parish church on Christmas Eve 1532.
has been a foolish sermon among Jews and Gentiles, since it was first preached in the world. It was very ridiculous, as it is still ridiculous for many today, that the high divine majesty, God himself, lets himself down so low, and not only creates, nourishes and sustains man, but also becomes man himself. Summa, it does not agree with human reason, but the devil, the world and reason oppose it and say: "We have never heard such foolish things. Therefore this article must be preached and practiced diligently, so that we may practice and strengthen ourselves in it, lest we also put it into doubt; but be sure, and become ever more sure, that God sent his Son into the world to be made man, born of a natural woman's image. For this alone is our art and wisdom, which we Christians are; and there we say that no greater wisdom has come into the world, and no finer
This is the doctrine that God, who created heaven and earth, was born of a virgin, so that he had the same limbs, eyes, ears, hands and feet, body and soul, as another human being. It seems ridiculous to reason, but we celebrate this feast so that we may imagine this article, so that we may have no doubt about it.
(3) Secondly, we also celebrate this feast for the sake of the great benefit it brings. For if we firmly believe this and do not want to know anything better than that God, born of the virgin Mary, sucked his mother's milk, ate from her hands, and had her care and nurture, as a child is wont to have, and that this is our highest art and wisdom, then the benefit follows from itself, and we derive this comfort from the fact that we grasp, feel and grope at the piece that God is not opposed to us humans. For if God were opposed and hostile to us, He would not have taken poor, miserable human nature upon Himself. But now he has not only created human nature, but also becomes such a creature himself, which is called and is true man. Because he does this, he is not full of wrath and disgrace. For if he were hostile to the whole human race, as he is in part hostile to angels and men, namely, to evil angels and godless men, he would have taken on an angelic nature, which is closer to God than human nature, and would not have become a man, but an angel. Now God leaves the angels, who are of a holier and higher nature than we humans, who are a shameful, rotten, stinking maggot sack, and takes not angelic but human nature to himself and becomes man. This boasts the epistle to the Hebrews, cap. 2, and speaks v. 16. 17.: "He nowhere takes upon Himself the angels, but the seed of Abraha He takes upon Himself; therefore He had to become like His brethren in all things, that He might be merciful, and a faithful high priest before God, to make reconciliation for the sin of the people."
4. at this the pagans took offense and said: should the pure nature, God.
themselves, have sunk into such impurity, misery and poverty? That will not be. It is true that God should not have put himself in such misery and poverty. He could have taken angelic nature upon Himself, or could have created such a nature, which would be neither God nor man, and taken it upon Himself; but He did not want to do so, but took human nature upon Himself, and became man, as I and you are men, sucked milk from His mother, the virgin Mary, as I and you did, when we lay at our mother's breast. From this knowledge every Christian who believes this must be glad and say: This my God and Lord has taken my nature, flesh and blood, as I have, and has tried and suffered everything as I have, but without sin. Therefore he can have compassion on my weakness, Hebr. 4:15.
(5) Then faith goes on walking, and thinks: If it is true that God became man, equal to us in all things, yet without sin: it follows that as far as God and man were from each other before, that is, further than heaven and earth, so closely do they now belong together; so that no blood friend, whether he be called cousin, brother or sister, is so closely related to me as Christ, the Son of the eternal Father. For it is certainly true that if we reckon apart from Christ how far God and man are from one another, they are found to be further apart than heaven and earth. But if we reckon in Christ, true God and man, it is found that they are much closer friends than one brother to another; for God, Creator of heaven and earth, has become true, natural man, the Son of the eternal Father has become the son of temporal virgins.
(6) Hence it is that Christ often calls Himself our cousin and brother in the Scriptures; as the epistle to the Hebrews from the Psalms and Prophets finely draws this, saying, Cap. 2:11-13: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, and sing praise unto thee in the midst of the congregation. And again, I will call my
Putting trust in Him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me." And St. John, Cap. 20, writes v. 17. that soon after His resurrection Christ commanded Mary Magdalene to proclaim to His disciples, "Go unto My brethren, and say unto them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God."
(7) Yes, that is more, the Scripture says that Christ, the eternal Son of God, is not only our brother, but also our flesh and blood. Eph. 5:28-30: "He that loveth his wife loveth himself: for no man hateth his own flesh at any time, but feedeth it, and cherisheth it; as also the Lord hateth the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." This is closely related. Husband and wife are one body, one flesh, closer friends than father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister, as the Scripture teaches, Gen. 2:24: "A man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Christ is also so closely related to us, indeed, He is more closely related to us than man and woman are related to each other. For God and man are here united in One Person. So Christ says to us: My body is your body and your body is my body, my leg is your leg and your leg is my leg. He counts himself and us for One body, blood, flesh, leg, soul.
This is a great, certain, exuberant comfort. Whoever could grasp it and be so certain of the matter that he would have no doubt about it, would be well. For whoever does not doubt it, but believes with certainty that this child, the Son of Mary, is truly God, must be happy and think: This is for me, for he has come into my skin, flesh and blood. I did not come to him, but he came to me; he descended from heaven, and did not come into hell to the devils, nor into a forest or desert to the wild animals, but into the world to us men, as St. John says: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us", Cap. 1, 14. He took to himself all that I am and have.
but without sin. So St. Augustine says: *) In Jesus Christ our Lord, each one of us is portio, flesh and blood. Therefore, where my body reigns, I believe that I myself reign. Where my flesh is glorified, I believe that I myself am glorious. Where my blood reigns, I believe that I myself reign. For though I am a sinner, yet I have no doubt of the fellowship of these graces. This means close friendship, if you want to count how far God was from us before Christ became man. And that is why we celebrate this feast, so that we may certainly recognize and grasp this friendship that we have with God and God with us, and the fellowship of such great graces, and so that we may comfort ourselves and rejoice in them.
(9) The wise men of the world and the epicureans pay no attention to this; when they hear for a long time that God became man, as the Christian faith testifies, they say: O! if nothing else is written in the Christian faith, but that God became man and was born of a virgin, then it is an even matter. For the world never ceases to laugh at the fact that God became our flesh and bone, and was crucified for our sins; as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 1:23: "We preach Christ crucified, an offense to the Jews and a foolishness to the Greeks." So the dear world goes along, lets preach, and in the meantime remembers: If we had a belly full of beer, to eat and drink.
(10) It should be that all the world would laugh and be happy about this birth. The dear holy angels do so, consider it a great thing and cannot be sufficiently surprised about it; and it would be no wonder that the dear angels would be displeased with us and hostile to us. For if he had taken another creature to himself, they would have been ashamed, as if he had taken the nature of an eagle or a lion to himself, they would have been displeased, and would have said, why would God be of such a low nature? But because he takes on human nature and becomes man, they are not displeased, and do not grant us humans such honor, but sing
*) Augustin. lib. meditat. cap. 14.
and laugh at it, and hold up Christ our Savior, though they have no need of him. And we unbelievers are baptized into it, and called by the gospel to receive the treasure, and to rejoice in it; yet we go and despise the treasure, and take a drink of beer for it, and many of us persecute it.
11. Therefore I have now taken this text from the prophet Isaiah before me, in which we see how the prophet speaks of this article so certainly and preaches about it so long before, as if Christ had already been born, rejoiced over it, and longed for it so anxiously: so that we may recognize, on the other hand, how hopeless we are, to whom this treasure is placed before the eyes, that we hear how the mother bathes and waits for this child, yet shall be such ungrateful drops that we throw it to the wind, do not pay attention to it nor have joy in it. Such loose drops we let go; for it must be preached for the sake of those who have pleasure and joy from it. The great multitude hears, but does not hear; they grope, but do not feel. Therefore, just as they are proud and despise our preaching, so our preaching is also proud and despises such proud despisers. But the dear prophets had a hearty delight and joy in it, and all righteous Christians still have delight and joy in it. For their sake it is preached; the rest of the epicureans and swine we let go.
(12) In this text there are beautiful and excellent words, so beautiful and excellent that they are not found so beautifully in any evangelist. For the dear prophets have licked up the best of the promises of Christ, when they had a great desire and hearty longing for them. It is said that hunger is a good cook and thirst is a good waiter. But he who is full grows weary and tired, just as the sated and fattened sows grow weary of the trimmings. Because the prophet has a great desire and longing for Christ, he also sings so highly, an excellent song, so that no evangelist has written about it with such clear, beautiful, funny words. And this is also reasonable, and the
Children are worth writing about.
(13) He gives this child the greatest and most beautiful names, so that we should not only look at it in its mother's womb, as it has body, eyes, ears and limbs, and sees like another human being, but that we should also look at it and recognize it as the true, eternal God. As if the prophet were to say, "Reach out your ears and listen, and I will tell you what kind of child this is. This child is not to be regarded badly, as it is born of a woman's image and is the son of a natural mother; as the Jews regarded it, and many of them said: O what is it more? I have also seen this child, other children are just like it. It is wrapped in swaddling clothes and circumcised on the eighth day; this also happens to other children, what is special about it?
14 The prophet wants to wake us up so that we can see and recognize this child. Therefore, open your ears and listen to what the prophet prophesies about this child. For he praises so highly that heaven and earth are nothing compared to it. He draws everything into this child, all creatures, yes, God himself. In front of our eyes there seems to be nothing special, one has to deal with this child like one deals with other children, spreading porridge, bathing, diapering, singing, weighing, waiting etc. Nevertheless, this child is much higher than other children. True, says the prophet, it is a born child; but it is such a child that its dominion lies on its shoulder, and has six titles and names, it is called "Wonderful, Counselor, Power, Hero, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
15 These words were also known in the papacy, for they were read and sung in the mass for the epistle. But no one has understood a letter nor a tittle of it. We preach about it now, praise God, and drive the mind without ceasing; but no one respects it, but the greatest number goes along and does not take it to heart. Nevertheless, for the sake of such scorners and swine, we must not refrain from preaching.
16. the first in this prophecy of the pro-
Isaiah, that you may learn that the babe that was born was born to you and your babe; as we also sing, "A babe as light as a feather is born to us this day. You must make use of the word "us" very well, and cross it out with diligence. Therefore, when you hear, "A child is born to us," make the three letters U N S as big as heaven and earth, and say, "The child is born, that is true; but to whom is it born? To us, to us it is born, says the prophet. He is not born to his mother, the virgin Mary, alone; nor to his friendship, his brothers and cousins, the Jews, alone; much less is he born to God in heaven, who has no need of the birth of this child: but he is born to us men from the earth. So now the prophet will say to me and to you, to all of us in general and to each one in particular: Listen, brother, I will sing you a merry little song and will proclaim to you a happy newspaper. There is a young child, a fine babe, lying in the manger in Bethlehem; this same babe shall be yours, given and given to you.
(17) O Lord God, who here could open his hand, take hold and joyfully accept this child, whom this mother, the Virgin Mary, carries, nurses, cares for and waits for. For I have become such a lord that the noble mother, who is born of a royal stock, yes, who is God's mother, must be my handmaid and servant. So that I cannot throb and defy that the prophet says: "This child is mine, born for my sake and for the sake of all of us, so that he may be my Savior and the Savior of all of us. And this mother serves me and all of us with her own body. We should all be ashamed of ourselves in our hearts. For what are all maidservants, servants, lords, wives, princes, kings, monarchs on earth compared to the Virgin Mary, who was born of a royal stock and is also the Mother of God, the highest woman on earth? She is the noblest jewel after Christ, in the whole of Christendom; and this highest woman on earth shall serve me and all of us, that she gives birth to this child, and that she gives it to be our own. This will be preached and sung during this feast:
A little child, so very light, Is born to us today, From a virgin so clean, To comfort us poor people.
If the child were not born to us, we would all be lost, salvation is ours.
The song is fine and well made, and taken from the prophet Isaiah, and is also sung many times and often, but no one, or even few, know what it is that is sung.
The prophecy of the prophet and the Christmas carol is thus: "A child is born to us. Who are the Us to whom this child is born? Or what are we human beings, who are to take care of this child? There speaks a philosopher from the art: Homo est animal rationale: The human being is a reasonable animal. Thus we humans count ourselves against the swine. But what is man before and against God and against the angels? If one discusses and describes man rightly here, then one finds rightly what man is. It is true that compared to lions and swine, man is a higher, better animal. This is what we command the pagan philosophers and the other scholars in the schools. But according to the theology we must count man against God, and thus speak: God is eternal, just, holy, true, and in sum, God is all good; but man is mortal, unjust, deceitful, full of vice, sin and vice. With God is all good, with man is death, the devil and hellish fire. God is from eternity and abides forever; man is in sins and lives in the midst of death every moment. God is full of grace; man is full of disgrace and under God's wrath. This is to count man against God. So, if we count God and man against each other, and properly discuss and describe what God is and what man is, the little word "us" will become great, and the consolation will also become great. For if we human beings picture to ourselves what we are before and against God, we will find that there is a great difference between God and us human beings, and greater than between heaven and earth, indeed, no comparison can be made. And since
The prophet Isaiah wanted to lead us to recognize and realize how deeply God lets himself down to us poor people, and how fatherly and warmly he takes care of us.
19 Therefore one should notice what the little word "us" or man means. The world looks at man from above, as the pagan poet says:
Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera mundi, Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque videre Jussit:
It sees that man walks uprightly, as opposed to an animal, and is a reasonable, wise, understanding nature. But according to the Holy Scriptures, man is such a creature, which has turned away from God, is godless and evil, subject to the power of the devil, guilty of God's wrath and eternal death. To those desperate wicked, that is, to the people who are lost and damned, Christ is born too good.
(20) Now therefore take hold of him who is able. I say one more thing: God allows this child to be born to those who are condemned and lost; therefore hold out your hand and take hold, and say: I am indeed godless and evil, with me there is nothing good, but only evil, sin, vice, death, the devil and hellish fire. But against all this I set this child, whom the Virgin Mary has in her womb and on her breast. Because it was born to me to be my treasure, I also take this child and set it against everything I do not have. If I am not righteous and pious, I will find in this child all righteousness and piety. If I have death and all misfortune, I will find life and all good in this little child. And this is as certain as if I saw it already before me with my eyes. This is what it means to have access to this treasure if we make use of it through faith.
21 But such faith is sadly lacking everywhere. If you owed a hundred thousand guilders and did not have to pay, and someone wanted to give you so much that you would not only pay, but also keep something left over, you could reach for it and open your sack and bag. But here,
Since the treasure is so great that it could not be greater, there is no one to take hold of it and hold up the sack; indeed, the worse is that there are many who despise and persecute it. The righteous Christians alone take care of this infant and say from the heart: I am a damned man, I am guilty body and soul forever. But I know that Mary, the mother of this child, gladly grants me this treasure from the bottom of her heart, and helps me with her virgin body and all her limbs, carries the child in her womb, gives birth to it, and when it is born, she feeds it and cares for it. In sum, she does everything a mother should do. Thus the child was born for my sake, that salvation might be mine and ours.
22 This is what the true Christians do. But fie on the world for having such wretches, who take nothing for themselves of this treasure, and yet have the greatest need of it. All the world should crawl to it on all fours if they could not walk; so our Lord God must still be glad that there are some who desire this treasure. It is always a sin and a disgrace to drop such preaching before swine and dogs, who despise it, mock it, and persecute it, except that they should hear it and receive it. Whoever preached to such people about a rich man who wanted to give everyone enough money, whoever would come and bring the sack, all the world would come running from every place. But because one preaches about the infant Jesus, who offers eternal life and salvation to the whole world, no one is found who almost desires this treasure.
(23) But whoever wants to be a Christian should hear such a sermon with joy and believe that it is certainly true what the prophet Isaiah says: "A child has been born to us. For whichever Christian grasps these words with earnestness and firm faith, what can the devil do to him with all his evil wiles? For even though such a Christian is challenged by the devil, he can soon meet the devil and say, "Do you hear, devil, do you also know that a child has been born? Yes. Do you also know that it is born to us, that is, to me? Then the devil must give way. Therefore, one should pay attention to the little word "us",
so that the "little child" and "born of us" may be brought together finely in faith; so that one is well equipped against all attempts of the devil.
In the papacy, the mother Mary alone has been praised and extolled. It is true that she is praiseworthy and can never be praised and extolled enough. For the honor is too high and glorious that she is the mother of this child before all women on earth. But we should praise and extol the mother in such a way that we do not let the child she gave birth to be snatched away from our eyes and hearts, nor do we esteem this treasure that was born to us less than the mother. If one praises the mother, she shall be a droplet; but this little child shall be a whole wide sea. If one thing is to be forgotten, it is better to forget the mother than to forget the child, as happened in the papacy, where the child was forgotten and the mother alone was remembered. For the
Mother is not born to us, she does not save us from sins and death. She may have given birth to the infant and the Savior of the world, but she is not the infant and the Savior herself. Therefore we should get used to the mother and bind ourselves firmly to the child.
(25) That is enough said for this time about the words: "A child is born to us. From this we should learn so much that we should take care of this child, much more than of our own body and life. For it is as near to us as our body and soul. O blessed and blessed is the man who is well instructed and firmly grounded in this wisdom. But that we take no comfort or joy from it is a sure sign that we either do not believe it at all, or that our faith is small and weak. We keep this feast and preach about it, so that people may learn about it, and we are sure that our work is not in vain or in vain, and that comfort and joy will follow for some.