Martinus Luther.
(1) The world is now so evil, and the longer the worse, that one may well with all diligence and perseverance present the examples of divine judgment and wrath to the people and impress upon them, if it would help, that they are horrified by it, and yet improve a little. Now the worldly rulers themselves (who have the sword and the wrath of God in their hands and are commanded by God to punish the wicked) complain that the world is becoming more and more wanton and that the rule has become difficult and laborious. For the devil has become so powerful that even many of the rulers themselves are driving with all their might, who should punish it justly, and not only give evil examples, but also beginners and
Agitators are to all misfortune that one must see and grasp that it cannot stand like this for long, but must break one day. And so it was with Jerusalem. Before they were led into the Babylonian prison, the prophet Ezekiel gave such a simile: Jerusalem would be a grop in which the fat and salt were so deeply unburned that it could not be made clean again by scrubbing or sweeping, but it would have to be burned in the fire and completely melted and made new. Jeremiah also speaks in the same way, that God says he must do as a potter did when his vessel was not right, and when he struck the clay and crushed it, so will he destroy Jerusalem; as was done.
2. although such parables still have so much to offer
*The text of Sutel, to which Luther wrote this preface, has the title: "Das Evangelion von der grausamen, Erschrecklichen Zerstörung Jerusalem. Interpreted by Magist. Johan Sutel preacher at Göttingen. With a preface by D. Mart. Luth. Wittemberg. 1.5.39." 9 quarto sheets. At the end: "Printed at Wittemberg by Hans weissm, M.D.xxxix." In the collections, the preface is found: in the Wittenberg (1559), vol. XII, p. 368; in the Jena (1568), vol. VII, p. 304; in the Altenburg, vol. VII, p. 327; in the Leipzig, vol. XXII, appendix, p. 129. and in the Erlangen, vol. 63, p. 360.
The people of Jerusalem have to take comfort in the fact that the spoiled pot will be watered anew, and another pot will be made out of 1) unmade pots. For Jerusalem was rebuilt after the misery of Babylon, and a new pot and potter were made of the old clay and brass. But if it happens according to Isaiah's parable, that the evil pot is shattered so that not a shard of it remains in which one could fetch water or fire, that is terrible; as we see that it happened in the last destruction of Jerusalem. There the grop was melted into foam, and the pot was smashed into cinders, which they could not believe before great certainty, nor did they want to believe until faith came into their hands. I do not like to prophesy, nor do I want to prophesy; for what I prophesy, especially evil, generally comes more than I like, so that I often wish, even with St. Michea, that I had to be a liar and false prophet. Because I speak God's word, it must happen; but I worry, and must worry that our German country will one day be like Jerusalem. Alas! God help that my worry is lacking and my prophecy is a lie. We have it in mind
1) Thus the Jenaer and Walch. Wittenberg and Erlangen: the ungerathen pots.
the door, as the Turk has melted and shattered Greece, up to Germany, by God's wrath; but we do not respect it, as little as the Jews respected the wrath of the Romans, sinning on and on, that we may become sufficiently a corrupt grop and pot.
Therefore, it is good that this example of the destroyed Jerusalem (as this sermon does) be held up to us, along with other more wrathful punishments of God, if it would help a little, and through repentance the final misfortune and destruction might be forgiven. God's word does have an effect on people, and yet the divine judgment sometimes strikes even the stiff-necked, willful people, so that they must be frightened by it; for it certainly applies to us Germans in particular, a game that the devil has in mind, because he finds the word of God in us, which he cannot stand. And if we do not honor it better, but continue with contempt and ingratitude, it will be said: you have not recognized the time of your visitation. Then it is done, and the devil has already won; for if we despise the word, it despises us again, and separates from us as we separate from it. God graciously protect us from this, at least in our time. Amen.