(Held June 24, 153S p.m.).
Text: "Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. And hath raised up for us a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David. When he spake in time past by the mouth of his holy prophets, that he would deliver us from our enemies, and from the hand of all them that hate us, and shew mercy unto our fathers, and remember his holy covenant, and the oath which he sware unto Abraham our father to give us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear all the days of our life, in holiness and righteousness that is pleasing in his sight. And thou, little child, shalt be called a prophet of the Most High; thou shalt go before the Lord, to prepare his way, and to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, who are in the remission of their sins; through the tender mercies of our God, whereby he hath visited us from on high, to appear unto them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to direct our feet into the way of peace."
Yesterday and today we heard why we celebrate the feast of John the Baptist: not because of his person or holiness, that it might help us much, but that John should begin the glorious, joyful time, that now the law of Moses should cease with all that follows from it, and that now a new world should become, that many might rejoice, as
because that is what the angel says. For he shall be a preacher of grace and salvation from the law and all its powers. Those who are under the law and feel the power of the law understand what a joy it is when the law ceases and comes to an end. But those who do not feel the law, it is just one, it comes St. John or remains outside. But they that feel the law understand well how heavy was the tongue of Moses, and how he had such hard and heavy hands. They accept St. John's sermon with joy and thanksgiving, as Zacharias does here. Before, he did not understand. But afterwards, when John was born and filled with the Holy Spirit, and the gospel, the preaching of grace, had rung out over all the world, he understood. Therefore we must not believe it, nor prophesy it, but understand it with the five senses. But that we should be so happy about it, we are not. He, Zacharias, cannot see more than his little son and his mother Elizabeth, and yet he tells of future things that were completely secret, and he sees them as surely as if it were before his eyes, and is much more happy about it than we are, to whom it is made known and revealed and carried to house and home. It is a child, which can neither speak nor stand, but lies there in the cradle. Nevertheless he says about it:
"And thou shalt be a prophet of the Most High," that it may not only be great, but also very appointed, that the whole land may know to say of it. "For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord." This is a word I do not know how to pronounce. He sees that Christ is there, who is truly God and man, who also should save the whole world. For he says, "Salvation is prepared in the house of David. And this is the Lord himself, before whom thou shalt go.
Salvation is here and the prophet of salvation. Therefore Zacharias also sings the "Benedictus". 1) The mother Mary is also there. Christ is still in the womb. He does not see Christ, yet he speaks: "God has brought salvation to Israel. Salvation, that is, redemption from the law of Moses, death and the devil. This has already happened and yet is not yet here. But so certain is he in his heart and eyes, just as if it had already happened. Mary is barely halfway, and John only born. Nevertheless it is said: "God has brought about salvation". A new time is dawning, a time of grace and salvation. Those who now feel the law's power and might understand what the man John will teach. So we always preach that the law of Moses teaches knowledge of sins, death and eternal damnation. It is an unbearable state under the law of Moses. For they not only hear, but also feel what a torment it is to be despondent toward God, to feel eternal death and damnation. No one knows this, because he feels the hard blows to the head.
Now is sung: This work shall now come to an end, and shall begin through thee, thou dearest child: thou shalt be the first preacher, that there be no more prison under the law. For he, the Lord, has come himself and visited us, and has taken pity on our misery and heartache, in which the devil has imprisoned us. For he is the master of the stocks, who holds us captive in sin and hell. And this prison goes over the whole world, and no one shows it,
1) This is the canticle of Zachariah which begins "Benedictus" (Praised). (Buchwald.)
For Moses by the law, that the devil is so mighty, and our Lord, who preacheth terror, sticks and pegs. This is his office, that we should abide in death and sin, and be in hell. Item, he closes the eyes of men, that Moses must come and reveal sin. Now when this happens, John comes with the new newspaper and says that he is the forerunner.
Nevertheless, Zacharias does not yet have the spirit that the apostles and St. Paul have afterwards, who let themselves be tortured and killed for the redemption that happened in the people of Israel. We have not yet come there, and this joy does not yet belong to us. Neither does Zechariah see that this joy should also come to the Gentiles, as the patriarchs and prophets prophesied. Therefore we are heathens and rude teachers, that we have so miserably and soon forgotten the dear ministry of John, and have drawn out our caps and works of men against it. Nevertheless, the pope thought he was a good teacher. But it is very frightening.
We come to this by grace, without all our thoughts. We should not be such hemps that we let ourselves be so miserably darkened. I cannot sing and hear this song without sorrow and pain. What is the pabstry, since it is also the best? The law of Moses is much more beautiful. If I wanted to walk through the Canons 2), Moses with his laws is much more glorious. It is nothing with our art, so the pope and we pagans have. It is vain cobweb against Moses. Nevertheless, Moses should go away and stop. In our time, in the New Testament, how much less should humanity still rule in the church! Therefore, young people, know and learn to speak differently and to distinguish salvation from the laws, but especially from the laws of men.
Even if one is a learned physician, he cannot comfort the conscience. If he wanted to persuade people that the drinks and medicines he was taking would make his conscience cheerful and good, it would still not work. Likewise,
2) i.e. the laws of the pope.
If one were learned in worldly wisdom and wanted to teach from it how one would be saved or how he would be damned, that would not be acceptable either. Item, if a jurist were so learned that he knew all the laws of the Roman emperors, that would be fine. But if he wanted to say: My book and doctrine must go into the church and must teach from the pulpit,-that should not be. For no physician or jurist should teach in the church. He has enough to do with the diseases. There are more than three hundred diseases that plague the human body. The physician has enough to do with them; but if he comes to the church with them, we want to throw him out with his lungs 1). But if a lawyer wants to enter and teach with the canons, we will not suffer it either.
"He has sent a salvation." Moses, who has God's commandment, does not. For he only says what is sin and what one should or should not do. God cannot suffer Moses, how much less should He suffer those who make sin where there is no sin, and make righteousness where there is none! Moses had a command to say, "If you eat a crab, you commit sin in it. They, the Jews, had to eat vain fish, which had scales and raft feathers. If he said, "This is sin," it was sin. But so it is not with the pope, who says, If thou eat meat on Friday, thou sinest. But now all rights shall be dead in the kingdom of grace. For we are redeemed by one who has power to break all laws. How much more shall we now be redeemed from that to which the pope has no right, and since he wants to make sin, since there is no sin! And if Christ has redeemed us from the law of Moses, which has right and power to keep under sin, much more shall we be redeemed from the laws, which have a right to make sin where there is no sin.
This is what I often say and hear. For I see that the devil does not want to purify the teachings. But he wants to throw away the ten commandments and put the canons in our place. We are not to suffer this. We do not have the ten commandments to give us.
1) Buchwald: with rags. Cf. St. Louis edition, vol. XIII, 1224 and vol. XX, 780.
Christians could condemn, and yet we are to be oppressed with the state of the pope. The works of reason are delicious and good, even right. The canons are fine, but however wise they may be, they are not like Mosiah, and even if they were, we do not want them.
For here it is said: "He sends a salvation" and St. Paul says (Gal. 5, 1.): "In the liberty wherewith Christ hath set you, therein abide. And if Moses with his very best and most holy laws cannot abide, then we should shun all other laws as dirt and cobwebs and let them go. Therefore, do not let the treasure that God has redeemed us be taken from you. If you keep it, we will not deny that salvation is not from the law alone, but from all that the law indicates, namely, that we are guilty of death and of the sins revealed by the law.
First, the sins are against the Ten Commandments. Then Moses added the ceremonies that one should not eat crab. But from these ceremonies I shall be rid, and the law also shall be dead. So shall I also say of the priest's laws, All dead, that not one letter thereof remain. No, away with the laws and sins of Moses and the priest! Therefore St. Paul says to the Galatians in the 5th chapter (v. 1): "Do not be caught again in the bondage yoke. After this then ye are free, not that the letters are altogether removed from it, but that it condemn not. For it shall be a redemption from the laws of Moses, of the pope, and of the monks. If you accept a canon out of necessity, know that this redemption is gone. If the pope does not want to suffer this, so that he would do the compulsion and violence of it from his laws, then we do not want to tolerate it. But the devil wants to have a prison through him, that we are under sin. But if I will be under the law, I will abide under Moses. But if I will not hear him, neither will I ask anything of thee.
The other redemption is that we are redeemed from the ten commandments; not that they are no longer preached, but that we shall not
despair. For the sins that remain in us shall not be imputed to us. This is the most glorious liberation. 1) The ten commandments do not cease, not only for the sake of the wicked, but also for our own sake, that we may see how we increase in Christianity. But we are not to be afraid, as Zechariah says here, that "without fear we will serve Him all our lives. The godly hearts do not fulfill the ten commandments, but Christ has brought about such a mighty redemption that he also takes away the right of the ten commandments. No one loves his parents as he should. But there is Christ, the righteous, who sets us free. And Christ saith, I will take away the right of him that had it. There shall be redemption through and through, redemption not only from sins which Moses did, but also from the sins wherein we were born; and yet he saith, Thou hast redemption, that Moses with his law and ten commandments should not accuse thee. And shall we, soon after this glorious redemption of Moses and the ten commandments, give ourselves up captive under the pope? But we will not suffer it! For St. Paul to the Galatians in the 5th chapter (v. 1) declares it.
It is a fine figure with the papacy that the people fast, do not eat meat on Friday, also do not use wine, lead item monastic life, that the preachers do not have wives. In St. Augustine's time, husband and wife lived together and remained virgins, and took in foreign children, raised them and fed them. But there is one thing here that is much more subtle: that Christ has made us free, that the commandments, however beautiful they may shine, are nothing in comparison. For you must see to it that you receive salvation, which is the most glorious.
Reason is a fine light, just as a torch and wax light is a fine light. But what is it against the sun? So say here also: Beautiful here, beautiful there, holy here, holy there! The pope has many good concilia and fathers, also many good sayings. It is a fine candle, it burns fine. But what is
1) i.e. liberation, redemption.
it against the sun of salvation, that Christ has visited us, and wrought, and obtained a glorious redemption from all evil? Many things are good and delicious, as grain 2c., but life is better. Cloth is fine, but velvet is more delicious. Bricks are fine, but emerald and diamond are more precious. It is the same here. We do not ask that it be fine and reasonable. The pope does not respect it, but he wants to have power and the right to tear people away from salvation. This is what he seeks through his bishops and monks, so that this salvation will be in vain.
Therefore, be good dialecticians, that you may distinguish between leprosy and leprosy, sin and sin, law and law. If we suffer not Moses, much less shall we suffer the fathers and concilia. Then shall we hear the ten commandments and Moses, that there may be liberty, that we may be lords over the law of Moses, that it may perish, that is, that it may not take us captive nor accuse us, but that redemption may remain, that it may be Madam Empress over all laws, and that we may be redeemed from sin, and in liberty "serve him without fear. These words have strong marrow and strength, that we are redeemed. He shall take Moses and drown him, and that no man know where he abideth, and shall take all the fathers, concilia, and canones, and burn them in a heap. Forasmuch then as he hath worshipped us with this liberty, he shall also make us free from the sins that remain in us. He comes to us in our misery and delivers us from Moses, and in our time he delivers us from the pope, concilia and the fathers.
But St. John now proclaims this freedom to us and leads us out of the darknesses and shadows of death. Therefore, one should thank God for this redemption, and not grant the pope some power, because even Moses is no longer valid with us.
"He has raised up a horn of salvation", that is, a security "in David's house", in his family. He has looked upon the dear fruit that Mary bore in her womb. God has promised nothing to the Gentiles, they are not provided for it, but only those who are in the house of David. Therefore we should defend freedom all the more. It
happened to us by chance, because the Jews did not want to accept the promise. Therefore we are not to make a commandment for ourselves in the church, so that it is a sin if one does not keep it. In the church we are not to suffer any law but the ten commandments alone, so that these should not bind us.
Truly, Greece has been ungrateful and has despised this redemption. Now the same country is not only under the sword, but also under Mahomet. He makes them sin when there is none else. Verily we also have to fear it, for the devil seeks it by his mobs. See to it that you are good dialecticians and know what is law and sin, made sin and inherent sin. And these are shown to us in the ten commandments. We can't just bite them out. Made sins are carved, painted sins, as one frightens children, that is, which are not sin by nature, nor innate, as, not wearing a monk's cap, eating meat on Friday, that such is sin. For such laws, which are made sins, are cobwebs. Under the Law of Moses, these sins were also made, but they were commanded by God. But under the papacy they are not commanded by God. Rather the pope wanted to abolish both, law and made sin. But the sins in which we are born cannot be taken away; nevertheless, they shall also be taken away.
Even if not in reality - they live in skin and bone - nevertheless they should leave us undeterred. For the sins are forgiven, canceled, and we are delivered from them. If this difference is known to you, then you may well remain with the pure doctrine; and do not accept a doctrine that makes new sins where there were none before; and those who belong to the worldly regime, we should not allow to be brought into the church. So let the inherent sins be put away, lest they terrify us. For we are to "serve him in righteousness and holiness".
[An admonition has been issued here that one should not lie in beer houses during the sermon].
The authorities have God's command and the sovereign's order that carousing and drinking beer under this hour when preaching is forbidden. Truly, we should be grateful to God and thank Him! So if one drinks during the sermon, it is a defiance to our Lord God, and a disgrace to our Lord God, and an annoyance to our neighbors. For this reason I now admonish you for the second time that it be abolished. For this you have the commandment of your sovereign and God's command. If anything happens to you about it, you may have it. I also hear that the weakening of the virginity is coming back. If you now consider our gospel and teaching to be a salvation, you will live differently. But you go to it as if you did not think it was something delicious,' yes, as if it were a shooting of birds.