# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 02 21_S50
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

and, through the law concerning the redemption of the firstborn, provided for the support of the preachers (at that time the Levites); and that in the whole law of Moses he generally had regard solely to Christ, so that one might know when and from where Christ was to come. For this reason God also determined so precisely the person, the name of Christ, his people, tribe, family, the city, the time, etc., of his birth. Now although Mary had not borne Christ in sin, and Christ was without sin and a Lord of the Law, both nevertheless submitted themselves to it voluntarily, as an example to us, that we should obey the Law all the more willingly and never say that we have no need to do this or that.

Concerning the firstborn sons, Luther remarks that because of their precedence over other sons — being priests and lords within the household and receiving a double inheritance — they often became proud and despised their brothers, but were for this reason also cast down and punished by God, as can be seen in Cain and in all the Jews of today. Therefore, when God grants us advantages and benefits, we should take care not to become proud on their account and despise others, but should rather use them to serve our neighbor; otherwise there would be no contentment even amid great wealth.

Luther preached the third sermon on the fifth Sunday after Epiphany (February 7) on the usual Gospel, Matthew 13:24–30, in which, following this parable of Christ about the tares among the wheat, he treats of the fact that in the holy Christian church, from the beginning to the end of the world, the godly and the wicked are always mixed together; to recognize this is great wisdom, for the error has always been powerful in the world that one should wish to have such a church in which there would be nothing evil at all anymore. This error was held by the Donatists, the Anabaptists, and all the monks, who for this very reason withdrew from the world; indeed, even pious hearts are assailed by it, as can be seen in the servants of the householder who wanted to clear the field of all the weeds. Now everywhere that the householder has sown good seed, that is, the true gospel, there the devil sows weeds — namely factions and fanaticism; this can be seen in the households of the patriarchs, for Adam had to bear with Cain, Noah with Ham, Abraham with the mocker Ishmael; indeed, Christ and the apostles had to bear with Judas the traitor, Augustine with the Donatists, Luther with the Anabaptists, sacramentarians, and antinomians who had come out of his own school; for wherever God establishes a pure church, there the devil soon builds a chapel right beside it, because he likes to have business going on within the church.

Now Luther teaches by means of a comparison how one should rightly distinguish the evil within the church and how one should conduct oneself in light of this distinction. Just as the natural body of man is unclean and subject to many weaknesses and infirmities, and yet one nevertheless cares for it and nourishes it, helps it in sickness as well as possible and has patience with it, and separates off a member entirely only when it threatens to corrupt the other members — so too no Christian in this life is without various weaknesses and infirmities, which would indeed be damnable if they were not forgiven, for which purpose Christ has given baptism, his Supper, and absolution. Yet Christians are well aware that, unfortunately, they cannot believe such forgiveness as undoubtingly as they should; but these are not the crude, wild people who care nothing for God, like those who also boast of being good Christians and yet stand like weeds among the wheat; for these despise the Word of God and grow angry against it when it touches them even a little, seeking only their own pleasure, money and goods, gluttony and drunkenness — that is their gospel. Therefore God desires of us that, for the sake of the sin still clinging to us, we should continually exercise ourselves in the Ten Commandments, the Christian faith, and the Lord's Prayer, earnestly taking them to heart and living accordingly. Accordingly no Christian should despair over his own daily weakness or consider himself rejected by God, but should always continue to exercise his faith through diligent prayer, to put off the old man, and to fight against the lusts of the flesh; for sin is not forgiven so that we should now become secure, as though we had none anymore or as though it could no longer condemn us, but rather so that we should be its master, that it should no longer rule in our sinful body.

Luther further says that, according to Christ's parable, we should not seek to root out by force the weeds of false teachers and false Christians, as the pope does — who is himself the most harmful weed of all — but that we should defend ourselves against them solely by the Word and by faith, so that they do not take from us our faith and our confession; we should warn and rebuke them as much as we can, and if that does not help, they should be publicly placed under the ban, so that everyone may regard and avoid them as harmful weeds. We must let them stand — for instance, the pope and all manner of factions — but must not let them rule. Just as worldly rulers and heads of households must tolerate some minor harm in order to avert a greater one, so also in the church one must tolerate the wicked, taking care only that the doctrine be kept pure; but on the Last Day everything will become entirely pure, when the weeds are wholly rooted out and burned forever.

According to its heading, Luther preached the fourth sermon on the day of the Apostle Matthias; but since that day falls on February 24, he preached it either on the sixth Sunday after Epiphany, or, as Mathesius says, the day after, on February 15 — since he often preached on certain church texts earlier or later than their assigned day. He took as his basis the usual Gospel, Matthew 11:25–30, and shows how Christ is hostile to the wise and clever, and, by contrast, has delight and love for those who are not clever and wise but are like little children; for the wise and clever carry on in such a way that God cannot be favorable to them, since he would have to be their pupil, whom they seek to master in everything he ordains, while always wanting to introduce something peculiar of their own; this all heretics and factions have done — Arius, Pelagius, the Anabaptists, the sacramentarians, etc. — as well as the pope, who supposed that everything he undertook against God's Word was nothing but pure divine wisdom. All such people, who want to be clever and yet are not, hinder the preaching office, so that people cannot come to God through it. Now since Christ says, "I thank thee," etc., and the gospel is to be hidden from the wise and clever, we should not want to govern and preserve the church ourselves, but should call upon God for such grace, so that Christ alone may be preached as the sole master and lord — for it is not without reason that he says, "All things are delivered unto me by my Father." Therefore, in matters touching the conscience, we should accept nothing except what his Word tells us, even if an angel from heaven were to say otherwise; but if it is his Word, we should accept it, whether the one who tells it to us is wise or a fool. Luther says of this: "Our wisdom and cleverness in divine matters is the eye that the devil opened for us in Paradise, when Adam and Eve, in the devil's name, also wanted to be clever." Since we now hear Christ himself speaking in his true preaching and in so many books, we ought indeed to be thankful, just as Christ also thanks his Father. Yet people are so mad and foolish that they would rather let themselves be deceived by the pope and his followers and despise God's Word; but if such enemies are angry against us, we should hear Christ's word: "Come unto me, all ye," etc. — that is, hold fast only to me, remain with my Word, have patience, I will make it sweet for you, so that you will well be able to bear it when you suffer for my sake, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

At the close of this sermon Luther further warns against other enemies of Christ, namely the Jews (Luther's Works, Wittenberg edition, XX, 2630 ff.), who daily blaspheme and revile Christ, and who seek after the body and life, honor and goods of Christians, as they were then doing especially in the Mansfeld region. Luther's wish is that we should conduct ourselves toward them in such a way that we offer them the Christian faith; if they are willing to accept it and to desist from their blasphemies, from their usury, etc., we should gladly forgive them and regard them as our brothers; but if not, then we should not tolerate them among us either. He adds: "Christ is my shelter, as far as heaven and earth extend, and my mother hen, under whom I take refuge from God's wrath; therefore I can have no fellowship or patience with the hardened blasphemers and defilers of my dear Savior. This I have wanted to say to you as a warning, as a native of this land, for the last time, so that you do not make yourselves partakers of others' sins; for I mean it well and faithfully toward both the lords and the subjects."