Luther, Persecution, the Cross, and Martyrdom

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

I am working on a presentation for a symposiusm at Saint Louis University from June 17 through June 19, 2013. http://smrs.slu.edu/ My paper will examine the relationship between Martin Luther’s understanding of martyrdom and the theology of the cross.  Particularly, it will focus on how Luther imagined martyrdom and persecution to be the Christian’s bearing the cross.  Here are a few quotes from Luther’s writings:

“For where God’s Word is preached, accepted, or believed, and bears fruit, there the holy and precious cross will also not be far behind.  And let no one think that we will have peace; rather we must sacrifice all we have on earth–possessions, honor, house and farm, spouse and children, body and life. Now, this grieves our flesh and the old creature, for it means that we must remain steadfast, suffer patiently whatever befalls us, and let go whatever is taken from us.” Martin Luther,The Large Catechism, Third Part: Lord’s Prayer, sections 65-66, in The Book of Concord, eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wingert (Minneapolis 2000), pp. 448-449.

Luther included this statement in his explanation of “May your will come about on earth as in heaven.”  He observes how the devil, the world, and our flesh collaborate to hinder God’s will on earth.  If other tricks don’t work, Luther writes that the devil and the world will inflict punishment and misfortune on Christians.

“…no one should fear even if all the wisdom and power of the world oppose the Gospel, yea, even if they plan to suppress it by shedding of blood; for the more blood is shed, the more Christians there will be.  The blood of Christians, as Tertulian [sic] says, is the seed from which Christians grow.  Satan must be drowned in the blood of Christians….” Martin Luther, “Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity,” in Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 5, ed. John Nicholas Lenker, [reprint of The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther, vol. 14, 1905], (Grand Rapids 1988), p. 299.

Here Luther refers to Tertullian’s famous statement in defense of early Christians under the Roman Empire. (see Apology, chap. 50)http://www.tertullian.org/articles/mayor_apologeticum/mayor_apologeticum_07translation.htm

“Today is the day of the discovery of the [relic of the] Cross.  Therefore, we want to see, how the cross may be found.  Actually, the cross means suffering that is bound together with shame and disgrace (Schmach und Schande).  Paul speaks of this (Phil. 2:8): ‘Christ became obedient to death,’ however not to a bad death, but rather adds, “to death on a cross,” that is, to a disgraceful death. So Christ had to suffer most shamefully.  For this reason, the actual suffering of the Christian is called the cross.  For the Christian suffers differently than a Jew or heathen.  So the martyrs still had to suffer all kinds of shame (Schmach), indeed even if they were not guilty at all.” Martin Luther, “Am Tage der Kreuzes Erfindung,” [On the Day of the Invention of the Cross], St. Louis Edition, vol. 12, col. 1856. [My translation]

In this sermon from the early 1520s Dr. Luther sought to turn his congregation away from the veneration of relics of the Cross toward a right understanding of the Christian’s cross.  Notice that Luther equated the Christian’s cross with suffering shamefully for Christ’s sake and martyrdom.

“For God appointed that we should not only believe in the crucified Christ, but also be crucified with him, as he clearly shows in many places in the Gospels…Therefore each one must bear a part of the holy cross; nor can it be otherwise.  St. Paul too says, ‘In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions’ [Col. 1:24].  It is as if he were saying: His whole Christendom is not fully completed; we too must follow after, in order that none of the suffering of Christ may be lacking or lost, but all brought together into one.  Therefore every Christian must be aware that suffering will not fail to come.  It should be, however, and must be the kind of suffering that is worthy of the name and honestly grips and hurts, such as some great danger of property, honor, body, and life.  Such suffering as we really feel, which weighs us down; otherwise, if it did not hurt us badly, it would not be suffering.” Martin Luther, “Sermon at Coburg on Cross and Suffering,” Luther’s Works, vol. 51, p. 198. [Emphasis added]

In 1530, on the eve of the Diet of Augsburg, Luther preached this sermon to the Lutheran princes, other theologians and court officials of Electoral Saxony at Coburg Castle.  He intended this sermon as a promise and warning that suffering would come as a result of the bold confession before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

 

 

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Augustine, Luther, and the Sacraments

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Baptism is a very different thing from all other water, not by virtue of the natural substance but because here something nobler is added, for God himself stakes his honor, his power, and his might on it.  Therefore it is not simply a natural water, but a divine, heavenly, holy, and blessed water….all by virtue of the Word, which is a heavenly, holy Word that no one can sufficiently extol, for it contains and conveys all that is God’s.  This, too, is where it derives its nature so that it is called a sacrament, as St. Augustine taught, ‘Accedat verbum ad sacramentum ad elementum et fit sacramentum,’ which means that ‘when the Word is added to the element or the natural substance, it becomes a sacrament,’ that is, a holy, divine thing and sign.” Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, Fourth Part: Baptism, sections 17-18, in The Book of Concord, eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wingert (Minneapolis 2000), p. 458.

“It is the Word….that makes this a sacrament and distinguishes it from ordinary bread and wine, so that it is called and truly is Christ’s body and blood.  For it is said, ‘Accedat verbum ad elementum et fit sacramentum,’ that is, ‘When the Word is joined to the external element, it becomes a sacrament.’  This saying of St. Augustine is so appropriate and well put that he could hardly have said anything better.  The Word must make the element a sacrament; otherwise it remains an ordinary element.” Large Catechism, Fifth Part, The Sacrament of the Altar, sections10-11 in Ibid., p. 468.

In these descriptions of the sacraments Dr Luther follows the medieval definition derived from Augustine’s Tractate 80 on the Gospel of John.  Augustine (d. 430) was the bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa.  By Luther’s own admission, Augustine’s theology greatly influenced Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel of grace.  In Tractate 80, sec. 3, Augustine examines John 15:3, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (ESV)

“Why does He not say, You are clean because of the baptism wherewith you have been washed, but he says, ‘because of the word which I have spoken to you,’ save only that in the water also it is the word that cleanses?  Take away the word, and what is the water except water.  The word is added [accedit] to the element, and it becomes a sacrament, as if itself a kind of visible word….And whence has water so great a power, as in touching the body to cleanse the heart, unless by the working of the word, not because it is spoken, but because it is believed.”   Augustine, Tractates in the Gospel of John 80. 3. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, volume 7, p. 344.   I have changed the text slightly in places according to the Latin text in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, vol. 36, p. 529.

Augustine then quotes Romans 10:10, I Peter 3:21, and Ephesians 5:25-26 to demonstrate the power of God’s Word through preaching and Baptism.  Then he concluded: “The cleansing, therefore, would on no account be attributed to the fleeting and perishable element, were it not for that which is added, ‘by the word.’ [Eph. 5:26] This word of faith possesses such power in the Church of God, that through the one who believes, presents, blesses and baptizes, [the word] cleanses even a tiny infant, although itself unable as yet with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and to make confession with the mouth unto salvation.  All this is done through the word, whereof the Lord said: ‘Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you.’ ” Augustine, NPNF 7:345.  Again I have changed the translation based on CCSL 36:529.

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Humanity, Reason, and Education

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Nature, the mother of all things, has equipped brute animals with more means to fulfil the functions of their species; but to man alone she has given the faculty of reason, and so she has thrown the burden of human growth upon education.  Therefore it is right to say that the beginning and the end, indeed the total sum of man’s happiness, are founded upon a good upbringing and education….A proper and conscientious instruction is the well-spring of all moral goodness.  By contrast, the doors are flung wide open to folly and evil when education becomes corrupted and careless.  Education is that special task which has been entrusted to us.  This is why to other creatures nature has given swiftness of foot or wing, keeness of sight, strength or massiveness of body, coverings of wool or fur, or protection of scales, plates, horns, claws, or poisons, and has so enabled them to protect themselves, hunt for food, and rear their young.  Man alone she has created weak, naked, and defenseless.  But as compensation, she has given him a mind equipped for knowledge, for this one capacity, if properly exploited, embraces all others.”  Desiderius Erasmus, “On the Education of Children,” in The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be An Educated Human Being, ed. Richard M. Gamble. Wilmington 2007, pp. 360-61. [Emphasis added]

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Luther on Faith and Love

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“The truth of the Gospel is this, that our righteousness comes by faith alone, without the works of the Law.  The falsification or corruption of the Gospel is this, that we are justified by faith, but not without the works of the Law.  The false apostles preached the Gospel, but they did so with this condition attached to it.  The scholastics do the same thing in our day.  They say that we must believe in Christ and that faith is the foundation of salvation, but they say that this faith does not justify unless it is ‘formed by love.’  This is not the truth of the Gospel; it is falsehood and pretense.  The true Gospel, however, is this: Works or love are not the ornament or perfection of faith; but faith itself is a gift of God, a work of God in our hearts, which justifies us because it takes hold of Christ as the Savior.  Human reason has the Law as its object….But faith in its proper function has no other object than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was put to death for the sins of the world.  It does not look at its love and say: ‘What have I done? Where have I sinned? What have I deserved?’  But it says: ‘What has Christ done? What has He deserved?’ ”  Martin Luther, “Lectures on Galatians (1535),” Luther’s Works vol. 26, p. 88

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Family is the seed-bed of political community

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“For since it is by nature common to all animals that they have a drive to procreate, the first fellowship exists within marriage itself, and the next with one’s children.  Then, there is the one house in which everything is shared.  Indeed that is the principle of a city and seed-bed, as it were, of a political community.  Next there follow bonds between brothers, and then between first cousins and second cousins, who cannot be contained in one house, as if to colonies.  Finally there follow marriages and those connections of marriage from which even more relations arise.  In such propagation and increase political communities have their origin.” Cicero, On Duties I. 54. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), p. 23.

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Luther at the Diet of Worms

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“To see excitement and dissension arise because of the Word of God is to me clearly the most joyful aspect of all in these matters.  For this is the way, the opportunity, and the result of the Word of God, just as He [Christ] said, ‘I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, etc.’ [Matt. 10:34-35].  Therefore, we ought to think how marvelous and terrible is our God in his counsels, lest by chance what is attempted for settling strife grows rather into an intolerable deluge of evils, if we begin by condemning the Word of God.  And concern must be shown lest the reign of this most noble youth, Prince Charles (in whom after God is our great hope), become unhappy and inauspicious.  I could illustrate this with abundant examples from Scripture–like Pharaoh, the king of Babylon, and the kings of Israel, who when they endeavored to pacify and strengthen their kingdoms by the wisest counsels, most surely destroyed themselves.  For it is He who takes the wise in their own craftiness [Job 5:13] and overturns mountains before they know it  [Job 9:5].  Therefore we must fear God.  I do not say these things because there is a need of either my teachings or my warnings for such leaders as you, but because I must not withhold the allegiance which I owe my Germany.  With these words I commend myself to your most serene majesty and to your lordships, humbly asking that I not be allowed through the agitation of my enemies, without cause, to be made hateful to you.”  Martin Luther, “Luther at the Diet of Worms,” Luther’s Works, vol. 32, pp. 111-112.

This quote comes from Luther’s speech at the Diet of Worms on April 18, 1521.  It demonstrates Luther’s audacity based in his trust in Christ and his Word.  Additionally, he reminded the princes assembled that he was a loyal German subject of the Holy Roman Empire.

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Natural Fellowship

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Perhaps, though, we should examine more thoroughly what are the natural principles of human fellowship and community.  First is something that is seen in the fellowship of the entire human race.  For its bonding consists of reason and speech, which reconcile men to one another, through teaching, learning, communicating, debating and making judgements, and unite them in a kind of natural fellowship.  It is this that most distances us from the nature of other animals.”  Cicero, On Duties I. 50. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), p. 21.

Reason and speech unite all humanity in a natural felllowship.  By means of these, human beings learn, communicate, and resolve differences.  Without reason and speech human beings are close to mere animals.

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Wisdom, knowledge, and information

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.”

T.S. Eliot, “Choruses from the ‘The Rock’ ” in The Complete Poems and Plays (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1971), 96.

T.S. Eliot wrote fascinating poetry in the 20th century.  Although he was born in St Louis, Missouri, he became a British citizen in 1927 and was a devout Anglican.  He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.  He wrote “Choruses from the Rock” in 1934.

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Luther on Depression and Consolation

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“When I’m morose I flee above all from solitude.  Christ was himself tempted by Satan when our Lord was alone in the wilderness….in short, spiritual anguish exceeds bodily suffering by far.  The anguish of Judas–‘you have betrayed innocent blood’–became for him the most awful death.”  Martin Luther, “Continuation of the Consolation,” Table Talk no. 3698, Luther’s Works, volume 54, p. 276. [Emphasis added]

Martin Luther believed inner turmoil to be worse than physical suffering.   He also encouraged depressed people to seek consolation in the company of friends.  However, he also understood the source of spiritual anguish to be a misunderstanding of God’s Word.  He continued the quote from above:

“This is especially so when the devil turns the gospel into law.  The teachings of the law and gospel are altogether necessary but they must be distinguished even when they are conjoined, otherwise men will despair or become presumptuous.” Ibid.

 

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Luther Discusses Lombard

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Peter Lombard was adequate as a theologian; none has been his equal.  He read Hilary, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, and also all the councils.  He was a great man.  If he had by chance come upon the Bible he would no doubt have been the greatest.”  Martin Luther, “Judgment Concerning Peter Lombard,” Table Talk no. 192, Luther’s Works, volume 54, p. 26.

As a Lutheran who studies the Middle Ages, this is one of my favorite quotes.  Dr. Luther’s statements recorded in Table Talk reflect his ability to be humorous and sarcastic to make a point.  Peter Lombard wrote the Sentences in middle of the twelfth century.  This book became the most siginificant work of scholastic theology that every theologian studied in great detail.  Luther studied and taught Lombard’s Sentences and maintained a respect for Peter Lombard but continued to note Lombard’s lack of real biblical understanding.

“Peter Lombard was a very diligent man with a superior mind.  He wrote many excellent things.  He would really have been a great doctor of the church if he had given himself wholly and truly to the Holy Scriptures, but he confuses the Scriptures with many useless quotations.” Martin Luther, “Evaluation of Peter Lombard and His Work,” Table Talk no. 3698, Luther’s Works, volume 54, p. 260.

 

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