May 1, 2022

Selections from Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity on Mark 7:31–37

1. Just as everywhere the Gospels depict our Lord Christ as a merciful and gracious man who is ready to help everyone with words and works in body and soul, so also this Gospel reading depicts for us how willingly He helped this poor man, who was mute and deaf.
Martin Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, ed. Benjamin T. G. Mayes, James L. Langebartels, and Christopher Boyd Brown, vol. 79 (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2016), 37.
Second, every Christian should also act toward friend and enemy the way he sees that Christ is so willing to help everyone. Whoever does this is a Christian. Whoever does not do this, however, may be called a Christian but is not one. These two cannot be separated; the fruit of faith must follow, or the faith is not real.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:37.
…we must not consider Christ so narrowly, as if He looked only at one person; we must look at Him better than if He took an interest only in this man. All of Holy Scripture, especially the Prophets and Psalms, tells us that He was sent to take a sincere interest in all the distress of the whole human race.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:38.
5. The Lord Christ is to be painted in such a way that He is the only person who takes on Himself the misfortune not of one city or of one land, but of the whole world. St. John also christens Him: “Look, this is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world” [John 1:29]. However, if He bears the sin, it follows that He must also have carried everything which belongs to sin and results from sin, such as the devil, death, and hell.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:38.
6. The reason He sighs here [in Mark 7:34] is that He is the person who was to do this, of whom the prophets long before had announced that He would take sincere pity on all the hurts of the whole human race. He was concerned not only about the one tongue and ears of this poor man, but it was a general sighing over all tongues and ears—yes, over every heart, body, soul, and all people from Adam to the last human being who is yet to be born. Therefore, He does not sigh mainly because this man would still in the future commit many sins, but the main reason is that He saw how the devil had brought the whole mass of flesh and blood into mortal harm in Paradise, made people mute and deaf, and thus put them into death and hellfire. Christ had this view before His eyes and saw what great harm the devil had caused through one man’s fall in Paradise [Rom. 5:12]. He looks not only at two ears, but at the whole crowd descended from Adam and still to come. Thus this Gospel reading paints Christ as the one who takes an interest in you and me and all of us in the way we ought to take an interest in ourselves, as if He were stuck in the sins and harm in which we are stuck; He sighs about the devil who has brought about this harm.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:38–39.
Yet in His person He stood in the place of all people and at the same time took an interest in the infirmities of this man and of all people.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:39.
Christ, our Lord God, had to be distressed and suffer not only for one man’s sin but, as Revelation [13:8] says, for all sins which were committed “from the beginning of the world,” from Adam to us to the last person who is to be born before the Last Day.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:40.
10. The dear Lord Christ has such a kind heart that it grieves Him when someone commits sin. He certainly knows that sin cannot remain unpunished. This is why He even wept over the city of Jerusalem, for He saw that her sin must be punished [Luke 19:41]. He has such a kind and loving heart that He has no pleasure in evil.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:40.
18. Christ sighs here not only because He took on Himself all the infirmities of nature from the beginning of the world but also because He lamented that after the Gospel [was preached] His kingdom would receive such harm through those whom He had helped, and that His kingdom should be so buffeted and rent, which would never have happened if people had not first been helped by Him. Well, He has to endure it, and we also have to endure it, but He will not for this reason have sighed in vain.
Luther, “Gospel for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Mark 7:31–37),” in Luther’s Works: Church Postil V, 79:42.

Bio:
Wiki

No comments: