In the
Treasury of Daily Prayer, one of the texts for January 3 is Luke
2:21-40. A sermon of Martin Luther on this text is loaded with so many gems it
is difficult to select one for consideration here. The two that struck me most
tonight (1-2-13), are the section on how Simeon is a preacher of the cross and
against glory, and how works and respectability can be a snare against faith.
Here is a piece of the latter:
"51. Finally Simeon says that all this will happen that
thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. What a blessed and necessary fruit
of this falling and speaking against! But in order to understand this we must
notice that there are two different kinds of temptation among men. There is the
temptation to gross sins, as for instance to be disobedient to parents, to kill,
to be unchaste, to steal, to lie and blaspheme, etc., which are sins against the
second table of the law. The people who do these things need not take offense at
a sign which is spoken against; their thoughts are sufficiently revealed by
their evil life. The Scriptures speak little of this temptation.
"52. But the most dangerous temptation is prefigured by
Cozbi the daughter of Zur, a prince of Midian, because of whom twenty-four
thousand were slain in Israel, as Moses writes in Numbers 25, 15. This is the
temptation through the bright and shining sins of good works and the service of
God, which bring misfortune upon the whole world and against which nobody can
guard sufficiently. These are the sins against the first table of the law,
against faith, the honor of God and his works.
"53. For a life of good works, blameless conduct and
outward respectability is the greatest, most dangerous and destructive
stumbling-block. The people leading such lives are so upright, reasonable,
honorable and pious that scarcely a single soul could have been preserved or
saved, if God had not set up a sign against which they might stumble and by
which the thought of their hearts might be revealed. Thus we see their hearts
behind their beautiful words and good works, and find that these great saints and
wise men are pagans and fools; for they persecute the faith for the sake of
their works and will not suffer their ways to be rebuked. Thus their thoughts
are laid bare and they become manifested as trusting in their own works and
themselves, sinning not only continually against the first commandments, but
endeavoring also in their enmity against God to exterminate and destroy all that
belongs to God, claiming to do this for the sake of God and to preserve the
truth. ...
"54. The whole Scriptures speak of this stumbling-block,
and God with all his prophets and saints contends against it. This is the true
gate of hell and the broad highway to eternal damnation, wherefore this harlot
is well called Cozbi, “mendacium meum,” my lie. Everything that
glitters lies and deceives, but her beautiful ornaments and embellishments
deceive even the princes of Israel, and so she is not merely called “mendacium,”
but “meum mendacium,” my lie, because with her deception she attracts
and tempts almost everybody.
"55. But in order to protect us God has set up his Christ
as a sign, at which they might stumble and fall and which they oppose, so that
we may not be seduced by their works and words, nor consider them good and
imitate them. We should rather know that before God no moral life without faith
is acceptable; where there is no faith, there is only Cozbi, nothing but lies
and deception. This becomes manifest as soon as we preach against them and
consider their works worthless in comparison with faith. Behold, then you must
be a heretic with your faith; they reveal themselves and disclose their heart
before you unwillingly and unknowingly. Then you perceive the shocking
abominations of unbelief hidden behind that beautiful life, the wolves in
sheep’s clothing, the harlot adorned with the wreath, impudently demanding that
you consider her disgrace and vice, her honor and virtue, or threatening to kill
you."
Sermons of Martin Luther, vol I, pp. 277-78 (Baker Book House, Grand
Rapids, MI: 1983)(this volume is a reproduction of The Precious and Sacred
Writings of Martin Luther, volume 10, Minneapolis: Lutherans in All Lands,
1905).
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