Martin Luther

The Laughing Theologian

Tony Reinke Carl Trueman, Laughter, Martin Luther

truemanCarl Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom (Crossway, 2015), 198–199:

In general terms, of course, Protestant theologians have not been renowned for their wit, and Protestant theology has not been distinguished by its laughter. Yet Luther laughed all the time, whether poking fun at himself, at Katie, at his colleagues, or indeed at his countless and ever increasing number of enemies. Humor was a large part of what helped to make him so human and accessible. And in a world where everyone always seems to be “hurt” by something someone has said or offended by this or that, Luther’s robust mockery of pretension and pomposity is a remarkable theological contribution in and of itself.

Humor, of course, has numerous functions. It is in part a survival mechanism. Mocking danger and laughing in the face of tragedy are proven ways of coping with hard and difficult situations. Undoubtedly, this played a significant role in Luther’s own penchant for poking fun. Yet I think there is probably a theological reason for Luther’s laughter too.

Humor often plays on the absurd, and Luther knew that this fallen world was not as it was designed to be and was thus absurd and futile in a most significant and powerful way. Thus, he knew that life is tragic. It is full of sound and fury. It is marked by pain and frustration. The strength of youth must eventually fade into the weakness of old age and finally end in the grave. We believe ourselves to be special, to be transcendent, to be unique and irreplaceable.

And yet the one great lesson that everyone must ultimately learn in life is that they are none of these things, however much we want them to be true and however much we do things to trick ourselves into believing our own propaganda. We are fallen, finite, and mortal. We are not God. And because God is and has acted, because in incarnation, Word, and sacrament he has revealed and given himself and has thus pointed to the true meaning of life, our own pretensions to greatness are shown to be nothing but the perilous grandstanding of the absurdly pompous and the pompously absurd.

The ‘Now’ of Eschatological Joy (Take 1)

Tony Reinke Joy, Martin Luther

Martin Luther explained the symbolism of his seal in a letter to Lazarus Spengler (July 8, 1530):

Honorable, kind, dear Sir and Friend!

Since you ask whether my seal has come out correctly, I shall answer most amiably and tell you of those thoughts which now come to my mind about my seal as a symbol of my theology.

There is first to be a cross, black and placed in a heart, which should be of its natural color, so that I myself would be reminded that faith in the Crucified saves us. For if one believes from the heart he will be justified. Even though it is a black cross, which mortifies and which also should hurt us, yet it leaves the heart in its natural color and does not ruin nature; that is, the cross does not kill but keeps man alive. For the just man lives by faith, but by faith in the Crucified One.

Such a heart is to be in the midst of a white rose, to symbolize that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace; in a word it places the believer into a white joyful rose; for this faith does not give peace and joy as the world gives and, therefore, the rose is to be white and not red, for white is the color of the spirits and of all the angels.

Such a rose is to be in a sky-blue field, symbolizing that such joy in the Spirit and in faith is a beginning of the future heavenly joy; it is already a part of faith, and is grasped through hope, even though not yet manifest. And around this field is a golden ring, symbolizing that in heaven such blessedness lasts forever and has no end, and in addition is precious beyond all joy and goods, just as gold is the most valuable and precious metal.

May Christ, our dear Lord, be with your spirit until the life to come.

Amen.

Source: Luther’s Works, vol. 49: Letters II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Fortress, 1999), 358–359.

O, to pray like Luther

Tony Reinke C.H. Spurgeon, Martin Luther, Prayer

As recounted by Charles Spurgeon in sermon #108:

Oh! to have heard Luther pray!

Luther, you know, when Melancthon was dying, went to his death-bed, and said, “Melancthon, you shall not die!”

“Oh,” said Melancthon, “I must die! It is a world of toil and trouble.”

“Melancthon,” said he, “I have need of thee, and God’s cause has need of thee, and as my name is Luther, thou shalt not die!”

The physician said he would.

Well, down went Luther on his knees, and began to tug at death. Old death struggled mightily for Melancthon, and he had got him well nigh on his shoulders.

“Drop him,” said Luther, “drop him, I want him.”

“Ho,” said death, “he is my prey, I will take him!”

“Down with him,” said Luther, “down with him, death, or I will wrestle with thee!”

And he seemed to take hold of the grim monster, and hurl him to the ground, and he came off victorious, like Orpheus with his wife, up from the very shades of death. He had delivered Melancthon from death by prayer!

“Oh,” say you, “that is an extraordinary case.” No, beloved, not one-half so extraordinary as you dream. I have men and women here who have done the same in other cases; that have asked a thing of God, and have had it; that have been to the throne, and showed a promise, and said they would not come away without its fulfillment, and have come back from God’s throne conquerors of the Almighty; for prayer moves the arm that moves the world.

While the Gospel is Silenced

Tony Reinke Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformation Day

The same day he nailed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Martin Luther wrote a letter to Cardinal Albrecht, the Archbishop of Mainz (October 31, 1517). In it he writes:

Works of piety and love are infinitely better than indulgences; and yet [the indulgence preachers] do not preach them with an equally big display and effort. What is even worse, [the preachers] are silent about them because they have to preach the sale of the indulgences. The first and only duty of the bishops, however, is to see that the people learn the gospel and the love of Christ. For on no occasion has Christ ordered that indulgences should be preached, but he forcefully commanded the gospel to be preached. What a horror, what a danger for a bishop to permit the loud noise of indulgences among his people, while the gospel is silenced, and to be more concerned with the sale of indulgences than with the gospel! Will not Christ say to [such bishops], “You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel”?

[Source: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, page 47.]

Here I Stand

Tony Reinke Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformation Day, spurgeon

When I think of Luther’s dramatic “here I stand” statement before the Diet of Worms in 1521, I think of …

… Roland Bainton’s excellent biography …

[When Luther concluded the statemet he] “threw up his arms in the gesture of a victorious knight, and slipped out of the darkened hall, amid the hisses of the Spainiards, and went to his lodging.” (181)

… Niall MacGinnis’ fired passion (1953) …

… Joseph Fiennes’ quiet resilience (2003) …

… and Curt Allen’s track off his album The Process of the Pardon. Listen here:

Here I Stand (lyrics)

Verse 1

Let my life be a wordsmith, the word is a gift
What I’ve heard made me observe every verb from my lips
When you come from the curbs, where nervous don’t exist
And your heart is just hard to your sin, it did this
You need a reality check, in actuality vexed is God’s person
When what’s out of His neck is treated like strep
To those that respect stand firm even if you squirm
Learn what’s correct, cause your Diet of Worms is next

Hook

Here I stand, the Bible in my hand, let my life testify Jesus Christ is a man
And fully God, in the cross it’s fully our declaration, legal justification
Here I stand, the Bible in my hand is God’s word, it’s infallible
Disagreement is laughable. Denying this authority is Scripture hating
Planting my flag, I ask: What is your reformation?

Verse 2

Now every so often a heresy will say
That it killed what we feel, putting nails in the coffin
For real, not an option. They all been contested
And next is Paul, and it’s called the new perspective
So here’s the perspective: It’s some that would say
That justification’s not what we know it today
It should blow you away, what they say is insanity
That justification means a part of God’s family
It doesn’t mean that you righteous despite this
Exegesis that strengthens many believers
It gets deeper and hostile, they say
That the gospel is not about how you are saved!
What a grave mistake that you make when
Righteousness imputed to what you did is fake
It undermines the very nature of truth
That grace has now declared us righteous when we see His face

Hook

Verse 3

Now just when you thought it was safe, some depict a negative view of Scriptures
That wrongly pictures God’s Word unreliable, filled with inconsistencies
Though inconsistently brought, it ought not to really be an item
But it’s sad that we gotta fight ‘em, dag what they brag
Affects the word as ad infinitum. Apparently, many find issues with inerrancy
That Scripture makes mistakes, the debate innately tears at the foundation of
Can we trust with our life and observe a word that we not even sure is right?
’Cause it might say something that is wrong is an accusation that is far too strong
What God breathed along through the men that would pen His works
Yeah, there are quirks, but trust in the whole Bible extends the church
Where problems in the Scriptures, search, be a Berean
’Cause the Word that’s infallible, inerrant we believe in

Hook

© 2008 Curt “Voice” Allen, posted here by permission of the artist.

Luther on Assurance

Tony Reinke Assurance, Martin Luther

Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (Werkes, 33:288–289):

For my own part, I frankly confess that even if it were possible, I should not wish to have free choice given to me, or to have anything left in my own hands by which I might strive toward salvation. For, on the one hand, I should be unable to stand firm and keep hold of it amid so many adversities and perils and so many assaults of demons, seeing that even one demon is mightier, than all men, and no man at all could be saved; and on the other hand, even if there were no perils or adversities or demons, I should nevertheless have to labor under perpetual uncertainty and to fight as one beating the air, since even if I lived and worked to eternity, my conscience would never be assured and certain how much it ought to do to satisfy God.

For whatever work might be accomplished, there would always remain an anxious doubt whether it pleased God or whether he required something more, as the experience of all self-justifiers proves, and as I myself learned to my bitter cost through so many years.

But now, since God has taken my salvation out of my hands into his, making it depend on his choice and not mine, and has promised to save me, not by my own work or exertion but by his grace and mercy, I am assured and certain both that he is faithful and will not lie to me, and also that he is too great and powerful for any demons or any adversities to be able to break him or to snatch me from him.