Luther, God’s Lightning Rod
by Peter van Gorder
Martin Luther was like a lightning rod because he was a channel for the power of God to flow through and bring about needed changes to a corrupt system. He influenced many others to stand up to autocratic systems such as the Catholic Church was in his day. Luther’s legacy still lives on today in various social movements like the civil rights work done by Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther opened the door for self-government, religious liberty, and personal responsibility to follow one’s convictions rather than bow down to a dictatorial system. Many others have opened the door wider and walked through to create the world as we know it today.
Today Germany is celebrating Reformation Day.
As it is a national holiday in several states in Germany*, it is a good time to reflect on its origins and realize how relevant it is for us today.
For some Germans it is just a day off work, a time to drink beer, and visit relatives, but it commemorates one of the most significant events that have shaped our contemporary world.
I remind my English students, many of whom are atheists brought up in a communist society, that it is important to know our own history and what others believe regardless of what we ourselves believe. After all, 1/8th of the human race ascribes to some kind of Protestant denomination. How did that happen?
On this day, All Saint’s Eve, October 31st,1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses* that rocked his world and continues to reverberate today, over 500 years later. He was surprised as anyone at the firestorm he started, “I would never have thought that such a storm would rise from Rome over one simple scrap of paper…”
What was on this paper that stirred up the papal hornet’s nest?
His intention was to stimulate discussion of wrongs that he saw: namely the selling of ‘indulgences’ which were like Get out of jail free cards from hell
(for those of you who are are familiar with the game Monopoly)
and other money making ventures the church was involved in, like acting like travel agents for pilgrimages, and the buying and selling of saintly relics.
Martin Luther was sincerely trying to clean up the Catholic Church’s act and was merely emulating the words of Jesus when He cleared the temple of the money changers with his whip* saying, “You have turned this house of prayer into a den of thieves.”
The world has changed from what it was. At the time, the church was the undisputable authority and domineering political and spiritual power. In many countries, there is a separation between church and state.
The pope was considered infallible. Luther contradicted that, “The Pope often errs.” Blasphemy! Needless to say, he was soon excommunicated and would have been burned at the stake as a heretic if he had not been protected by Fredrick the Wise, who was the joint ruler of Ernestine Saxony. (see photo right)
It was while Martin was holed up in Fredrick’s castle that he had time to translate the Bible into German. He finished the New Testament in just 11 weeks! His translation was not the first. There had been 19 other attempts, but no other version was so lyrical. Martin loved alliteration: Der Herr is mein Hirte. Dein Stecken und dein Stab trösten mich* (Psalms 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.) At his time there were many different dialects. Luther’s translation became a kind of language primer which standardized and unified the German language. Most houses had 1 book in their house—the Luther Bible. A Bible was not cheap at that time—the price was the equivalent of buying a calf—and so it was valued and read aloud often.
To get it right and fine tune the language he used, he found out what expressions and words people were using and codified it. Luther said, “Ask the mother at home and the children in the street.” His writings became very popular so by the first half of the 16th century 1/3 of all book printed in Germany were written by him. By the mid 1500’s, a half a million of his Bible translations were in circulation. He was a prolific writer of 120 volumes! Despite his popularity, he refused to take money for his writings or teaching.
So what did Luther write about? He had a lot to say about the sins of the Catholic church. He searched for genuine spirituality as Jesus intended and exemplified.
To give some background, the church was desperate for money. Their armies were trying to fight off the Turks in Vienna and they had embarked on colossal building projects like the building of St. Peter’s Basilica. Where was the money going to come from?
As the church got increasingly desperate for funds, their claims became more and more pretentious with slogans from the church’s leading salesman Johann Tetzel like:
“Once the coin into the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Some took this indulgence certificate of forgiveness as a license to do all manner of evil thinking they had become impervious to God’s judgement as they believed they were sanctioned by the church.
Luther said, “We are free from the church’s laws but bound in love to our neighbours*.” Purgatory he said was never mentioned in the Bible and you can’t buy your way out of hell or into heaven. Salvation is a gift of grace paid for by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
So, we know what Luther was against, but was he for. He summed up his beliefs in two sentences:
sola fide: faith alone
sola scriptura: scripture alone
It is our faith in Christ’s gift to us as promised in the Bible that gives us eternal life–not how much money we give away. Paul said if we give away everything we have and have not love it doesn’t amount to anything– it is nothing. God’s love is everything! The greatest of love is God’s love for us:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
It is a gift of God not of works lest anyone boast.
Our part is to receive that gift.*
Today on Reformation Day we take some time to reflect on where we have come from, where we are today, and where we are going tomorrow. Thank you Martin, for standing up for your convictions and setting the ball in motion to remind us of what really matters.
Footnotes:
*Reformation Day is celebrated in Germany in: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, and Bremen.
* theses – plural of thesis a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved:
„his central thesis is that psychological life is not part of the material world“
synonyms:
theory ·contention – argument ·line of argument·proposal·
Note: there is some controversy as to whether he actually posted these theses on the door of the church or just submitted them to his bishop and later circulated them. In any case the effect was the same.
◦ (in Hegelian philosophy) a proposition forming the first stage in the process of dialectical reasoning.
* Mark 11:15-19
* Unfortunately, Luther was not loving to his Jewish neighbors. He was vitriolic in his denunciations of the Jews and said Christians had ‘no moral obligations to them…they were to be driven out of the cities like rats…and they were like dung upon the wheel, their houses should be burned..”etc. etc. The Nazis justified their anti-Semitic policies by often quoting Luther. He was also quite harsh on Catholics which stoked hatred and perhaps contributed to the bloody 30 years war.
* 1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 3:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Did you know that Luther’s lightening was 100 years before foretold by Jan Hus also a reformer? See here
PROPHETEN GOTTES
