[The following sermon is taken from volume V:103-117
of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1983). It was originally published in 1905 in English by Lutherans
in All Lands (Minneapolis, MN), as The Precious and Sacred Writings of
Martin Luther, vol. 14. This e-text was scanned and edited by Richard
Bucher, it is in the public domain and it may be copied and distributed
without restriction.]
1. In this Gospel we see how God distinguishes Christians from
heathen. For the Lord does not deliver these teachings to the heathen,
for they could not receive them, but to his Christians. However, he does
not consider those Christians, who only hear his Word, so as to learn it
and be able to repeat it, as the nuns do the Psalter. In this way satan
also hears the Gospel and the Word of God, yea, he knows it far better
than we do, and he could preach it as well as we, if he only wanted to;
but the Gospel is a doctrine that should become a living power and be put
into practice; it should strengthen and comfort the people, and make them
courageous and aggressive.
2. Therefore they, who only thus hear the Gospel, so that they may know
it and be able to speak about the wisdom of God, are not worthy to be classed
among Christians; but they, who do as the Gospel teaches, are true Christians.
However, very few of these are found; we see many hearers, but all are
not doers of the Gospel. We wish now to examine more closely what kind
of doctrine the Lord teaches in this Gospel. First, he begins with a plain,
natural example, so that we all must confess it is true; experience also
teaches the same to everybody. He says:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other: or else he will hold to one, and despise the other."
3. Now he, who tries to serve two masters, will do it in a way that
cannot be called serving at all; for it will certainly be as the Lord here
says. One can indeed compel a servant to do a certain work against his
will and he may grieve while doing it; but no one can compel him to do
it cheerfully, and mean it from the bottom of his heart. He of course does
the work as long as his master is present, but when he is absent, he hurrys
away from his task, and does nothing well. Hence the Lord desires our service
to be done out of love and cheerfully, and where it is not done thus, it
is no service to him: for even people are not pleased when one does anything
for them unwillingly. This is natural, and we experience daily that it
is so. Now, if it be the case among human beings that no one can serve
two masters, how much more is it true in the service of God, that our service
cannot be divided; but it must be done unto God alone, willingly and from
the heart; therefore the Lord adds:
"Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
4. God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He is a
jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him and his enemy.
Only mine, he says, or not at all. Behold now how beautifully Christ here
introduces the example: "No man," he says, "can serve two masters; for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." As if to say:
as it is here in man's relations to his fellows, so it is also before God.
5. We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord passes
a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear that he should say this of
us, and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will suffer it to be said
that we hate and despise God and that we are his enemies. There is no one,
when asked if he loves God and cleaves to him? would not reply, yes, I
love God. But see how the text closes, that we all hate and despise God,
and love mammon and cleave to it. But God suffers us to do this until his
time; he watches the time and some day he will strike into our midst with
all violence, before we can turn around. It is impossible for one, who
loves gold and earthly possessions and cleaves to them, not to hate God.
For God here contrasts these two as enemies to one another, and concludes,
if you love and cleave to one of these two, then you must hate and despise
the other. Therefore, however nicely and genteely one lives here upon earth
and cleaves to riches, it cannot be otherwise than that he must hate God;
and on the other hand, whoever does not cleave to gold and worldly goods,
loves God. This is certainly true.
6. But who are they that love God, and cleave not to gold and worldly
possessions? Take a good look at the whole world, also the Christians,
and see if they despise gold and riches. It requires an effort to hear
the Gospel and to live according to it. God be praised, we have the Gospel;
that no one can deny, but what do we do with it? We are concerned only
about learning and knowing it, and nothing more; we think it is enough
to know it, and do not care whether we ever live according to it. However,
on the other band, one is very anxious when he leaves lying in the window
or in the room a dollar or two, yea, even a dime, then he worries and fears
lest the money be stolen; but the same person can do without the Gospel
through a whole year. And such characters still wish to be considered as
Evangelical.
7. Here we see what and who we are, If we were Christians, we would
despise riches and be concerned about the Gospel that we some day might
live in it and prove it by our deeds. We see few such Christians; therefore
we must hear the judgment that we are despisers of God and hate God for
the sake of riches and worldly possessions. Alas! That is fine praise!
We should be ashamed of ourselves in our inmost souls; there is no hope
for us! What a fine condition we are in now! That means, I think, our names
are blotted out. What spoiled children we are!
8. Now the world cannot conceal its unbelief in its coarse, outward
sins, for I see it loves a dollar more than Christ; more than all the Apostles,
even if they themselves were present and preached to it. I can hear the
Gospel daily, but it does not profit me every day; it may indeed happen,
if I have heard it a whole year, the Holy Spirit may have been given to
me only one hour. Now when I enjoyed this hour I obtained not only five
hundred dollars, but also the riches of the whole world; for what have
I not, when I have the Gospel? I received God, who made the silver and
the gold, and all that is upon the earth; for I acquired the Spirit by
which I know that I will be kept by him forever; that is much more than
if I had the church full of money. Examine now and see, if our heart is
not a rogue, full of wickedness and unbelief. If I were a true Christian,
I would say: The hour the Gospel is received, there comes to me a hundred
thousand dollars, and much more. For if I possess this treasure, I have
all that is in heaven and upon earth. But one must serve this treasure
only, for no man can serve God and mammon. Either you must love God and
hate money; or you must hate God and love money; this and nothing more.
9. The master uses here the Hebrew, which we do not. "Mammon" means
goods or riches, and such goods as one does not need, but holds as a treasure,
and it is gold and possessions that one deposits as stock and storage provisions.
This Christians do not do, they gather no treasures; but they ask God for
their daily bread. However, others are not satisfied with this, they gather
a great store upon which they may depend, in case our God should die today
or tomorrow, they might then know a way out. Therefore St. Paul says, in
Eph. 5, 5 and Col. 3, 5, riches and covetousness are the god of this world
and are idolatry, with this Christ here agrees and calls it serving mammon.
10. Now, how does it come that the Gospel and St. Paul call especially
covetousness and not other sins idolatry; since uncleanness, fornication,
lust, base desires, unchastity and other vices are more opposed to God?
It is done to our great shame, because gold is our god, that we serve,
in that we trust and rely upon it, and it can neither sustain nor save
us, yea, it can neither stand nor walk, it neither hears nor sees, it has
no strength nor power, with it there is neither comfort nor help. For if
one had the riches of the whole world, he would not be secure for one moment
before death.
11. Of what help are his great treasures and riches to the Emperor when
the hour of death arrives and he is called to die? They are a shameful,
loathsome, powerless god, that cannot cure a sore, yea, it cannot keep
and take care of itself, there it lies in the chest, and lets it's devotees
wait, yea, one must watch it as a helpless, powerless, weak thing. The
lord who has this god must watch day and night lest thieves steal it; this
helpless god can aid no one. You should have contempt for this lifeless
god that cannot help in the least, and is yet so scrupulous and precious;
it lets its devotees wait in the grandest style and protects itself with
strong chests and castles, its lord must wait and be in anxiety every hour,
lest it perishes by fire or otherwise experiences some misfortune. Does
this treasure or god consist in clothing, then one must be careful and
on his guard against the smallest little insects, against the moth, lest
they ruin or devour it.
12. The walls of our rooms should spit upon us in contempt that we trust
more in the god the moth eat and the rust corrupt, than in the God, who
creates and gives all things, yea, who holds in his hand heaven and earth,
and all that in them is. Is it not a foolish thing on the part of the world
to turn from the true God and trust in base and low mammon, in the poor,
miserable god, who cannot protect himself against rust. Oh, what a disgraceful
thing this is on the part of the world! God visits gold and worldly possessions
with many kinds of enemies, to bring us to see and confess our unbelief
and godless character, that we thus trust in a powerless and frail god,
we who could at once so easily approach and cleave to the true, powerful
and strong God, who gives us everything, money, goods, fruit and all we
need; yet we are so foolish and make gods out of his gifts. Shame on thee,
thou cursed unbelief.
13. Other sins give us a little pleasure, we receive some enjoyment
from them, as in the case of eating and drinking; in unchastity one has
pleasure for a little while; likewise anger satisfies its desire, and other
vices more so. Only in this vice one must incessantly be in slavery, hounded
and martyred, and in it no one has any pleasure or joy whatever. There
the money lies on a pile and commands you to serve it; in spite of it letting
any one draw from it a thimble full of wine there comes rust and devours
it, and yet he dares not attack it, lest he angers his god. And when his
servants have protected their god a long time they have no more than any
poor beggar. I have nothing, yet I eat and drink as heartily as any one
who has a large supply of mammon. When he dies he takes just as much along
with him as I do. And it is certainly the case that these people never
live as well nor as richly as the poor people often do. Who arranges this
thus? God, the Lord, does it. Here some have a certain affliction of the
body that they have no appetite; there others are internally unsound and
never relish what they eat; here their stomach is out of order; there their
lungs and liver are diseased; here is this, and there is that sickness;
here they are weak and afflicted at one point, there at another, and they
never have an enjoyable hour to relish what they eat or drink.
14. Thus it is with those who serve this god, mammon. The true God is
still of some use, he serves the people, but mammon does not, it lies quiet
and lets others serve it. And for this reason the New Testament calls covetousness
idolatry, since it thus desires to be served. However, to love and not
to enjoy may well vex the devil. This all now experience who love the god,
mammon, and serve him. Whoever has now no sense of shame and does not turn
red, has a brazen face.
15. Thus now it is with the word, "serve." For it is not forbidden to
have money and possessions, as we cannot get along without them. Abraham,
Lot, David, Solomon and others had great possessions and much gold, and
at the present day there are many wealthy persons who are pious, in spite
of their riches. But it is one thing to have possessions and another to
serve them; to have mammon, and to make a god out of it. Job also was wealthy,
he had great possessions and was more powerful than all who lived in the
East, as we read in the first part of the book of Job: yet he says, in
Job 31, 24-25: "If I have made gold my hope, and said to the fine gold,
Thou art my confidence; have I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and
because my hand had gotten much?"
16. The sum of all is, it is God's will that we serve not gold and riches,
and that we be not overanxious for our life; but that we labor and commend
our anxiety to him. Whoever possesses riches is lord of the riches. Whoever
serves them, is their slave and does not possess them, but they possess
him; for he dare not make use of them when he desires, and cannot serve
others with them; yea, he is not bold enough to dare to touch it. However,
is he lord over his riches, then they serve him, and he does not serve
them; then he dare use them, as Abraham, David, Job and other rich persons,
and he casts his care only upon God, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 7, 32.
Hence he aids the poor with his wealth and gives to those who have nothing.
When he sees a person without a coat, he says to his money: Go out, Messrs.
Dollars, there is a poor, naked man, who has no coat, you must be of service
to him! There lies one sick, who has no medicine. Go forth, Squires Anneberger
and Joachinesthaler, you must hasten and help him! Those, who act thus
with their riches, are their lords; and all true Christians surely do this.
But those who save piles of money, and ever scheme to make their heap larger
instead of smaller, are servants and slaves of mammon.
17. He is a lord of mammon who lays hold of and uses it for the sake
of those who need it and lets God rule, who says in Luke 6, 38: Give, and
it shall be given unto you; have you nothing more, you surely have me still,
and I have still enough, yea, I have more than I have given away and more
than can ever be given away. We see here and there many pious poor people
only for the purpose that the wealthy may help and serve them with their
riches. If you do it not, you have the sure proof that you hate God. He,
whom the sentence does not terrify, that he will hear on the day of judgment,
can be moved by nothing. For he will hear then from God: Behold, thou hast
hated me and loved that which could not protect itself against rust and
moth. Ay, how firmly you will then stand!
18. Hence the sense is, we must own some possessions, but are not to
cleave to them with our hearts; as Ps. 62, 10 says: "If riches increase,
set not your heart thereon." We are to labor; but we are not to be anxious
about our existence. This the Master says here in our Gospel in plain and
clear words, when he thus concludes:
"Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink:
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on."
19. And he now uses a reasonable and natural form of speech, by which
to close, that they are not to be anxious for the nourishment of their
lives; for reason must conclude and yield that it is as Christ says, when
he gives the ground and reason of his discourse by asking:
"Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?"
20. As if he would say: You turn it just around, the food should serve
your life and not your life the food. The same is true in respect to raiment;
the clothing should serve the body, thus the body serves the clothing.
The world is so blind that it cannot see this.
21. Now we must here have a high esteem for the words of the Lord. He
says, "Be not anxious;" he does not say, Labor not. Anxiety is forbidden,
but not labor; yea, it is commanded and made obligatory upon us to labor
until the sweat rolls down our faces. It is not God's pleasure for man
to tramp around idly; therefore he says to Adam in Gen. 3, 19: "In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken." And as Ps. 104, 22-23 says: "The sun ariseth,
man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening." We are
not to be anxious, this is forbidden; for we have a rich God who promises
us food and clothing; for he knows what we lack, before we are concerned
and begin to pray.
22. Why then does he not give us what we need without our labor? Because
it is thus pleasing to him; he tells us to labor and then he gives it;
not because of our work, but out of kindness and grace. This we see before
our eyes; for although we labor every year in the field, yet God gives
one year more than another. Therefore, we are fools, yea, we act contrary
to God's will, when we are worried as to how to scrape together gold and
riches, since God gratuitously and richly promises that he will give us
all and will abundantly provide for our every want.
23. However, one may say: Does not St. Paul tell us to be diligent,
as in Rom. 12, 8: "He that ruleth, with diligence," and there immediately
follows verse 11, "In diligence, not slothful?" In like manner to the Philippians
2, 20, he says of Timothy: "For I have no man likeminded, who will care
truly for your state." And Paul himself in 2 Cor. 11, 28 boasts that anxiety
for all the churches presses upon him. Here you see how we are nevertheless
to be anxious. Answer: Our life and a Christian character consist of two
parts, of faith and of love. The first points us to God, the other to our
neighbor. The first, namely faith, is not visible, God alone sees that;
the other is visible, and is love, that we are to manifest to our neighbor.
Now the anxiety that springs from love is commanded, but that which accompanies
faith is forbidden. If I believe that I have a God, then I cannot be anxious
about my welfare; for if I know that God cares for me as a father for his
child, why should I fear? Why need I to be anxious, I simply say: Art thou
my Father, then I know that no evil will befall me, as Ps.16,8 says: "I
have set Jehovah always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall
not be moved." Thus he has all things in his hand; therefore I shall want
nothing, he will care for me. If I rush ahead and try to care for myself,
that is always contrary to faith; therefore God forbids this kind of anxiety.
But it is his pleasure to maintain the anxious care of love, that we may
help others, and share our possessions and gifts with them. Am I a ruler,
I am to care for my subjects; am I a housefather, I must take care of the
members of my family, and so forth, according as each one has received
his gifts from God. God cares for all, and his is the care that pertains
to faith. We are also to be interested in one another and this is the care
of love, namely, when something is given to me, that I be diligent so that
others may also receive it.
24. Here we must be guarded, lest we make a gloss, instead of understanding
simply the words as they read: Be not anxious for your life. God says:
Labor and if you accomplish nothing, I will give what is needed; does he
give then see that you rightly distribute it. Do not be anxious to get,
but see to it that your domestics and others also receive of that which
God has given to you, and that your domestics labor and receive a Christian
training.
25. Am I a preacher, my anxiety should not be where to receive what
I am to preach; for if I have nothing, I can give nothing. Christ says
in Luke 21,15: "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries
shall not be able to withstand or to gainsay." But if I have that I ought
to be anxious for others to receive it from me, and that I endeavor to
impart it to them in the best form possible, to teach the ignorant, to
admonish and restrain those who know it, rightly to comfort the oppressed
consciences, to awaken the negligent and sleepy, and put them on their
guard, and the like, as St. Paul did (1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3, Tit. 3) and commanded
his disciples Timothy and Titus to do. My anxiety should be how others
are to receive something from me; but I am to study and pray to God. Studying
is my labor, this is the work he desires me to do, and when it is his pleasure
he will give. It can indeed happen that I may study a long time and he
gives nothing, a year or more, and when it is his pleasure, he gives as
long as it is pleasing to him. Then he gives copiously and to overflowing,
suddenly in an hour.
26. Thus a housefather also does, he attends only to that which is commanded
him, and lets our Lord God arrange as to how he will give. When he gives,
then man is concerned how to impart it to his family, and he sees that
they have no need as to the body and the soul. This is what the Lord means,
when he says we are not to be anxious for our food and raiment; but he
certainly requires us to labor. For thou must be a long time behind the
oven until something is given to thee if thou dost not till the soil and
work. True it is, God can easily nourish thee without thy work, he could
easily have roasted and boiled corn and wine grow on thy table; but he
does not do it, it is his will that thou shouldst labor and in doing so
to use thy reason.
27. In like manner it is with preaching and all our affairs. God gives
us the wool, that he grows on the sheep; but it is not at once cloth, we
must labor and make it into cloth; when it is cloth, it does not at once
become a coat, the tailor must first work with the cloth before it is a
coat; and so God does with all things, he cares for us, but we must toil
and work. We have plenty of examples of this before our eyes, and God relates
especially two here that should really make us blush with shame, namely,
those of the birds and the lilies in the field. Pointing to the birds he
says:
"Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them."
28. As if the Lord would say: You have never yet seen a bird with a
sickle, with which it harvested and gathered into barns; yea, the birds
do not labor like we; and still they are nourished. By this the Lord does
not however teach that we are to be idle; but he tries by this example
to take all anxiety from us. For a bird cannot do the work of a farmer
as we do; yet, it is not free from labor, but it does the work for which
it was created, namely, it bears its young, feeds them and sings to our
Lord God a little song for the privilege of doing this. Had God imposed
more labor upon it, then it would have done more. Early in the morning
it rises, sits upon a twig and sings a song it has learned, while it knows
not where to obtain its food, and yet it is not worried as to where to
get its breakfast. Later, when it is hungry, it flies away and seeks a
grain of corn, where God stored one away for it, of which it never thought
while singing, when it had cause enough to be anxious about its food. Ay,
shame on you now, that the little birds are more pious and believing than
you; they are happy and sing with joy and know not whether they have anything
to eat.
29. This parable is constantly taught to our great and burning shame,
that we cannot do as much as the birds. A Christian should be ashamed before
a little bird that knows an art it never acquired from a teacher. When
in the spring of the year, while the birds sing the most beautifully, you
say to one: How canst thou sing so joyfully, thou hast not yet any grain
in thy barn I It would thus mock you. It is a powerful example and should
truly give offense to us and stir us to trust God more than we do. Therefore
he concludes with a penetrating passage, and asks:
"Are not ye of much more value than they?''
30. Is it not a great shame that the Lord makes and presents to us the
birds as our teachers, that we should first learn from them? Shame on thee,
thou loathsome, infamous unbelief! The birds do what they are required
to do; but we not. In Genesis 1, 28 we have a command that we are to be
lords over all God's creatures; and the birds are here our lords in teaching
us wisdom. Away with godless unbelief! God makes us to be fools and places
the birds before us, to be our teachers and rule us, in that they only
point out how we serve mammon and forsake the true and faithful God. Now
follows the other example of the flowers in the field, by which the Lord
encourages us not to worry about our raiment; and it reads thus:
"And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure
of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I
say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today
is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,
0 ye of little faith!"
31. As if to say, your life is not yours, nor is your body, you cannot
make it one cubit longer or shorter; neither be anxious as to how you are
to clothe yourself. Behold the flowers of the field how they are adorned
and clothed, neither do they anything to that end; they neither spin nor
work, yet they are beautifully clothed.
32. By this illustration the Lord again does not wish to have us cease
to sew and work, but we should labor, spin and sew, and not be overanxious
and worry. The evil we have is our toil; will we in addition worry, then
we do like the fools; for it is enough that each day has its own evil.
It seems to me, this is disdain that is commanded, that the flowers stand
there and make us blush and become our teachers. Thank you, flowers, you,
who are to be devoured by the cows! God has exalted you very highly, that
you become our masters and teachers. Shame, that this earth bears us! Is
it an honor for us? I do not know. We must here confess that the most insignificant
flower, that the cattle tread under foot, should become our teacher, are
we not fine people? I think so. Now Christ places alongside of this the
richest and most powerful king, Solomon, who was clothed in the most costly
manner in purple and gold, whose glory was not to be compared with that
of the flowers, 1 Kings 10. Is it not remarkable that the adornment of
the flowers in the field should be esteemed higher than all the precious
stones, gold and silver?
33. However, we are so blind that we do not see what God designs thereby
and what he means. The flower stands there that we should see it, it strikes
us and says: If thou hadst the adornment of the whole world even then thou
wouldst not be equal to me, who stand here, and am not the least worried
whence this adornment comes to me. I do not however concern myself about
that, here I stand alone and do nothing and although thou art beautifully
adorned, thou art still sickly and servest impotent mammon; I however am
fresh and beautiful and serve the true and righteous God. Behold, what
a loathsome, vicious thing is unbelief!
34. These are two fine and powerful examples of the birds and the lilies.
The birds teach us a lesson as to our daily food; the flowers as to our
raiment. And in the whole New Testament our shame is no where so disclosed
and held to view, as just in this Gospel. But they are few who understand
it. From these examples and parables the Lord now concludes and says:
"Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, 'What shall
we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed.? For after all these things
do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious
for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof."
35. Now the sum of this Gospel is: Christians should not worry about
what they are to eat; God provides for them before they think of their
need; but they are to labor, that is commanded them. But what the kingdom
of God and his righteousness are, would require too much time to discuss,
you have often heard about them, if you have been attentive. This is now
enough on today's Gospel. May God grant us grace that some day we may also
even put it into practice! May the Gospel remain not only in our ears and
on our tongues, but come into our hearts and break forth fresh into loving
deeds!
