Martin Luther: Here I stand

In 1934, Hitler tragically became the German Fuhrer. That same year, Mr. King, a black preacher from the United States, visited the places of the Reformation in Germany. He was so impressed that he changed his name and that of his eldest son Michael, to Martin Luther. His son Martin Luther King Jr.  is famous for having an anti-racist dream of civil rights for all. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), Martin Luther King defended himself against the charge of extremism by noting the examples of Jesus, Amos, Paul, John Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther himself: ‘Was not Martin Luther an extremist – ‘Here I stand: I can do none other so help me God?”’

The original Martin Luther however was not a King, but rather a copper-smelter’s son. His dad, Hans, was always involved in mining conflicts, so decided that he needed his son to become a lawyer.  But after a lightning-filled storm on July 2, 1505, Martin pledged that he would become an Augustinian monk.  His father, who wanted grandchildren, was so upset that he initially disowned his Martin, dismissing his son’s calling, saying “May it not prove an illusion and deception.” At Martin’s ordination in 1507, his dad suggested that the devil had caused Martin to break the commandment to obey one’s parents. After the death of two of Martin’s brothers, news falsely reached his dad, Hans, that Martin too had died from the black plague. This somewhat softened his dad to his ‘wayward’ monastic son. Both Martin’s father and mother were very strict disciplinarians: “For a mere nut, my mother beat me until the blood flowed.” As an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther never felt that he could please his heavenly Father: “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners.” Did Luther have God the Father confused with his often angry and unforgiving earthly father?  

Luther tried very hard to please God through monastic practices. His day began at 3 am with the first of hourly prayers. He would whip himself and lie outside in the snow in an attempt to be good enough. None of his fellow monks prayed more or fasted longer than him.  Luther would confess his sins for up to six hours at a time. His tired confessor Staupitz told him “Man, God is not angry with you. You are angry with God. Don’t you know that God commands you to hope? Go away and don’t come back until you have done some real sinning.”

After becoming a theological Professor at the University of Wittenburg, Luther began to teach his students about the book of Romans.  God freed him from guilt through Romans 1:17 which said that the just will live by faith: “This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness.” This enabled Luther to bring hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to the guilty, and a born-again experience to those lost in works-religiosity, who were trying to be good enough for God. Luther was so excited about this breakthrough that he changed his family name in 1917 from Luder (cadaver or prostitute) to Luther, based on a Latin & Greek word (Elutherius/eleutheria) for freedom. Because he saw himself as bound and captive to the Word of God, he did not see it safe to go against freedom of his conscience.

You can imagine how upset Luther was when John Tetzel came hawking indulgences in Wittenburg. Indulgences were paper certificates that one purchased to reduce one’s time in purgatory. Tetzel, a Dominican monk, had previously been convicted of adultery, and the Emperor ordered that he be tied in a sack and thrown in a river. Luther’s own parishioners thought that Tetzel’s indulgences were like a ‘get-out-of-purgatory’ card, even if they did not give up their adultery and theft.  The Bible, said Luther, calls us to actually repent and stop sinning, rather than just do acts of penance, like blooding our knees while crawling up stairs.  Indulgences were the bingo of the sixteenth century. At first, indulgences were conferred on those who either went on a crusade or helped pay the Crusade expenses. Indulgences proved so lucrative that it was speedily extended to build churches, monasteries, and hospitals.  Because indulgences were seen as transferable, one could pay money to reduce their relatives’ time in purgatory.  Luther denounced this money-making scheme by nailing his 95 Theses on Oct 31, 1517 to the now famous Wittenberg Door of the Castle Church.  Where, he asked, is any mention of indulgences or purgatory in the Bible?

Luther never intended to start a new Lutheran denomination, let alone the endless splitting of the 45,000+ Protestant denominations that followed. He just naively wanted to address these financial abuses that needed reforming. But Tetsel’s indulgences were not just going to pay for Pope Leo’s St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Half of it was going directly to the Fugger banking family in Augsburg, Germany. They were the richest merchant capitalists with a GDP-adjusted net worth of $400 billion. Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz owed the Fuggers money after buying his Archbishopric position. Luther was in a lose/lose situation as he upset the financial security of not just the pope, but also the most powerful politicians in Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who had bought his position with around 3,000 kg of gold from the Fuggers, was determined to capture and execute Luther. He made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. Luther became Europe’s most ‘wanted, dead or alive’ criminal.

Fortunately for Luther, the Elector Prince Frederick the Wise ‘kidnapped’ him after the 1521 Diet of Worms debate, hiding him away in the Wartburg Castle. There Luther grew a beard, disguising himself as a knight, Junker Jorg. During this depressing time of isolation, Luther translated the New Testament into German.  It instantly became Germany’s first runaway bestseller, thanks in part to the new technology of the Gutenberg printing press.  

The Reformation was a back to the Bible movement. Luther taught that the Bible is over the Church, that the Bible commands and directs the Church, not the other way around. No longer was the Bible only available for the elite who could read Latin, Hebrew or Greek.  It then took Luther twelve years to complete the German Old Testament. The ancient Hebrew of the Book of Job was so difficult that Luther could only translate three lines every four days.  Luther’s Bible had over 100,000 copies purchased by 1525. His bible, like the King James Version for the English, standardized the German language and literature, producing a stronger sense of common identity among those speaking German. Through reading Luther’s bible, German literacy rates skyrocketed. Because literacy is essential to reading the bible, Luther convinced the German nobles to provide schools for all children. Sermons were often not a regular part of medieval worship. Luther’s preaching was based on the Bible and always pointed to Christ Crucified. Because many medieval clergy didn’t know the ten commandments, apostles’ creed, or the Lord’s prayer, Luther taught about these in his German-language Greater Catechism. 

How many of our congregations have sung Luther’s A Mighty Fortress, written during the black plague?  Because he believed in the ‘priesthood of all believers’, Luther as a prolific song writer restored congregational singing: “Second only to the Bible, the Word of God, is the importance of music, because music had the singular ability to elevate the soul.” Luther said that he had no use for cranks who despise God’s gift of music: “Music drives away the devil.” He knew that music deeply touches the feelings of the human heart: “My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from dire plagues.”  In classic Luther overstatement, he said: “He who does not find (music) an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod and is not worthy to be called a man.”

Has God ever amazed you when he uses deeply flawed people like David and Luther?  Both stood against the Goliaths of their day; both fell into tragic behaviours.  God used Luther to launch a 16^th century Jesus revolution that is still shaping our world today. Luther described himself as a rough woodsman whose job it was to ‘dig out stumps and trunks, hack away thorns and briar, fill in puddles and clear a path.’ His weaknesses were hidden in his strengths. Many deeply admire Luther for his courageous willingness to be an underdog standing for his convictions against impossible odds. This perseverance sometimes translated into intractable stubbornness where he would not allow other reformed Christians to work with him, if they had a different view of Holy Communion. For those of us who deeply admire Luther, the most troubling area was his later antisemitic comments in 1543. The younger Luther in 1523 said: 

If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property.

Did the endless controversy that Luther lived with cause him to embrace the root of bitterness towards God’s Chosen People? (Hebrews 12:15) As a young student, Luther was known as the King of the Hops. He later boasted that he could outdrink other reformers. Luther spoke publicly about alcoholism: “Our Lord God must count the drunkenness of us Germans as an everyday sin, for we probably cannot stop and yet it’s such a disgraceful nuisance that injures body, soul, and goods.” Luther even recommended alcohol as a way to fight off depression: “When you are assailed by gloom, despair, or a troubled conscience, you should eat, drink, and talk with others (…) Copious drinking benefits me when I am in this condition.” Might Luther’s drinking problem have influenced his later antisemitic comments? Fortunately, the Lutheran Church has renounced this serious mistake.  

Luther has had a lasting impact, particularly on the western world and rise of democracy’s emphasis on liberty, equality, and individual rights. More books have been written about him than any other man of history except Jesus Christ and possibly Augustine. More than 70 million Christians in 79 countries call themselves Lutherans, a term that Luther didn’t like. The number of Lutherans is now increasing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world.  All of the 900 million Christians who identify as Protestants owe a great debt to Martin Luther. John Calvin saw Luther as a great man with excellent gifts.  He added: “Would that Luther had studied to curb his restless uneasy temper that is so ready to boil over everywhere.” 

May Luther’s courageous stand inspire us to also courageously stand for the Lordship of Jesus and the authority of Scripture in 2024.