Luther’s Sacristy Prayer

Regardless of your office and vocation in our Lord’s church, this prayer penned by Martin Luther is yours.

Lord God, You have appointed me as a Bishop and Pastor in Your Church, but you see how unsuited I am to meet so great and difficult a task.  If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long ago.  Therefore, I call upon You: I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you; I shall teach the people.  I myself will learn and ponder diligently upon Your Word.  Use me as Your instrument—but do not forsake me, for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.

Gentle and Lowly in Heart

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  (Mt 11:29)

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.  (Isa 53:7-9)

The reader of Isaiah 53 cannot help but stop in rapt attention and wonder that someone would willingly suffer and die for my corrupt nature without raising objections or claiming personal rights, but here such a person is described causing many to wonder, “Has such a man ever existed?  Could we hope that he might be real?”  Yes, such a man does exist, and as self-sacrificing as the Isaiah passage paints the circumstances, we do not really understand that the plan behind the sacrifice was more than we could conceive.  Arnobius of Sicca described it this way in Against the Pagans (I.63):

Do you then see that if He had determined that none should do Him violence, He should have striven to the utmost to keep off from Him His enemies, even by directing His power against them?  Could not He, then, who had restored their sight to the blind, make His enemies blind if it were necessary?  Was it hard or troublesome for Him to make them weak, who had given strength to the feeble?  Did He who bade the lame walk, not know how to take from them all power to move their limbs, by making their sinews stiff?  Would it have been difficult for Him who drew the dead from their tombs to inflict death on whom He would?

Every good that Jesus had done to man could have been reversed in some way to come upon those torturing and killing Him, yet He chose otherwise.  He had within Himself the capability to stop the proceedings, having the source of power and authority in His hands.

During the arrest –

Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  (Matt 26:53)

  

Before Pilate –

So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me?  Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”  Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. (John 19:10-11)

Jesus withheld that power to serve ends beyond comprehension (Rom 11:33), which had been readied since the foundations of the earth.  Arnobius tried to relate this as he continued:

But because reason required that those things which had been foreordained should take place here in the world itself and in no other fashion than was done, He, with gentleness passing understanding and belief, regarding as but childish trifles the wrongs which men did Him, submitted to the violence of savage and most hardened robbers.  Nor did He think it worthwhile to take account of what their temerity had aimed at, if He only showed to His disciples what they ought to expect from Him.

Not only did Jesus follow through with the plan of redemption that led to the cross, He did it in such a way that we take note and emulate His humility in obedience (Phil 2:3-4; 1 Pet 2:21-23).

There remains a problem for all in that we deal with the sin nature.  The standard for holy life is set: “Be holy as I am holy;” but no one can attain this of personal volition.  We enter this world dead to spiritual things.  The apostle Paul points to the problem sin has worked in our lives: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Rom 3:10-11).  God gave the Law to demonstrate both His holy character and our sinfulness.  Sin is fully revealed, crushing us in our inability to keep it.  But that was the point.  Our sin needed to be made evident in order for God’s grace to be made known through the Jesus.  In his own words, Arnobius described to the pagans the same problem:

 For when many things about the perils of souls, and on the other hand, many evils about their tendency to vice, the Introducer, Master, and Teacher directed His laws and ordinances to the end of fitting duties, did He not destroy the arrogance of the proud?  Did He not quench the flames of passion?  Did He not check the craving of greed?  Did He not wrest the weapons from their hands, and rend from them all the sources of every form of corruption?  To conclude, was He not Himself gentle, peaceful, easily approached, friendly when addressed?  Was He not sympathetic to every human misery and to all in any way afflicted with troubles and physical ailments and diseases?  Did He not, pitying them with His unparalleled kindness, return and restore them to health?

How did the Savior conduct Himself upon coming into the world?

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
    my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
    and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
    nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
    and in his name the Gentiles will hope.  (Mt 12:18-21; cf. Is 42:1-3)

His endgame was to draw men unto repentance through His kindness (Rom 2:4) in the proclamation of the gospel.  Yet He was rejected, and our Lord allowed Himself to be crucified by sinful men.  Sinful men continue today to reject the gospel as it goes forth through His disciples.  The healing, life-giving message of free grace won by the Giver of life is still rejected.  No, those who refuse would rather kill both the message and the messenger than receive the gift that leads to eternal life.

We press on, then, sharing the gospel and doing good for our neighbors, looking always to the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus, longing to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.… Enter into the joy of your master.”

Get Over Yourselves

For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. (Titus 1:7-8)

Frequently, the priestly office and Levitical rank are a cause of pride for one who does not know how to hold an ecclesiastical position of honor. How many, after being made elders, have forgotten humility! It is as though they were ordained specifically in order to stop being humble. Indeed, they ought to have pursued humility more, because they had acquired a position of honor—as Scripture says, “The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself.”* And it is the assembly that chooses you; lower your head more humbly. They have made you a leader; do not be puffed up. Be among them like on of themselves. It is fitting to be humble, fitting to be lowly, fitting to flee from pride, the chief of all evils. Examine the Gospel: See with what kind of condemnation the Pharisee’s pride and boasting are attacked. “The Pharisee was standing and praying as follows within himself‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, wicked people, adulterers, and even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week.’” But the tax collector, on the other hand, standing humbly and quietly at a great distance, “did not even dare raise his eyes…and he was saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’” And the tax collector “went down to his home justified.’”†

Origen of Alexandria: Exegetical Works on Ezekiel, 9.2.3

* Sirach 3:18. Note that the early fathers had differing views on the status of apocryphal works in relation to the 66 books which were generally accepted and officially recognized at Nicaea.
† Luke 18:11-14.

Christ, the Fairest of the Fair, Bore the Fullness of Humiliation and Suffering

Let us compare with Scripture the rest of His dispensation.  Whatever that poor despised body may be, because it was an object of touch and sight, it shall be my Christ, be He inglorious, be He ignoble, be He dishonored.  For such was it announced that He should be, both in bodily condition and aspect.  Isaiah comes to our help again:

We have announced (His way) before Him.  He is like a servant, like a root in a dry ground.  He has no form nor comeliness.  We saw Him, and He had neither form nor beauty; but His form was despised, marred above all men.*

Similarly the Father addressed the Son just before:

Inasmuch as many will be astonished at You, so also will Your beauty be without glory from men.†

For although, in David’s words, “He is fairer than the children of men,”‡ yet it is in that figurative state of spiritual grace, when He is girded with the sword of the Spirit, which is truly His form, and beauty, and glory.  According to the same prophet, however, He is in bodily condition “a very worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and an outcast of the people.”§

But no internal quality of such a kind does He announce as belonging to Him.  In Him dwelt the fullness of the Spirit, therefore I acknowledge Him to be “the rod of the stem of Jesse.”  His blooming flower shall be my Christ, upon whom has rested, according to Isaiah,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and of the fear of the Lord.‖

Now to no man, except Christ, would the diversity of spiritual proofs suitably apply.  He is indeed like a flower for the Spirit’s grace, reckoned indeed of the stem of Jesse, but thence to derive His descent through Mary.  Now I purposely demand of you, whether you grant to Him the destination of all this humiliation, and suffering, and tranquility, from which He will be the Christ of Isaiah,—a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and who, like a lamb before the shearer, opened not His mouth; who did not struggle nor cry, nor was His voice heard in the street who broke not the bruised reed—that is, the shattered faith of the Jews—nor quenched the smoking flax—that is, the freshly-kindled ardor of the Gentiles.  He can be none other than the Man who was foretold.

Tertullian, Against Marcion, III.17

* Isaiah 53:1-2
† Isaiah 52:14
‡ Psalm 45:2
§ Psalm 22:6
‖ Isaiah 11:1-2

Approach the Scriptures with Humility

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.  (Psalm 119:18)

The Holy Scriptures require a humble reader who shows reverence and fear toward the Word of God and constantly says, "Teach me, teach me, teach me!"  The Spirit resists the proud.  Though they study diligently and some preach Christ purely for a time, nevertheless God excludes them from the church if they're proud.  Therefore every proud person is a heretic, if not actually, then potentially.  However, it's difficult for a man who has excellent gifts not to be arrogant.  Those whom God adorns with great gifts he plunges into the most severe trials in order that they may learn that they're nothing.  Paul got a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being haughty.…  Pride drove the angel out of heaven and spoils many preachers.  Accordingly it's humility that's needed in the study of sacred literature.

Martin Luther, Table Talk 5017

He Humbled Himself

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:8)

"See," says one, "He voluntarily became obedient.  He was not equal to Him whom He obeyed."

O obstinate ones and unwise!  This does not at all lower him, for we too become obedient to our friends, yet this has no effect.  He became obedient as a son to His Father.  He did not fall into a servile state, but by this very act above all others guarded his wondrous sonship, by so greatly honoring the Father.  He honored the Father, not that you should dishonor Him, but that you should rather admire Him, and learn from this act, that he is a true son, in honoring his Father more than all else.  No one has so honored God.  As was His height, such was the correspondent humiliation which he underwent.  As He is greater than all, and no one is equal to Him, so in honoring His Father, He surpassed all, not by necessity, nor unwillingly, but this too is part of His excellence.  Words fail me!  Truly it is a great and unspeakable thing, that He became a servant: that He underwent death is far greater.

But there is something still greater, and more strange.  Why?  All deaths are not alike.  His death seemed to be the most ignominious of all—to be full of shame, to be accursed.  For it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree." (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13.)  For this reason the Jews also eagerly desired to slay Him in this manner, to make Him a reproach, that if no one fell away from Him by reason of His death, yet they might from the manner of His death.  For this reason two robbers were crucified with Him, and He in the midst, that He might share their ill repute, and that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "And he was numbered with the transgressors." (Isa. 53:12.)  Yet so much the more does truth shine forth, so much the more does it become brilliant.  For when His enemies plot such things against His glory, and yet it shines forth, so much greater does the matter seem.  Not by slaying Him, but by slaying Him in this way did they think to make Him abominable, to prove Him more abominable than all men, but they availed nothing.  And both the robbers also were such impious ones, (for it was afterward that the one repented,) that, even when on the cross, they reviled Him.  Neither the consciousness of their own sins, nor their present punishment, nor their suffering the same things themselves, restrained their madness.  Therefore the one spoke to the other, and silenced him by saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation?" (Luke 23:40.)  So great was their wickedness.

Therefore it is written, "God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him the Name which is above every name."  When the blessed Paul hath made mention of the flesh, he fearlessly speaks of all His humiliation.  For until he had mentioned that He took the form of a servant, and while he was speaking of His Divinity, behold how loftily he does it, (loftily, I say, according to his power; for he speaks not according to His own worthiness, seeing that he is not able).  "Being in the form of God, He counted it not a prize to be equal with God."  But when he had said, that He became man, henceforth he fearlessly discourses of His low estate, being confident that the mention of His low estate would not harm His Divinity, since His flesh admitted this.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians, 7

O Love of God, How Rich and Pure!

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  (1 John 3:16)

For what more should I say?  Behold the mysteries of love.  And then you shall look into the bosom of the Father, whom God the only-begotten Son alone has declared.  And God Himself is love; and out of love to us became feminine.  In His ineffable essence He is Father; in His compassion to us He became Mother.  The Father by loving became feminine: and the great proof of this is He whom He begot of Himself; and the fruit brought forth by love is love.

For this also He came down.  For this He clothed Himself with man.  For this He voluntarily subjected Himself to the experiences of men, that by bringing Himself to the measure of our weakness whom He loved, He might correspondingly bring us to the measure of His own strength.  And about to be offered up and giving Himself a ransom, He left for us a new Covenant-testament: My love I give unto you.  And what and how great is it?  For each of us He gave His life,—the equivalent for all.  This He demands from us in return for one another.

Cyril of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? 37