The Cross of Christ, Part 2

My dear brothers in the Lord, here I will end the narratives from the Old Testament, for time would not be enough to tell them all. The pious Joseph was grievously hated by his brothers; they cast him into a pit, drew him out again and sold him to the Ishmaelites, and he was accused as a treacherous adulterer by the unchaste wife of his master. Though he was innocent, he still had to suffer his master’s wrath, imprisonment and bonds. Also the highly renowned evangelical prophet Isaiah was sawn in two under the bloody and idolatrous tyrant Manasseh, as the historian mentions. The spiritual prophet Ezekiel was stoned by those who remained of Dan and Gad. Urijah of Kirjath-jearim was killed with the sword by Jehoiakim, the king of Judah. Zacharias the son of Barachias was stoned between the temple and the altar. The great, wonder-working prophet Elijah had to retreat before the bloodthirsty, idolatrous Jezebel; the three youths Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were cast into the glowing furnace, and Daniel into the lions’ den. The venerable, pious old Eleazar and his worthy, pious wife, with their seven sons, were treated so inhumanly and barbarously by the terrible Antiochus that they were murdered, martyred and destroyed.

See, brothers, every Christian should be aware that this is the only reward and crown this world has, with which it rewards and honors all true servants of God: those who in pure love present to it the kingdom, word and will of God; who call to repentance and reformation; who have done it many kindnesses, services and favors; who point the way to salvation, righteousness, truth, piety and love; who are the golden candlesticks in the tabernacle of the Lord, and flourish and blossom like the fruitful olive tree in the house of God. All who reflect on these and similar histories and narratives of the pious men of God will surely not lose heart, but in all their miseries, crosses and sufferings will stand through the grace of God and remain unwavering to the end.

Since I have now presented some histories from the holy Scriptures, in which it is plainly seen that true righteousness has suffered and been destroyed everywhere, under the law as well as before the law, I will now, through the grace of God, present some examples from the New Testament, from which all may learn and acknowledge with Paul that “All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” Second Timothy 3, verse 12.

First, John the Baptist: a man sent from God, as the Evangelist testifies; a burning and shining light, as Christ says; one of whom Isaiah had prophesied long before, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” Matthew 3, verse 3; whom Malachi called the messenger of the Lord; whose birth, greatness, holiness, office, doctrines and works were announced by Gabriel, the heavenly messenger, to Zacharias his father. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. He preached repentance to all Judea, pointed out Christ, the Savior of the world, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” The Son of God himself testified of him that he was no wavering reed, that he was not clothed in soft garments, that he was greater than a prophet, that he was the promised Elias, that he came in the way of righteousness, and that among all who were born of women there had not risen a greater than he. The people also held him to be a prophet, and yet they said, “He has a devil.” Indeed, Herod the king cast him out as a dissolute vagrant, and after some days this holy man of God was beheaded by the executioner as a shameful criminal because he had rebuked Herod’s incest; and besides, his head was given to a vain, haughty dancing girl and an unchaste, adulterous woman, to be shown and presented on a platter to the drunken, useless and ungodly guests of Herod as a present and a dessert for the banquet.

O Lord! how lamentably and grievously the righteous are destroyed for their piety by this abominable, bloody, murderous world, and no one takes it to heart. Indeed, they are treated in such a way that it appears to the eyes of the unwise as if the godly were an offense and an abomination, banished and cursed by God, and as if they could neither hope for nor find comfort or grace from God to all eternity. O no! the Lord be blessed. Although their lives may appear to the foolish world to be nothing but idle madness, and their end to be without honor, we know that they are the people and children of the Lord and the apple of his eye; that their blood and death are precious to him; that after a little suffering and trouble they will be repaid with good; that theirs is the kingdom of heaven; that they will not be touched by the pains of eternal death, Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 3, but their precious souls will be in eternal rest and peace. Yes, my brothers, every Christian may trust and rejoice in the Lord in all his trials and in all his need.

Again, Stephen, the crowned of God, a man full of faith, power and the Holy Spirit, who did great signs and wonders among the people, as Luke writes, was endowed by God with such wisdom and spirit, according to the promises of Christ, that even his enemies, namely the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians and so on, were silenced and stood abashed before him. When they saw this, the spirit of their fathers showed itself as it had from the beginning. Consuming envy had to use its tricks; Stephen had to lead the way; they rejected justice and fairness. They hired men of Belial to lie about the pious Stephen and to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God, and that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. So the lies of the serpent overcame justice. They take counsel to exterminate the saints. His own enemies saw his face as the face of an angel of God. He spoke the word of the Lord without fear, rebuked their false trust in the law and the temple, and testified in great power of Jesus Christ, of whom Moses and all the prophets prophesied. At length he grew very warm and ardent in his speech to the multitude, because they had ungratefully rejected the merciful visitation of God in his offered grace. O you stiff-necked! he said, and you uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? They have killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers, you who received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. And when they heard these reproving and sharp words, they could bear it no longer, for they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God,” Acts 7, verses 51 to 56. Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, as if they could no longer bear the blasphemous words with which the wicked heretic (as they considered him) boasted and gave such honor to Christ. They rushed upon him with one accord, with great violence and wrath, cast him out of the city and stoned him; and Saul kept the clothes of the witnesses. Stephen called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He knelt down and cried with a loud voice, after the example of his master on the cross, “Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge, for they do not know what they do,” Acts, chapter 7. So the pious martyr fell asleep in the Lord and received the crown of life which God has promised to all who fear, love and seek him from the heart in all sincerity. [Note 1]

O God-fearing reader, observe and learn from such examples that all who believe the word of the Lord with true hearts, who become partakers of the Holy Spirit, who are clothed with power from on high, out of whose mouths flow grace and wisdom, who shame the world and rebuke sin, must with Stephen be cast out of the city and stoned.

Dear brothers, pray ardently and prepare yourselves. Through much misery and trouble you must enter into the kingdom of heaven. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. O my brothers, watch.

Again, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, a chosen vessel, a champion of the holy word, an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles, who was called to the service of the gospel not by men but by God himself from heaven, was powerful and zealous in his teaching and blameless in his life. He labored more than all the other apostles, cast out devils in the name of the Lord, raised the dead Eutychus to life again, restored health to the sick, and shook off the serpent without being harmed. As a true prophet he foretold many things that were to come to pass in the last times; he was caught up into the third heaven and into the paradise of God, and saw such visions as no man may properly speak of. He was an infallible leader in all righteousness, holiness, piety and virtue, who did not seek or love himself, but God and his neighbor with his whole heart. He had nothing by which to justify himself; he counted all gain as loss so that he might win Christ alone; indeed, he did not dare speak of anything except what Christ had worked through him. It did not matter how holy, blameless, zealous, highly called, powerful or devout he was; he still had to help bear the cross of Christ with Simon the Cyrenian. For as soon as he was called from heaven, taught and baptized by Ananias, had left off his tyranny and preached Christ in Damascus, he had to be let down over the wall in a basket to escape the snares of the bloodthirsty.

He was often imprisoned; three times he was beaten with rods, and once he was stoned; in Ephesus he was cast to wild beasts. At last, after unimaginable and countless pains and journeys from one land to another, after enduring much from nakedness, cold, heat, thirst, hunger, labor, sleepless nights, dangers and anguish, he was seized by the Jews at Jerusalem and scourged. They accused him before the judges and swore to take his life; he was held in Cesarea, and after his appeal to Caesar he arrived at Rome through much danger and shipwreck. He was brought before the emperor, and at last, under Nero, the most bloodthirsty of tyrants, he was put to death by the sword. He offered up his soul and surrendered his life.

In the same way the apostles were imprisoned and scourged in Jerusalem; the church was scattered and persecuted, and James was put to death with the sword under Herod. All who want to become acquainted with other narratives from the Holy Scriptures besides those noticed here can read the church history of Eusebius. There they will find similar inhuman abominations, tyranny, mercilessness and envious falsehoods against the innocent. Besides this they will find such extraordinarily strange inventions for torturing, martyring, killing, rooting out and murdering Christians that a natural man, to say nothing of a spiritual one, must be awe-stricken and sickened in his heart.* [*]

My most beloved brothers in Christ Jesus, you who willingly submit to the cross of Christ, be of good cheer and trust in the Lord. You may see and observe from the Scriptures, in the above examples from the Old and New Testaments, how all pious men and children of God, the righteous and the prophets, the apostles and true witnesses of Christ, indeed, Christ himself, as we will hear, have gone through this lonely wilderness, through this narrow, shameful and bloody way of misery, crosses and sufferings, to the true promised land and to eternal glory.

Indeed, this is and remains the only narrow and strait way and door through which we must all enter, and we can never desire to enter into eternal life, rest and peace with the saints in any other way, as Christ himself said, Whoever will follow after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Therefore, dear brothers, you who have sought, feared and loved the Lord must suffer and bear much from this wicked and idolatrous race. Do not fear those who take your earthly goods from you, for they cannot take Christ and heaven from you; nor those who kill the body, for they cannot kill your soul; but fear him who has power to cast both soul and body into hell forever. Yes, my brothers, if you would be the people and disciples of the Lord, you must also bear the cross of Christ; this is the truth, without doubt.

Again, we have set before the kind reader several excellent histories from the Scriptures, in which are shown the tyrannical mind, the envious heart, the wolfish rage and the murderous deeds of this miserable, brutal, murderous and bloodthirsty world against the righteous. We will now, through the grace of God, consider briefly not only how the servants of whom we have spoken suffered, but also how the Lord and Prince himself had to endure much to enter again into his glory.

The apostles testify abundantly that the Lamb of God, the ever blessed Christ Jesus, the true Head of all true believers, had not only suffered from the beginning, as said above, but had to suffer in the flesh in these last times, although he was the conqueror of the serpent promised to Adam and Eve, a blessing and benediction to all peoples, the true Shiloh, Messiah and Emmanuel, the true plant of David, the Lord who justifies us, the Prince of Peace, and the true Son of the Almighty and living God, whom all the righteous and true prophets longed for.

When he had now become man, according to the promise to the fathers, he preached repentance and regeneration in the full power of the Spirit, in all love, righteousness, peace, humility and obedience; he preached the strict, terrible judgment of God upon the impenitent, and also the eternal kingdom, grace and mercy, the sincere favor and love of his heavenly Father, toward the penitent. He himself was that Word, fulfilling all righteousness, blessed by God forever, the infallible Example, the eternal Wisdom, Love and Truth, the brightness of the divine glory, the express image of his Father, after whom the first man was created (understand: according to the inner man), the eternal power of God, the Almighty Word of God, through whom all things were created and are governed, and in whom all things stand. He knew no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. He is the true light of eternal life, and by the darkness that is in the world he is hated, blasphemed, rejected, despised and trampled upon as the lowest of men. The King of kings and Lord of lords became poorer than the foxes or the birds, for he had nowhere to lay his blessed head. On the day of his birth there was no room in the inn; the manger was his bed. And shortly after his birth his parents had to flee with him to the land of Egypt.

In the time of his ministry he made the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lepers clean, and the palsied and feeble sound; he cast out devils and raised the dead; twice he fed thousands with a few loaves and fishes, and showed them the works and service of pure love; and no one could rebuke him in his word or his life. Yet their bloodthirsty, envious hearts were so enraged at him that they wanted the wicked murderer Barabbas, who had been sentenced to death by the law, to live, and the eternal Life himself, the Creator and Upholder of all creatures, to die. His pure, heavenly body, the seat of all virtue, is scourged and abused; the glorious face and head of all honor is disfigured with blood, spit and thorns. They also mocked him with a ridiculous robe, so that even the heathen judge Pilate said with pity, “Behold the man!” Indeed, worthy brothers, nothing helped; no pain, torture or misery was enough. They would not be satisfied until he was taken away and condemned to the most shameful death, stretched out on the cross, his hands and feet nailed to the wood, and his side pierced with a spear. He was crucified as a prince and leader of the wicked and counted among murderers. So they repaid him for his incomprehensibly great love and kindness. In his great, bitter thirst in the last hour of his sufferings he could not get a drop of water, but they gave him vinegar and gall. In short, they treated him so that, stretched out on the cross, he cried with a loud voice to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He also laments through the prophet, “I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people.” He might well sigh and lament with Jeremiah, or with Jerusalem, and say, “All you who pass by, behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.” So he who was eternally rich became poor for our sakes; the eternal Glory was dishonored, the eternal Righteousness persecuted, the eternal Truth blasphemed, the eternal Happiness rejected, the eternal Blessing cursed, and the eternal Life was made to suffer a shameful death.

Most beloved brothers in the Lord, consider well: if the laborers did not spare their Lord’s Son, but cast him out of the vineyard and killed him, how much more will they destroy the servants. “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call those of his household?” Matthew 10, verse 25. Christ said, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” And further, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you,” for the disciple is not greater than his master, nor the servant than his lord; but it is enough for the disciple to be like his master and the servant like his lord. And other passages like these may be found in Scripture.

I hope, worthy brothers, that from these examples the pious may have learned and fully understood what kind of people they have always been, of what father they are born, and by what spirit they are moved, who from the beginning to the present day have rejected and persecuted Christ, the lovely, peaceful, innocent and obedient Lamb, and his saints; who have plundered, lied about, imprisoned, tortured, crucified, stoned, beheaded, drowned, roasted, strangled, killed and murdered them. And according to my understanding of the word of the Lord, this tyranny will not cease until the rejected, murdered and crucified Christ Jesus and all his saints appear in the clouds as an almighty Potentate, Conqueror and glorious King, before all the tribes and peoples, at the last judgment.

The fearful tyranny of this blind world always has been, and still is, practiced upon the children of God, and, as has been said, it probably always will be; and no other way leads, or can lead, through the narrow door to life than this one stony and thorny way of the cross (I mean according to the flesh, for according to the spirit it is broad and easy), as the Scriptures testify. Therefore have your feet shod with the gospel of peace, with the precious promises of God, with the pure knowledge of Christ, with the denial of yourselves, with the patience and faith of the saints, and with the sure hope of the kingdom of God, so that the hard stones and the sharp, stinging thorns of persecution, by which all the pious are tested, do not terrify you and lead you onto the broad, easy way of the flesh. Lay aside all hindrances and besetting sins: the cursed works of darkness, greed, needless cares, love of home, goods, gold, silver, pomp and splendor, all things that are perishable, drunkenness, excess, idolatry, vanity, carnal and improper words, and all kinds of wickedness, so that you are not overcome and led off the one narrow highway onto crooked and dark byways, as, alas, may often be seen in our days.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, take the crucified Jesus as your example, and also all the righteous apostles and prophets of God, and learn from them how they all entered by this strait gate and forsook everything they had. They prepared their hearts and were so endowed and drawn by God that they knew, sought, loved and desired nothing but eternal, heavenly blessings, the unchangeable things, God and eternal life. So they were grounded in ardent love and became firm and immovable, so that they could not be frightened away from the love of Christ, neither by life nor death, angel, prince, potentate, hunger, sword, martyrdom, pain nor ease. Their thoughts, words, acts, sufferings, life and death were Christ’s. They did not seek their kingdom and rest on earth, for they were spiritually and heavenly minded. All their fruit was righteousness, light and truth. Their whole lives were pure love, chastity, humility, obedience and peace. The perishable, wicked world with all its evil works was an offense and abomination to them. They loved their God with all their soul, and therefore they rebuked all that was against his holy will, honor and word. They loved their neighbors as themselves, and therefore they admonished and rebuked them in love, served them, pointed out and taught them God’s pure will, word and truth, and sought their salvation with all their power, at great loss of life, goods and reputation. For this the foolish, envious, unthankful world, which swims in blood, has hated and persecuted them so grievously and repaid them with death.

My dear brothers, it was not only to the prophets, apostles and those of former times that the things the Scriptures relate happened; we have seen the same in these times with our own eyes. How many pious children of God we have known in the space of a few years, and we still know some, the Lord be praised, who sought Jesus Christ and the eternal, unchangeable life and still seek it; who fear God from their inmost soul; whose hearts burn with the word and love of the Lord; out of whose mouths flowed power, spirit and wisdom. Their whole life was repentance and piety; they hated, shunned and rebuked all ungodliness. No one could reprove their conduct with the word of God. They were opposed to the idle, fleshly, ungodly life of this world, as they still are and by the grace of God will continue to be. They do not listen to the deceiving prophets, do not entrust their precious souls to the care of the spiritual thieves and murderers, neither serve nor honor gods of wood, stone and silver, and do not use the unscriptural, earthly sacraments, and so on. In short, because they heard, believed, feared, served and loved the true and living God, the lying serpent opened its mouth and spewed out so many false, slanderous, indeed inhuman lies into the face of the pious, and from the seat of its pestilence, through its blind disciples, has defamed them and painted them in such horrible colors and shapes that they have become the curse and offense of the whole world, so that all people hold their mouths and noses and flee from them in horror. Yes, everyone who can slander and defame the poor, God-fearing Christians is the favorite preacher and esteemed teacher of the world.

No lie is so gross and disgraceful that they do not dare bring it against the godly. At one time they accuse and reproach us as though we wanted to invade cities and countries; they say we will harm the whole world. Now we are adulterers, then thieves and murderers; now we say there is no repentance left for the sinner; then we have rejected Christ and the Testament. In short, whoever does not defame and reproach the godly is not considered a Christian by the world! O Lord, how pure and free in heart and conscience before God all the saints are from all these and similar lies and slanders.

All these unchristian, hellish lies are not enough for the world; those who know Christ and would gladly live according to his word must endure something harder and meet with more severe persecution, as we may see with our own eyes. For how many pious children of God have they deprived of their homes and possessions within a few years, for the sake of the testimony of God and of their conscience! How many have they betrayed, driven out of city and country, and put in the stocks and to the torture! The poor orphans and children are left naked in the streets. Some they have hanged; some they punished with inhuman tyranny and afterward strangled with cords on stocks and pillars; some they roasted and burned alive; some, with their own reeking bowels in their hands, powerfully confessed the word of God; some they killed with the sword and gave as food to the birds of the air; some they cast to the wild beasts; some have had their houses torn down; some have been cast into muddy bogs; some have had their feet cut off, one of whom I have seen and talked with. Others wander about here and there in hunger and affliction, in mountains, deserts, holes and caves of the earth, as Paul says. They must flee with their wives and little children from one country to another, from one city to another. They are hated, abused, slandered and lied about by all men, and spoken against in the pulpits and the councils. They have been deprived of food and driven out in the cold winter, and people point at them with the finger of scorn. Indeed, whoever can wrong a poor, oppressed Christian thinks he has done God a service, as Christ says in John 16, verse 2.

See, dear brothers, how far the whole world is from God and his word, how swift their feet are to shed blood, how maliciously they hate the light, and how bitterly they persecute, defame and destroy the eternal, saving truth, the spotless gospel of Jesus Christ, and the pious, godly life of the saints. This is done not only by the papists and Turks, but also by those who boast of the holy word, who at first preached much about faith: that it was the gift of God, and that it must not be forced into the hearts of men with the iron sword but with the word, for it is a willing assent of the heart.

But in the last few years the learned have suppressed this doctrine and, as it appears to me, have erased it from their books, for lately they are drawing lords, princes, cities and countries to their carnal doctrine, and they preach the opposite of what they preached before, as is evident from their writings. By their seditious writings and preaching they deliver many pious hearts into the hands of the executioners, hearts that contradict, reprove and admonish them by the clear word of God and point out to them the true foundation of the gospel, which is a powerful, active faith that works by love, a penitent, new life, obedience to God and Christ, and the true evangelical ordinances of baptism, the Lord’s Supper and separation, as Christ himself instituted and commanded, and as his holy apostles practiced and taught.

Indeed, all who do this out of pure love must be cursed as Anabaptists, stirrers of factions, deceivers and heretics; all the pious may expect this. Nevertheless, all of them, lords, princes, preachers, scribes and common people, whether Papists, Lutherans or Zuinglians, want to be called the Christian community and holy church, and never take notice of their ungodly, impure and impenitent lives, that they are altogether earthly, carnal and contrary to the word of God. There are some whose hands are stained and reeking with the blood of Christians, and all their doings are directly opposed to the Spirit, word and example of Christ. O that these poor, blind, hardened people would take this well to heart and examine carefully the nature and spirit of true Christianity! They would be ashamed before God and sincerely lament that they so miserably abuse his glorious name, his blessed word, his divine grace and his crimson, precious blood, of which they vainly boast, and so make the name of Christ a cover for all their wickedness and disgrace.

For a truly believing Christian is one who is born of God according to the Spirit, has become a new creature in Christ, has crucified his flesh with its lusts, and hates all ungodliness and sin. All his fruits are righteousness, patience, truth, obedience, humility, chastity, love and peace. He is led by the Spirit of the Lord, and his delight is in his law; he meditates on it day and night; all his words are seasoned with grace; he strives sincerely for the life that is from God and fears him with all his soul. In short, according to the grace he has received, he is of one mind with Christ.

If only these miserable people could see that a Christian is minded as described, that he is so lovable and peaceable a creature and child of God! If they had the grace, they too would be so minded. If they were Christians, as they boast, they would hate no one but be hated; lie about no one but be lied about; prejudge no one but be prejudged; betray no one but be betrayed; rob no one but be robbed; they would not murder but be murdered; they would not devour the lamb but be torn by wolves; they would not snare the dove but be caught by the falconer and devoured.

If our persecutors are Christians, as they imagine, why then are they not of God and born of his word? Why are they still the old, accursed creature, living according to the lusts of the flesh? Why are they driven by the spirit of the devil? Why have they set their thoughts and affections on perishable and temporal things, and busy themselves with them day and night? Why are they guilty of talking all kinds of unchastity, vanity, lying, cursing and swearing? Why do they not fear God and his word? Why are they like the old, deceitful serpent and obedient to him? Why are they still like terrible, ravenous beasts and birds of prey, instead of innocent lambs and doves, as the Scriptures teach?

Ah, dear brothers, let them boast as they will, Christ Jesus does not know such wicked and bloodthirsty Christians. He knows only those who have his Spirit, who sincerely believe and obey him; who are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; who are meek, humble, pious, holy and pure in heart; who confess Christ Jesus in word and deed before this wicked world, deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him, and say with holy Paul, “Who shall separate us from the love of God?” They glory in nothing but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which they are dead to the world and the world to them. All who are so minded are the anointed of God, saints and Christians, and not the impenitent, carnal, bloodthirsty boasters. Let everyone take note that this is true; otherwise the whole Scriptures are false.

It seems to me, dear brothers, that the pious reader may fully understand from what has been said what kind of people these are who so shamefully trample you under their feet, strike you, lie about you, and deprive you of life and property, and also the reason why they do it, namely, because of your infallible testimony of God and your consciences. In the same way all from the beginning who sought, feared and loved God, walked according to his divine word and will, and reproved and admonished the confused and erring world for its good, were always regarded as refuse and heretics.

We will now go on in the name of the Lord and show in a few words what a feeble and unworthy excuse our persecutors put forward, which before God is like stubble and sulfur before fire, by which they think to excuse themselves and claim they are doing right to slander and harass the pious. All sinners seek some excuse, and no matter how disgracefully anyone behaves, he does not want to be considered wicked, but a righteous, pious and true Christian!