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INK BLOTS ON
THE WALL - LUTHER’S STRUGGLE AGAINST EVIL In Christian theology before Luther’s time, the devil occupied no fixed
position or place. He was often depicted in rather crude and superstitious
ways, even as an ugly, smelling being. Luther learned from personal experience
to treat Satan with utmost seriousness. The devil was not to be feared as a
poltergeist or some scary, shadowy figure, but as the Evil One who calls God’s
Word into question and casts doubts about it. Although Luther gave other titles
to Satan like “a sour spirit” or “Prince of this world”, he more frequently
spoke of the devil as the Evil One, who is the sum and substance of all evil. As the Evil One, Luther saw the devil at work in the every-day trials
and troubles of our vocation, causing human heartache and unhappiness. The
reformer, or prophet of repentance, threw an inkwell at Satan because he daily
carried on a real, almost physical struggle against that dangerous tempter. It
was because Luther was aware of the devil’s designs in using the old Adam
within us, that Luther said the old Adam needs to be drowned by daily
repentance and forgiveness. “And we do
this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his
designs (2 Corinthians 2:11).” To know the Evil One is to know his devices and designs. “We cannot more truly picture the devil
than by picturing pure hate and envy (Luther).” Satan hates the good gifts of God’s creation like marriage,
happiness, laughter and music. Luther sees evil as a parasite on and perversion
of all that is good, wholesome and beautiful. The devil tries to make good appear evil, and evil appear good. Satan
disguises himself as an “angel of light”. He is never more to be feared than
when he comes to us in this disguise. The good-looking, tempter does the most
harm. He doesn’t come saying “I will give you something evil”, but rather
suggests to us: “I offer you something interesting and pleasurable that will
enrich your life.” He apes God, pretending to be very religious and engaging in
pious talk. He’s not attracted by lives dedicated to worldly affairs. Rather,
wherever Christ is near, the Evil One is never far away, as he seeks to wrench
us away from our Lord by means of hunger and thirst, worldly fame and wealth,
or by a false interpretation of Scripture. He tried to tempt Christ with a
false interpretation of God’s Word. Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness is a warning against the
manipulation of the Scriptures in support of our own agendas. Rather than
submit to God’s Word, Satan wants us to act as its judge and critic. Or else he
makes the Scriptures appear to be of less importance than they are. Jesus wants
us to value God’s Word as highly as we value eternal life. The Devil does his
utmost to stop us from hearing God’s Word. “Unless
the Word is preached publicly, it slips away. The more it is preached, the more
firmly it is retained. Reading it is not as profitable as hearing it, for the
live voice teaches, exhorts, defends and resists the spirit of error (LW
18/401).” Luther continues, “The devil’s rage never ceases where the
love of Christ is preached in harmony with the Apostles’ Creed, namely, that
He, true God and true man, died for us and rose again; that Christ is the seed
of the woman, who bruises the Serpent’s head (Kerr, p50).” Satan wants to short-circuit the help and hope we receive from the
preaching of God’s Word. Satan also seeks to stop us from receiving strength,
comfort and reassurance from the sacraments. Baptism and Holy Communion are the
pledge that God is present in our life and death struggle against the Evil One.
These two sacraments constitute the visible, tangible prop that empowers us to
resist Satan in Christ’s name. Baptism and Holy Communion are the solid ground
on which the certainty of our faith rests. When assailed by the Evil One,
Luther triumphed by confessing: “I’m
baptised!” That’s why he states in the Small Catechism that Baptism “effects forgiveness of sins, delivers from
death and the devil, and grants eternal life to all who believe.” We live
in the light of our Lord’s victory over the Evil One. We must believe that we
are lords over the devil, even while we feel that we are defeated by him (W.A.
36/495). Against the background of a world permeated by Satan, Luther still
celebrated the joy of life. He enjoyed relaxing in his garden, delighting in
its flowers, especially the roses, as a gift from God. During the Leipzig
Disputation, he drew strength from smelling a posy of flowers. He scorned
Satan’s attack on marriage by gratefully enjoying this good gift from God. “Satan plots incessantly to destroy
conjugal happiness, for he knows it is a great gift (Tabletalk, p55). Satan
can’t bear to see happy couples. “All
sadness is of the devil (Plass, p398).”
It is especially when Luther deals with our vocation as parents and
labourers, that he describes the importance of our struggle against evil. The
mightiest battles against evil are fought in the marketplace, workplace and
over the plough and stove. Yet it is there in everyday occupations, and not in
some utopia elsewhere, that God offers us His protection. “If the devil wishes to deprive one of his reason, he secludes him,
taking him away from church, state and home, in all of which places God is
present protecting His own in some particular occupation (Tabletalk, p154).” It is satanic, Luther writes, to cut oneself off from
others. Solitude has its dangers and temptations. When under demonic attack,
Luther urges us to seek the company of fellow Christians and the comfort and
consolation of music: “The devil doesn’t
stay where there is music (Tabletalk,
p98).” Greed was a social evil that Luther condemned. He pointed out that the
New Testament calls greed both idolatry and the root of all evil (Ephesians
5:3-5; Colossians 3:5; 1 Timothy 6:10). Greed is then no minor form of evil and
cannot be simply dismissed as a by-product of economic factors. Usury was a
particular social evil that had a devastating effect on the most vulnerable
people in the community – the poor. By manipulating prices, “usury lives off
the bodies of the poor”. Luther changed how poverty was viewed. The medieval
church and community saw poverty as a meritorious virtue to be sought. Luther
saw poverty in every form as a personal and social evil to be combated. “After the devil there is no greater human
enemy on earth than a miser and usurer (W.A. 51/396).” In his Large Catechism, Luther wrote: “Daily the poor are defrauded. New burdens and high prices are imposed.
Everyone misuses the market in his own wilful, conceited, arrogant way, as if
it were his right and privilege to sell his goods as dearly as he pleases
without a word of criticism.” Between 1520 and 1538, prices in Germany
doubled, while wages remained the same. Luther condemned this as robbery in disguise.
Jesus says: “the poor you always have
with you.” Luther comments on this: “just
as you will have all other evils. But constant care should be taken that, since
these evils are always in evidence, they are always opposed (LW 9/148).” Luther established a welfare fund to
alleviate poverty, which provided interest-free loans to artisans, provided for
poor orphans and for children of poor parents. The Wittenberg “common chest”
was a new creation of the Reformation. The battle between God and Satan occurs
in both the secular and spiritual kingdoms. A spiritual leader, however, is in
greater danger from Satan than is a secular ruler. In his ”Fourteen Consolations (LW
volume 42)”, Luther first elaborates on seven evils Christians face, before
focussing on seven blessings God gives us. His intent in dealing with these
seven evils is to show the relative insignificance of present evils compared
with the evils we sinners justly deserve, and with the evil Christ endured on
the cross. Luther points out how good and evil are intermingled in the
Scriptures, where we learn how God can bring good from evil. In evil days, the
Scriptures call on us to contemplate our blessings. The first
evil is the evil inside us. This is the worst evil. External evils we
experience aren’t as dangerous as this one. The second
evil is evil we fear in the future, especially that of a sudden death. The third
evil is the one behind us. We become aware of God’s protecting hand as we
recall the past evils from which God has delivered us. The fourth
evil is that of death and hell. The fifth
evil is the evil others experience, especially those experienced by
non-Christians, whose plight is worse than ours. The sixth
evil concerns our friends whose evil makes our own easier to bear. No one’s
load is easier or harder to bear than anyone else’s. It’s all according to a
person’s ability to endure it. “No
testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and
He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He
will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it (1
Corinthians 10:13).” The seventh
evil is that which Christ bore for us. “There
is nothing, not even death, that His passion cannot sweeten (LW 42/141).” His
sufferings hallow ours so that blessings can flow from them for our own benefit
and for the benefit of others who suffer with us. In all our struggles against evil, we have no greater help and
assistance than prayer, especially the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Dr.
Schild describes praying the Lord’s Prayer as “Defrocking of the Devil”. In his Large Catechism, Luther
writes: “We must realise that our whole
safety and protection lies only in prayer. For we are far too weak to cope with
the devil … we will be a match for them [our enemies] and the evil only by
praying (Luther’s Large Catechism).” The petition for deliverance from evil (or from the Evil One) comes last
in the Lord’s Prayer, because if we’re to be delivered from evil, God’s name
must first be hallowed, and His will be done. God’s deeds come before our
needs. This is the last petition we pray for, because God’s honour, name and
will are dearer to us than our own ease and comfort. On the other hand, we pray
for deliverance from evil so that God’s name may be honoured and His will be
done. In this last petition are found all our anxieties and fears. The evils
included in this petition are poverty and disgrace, floods, fire, drought and
disease. We need to remember that in Gethsemane, Jesus wasn’t delivered from
suffering, but at Easter He was delivered from the power of evil. If we have to suffer evil, Luther invites us to pray that God will bring
a blessing from it. “Moreover, we had
human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even
more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they
disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us
for our good in order that we may share His holiness. Now, discipline always
seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews
12:9-11).” We still are blessed by our Lord’s Easter victory over the Evil One (1
John 3:8, Colossians 2:15). That’s why we need not fear for the future of our
church. We can be confident that the forces of evil will never destroy it
(Matthew 16:18). Our risen Redeemer preserves His Church, no matter how
precarious its future may look at present. Luther reminds us: “We are not
the ones who can preserve the church, nor were our forefathers able to do so.
Nor will our successors have this power. No, it was, is, and will be He who
says, “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” As it says in Hebrews
13:8, “He who is and who was and who is to come.” This is His name and no one
else’s; nor may anyone else be called by that name. A thousand
years ago you and I were nothing, and yet the church was preserved at that time
without us. He who is called “who was” and “yesterday” had to accomplish this.
Even during our lifetime we are not the church’s guardians. It is not preserved
by us, for we are unable to drive off the devil in the persons of the pope, the
sects, and evil men. If it were up to us, the church would perish before our
very eyes, and we together with it (as we experience daily). For it is another
Man who preserves both the church and us. He does this so plainly that we could
touch and feel it (LW 47/118).” We pray: Deliver us, O Father, from Your eternal wrath and from the pains of
hell. Deliver us from Your strict judgment, in death and at the Last Day. Deliver us from sudden death. Preserve us from water and fire, from lightning and hail. Preserve us from famine and scarcity. Preserve us from war and bloodshed. Preserve us from Your great plagues, pestilence, and other grievous
diseases. Preserve us from all evils, that in all things, Your name may be
honoured, Your kingdom increased, and Your divine will be done. Amen. Vernon P Kleinig References: Luther’s Works, American Edition, Volumes 1-55 Luther’s Small Catechism Luther’s Large Catechism, F. Hebart, translator, LPH, 1983 A Compend of Luther’s Theology, edited by Hugh T. Kerr, The Westminster
Press, Philadelphia, 1974 Tabletalk – Conversations with Martin Luther, Keats Publishing, 1979 What Luther Says – compiled by E.M. Plass, CPH, 1986 Luther – Man Between God and The Devil, by Heiko A. Oberman, Yale
University, 1989 The Christian’s Calling – Luther on Vocation, by Gustav Wingren, Oliver
& Boyd, 1958. |