Here is the introduction to And Take They Our Life, Martin Luther’s Theology of Martyrdom, a little book I wrote a few years ago that you can download for free here. This theology is more and more important every day.
Every Christian a Martyr, An Introduction
It is a great wonder that the grand moment of the devil’s triumph is the precise moment of his overthrow. It is the same great wonder that the death of God is eternal life for man. Likewise, that the profound humiliation and shame of Jesus’ cross is His glory and exaltation.
In the weakness of the cross God overpowers sin, death, and the devil. In the foolishness of the cross sinners are made wise unto salvation. In the suffering of Jesus we Christians are given eternal happiness. In His forsakenness we are forgiven. In His death we find life, an eternal life that never ends, that cannot end.
He lets the godly become powerless and to be brought low, until everyone supposes their end is near, whereas in these very things He is present to them with all His power, yet so hidden and in secret that even those who suffer the oppression do not feel it but only believe. There is the fullness of God’s power and His outstretched arm. For where man’s strength ends, God’s strength begins, provided faith is present and waits on Him. And when the oppression comes to an end, it becomes manifest what great strength was hidden underneath the weakness. Even so, Christ was powerless on the cross; and yet there He performed His mightiest work and conquered sin, death, world, hell, devil, and all evil. Thus all the martyrs were strong and overcame. Thus, too, all who suffer and are oppressed overcome. Therefore it is said in Joel 3:10: “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong’”—yet in faith, and without feeling it until it is accomplished. (LW 21:340, On the Magnificat, 1521)
This hidden victory of the cross extends to the Christian, who follows Christ on the way of suffering. The first cross noted in the Scriptures is the one taken up by the disciples in order to follow Jesus. Martin Luther famously understood “the holy possession of the sacred cross” as a mark of the Christian church.
They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the devil, the world, and the flesh (as the Lord’s Prayer indicates) by inward sadness, timidity, fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, in order to become like their head, Christ. And the only reason they must suffer is that they steadfastly adhere to Christ and God’s Word, enduring this for the sake of Christ, Matthew 5 [:11], “Blessed are you when men persecute you on my account.” They must be pious, quiet, obedient, and prepared to serve the government and everybody with life and goods, doing no one any harm. No people on earth have to endure such bitter hate; they must be accounted worse than Jews, heathen, and Turks. In summary, they must be called heretics, knaves, and devils, the most pernicious people on earth, to the point where those who hang, drown, murder, torture, banish, and plague them to death are rendering God a service. No one has compassion on them; they are given myrrh and gall to drink when they thirst. And all of this is done not because they are adulterers, murderers, thieves, or rogues, but because they want to have none but Christ, and no other God. Wherever you see or hear this, you may know that the holy Christian church is there, as Christ says in Matthew 5 [:11–12], “Blessed are you when men revile you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” This too is a holy possession whereby the Holy Spirit not only sanctifies His people, but also blesses them. (LW 41:164-165, On the Councils and the Church, 1539)
We could fill the world with the testimony of Scripture and quotations of Luther[1] to the uncomfortable but undeniable truth that the Christian life is one of suffering. We shouldn’t be surprised to see our God suffer.
God’s Word has relentless and energetic enemies, thus the people marked with that Word share those enemies. The world, the flesh, and especially the devil bombard the kingdom of God. He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), and, dear Christian, your death is his aim.
Since Luther understood the history of the world as the triumph of the cross and the preached world over the kingdom of the devil, he recognized every Christian as a martyr. The Christian “lets anyone who will rob, take, cheat, scrape, devour, and rage—for the Christian is a martyr on earth” (LW 46:40).
With Luther, then, there was no “theology of the martyrs,” per se, but a theology of the Gospel, a theology of the suffering of God, a theology of the crushing of the serpent’s head with the Messiah’s crushed heel, the Biblical theology that binds up the life and death of the Christian to the death and life of Christ. For Luther, martyrdom was the “pattern of the true Christian life” (LW 32:266)!
So the Lord says to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:18): “I shall make your face iron so that you do not care who attacks it.” And really, the office of teaching in the church requires such a mind that despises all dangers. In general, all the devout should prepare themselves so that they are not afraid of becoming martyrs, that is, confessors or witnesses of God. Christ does not want to hide in the world, but He wants to be preached, “not between four walls but from the roof” (Matt. 10:27), so that the Gospel shines in the world like a torch on a high mountain or on a watchtower. (LW 12:383-384, On Psalm 51:12, 1533)
The Christian treasures the Word of God above all things. God’s Word endures forever, and with and through that Word we will also endure the judgment and come to eternal life. Faith clings to the Word of God; we hold onto the Word more tightly than we even hold our own lives. “Those who regard this light as a treasure hold all glory of the flesh to be nothing. This is what we see in the martyrs. By comparison with the Word they spurned all things” (LW 17:312, On Isaiah 60:1, c. 1529).
Luther put the martyrs before us as examples of faith at work. Distinct from the practice of the Middle Ages, Luther extolled the martyrs not as champions of good works, but champions of faith. It is the Spirit and the Word at work in the life, the preaching, the suffering, and the blessed deaths of the martyrs. They were, first of all, “witnesses” to the Gospel.
Faith cannot hold its tongue. The Christian knows that the devil will attack the world, but it is impossible that the heart overflowing with the Lord’s mercy would not spill over through the Christian’s conversation.
If I earnestly believe that Christ is true God and that He became our Savior, I will never deny this but will proclaim it publicly against the Turks, the world, the pope, the Jews, and all the sects; and I will confess that it is true. I would rather forfeit my life or jeopardize property and honor than disavow this. Wherever faith is genuine, it cannot hold its tongue; it would rather suffer death. Such faith will also confess God’s Word before tyrants. To be sure, it will encounter all sorts of trials and temptations from the devil, as the martyrs amply experienced. (LW 22:393, On John 3:19, c. 1537)
It is not only that the martyrs are attacked and murdered, it is that they willingly let themselves be attacked and murdered. This is the fruit of faith, that overwhelming confidence in the promises of God. “For where there is such faith and confidence there is also a bold, defiant, fearless heart that risks all and stands by the truth, no matter what the cost, whether it is against pope or king, as we see that the dear martyrs did. For such a heart is satisfied and serenely sure that it has a gracious, kindly-disposed God” (LW 44:112, Treatise on Good Works, 1520). Faith gives us the confidence to suffer and the freedom to die, knowing that we have already passed from death to life (see John 5:24).
The martyrs also face their suffering with courage and joy. We’ll consider this extensively below in the section on Saints Agnes and Agatha, two of Luther’s favorite martyrs. Note here, though, that confidence in the Lord’s Word makes the suffering of the saints and martyrs seem like child’s play, as Luther noted from his reading of Vincent[2].
In this one way St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, Sebastian, Fabian, and men like them overcame death and all tortures. Because they kept the faith of Abraham and comforted themselves with these visible signs of grace, all tortures—as an often repeated statement of Vincent puts it—were amusement, pastime, and, so to speak, child’s play for them. (LW 3:125, On Genesis 17:8, c. 1539)
The martyrs had courage, joy, and spunk. They had sass. I think Luther found a special comfort in the boldness of the martyrs who would contradict tyrants and mock their accusers. They did not shrink back to destruction but were bold to the salvation of their souls. They were not intimidated or coerced, they were emboldened and free. “We read that the holy martyrs treated the tyrants and their cruel raging and raving with scorn despite all kinds of pain and torture. Even the young virgins mocked them and rejoiced in torment and suffering, as though they were about to go to a dance” (LW 24:138, On John 14:20, c. 1537). This boldness infuriated the devil.
Satan is an angry adversary. He does not worry much about thoughts. Something must be found in you which will prove too strong for him. This was apparent in the martyrs. How bold they were, what spirit and courage they displayed when they confronted the judges, fully aware that life and limb, honor and goods were at stake! Such conduct calls for consolation, not for a mere thought. It must be a matter of the heart that a person can face death and every trial cheerfully and say: “Honor, goods, life and limb, and all that is earthly, begone! I am determined to remain here, right here!” Then it will become manifest whether or not a person is a Christian and remains constant by means of his thoughts. (LW 23:145, On John 6:56, c. 1531)
Faith is mocking the devil. These are not two different acts, but one and the same, two sides of the same coin. Believing the Lord is disbelieving the great liar. Trusting God is despising Satan.
We will turn the tables on him and learn to mock both the devil and the world. Then we will laugh gleefully at them, not they at us. The skill with which they want to make us sad, angry, and impatient will fail them; and they will consume themselves, together with their hatred and wrath; and when they see us, they will suffer great agony. They will see that we remain cheerful through it all and scorn them when they attempt to vent their anger on us so vehemently. (LW 24:277, On John 15:19, c. 1537)
This confident, joyful, bold suffering of death looks like madness to the world (and even to our own flesh), but it is a fruit of the Spirit.
In this way the godly are filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they cannot keep from breaking forth into thanksgiving, confession, glorifying God, and teaching and proclaiming the Word of the Gospel.
The apostles and the martyrs were like this when they were drunk with the Holy Spirit. For a vine of this kind is very choice, and concerning it Wisdom says in Prov. 9:5: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Then you will drink and become drunk, but with spiritual drunkenness.”
Thus I understand this passage to mean that in Christ and in the time of Christ we must become drunk on the abundance of His house (cf. Ps. 36:8); that is, we are to receive the Holy Spirit from the Word and hearing. This causes us to become other men, just as an inebriated man conducts himself far differently from one who is fasting and famished. For the former laughs, rejoices, exults, sings, and shouts for joy; the latter snarls and is sad and full of complaints. (LW 8:249, On Genesis 49:12, c. 1545)
The Christian is an “other man”, laughing at death, rejoicing in suffering, shouting for joy through the troubles of this life, and overcoming the devil with an unintimidated faith and an insurmountable joy.
To our great wonder, the Lord continues to overthrow the devil in the overthrow of the Christian. The blood of the martyrs is truly the seed of the Church, because the Word which the devil so furiously attacks is the Sword of the Spirit by which he is overthrown.
The foot of Christ is the saints, like the apostles and martyrs, through whom He crushed the world. [“You will walk on the asp and the basilisk; and you shall trample the lion and the dragon under foot” (Ps. 91:13)]. But that trampling could only be accomplished through the sufferings and blood of martyrs. Then the world was perfectly despised, when even unto death they did not give in to it and thus through blood were superior to it, as long as it could not achieve what it wanted. (LW 10:340, On Psalm 68:23, c. 1515)
If we believe, then if death must be faced, or if plague, hunger, war, and all the fury of the devil and hell assail, we, too, should say: “I could defecate on you, devil, etc.” This is certainly how the church believes, and it still displays the same stoutheartedness. (LW 8:255, On Genesis 49:12, c. 1545)
[1] Just one more, then, from Luther’s Large Catechism, Lord’s Prayer (III:65), “Therefore we who would be Christians must surely count on having the devil with all his angels and the world as our enemies and must count on their inflicting every possible misfortune and grief upon us. For where God’s Word is preached, accepted or believed, and bears fruit, there the blessed holy cross will not be far away. Let nobody think that he will have peace; he must sacrifice all he has on earth—possessions, honor, house and home, wife and children, body and life.”
[2] Saint Vincent of Lérins (died c. 445), was a Gallic monk.
www.wolfmueller.co/life for the rest of the book.
