In 2006, I had the pleasure of visiting Wittenberg, Germany. I arrived by myself on the early train from Leipsig, and from a station near the Elbe River I walked a few hundred yards to Lutherhaus which had been the Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther lived, first as a monk and later as owner with his family.The early summer morning was peaceful, and the cloister was empty. I could explore undisturbed and had little trouble imagining the place as it must have appeared in the 16th century. Then, with backpack and camera, I walked the two kilometers from Lutherhaus to the Castle Church where, 492 years ago today, the great Reformer posted on the church door his 95 theses regarding repentance, confession, and against indulgences and false satisfactions.
Luther's first statement was, "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said, repent ye, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." He also declared in Thesis 62, "The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God."
He was so exactly right. The greatest prize and treasure you and I possess as baptized believers in Jesus Christ is the glorious news of justification for sinners by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus gave Himself that we may live. It was the truth of Christ that Luther continued to defend and proclaim for the remaining 30 years of his life, and it is the legacy bequeathed to us in the Gospel. We must never forget it.
Even though the Reformation is celebrated today, it is really only rightly observed through a life of repentance in which we daily confess remorse for our offenses against God and hold by faith to the Word He has spoken. We come in contrition and with dependency upon God's mercy alone for the sake of Christ. Repentance and forgiveness of sins through the Gospel is the seminal reality for every Christian.
Contrary to my imagination, the church door on which Luther posted his famous theses was the side door of the Castle Church. Not having visited Wittenberg before, I naturally thought the 95 Theses were posted on the church front doors, but Luther, certainly not knowing then the impact his actions would make, considered it no consequence which door was used as a public bulletin board.
Which door is still immaterial, just as which pew you occupy on a Sunday is inconsequential to the glory of the Gifts you receive in the holy means of grace.
And yet, I have reflected on that minor detail of the door. The side door (or what we used to call the "back door" where I grew up) was not where you received important guests. The side door was never elegant or stylish. That's where a drifter would come for a hand-out or the neighbor for a cup of sugar. The formal entrance, the proper entry would have been the front door into a foyer and reception area. That's where the genteel company would arrive. The side door, the unsightly door was, by contrast, beside the garbage cans and dog dish.
And yet, the side door was always the door used by the family. It was the door my father used to go back and forth to work past the shed. It was the door my mother, in her house dress, would use to take laundry to the clothes line. It's where I would leave muddy galoshes. Remember those rubber boots from the 50s with the side clasps? You never wore those in the front door.
It just seemed poignant to me that the Lutheran Reformation began at the side door. It seemed fitting to me somehow that the restoration of the evangelical truth to its rightful place would begin at the side door.
Some artwork depicting Luther unremarkably nailing up his parchment shows him observed only by a vagrant or two. I seem to remember the old movie having one of these itinerants get up to see what Luther had posted only to shrug his shoulders at the Latin or because he couldn't read.
This was the side door. An aristocratic elector, the nobility, or the monarch would have processed through the front doors, but this side door was the bulletin board. It was where someone would tack up a message.
But isn't the Reformation all about a message? Not a message for the peacock or the prosperous, not a message for the braggart or the vain, but for the beggar. The Lutheran Reformation was all about the message of Jesus Christ who entered this world by the back door. Turned from the door of an inn, he was born by the dog dish and the rubble of a shed. He came and went in humility as a workman to his ministry. By this means he also laundered the unmentionables of the family and welcomed both grimy vagabond and solicitous neighbor.
492 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door. A church with the name "Castle" sounds impressive, and it is. A tall, substantial tower rises above it, inscribed today with the words, "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (A mighty fortress is our God). The original door is gone, weathered or burned no doubt, and replaced in 1858 by a double brass door with Luther's theses written on it which people see today.
But it is still the side door, the door which, if you look closely, leads directly into the sanctuary, to where the real action takes place, where God's family gathers to rejoice in the message of His Gospel and to receive the gifts of Christ. Ironically, the front door is farthest from the chancel. So, let us humble folk be satisfied with the side door. That's the family's door, the Father's door, the Message door, and the beggar's door where anyone and everyone is welcome.
Have a blessed Reformation.
