peter krey’s web site

Luther’s Delicious Language

Upon the cross Christ

put death to death,

gave the devil to the devil

sent hell to hell,

led captivity captive.

Oh death,

Christ is your death!

Oh Hell,

Christ is thy destruction.

Sinning against sin,

the Righteousness of Christ,

rose up in the resurrection!

After reading Luther’s Works 26, pages 155-156.

Another Version for a Funeral:

On the cross,

Christ forgave our sins,

gave the devil to the devil,

told hell to go there,

led captivity captive.

Oh death,

Christ is your death!

Buried you in the grave,

sinning against sin,

Christ rose in the righteousness of the resurrection!

Pkrey April 6, 2002 In his Galatians Commentary

Luther speaks about this delicious language,

that negates the negation in so many concrete ways.

Oh God,

let me cling to you solely, pure and wholly, knowing you are my one and only!

While translating for Philip and my Luther’s spirituality book (2007).

A Note found in one of Prof. Robert Goeser’s books, written in 2003 or 2004:

In these [Luther] lectures and the sermon, I want to open up the creativity of Luther’s thought, which is moving and contemporary in contrast to what is often seen as primarily doctrinal definition. His narrative style – amazingly in his interpretation of Scripture – brings not just stories but encounter with our revelation of ourselves. The past stories become contemporary encounters. With such language comes ethical demand – more than we sometimes realize. To put it differently: reading of Scripture and proclamation are always profoundly experienced.

(This in a nutshell depicts some basic themes that Prof. Goeser taught in “Advanced Luther Readings” when I was his teaching assistant.)

I just reread an essay by Robert J. Goeser called “From Exegesis to Proclamation.”[1]

It is a very good demonstration of what themes were discussed in his classes, what experiences we encountered with him there, and his theological rationale for his Luther interpretation. He presents Luther’s commentary on the book of the Prophet Jonah and explains how Luther isolates trust in the goodness of our gracious God within this world of history. He finds Luther in the drama and moral rebirth of the moment making his words become an event with encounter, because we usually read the text knowing how it will come out. The actors, however, did not know how their story would end. The words of Luther become what is the opposite of words. They catapult the readers into the experience of the shattering of their pretentious ideal selves, where they feel like “a breed apart” and have to join the human race, own their past, and live out of God’s grace. At the end of his essay, Goeser cites some of John Calvin’s same commentary on Jonah and the difference between Luther and Calvin cannot be better underscored. Calvin writes about what Luther and Jonah, if you will, really experienced.