I suspect that it wasn’t always very easy to be married to Martin Luther. But then again, Frau Luther’s life was never very easy. Katharina von Bora was one of twelve nuns who escaped a convent in Nimbschen, Germany, in April of 1523, 500 years ago this year. She was 24 years old. When she was only about 5 her mother died and her father placed her in a cloister, and from there she was on the fast track to becoming a nun.
This kind of thing happened all the time in those days for all sorts of reasons. People believed that this was a holier life, one that brought a person closer to God. Parents too might try to earn God’s favor by dedicating a child to be a monk or a nun. Some of this is still around today, but the part that is possibly the hardest for us to wrap our minds around is just how strict these places were. A young lady like Katharina might take the vows of a nun. She was then expected to follow those vows until death. Some people might have viewed the monastery as a good place, but to many inside, it was more of a prison. And like a prison, a person who attempted to leave could be severely punished. A runaway monk or nun could face torture and prison. Anyone who helped that person escape could also be punished.
So it was no small thing when Katharina and the other eleven nuns in Numbschen wrote to Martin Luther asking for help. Six years ago Luther had nailed the 95 Theses to the castle church door. Two years ago he had been declared an outlaw. It was around that same time, in 1521, that he began to publicly write that monastic vows are without faith and opposed to it. And so when Luther received their request for help he hatched a plot to have a merchant, Leonard Kopp, get them out in his wagon following a delivery of herring. Legend has it that the nuns stowed themselves in empty herring barrels.
Luther tried to get them back to their families, but most of their families didn’t want them, fearing punishment. So he tried to find them husbands and he managed to arrange marriages for all of them except for Katharina. After two failed attempts to arrange a marriage for her she declared that she would marry no one except Luther’s friend Nikolaus or Luther himself, which he finally agreed to in 1525.
I don’t think it was very easy being married to Luther. He had a habit of giving away all their money. He liked inviting lots of people over for dinner. He was known for his sharp tongue. He went through a lot of bouts of depression and bad health. But he loved “My Katie” as he called her and even with all the trouble and hardship she faced in life we can see in her an example of what it means to have a life lived in the freedom of the Gospel. She was married to a man who was called an outlaw and a heretic for preaching Christ. And Christ set her free, free from slavery to the law, free to live in joyful service.
You almost have to wonder if anyone enforcing those monastic vows had ever read the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. His whole letter is about the freedom of the Gospel. It’s no wonder Martin Luther, who himself renounced his monastic vows, treasured this letter. He even called this letter “My Katie,” comparing it to his wife, describing his love for it as being like his love for her, and I’d say that’s a complement to her as well.
You see, there was a major problem going on among the Galatian Christians, and it’s a problem that has never really gone away. The problem had to do with the mixing of law and gospel and the question, “How are we saved?”. Paul had come to them preaching the good news of salvation. He told them about how Jesus had come as the promised Messiah. He told them how Jesus had suffered and died and rose again. He told them the great news that by Jesus’ work their sins are forgiven and “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”
And they had received that message with great joy, at first. But now some time had gone by and other teachers were coming their way. Many of the new Christians in Galatia were Gentile Christians. They hadn’t been raised on the Old Testament and the ceremonial laws. They hadn’t practiced all the things the Jews did. And so when these Jewish Christian teachers came along, they proclaimed to them, “Yes, you are saved by Jesus. That is true. But, you must also follow the ceremonies of the Old Testament. You must observe the festivals and the clean and unclean foods. And men, you must be circumcised.”
They were telling them that they were not real Christians unless they also followed all these outward things. They were telling them that this is a holier life. This is closer to God. Kind of like taking the vows to become a nun.
And the Galatians were going along with it. They might have had different reasons. Maybe some were convinced that this truly is necessary. It’s right there in the Bible. You must do it! Others might have gone along with it as sort of a backup plan. “I want to be saved so I’m not going to leave any option on the table.” Finally, some might not have been convinced at all but went along with it anyway just to keep the peace, saying, “I don’t really have a reason to say no. I guess it can’t hurt (too much).”
You almost have to imagine Paul pulling out his hair in frustration as he writes to them then. Because he saw that whether they were listening to these teachers, these Judaizers, out of a sense of necessity, or covering their bases, or just shrugging their shoulders and following along out of apathy, what they weren’t doing was acting in faith in their Savior.
So he writes
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again. 2Look, I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3I testify again to every man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole law. 4You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are completely separated from Christ. You have fallen from grace.
This is a powerful rebuke that emphasizes just how important this matter is. You cannot be saved by the law and by the gospel. You cannot be saved by Christ and by good works. It’s one or the other. And if you’re going to make it about following the law, then you better not just pick one or two things. You need to do all of it. You need to keep the law perfectly in every aspect at all times.
That’s why it’s called a yoke of slavery. If we’re going to try to be righteous and earn God’s favor by the law, then we’re also going to be judged by that same law. And that law is perfect. It judges even our hearts. We’ll have to work ourselves to the bone in constant fearfulness that every stumble, every failure is seen and known by Him who sees and knows all things. And still it will never be enough.
We certainly live at a different time, with different influences around us. We don’t have Judaizers standing up in our midst trying to convince us that we need to keep the Old Testament ceremonial laws to earn salvation. We’re also not dealing with monasticism the same way that people were in the 1500s, thinking that they could please God by following that life. And yet one thing is exactly the same and that is that we have hearts that are easily enslaved by sin and a prideful nature that wants to claim our own righteousness by the law.
God’s law is not a bad thing. It’s perfect and holy. But to be freed from sin is also to be freed from the law. Free from its demands. Free from its punishments. Free from its fear. And also free from its boasts, or rather, the boasts I might falsely stake on it. Because even though I might claim in my heart that I am a good person, deserving of the admiration my fellow man and of God himself, the law shows otherwise. I have no righteousness to boast about. It doesn’t matter how many times I fast. It doesn’t matter if I keep every single ceremonial law and all the extra laws of the Pharisees. It doesn’t matter if I lock myself in a monastery. It doesn’t matter if I practice good sportsmanship, or I’m a good citizen, or I give all my money to the poor. It doesn’t matter if I puff myself up like the rich young ruler and say, “All these laws I have kept since I was a child” … if I don’t have Jesus.
Only Jesus can forgive our sins. Only Jesus can give us true righteousness. Only Jesus can set us free. Paul says
5Indeed, through the Spirit, we by faith are eagerly waiting for the sure hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, it is faith working through love that matters.
Jesus has set us free to live lives of faith working through love. Our faith is fed on the Word of God and on our Lord’s Sacraments. There we are forgiven and renewed and strengthened. And faith works through love. We’re free to serve one another in love. We don’t do that by locking ourselves away in a monastery. No, we love as husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and family. In complete freedom we put them first, just as Jesus freely gave his life for us.
Stand firm on the freedom of the Gospel, dear brothers and sisters. Do not compromise it in any way, because this is the freedom Jesus has given to you. Katie Luther wasn’t free from hard work or from trouble by leaving behind her life as a nun. But she was free from the works-righteous life of the law. She was free in Christ. Thanks be to God for Martin Luther and every faithful preacher of the Gospel. Thanks be to him for Katie and every believer who serves in freedom. Thanks be to him that we have the sure hope of righteousness, and that Christ has set us free. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson