The Lord God has hidden His wisdom from those who are wise according to the flesh; on the other hand, He has revealed it to infants. Here Christ calls “infants” those who lend faith to God’s Word in childlike simplicity, who become obedient students of the heavenly wisdom, and who are glad to be fools in this world, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:18, that they may be wise to God. The Lord God has revealed the knowledge of Him to those who are unwise and infants in the eyes of the world. He has revealed it not only outwardly, in the Word, as it is presented to all men, but also inwardly, in the spirit and in the heart. “Yes, Father,” says Christ further, “for so it was pleasing in Your sight.” It is altogether just, what happens to these wise and clever; if they are unwilling to lay aside their carnal wisdom, then they will also not come to the knowledge of the heavenly wisdom. This is God’s righteous judgment and His well-pleasing counsel. “Since the world, through its wisdom, did not know God in His wisdom, it pleased God, through foolish preaching, to save those who believe in it (1 Cor. 1:21), not as if He took pleasure in it when men perish, for He sees to it that they are all called through the Word. But if they are unwilling to follow, placing their carnal wisdom and desires ahead of His Word, then it certainly happens to them that the mysteries of divine wisdom remain hidden from them.

But in order that we might know that we should seek divine wisdom only in the Word revealed to us by the Son, Christ adds: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father,” that is, just as the heavenly Father has delivered all things to Me as the Son of Man, having placed all authority in heaven and on earth and all creation under My feet (Psa. 8:7; Mat. 28:18; Eph. 1:22), so also to Me, as the appointed, sole Mediator, He has delivered this, that through the Word and the Spirit, I can and should give the true knowledge of God to men, enlighten their hearts, and be their only Master and Teacher. In this matter, nothing is accomplished with worldly wisdom. “No one knows the Son except for the Father, and no one knows the Father except for the Son.” That is, no man may come to the true knowledge of God by his natural powers, but it must be revealed by the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:3). He alone knows the Father; therefore, He alone can also bring a person to the true, saving knowledge of God. By no means, however, is the Holy Spirit excluded thereby, for He is the One who is of one essence with the Father and the Son and who “searches the deep things of the divinity” (1 Cor. 2:10).

(Sermon for St Matthias-February 24, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 50-51)

When these seventy disciples returned with joy and brought Him a report of their work{Luke 10}, that even the devils were subjugated in the name of the Lord Christ, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and burst forth with a joyful heart into this thanksgiving and said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and clever and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

Here Christ calls the Lord His Father, since, according to His divine nature, He was begotten of Him from eternity (Psa. 2:7), wherefore Christ is His only-begotten, only, and most beloved Son (John 3:16). He also calls Him Lord of heaven and earth, since He not only created them and all their host in the beginning by means of His almighty Word, but still to this hour He powerfully preserves and rules them as a mighty Ruler, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth (Isa. 66:1).

The Lord Christ now gives thanks to this same One, to His heavenly Father and the Lord of all lords, that He has hidden the mystery of the Gospel from the wise and clever but has revealed it to infants. With “wise and clever” are understood the wise of this world; that is, those who are wise according to the flesh, as St. Paul calls them in 1 Corinthians 1:20, who place their worldly wisdom and carnal cleverness ahead of the heavenly wisdom that is revealed to us in the word of the Gospel. “They seek wisdom,” says the Apostle in the passage just cited. That is, they want the heavenly wisdom, set forth to us in the revealed Word, to harmonize with their own carnal wisdom. And when they do not find that such is the case, they would rather allow the heavenly, divine wisdom to depart than to allow their worldly wisdom and reason to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), since the wisdom of this world is foolishness to the Lord God (1 Cor. 3:19).

(Sermon for St Matthias-February 24, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 49-50)

   In the second part of the Gospel {From Luke 7:36-50}, a beautiful parable is presented to us in which the Lord Christ defended Himself and this penitent sinful woman against the Pharisee and also spoke the absolution to her. For when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” He means as much as to say, “The holy prophets could have seen in the Spirit even things that were invisible and hidden; but since this Jesus does not see or know the sins of this woman, then He must not be a prophet. Since He even lets Himself be touched by such a great sinner, He must not be the Most High or the Messiah (Dan. 9:24).”

But the Lord Christ answers him as an all-knowing Lord who sees the thoughts of the heart, saying to him: “There was a lender,” that is, a rich man, “who had two debtors: the one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. And since they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both. Now tell Me, which of them will love him more?” To which Simon the Pharisee answered, “I suppose, the one who was forgiven more.” Christ was pleased with this and said to him, “You have judged rightly.” At this point, He turned to the woman with a kind and friendly face and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You gave Me no water for My feet,” as was normally the custom (Gen. 18:4, 19:2; Jud. 19:21; John 13:5). “But she has wet My feet with her tears and dried them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss,” as good friends normally tended to welcome one another. “But since the moment I came in, this woman has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil,” or perfume, as was normally done with guests. “But this woman has anointed My feet with costly perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much.” She has definitively demonstrated by her deeds that she loves and honors Me more than you do, although you invited Me to be your guest. And this love of hers is a fruit of faith, through which she has obtained the forgiveness of her onerous debt of sin.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 111-112)

3. In addition, we have here a mirror of true repentance, that it changes the whole man and makes an entirely new man out of him. This woman was formerly insolent and proud; but now she has humbled herself to the point that she approaches Christ meekly and kisses His feet. She formerly lived in the lust of the flesh and in the sensuality of the wicked world; now she sheds humble tears from a contrite heart. She formerly misused her eyes for vanity, pursuing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and a proud life (1 John 2:16). Now she turns these eyes of hers into wellsprings of tears. She formerly used her hair to make herself glamorous; now she uses it as a foot towel. She formerly ignored her own dignity for something trivial; now she pours out precious, costly perfume on Christ’s feet. She formerly permitted all sorts of foul and filthy prattle to come out of her mouth; now she kisses Christ’s feet.

Yes, this is a true mirror of repentance, presented as an example for us all. For repentance is incongruous with a laughing mouth; it is rather a rending of the heart (Joel 2:13), a breaking and a crushing of the heart (Psa. 51:19), a distress of the spirit (Psa. 143:4), as such descriptions are found all over the Psalms, that a man feels inner distress of the heart, humbles himself deeply before God and His judgment on account of his sins, and yet, there in the depths, he lays hold of Christ’s merit with true faith. Through such repentance, which is a “regret that is not to be regretted” (2 Cor. 7:10), a man is entirely changed and renewed, so that he now highly disapproves of that which formerly pleased him; and that which he formerly hated he now holds dear. Where this is not the case, there true repentance of the heart has not yet taken place.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 110-111)

For this reason, the sexually immoral and adulterers are expressly excluded from God’s kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10, Gal. 5:19ff., Rev. 21:8, Rev. 22:15). The Lord God often begins to address these sins with temporal punishments already in this life. So if we want Christ, the Son of the pure Virgin Mary, to dwell in our hearts (Eph. 3:17), then we must be hostile to all shameful words and deeds. If we want the holy angels, those pure spirits, to be with us, then we must strive for true chastity. If we wish to be the temples and dwellings of the Holy Spirit, then surely we must not sin against our own bodies with harlotry. If we wish to see God face to face in eternal life, then we must strive for holiness and purity, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). If we ever wish to enter the heavenly Jerusalem, then we must guard ourselves from all contamination of body and spirit, for nothing common or impure can enter the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21:8).

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 110)

2. But we also have to consider here what a horribly great sin harlotry is.

For thereby one sins first against God, who is a holy, pure, unspotted Being who is genuinely hostile toward all impurity.

Second, one sins against God’s Law, wherein every form of adultery is forbidden with great zeal. Christ explains this in Matthew 5:28, that even shameful words, sexually immoral actions, and inner lust are to be understood with the word “adultery.”

Third, one sins against one’s neighbor, to whom offense is given in this way. And as it says, “Woe to the man through whom offense comes” (Mat. 18:7).

Finally, a man also sins against his own body with adultery and harlotry. He damages the temple of the Holy Spirit and turns Christ’s members into the members of a harlot (2 Cor. 6:15). That must be a terribly great sin indeed!

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 109-110)

From this we now see:  1. How, at that time, church discipline among the people of God had come into disuse, and the divine ordinance had been almost completely forgotten.

The Lord God had given an earnest command in Deuteronomy 23:17, “No harlot should be found among the daughters of Israel.” But we hear in this text about a woman who was a well-known sinner. In John 8:3, they bring a woman to the Lord Christ who was caught in open adultery, and their first question was what they should do with her, as if God’s commandment had been entirely buried.

This all came from the deception and seduction of the devil. He had not only seduced God’s people at that time into idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, but had also popularized among them the sins of harlotry and adultery, even as spiritual and physical harlotry are often found together, the defilement of the soul through false teaching and the defilement of the body through unchastity, zeal for idolatry, and the evil burning for harlotry.

Even as it was before the first coming of Christ that, among many other sins, harlotry and adultery were particularly in vogue, so it also goes now before the second coming of Christ, where the horrible, awful sins against the Sixth Commandment threaten to come crashing in like a flood, spurred on by the fact that such sins are not punished with just and proper zeal by the government. Just as the Sodomites were burning with lust when their downfall was right at the door, so that they had to be burned up with fire and brimstone from heaven (Gen. 18), so also will similar sodomite sins be running rampant when heaven and earth are about to be burned up with fire (2 Pet. 3:10).

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 108-109)

{In Luke 7:36-50} Therefore, with a heart hungry for grace, with a thirsty soul, with the longing of faith, she hurried to Christ. She became hostile to her former sins. She experienced genuine contrition and grief. But she had a believing trust and a fervent love for Christ, as she testified with outward actions. For when she came to Christ in the Pharisee’s home, she brought a jar of oil and costly perfume and knelt down at His feet.

She was hesitant to appear before Christ’s holy sight. Until that moment, she had been turned away from God through sin, and so she now also turned away from the sight of men. She began to weep bitterly. Her heart was troubled and oppressed, causing tears to flow from her eyes, and to flow so freely that even Christ’s feet were wetted with them. Then she dried Christ’s feet with her own hair. She made her hair, with which she had formerly made herself beautiful, into a foot cloth and a wash towel. She also kissed Christ’s feet out of true humility, considering herself unworthy to kiss His hands. Finally, she anointed Christ’s feet with the costly perfume, considering herself unworthy to anoint Christ’s head with it, as was otherwise customary in the East.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 108)

{In Luke 7:36-50} A Pharisee by the name of Simon had invited the Lord Jesus to eat with him. This invitation was not issued from a true and upright heart or with good intentions, but in order to find something to criticize (Psa. 41:7). But Christ triumphed by His patience with His enemies’ evil intent, and by His wisdom He shattered their cunning. So He gladly engages with this hostile host and sits down at his table.

And look! There was a sinful woman in the city. And when she learned that He was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she went there, too. When it says that this woman was a sinful woman, it is to be understood that she had previously been living in open sin and shame and had allowed a spirit of harlotry to captivate her and lead her astray. For although all men are sinners before the Lord God, as Christ demonstrates in the parable of this Gospel, not all sins are equal and alike. This is why the Scriptures especially call them sinners who plunge themselves into outward, crass sins, from an evil intention, without any shame before God or the world, who stubbornly persist in such things and give public offense to others. Genesis 15:13, “The people of Sodom were evil and sinned greatly against the Lord.” Genesis 18:20, “The outcry in Sodom is great, and their sins are very serious.” Therefore, the tax collectors and sinners are placed side by side as wicked people (Mat. 18:17, Luke 15:1). The woman in the Gospel had also previously been just such a public, contemptible sinner. But when she heard that Christ rebuked sins so harshly and zealously, while at the same time promising grace to all the poor, miserable sinners who repented, her heart was transformed by the cooperating power of the Spirit.   (Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 107-108)

Finally, she must also “mourn her father and mother,” that is, she must grieve with fervent tears that, until now, she has followed her father, the devil, and her adulterous mother, this world, into sin. This mourning should last, not only for a month, but for the whole time of her life.

On the other hand, she must now learn to love her new Bridegroom. Then Christ will marry her. For He is the one who said about Himself in Matthew 9:13 that He has come as the heavenly Physician “to call sinners to repentance.” That is, He wants to be the Physician of the sick, the Life of the dead, the Shepherd of the wanderer, the Light of the blind, the Salvation of the sinner, and yet in such a way that they do not remain in sins but get up and hasten to Christ through repentance. For this is the way in which He calls sinners to Himself. Christ is the Physician, to be sure; but the sickness must be acknowledged, and the help of the Physician must be sought. Christ is the Life, to be sure; but one must hear His voice, by which the dying are made alive (John 5:25). Christ is the Shepherd, to be sure; but the wandering sheep must allow himself to be picked up and carried to the flock (Luke 15:5). Christ is the Light, to be sure; but one must get up from the sleep of sin. Then He will enlighten us (Eph. 5:14). Christ is the Salvation, to be sure; but He must be grasped with steadfast faith (1 Tim. 1:14).

The previously read Gospel {Luke 7:36-50} pertains to this, for in it the true and earnest repentance of a poor, very sinful woman is described, along with how she thereby obtained God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life with Christ. (Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 106-107)