Martin Luther’s perspective on Ordination

 Martin Luther’s perspective on Ordination[1]               

The Babylonian Captivity of the Church - Ordination[2] 

Prominent points

Ø  Of this sacrament the Church of Christ knows nothing; it is an invention of the pope's church. Not only is there nowhere any promise of grace attached to it, but there is not the least mention of it in the whole New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to put forth as a sacrament of God that which cannot be proved to have been instituted by God. But that we are utterly unable to do in the case of the sacrament under consideration.

Ø  The Church has no power to make new divine promises. For the Word of God is incomparably superior to the Church, and in this Word the Church, being a creature, has nothing to decree, ordain or make, but only to be decreed, ordained and made. For who begets his own parent? Who first brings forth his own maker? This one thing indeed the Church can do – it can distinguish the Word of God from the words of men; as Augustine confesses that he believed the Gospel, moved thereto by the authority of the Church, which proclaimed, this is the Gospel.

Ø  Not that the Church is, therefore, above the Gospel; if that were true, she would also be above God, in whom we believe because she proclaims that He is God. But, as Augustine elsewhere says, the truth itself lays hold on the soul and thus renders it able to judge most certainly of all things; but the truth it cannot judge, but is forced to say with unerring certainty that it is the truth.

Ø  The Church can give no promises of grace; that is the work of God alone. Therefore she cannot institute a sacrament. But even if she could, it yet would not follow that ordination is a sacrament. I therefore admit that ordination is a certain churchly rite, on a par with many others introduced by the Church Fathers, such as the blessing of vases, houses, vestments, water, salt, candles, herbs, wine, and the like. No one calls any of these a sacrament, nor is there in them any promise. In the same manner, to anoint a man's hands with oil, or to shave his head, and the like, is not to administer a sacrament, since there is no promise given to those things; he is simply prepared, like a vessel or an instrument, for a certain work.

Ø  Christ ordained the apostles to the priesthood. thus, indispensable duty of priests to read the canonical hours.

Ø  In short, the sacrament of ordination has been and is a most approved device for the establishing of all the horrible things that have been wrought hitherto and will yet be wrought in the Church. Here Christian brotherhood has perished, here shepherds have been turned into wolves, servants into tyrants, churchmen into worse than worldlings.

Ø  For thus it is written in 1 Peter 2:9, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a priestly kingdom." Therefore we are all priests, as many of us as are Christians. But the priests, as we call them, are ministers chosen from among us, who do all that they do in our name. And the priesthood is nothing but a ministry, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 4:1, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God."

Ø  It follows from this that whoever does not preach the Word, called by the Church to this very thing, is no priest at all. And further, that the sacrament of ordination can be nothing else than a certain rite of choosing preachers in the Church.

Ø  It was not enough for this hypocrisy and error to forbid bigamy, viz., the having of two wives at the same time, as it was forbidden in the law, and as is the accepted meaning of the term; but they have called it bigamy if a man married two virgins, one after the other, or if he married a widow. If one have defiled a thousand harlots, or ravished countless matrons and virgins, or even kept numerous Ganymedes, that would be no hindrance to his becoming bishop or cardinal or pope. Moreover, the Apostle's word, "the husband of one wife," (1 Timothy 3:2) must be interpreted to mean, "the prelate of one church," and this has given rise to the incompatible benefices." At the same time the pope, that munificent dispenser, may join to one man three, twenty, one hundred wives – I should say churches – if he be bribed with money or power – I should say, moved by godly charity and constrained by the care of the churches.

Ø  But every Christian is anointed and sanctified with the oil of the Holy Spirit, both in body and soul, and in ancient times touched the sacrament with his hands no less than the priests do now. But today our superstition counts it a great crime if the laity touch either the bare chalice or the corporale; not even a nun who is a pure virgin would be permitted to wash the palls and sacred linens of the altar. O God! how the sacrosanct sanctity of this sacrament of ordination has grown and grown. I anticipate that ere long the laity will not be permitted to touch the altar except when they offer their money.

Ø  what we call the priesthood is a ministry. I cannot understand why one who has been made a priest cannot again become a layman; for the sole difference between him and a layman is his ministry. Of this I will write more, and more tellingly, as soon as I perceive that the above has displeased my friends the papists.

The Roman Papacy- Three walls

Martin Luther specifically distinguishes the pastoral office from that priesthood that can be attributed to every baptized person. According to Luther's impressive polemic. had three walls around them, “by means of which they have protected themselves up until now, so that no one can reform them. which has resulted in Christendom as a whole having fallen horribly.”“

The first wall: when one tries to press against the Romanists with temporal might. they respond that temporal powers have no rights against her; much rather, spiritual power is on a higher level than temporal power.

The second wall: if one sets out to convince by means of the Holy Scripture, they respond in opposition that no one besides the pope has the right to interpret the Bible.

The third wall: if one threatens them with calling a council. they invent the answer that no one can call for a council except the pope.” In response to this. Luther demonstrates the correctness of his concept of the general priesthood.

Thus One notices that pope, bishop, priest, and people in the Cloisters are or signed to the spiritual estate, whereas princes, lords, those who work with their hands and in the fields are assigned to the temporal estate. which is indeed a fine fabrication and distortion. And yet no one ought to let himself be intimidated thereby.

Luther dismantles the Sacramental system

Luther discusses and dismantles the medieval sacramental system. In a measured but powerful way, Luther subjects each of the seven medieval sacraments (baptism, eucharist, penance, confirmation, marriage, ordination, and extreme unction) to the critique of God’s Word and concludes that “there are, strictly speaking, but two sacraments in the church of God – baptism and the bread. For only in these two do we find both the divinely instituted sign and the promise of forgiveness of sins”.

Ordination is not a Sacrament

 “The priest [i.e.. the believer] is not the same as the elder or the minister [i.e., the Officeholder]; that one is born [in baptism, through water and the Spirit]; this one is made so [by means of the vocational to exercise the other” Clearer still: “It is true that all Christians are priests. but not all are pastors. For in addition to the fact that one is a Christian and a priest. he must also have an other and a role that he is instructed to perform in the church. The call and the command makes one a pastor and preacher?”  It is thus clear in what way ordination to the pastoral office, without prejudice as regards its importance and seriousness, is not a sacrament according to a Lutheran understanding.

Luther Rejected Medieval notions[3]

As far as ordination was concerned, Luther rejected all medieval notions of its sacramental character as without biblical merit and devised merely to elevate the clergy over the laity. As was typical of the great Reformer, however, he did not simply abolish ordination but retained and reoriented it as a confirming rite of what the congregation had done in calling a pastor to preach the Word. For Luther, ordination by a bishop cannot confer new powers upon a man, for all Christians have the same status. But rather, “when a bishop consecrates, it is nothing else than that in the place and stead of the whole community, all of whom have like power, he takes a person and charges him to exercise this power on behalf of others”. And if such a man is deposed from office, he is no longer in that office but is “a peasant or a townsman like anybody else.”

Evangelical ordination

Luther also includes a brief description of an evangelical ordination, “Then let those who are leaders among you lay hands upon them, and certify and commend them to the people and the church and the community”. Obviously, this is no sacrament and bishops (probably clergy in general) are not necessary to this rite. Luther values the ceremony merely as a way of publicly confirming what the congregation has just done in its choice of a preacher.

Ordination- Means of Grace

Luther’s evangelical perspective is basic, and this is true also in his treatment of ordination. Luther express ordination as: “Of this sacrament the church of Christ knows nothing; it is an invention of the church of the pope”. Of course, Luther’s entire discussion is directed against the medieval, papal form of ordination. Nevertheless, it is also important to recognize that Luther’s argument amounts to a rejection of any rite of ordination as a sacrament, i.e., an outward sign to which God has attached a promise of forgiveness. Luther writes, “Not only is there nowhere any promise of grace attached to it, but there is not a single word said about it in the whole New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to put forth as a sacrament of God something that cannot be proved to have been instituted by God” In this connection, Luther rejects the notion that the Church can create her own sacraments, i.e., “new divine promises of grace…since the church is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” Luther dismisses such thinking by arguing that the promises make the Church and not the other way around, “The Word of God is incomparably superior to the church, and in this Word the church, being a creature, has nothing to decree, ordain, or make, but only to be decreed, ordained, and made”. It is impossible therefore to take a rite of the Church like ordination and turn it into a means of grace.

Luther Ordained Rorer

Luther had no use for ordination as an installation ceremony for newly called pastors. In fact, Luther himself ordained Georg Rorer into the office of the ministry and the Weimar edition of Luther’s works has printed some ordination rites used by Luther. So here in the Babylonian Captivity, Luther is quite willing to recognize ordination as “a certain rite by which the church chooses its preachers” but not as a sacrament. “I do not hold that this rite, which has been observed for so many centuries, should be condemned; but in sacred things I am opposed to the invention of human fictions. And it is not right to give out as divinely instituted what was not divinely instituted”.

Nature of office of ministry

Luther also addresses once again the nature of the office of the ministry. For one thing, he charges the Roman church with transforming ordination into a sacrament in order to exalt the clergy over the laity: Trusting the external anointing by which their hands are consecrated, in the tonsure and in vestments, they not only exalt themselves above the rest of the lay Christians, who are only anointed with the Holy Spirit, but regard them almost as dogs and unworthy to be included with themselves in the church. Hence they are bold to demand, to exact, to threaten, to urge, to oppress, as much as they please. In short, the sacrament of ordination has been and still is an admirable device for establishing all the horrible things that have been done hitherto in the church, and are yet to be done. Here Christian brotherhood has perished, here shepherds have been turned into wolves, servants into tyrants, churchmen into worse than worldlings. For Luther, therefore, a false view of ordination accompanies a false view of the ministry. Once again, in order to explain the nature of the true public ministry of the Church, Luther has recourse to his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, from among whom some are chosen to exercise a special service in the church. After citing 1 Peter 2:9 again, Luther says, “Therefore we are all priests, as many of us as are Christians. But the priests, as we call them, are ministers chosen from among us. All that they do is done in our name; the priesthood is nothing but a ministry”.

Ministry of the Word

Luther writes, “It is the ministry of the Word that makes the priest and the bishop” and again, “The priesthood is properly nothing but the ministry of the Word – the Word, I say; not the law, but the gospel”. Once again, Luther is emphatic that this ministry belongs in the first instance to every believer, “Let everyone…who knows himself to be a Christian, be assured of this, that we are all equally priests, that is to say, we have the same power in respect to the Word and the sacraments.” But just as emphatically, Luther goes on to say that “no one may make use of this power except by the consent of the community or by the call of a superior. (For what is the common property of all, no individual may arrogate to himself, unless he is called.).” And therefore, “this ‘sacrament’ of ordination is nothing else than a certain rite whereby one is called to the ministry of the church”. Thus he who has Christ has all things that are Christ’s, and can do all things”.

Christ is a priest

Although Luther still refers to baptism as the means whereby we are born again as God’s priests, he also points to Christ as the basis for a believer’s priesthood, “Christ is a priest, therefore Christians are priests. .That we are his [Christ’s] brethren is true only because of the new birth. Wherefore we are priests as he is Priest, sons as he is Son, kings as he is King”. Luther employs this argument in order once again to answer Rome’s claim that ordination creates an exclusive caste of priests in the Church. No, says Luther, all Christians are one with Christ  and that means they are priests in Christ simply by virtue of being Christian.

Conclusion

For Luther preaching the Word is the centerpiece of the Church’s ministry. Luther maintained that from a biblical perspective, one should emphasize function, whereby the clergy serve God’s people with His gracious promises in Christ by preaching the gospel through faith.Luther rejected all medieval notions of its sacramental character as without biblical merit and devised merely to elevate the clergy over the laity. he retained and reoriented it as a confirming rite of what the congregation had done in calling a pastor to preach the Word. Luther’s view of ordination is ceremonial and his view of the ministry is functional. Through faith and baptism, every Christian receives authority to preach and administer the sacraments; but to exercise this authority in other than emergency situations, the Christian community calls preachers to do this work for them. It is the work of the Word that is essential, for through the Word of the gospel, God saves sinners. Thus for Luther Ordination is not just an ecclesiastical ceremony but vocation.

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[1] Three Treatises, PP 224-236.

[2] http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-babylonian%20Captivitate/Martin%20Luther.htm#_Toc58730611 (accessed on 17.09.2107)

[3] Cameron A. MacKenzie, http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/mackenzieearlyluther.pdf (accessed on 19.09.2017).