Commentary on Martin Luther's Small Catechism, Part Five: Confession

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Commentary

In this deceptively simple part of the lessons, Luther conceals from the unlearned public the great storm of controversy which he touched off with his 95 Theses in 1517. His objective is "pastoral" in the sense of acting like a good pastor or Shepherd of his flock: to preserve what is helpful and good for people in the practice of Confession, and not to burden ordinary Christians with weight of history and conflict over "penance". But it is precisely here, with "penance", that the Reformation begins.

Up to this point in the Small Catechism, Luther has stuck close to his Catholic and Augustinian roots. With the Ten Commandments, The Lord's Prayer, and the Apostle's Creed, Luther stuck close to the the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and instructs people to avoid the heresies and errors condemned by the Popes and Church Fathers through the ages. Even Luther's discussion of Baptism sticks close to Catholicism --especially when compared to Anabaptist or other later Protestant teachings. Luther could avoid a break with the Church on Baptism because it was not one of the Sacraments which the Church taught must be administered by an ordained priest or bishop: the Church acknowledged that a baptism could be performed by any person. Baptism was effected by God's grace: a free gift directly from God. It was thus not subject to the corruption which had overtaken all the Sacraments involving a priest, that is, the theological error or lie that a person had to perform a certain task, assume a particular attitude, or pay a bribe, before a priest would deign to grant the favor of God.

The most blatant bribe taken for God's grace was the indulgence: a believer would pay a Church official a certain amount of money, and would be issued a certificate indicating that the believer's deceased relative would be spared a certain number of years in Purgatory before being admitted to Heaven. This was quite obviously a tax program whereby the Roman Curia raised cash for crusades and cathedrals. It was very unpopular with temporal authorities, especially in Germany, because it impoverished the the people and undercut secular tax programs.

Luther's objections to indulgences were not practical or nationalistic, but rather theological. As a university professor at the dawn of the Humanistic resurgence, Luther had approached the Bible through a close examination of the original Greek text. At Mark 1:15, Jesus begins his ministry by instructing us all to "repent and believe in the Gospel." See also Matthew 4:17 ("Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand").

The word translated as "repent" in Greek is μετανοειτε, or "metanoeîte", the imperative form of "metanoîa" (repentence, literally "re-thinking"). The scholars assembled by King James would later render the passage in 17th Century English which closely followed the Greek, thusly:

And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

In the popular Latin version of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, however, the text was “agite pœnitentiam,” meaning “Do penance”. In the Latin church the idea of repentance was externalized and identified with certain outward acts ("works") of self-abasement or self-punishment for the expiation of sin. A great variety of actions were recognized or deemed effective to "do penance", ranging from the extreme ascetic practices and self-flagellation, pilgrimages and donations to the Church, to simple prayer. Most extreme practices were discouraged, but all Christians were required to go before a priest, in private, to confess their sins and be instructed in what sort of penance would be sufficient. The Lateran Council (1215) made private confession mandatory for all Christians, at least once a year. The Church hierarchy could not refrain from abusing the confessional as an intelligence gathering tool, and encouraged regular confession, particularly among the rich and powerful, to ensure that every influential person in Christendom had a priest as a close confidant and regular advisor.

The distinction between doing penance, and the mental process Jesus required, which could be sub-literally rendered as "change your mind", hit the monkish Luther like a thunderbolt. Luther himself was prone to bouts of depression , which he called, in German, anfechtung (doubt, inner turmoil, pangs of conscience, despair) or, in Latin, tentatio (temptation, trial, affliction, tribulation). Whether it is the relatively dismal weather, or a genetic predisposition to depression or melancholia, I do not know, but it seems Northern Europeans are more prone to obsessive and neurotic self-examination and self-flagellation than Europeans of more sunny, Mediterranean climes, like the Romans or Greeks. Certainly Luther took Jesus' instructions concerning God's law, which always emphasized humility and the infinite character of God's commandments, very seriously and strictly, one might even say obsessively. No matter how good and how holy you were, Luther believed that Jesus demanded better. Thus, once Luther started down the path of reflecting on his own sins and shortcomings, it became a paralyzing spiral of despair and self-doubt for him, until a superior slapped him out of it.

In such a mood, Luther despaired of ever being able to "do" enough penance to avoid being judged by God and cast away from God's presence into eternal torment. In the practice of private confession, it seemed to Luther that he could never bring to mind and confess all his sins, and therefore never "do penance" for all of them. If, however, what Jesus required was not "doing" penitence but rather changing one's mind, and turning away from sin, this Luther thought he could do regularly and effectively.

To Luther, personally, this was Good News indeed, and a great weight off his shoulders. Luther pursued this epiphany regarding repentence to a rediscovery of Paul's teaching of justification by grace through faith, not by works. That is, our sins are forgiven by God as a free gift, not by virtue of anything we "do" or could do, simply because we believe God's promise that he will forgive our sins, and indeed, already has forgiven and redeemed us from sin, by becoming a man and dying on the Cross. This lead Luther to criticize the practice of indulgences. Luther announced his discovery in the very first of his 95 Theses:

Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying “Repent ye,” etc., intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.

Step by step, Luther attacked the notions that particular "works" or acts were required to receive forgiveness of sins. Eventually, in a series of tracts published in 1520, including his Address to the German Nobility, his Babylonian Captivity of the Church and On Christian Liberty, Luther made a complete and very public break with the Church, and was excommunicated when he refused to recant. He called for a redefinition of all the Sacraments, not as good works but as the means by which God's grace is received and recognized by the Christian people. By this definition many of the rites deemed "sacraments", i.e. confirmation, marriage, ordination and the anointing of the sick could not be understood as channels for God's forgiveness, though they might have a value in themselves. (For example, Luther demonstrated the value of marriage by repudiating his clerical vows and getting married to a former nun, Katherine von Bora. His papal opponents, by contrast, were generally celibate priests.). Luther limited the term "sacrament" to the two practices which Jesus expressly instructed his disciples to perform: Baptism and the Eucharist. He denied the role of the priest and/or the Church in bringing God's grace to the people (for example, by "transubtantiating" the bread and wine in the Eucharist, or by granting absolution in confession) instead insisting that grace comes freely and directly from God, through an interior, spiritual process. The role of Church leaders, in Luther's view, should be to teach, explain and comfort.

Here, in the Small Catechism, Luther makes no mention whatsoever of acts of penance which a confessor might instruct a confessee to perform. Gone are the stages of confession (contrition, oral confession, and satisfaction by good works), gone are the categories of sin as "mortal", "venal", and so forth. Rather, Luther emphasizes self-reflection: "Consider here your place in life according to the Ten Commandments."


The Small Catechism of Martin Luther

Part Five: Confession

Translated by Robert E. Smith (1994)

How One Should Teach the Uneducated to Confess

  • I.

    Q. What is confession?

    A. Confession has two parts:

    First, a person admits his sin

    Second, a person receives absolution or forgiveness from the confessor, as if from God Himself, without doubting it, but believing firmly that his sins are forgiven by God in Heaven through it.

  • II.

    Q. Which sins should people confess?

    A. When speaking to God, we should plead guilty to all sins, even those we don't know about, just as we do in the ``Our Father,'' but when speaking to the confessor, only the sins we know about, which we know about and feel in our hearts.

    Q. Which are these?

    A. Consider here your place in life according to the Ten Commandments. Are you a father? A mother? A son? A daughter? A husband? A wife? A servant? Are you disobedient, unfaithful or lazy? Have you hurt anyone with your words or actions? Have you stolen, neglected your duty, let things go or injured someone?


This text was translated in 1994 for Project Wittenberg by Robert E. Smith and has been placed in the public domain by him. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at: Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (260) 481-2123 Fax: (260) 481-2126

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