I’ve started working on book 14: Martin Luther’s Pastoral Counseling: Counseling Under the Cross.
I thought I’d share a snippet from chapter 5, “Gospel-Centered Comfort for Suffering.” We often think of Luther applying the gospel to our sin—which he certainly does. However, Luther also compassionately applies the gospel to our being sinned against—our suffering in a fallen world.
To provide a taste of Luther’s sustaining comfort for suffering, I’m serving up a two-course appetizer in today’s blog post. Course 1: the introduction to chapter 5. Course 2: the conclusion to chapter 5. Enjoy!
Introduction: Gospel Consolation
On January 3, 1530, Luther wrote to Conrad Cordatus, pastor in Zwickau, to congratulate him on the birth of a son. Less than three months later, on April 2, 1530, Luther wrote again to Cordatus, this time to grieve with him over the death of his son.
My dear Cordatus: May Christ comfort you in this sorrow and affliction of yours. Who else can soothe such a grief? I can easily believe what you write, for I too have had experience of such a calamity, which comes to a father’s heart sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the marrow. But you ought to remember that it is not to be marveled at if he, who is more truly and properly a father than you were, preferred for his own glory that your son—nay, rather his son—should be with him rather than with you, for he is safer there than here. But all of this is vain, a story that falls on deaf ears, when your grief is so new. I therefore yield to your sorrows. Greater and better men than we are have given way to grief and are not blamed for it.
These compelling words of consolation capture the essential principles we learn from Luther about gospel-centered comfort. Luther compassionately journeys with Cordatus, entering his earthly story of suffering. Luther empathizes with Cordatus’ honest struggle by sharing how he felt when his daughter, Elizabeth, died at seven months. In doing so, Luther gives Cordatus permission to grieve without guilt. Cordatus does not have to feel “un-Christian” in grief because Luther and other people greater than they have grieved deeply. And Luther points Cordatus to Christ—the Ultimate Comforter.
Outlining essential principles can cloud that fact that Luther the master pastor understood that soul care was a complex, messy, relational process, not a rote, linear progression. For example, when Luther says that he “yields to his grief,” he recognizes that truth, no matter how true (that this precious boy is now in the hands of his heavenly Father), cannot always be immediately heard and internalized. The Christian calling to grieve with hope does not obliterate the need for grief; it expects and respects the grief process. The companion phrase, “that fall on deaf ears,” likewise demonstrates the multifaceted journey of grief and the importance of timing in the offer of comfort.
Conclusion: Timeless Truth for Life and Ministry Today
If we made a movie of Luther’s letters of sustaining counsel, there are several scenes we would not see. We would not see Luther wagging his finger as he shamed people saying, “If you really trusted Christ you wouldn’t be experiencing grief!” We would not see Luther shoving people from behind as he rushed them and pushed them toward the cross.
There are also several scenes we would see. We would view Luther weeping with those who weep as he cried out, “It’s normal to hurt. Of all people, Christians can grieve the most candidly as they face their loss with integrity.” We would view Luther walking side by side with people as he patiently journeyed with them toward the Christ of the cross. We would hear Luther sharing, “I get it. I’ve been there. There have been times I’ve begun to turn my back to God in doubt. In those moments, I needed a Christian to be ‘Jesus with skin on’ by entering my pain and slowly helping me to turn my face back to the face of God.”
We can encapsulate Luther’s practice or methodology of sustaining in tweet-size fashion:
The human comforter is a sorrow sharer who points people to the supreme
Comforter by incarnationally entering the sufferer’s earthly story.
Through sustaining soul care, we help one another to grasp the reality that there is comfort in Christ alone.
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