Discourses at the Communion on Fridays

[ 12 ] Luke 7:47

[ 12 ] Luke 7:47 • Prayer Lord Jesus Christ! You who certainly did not come to the world in order to judge,1 yet by being love that was not loved, you were a judgment upon the world. We call ourselves Christians, we say that we know no one to go to except you—alas, to whom should we then go2 when precisely by your love the judgment also comes upon us that we love little? To whom, oh hopelessness, if after all not to you; to whom, oh despair, if you really would not receive us mercifully, forgiving our great sin against you and against love, we who sinned much by loving little! Luke 7:47: But [the one] to whom little is forgiven loves little.3 Attentive listener, at the altar the invitation, “come here all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest,”4 is indeed given. The single individual then accepts the invitation; he goes up to the altar. After that he comes back, leaving the altar—then there is another text, it could be inscribed over the church door inside, not to be read by those who are entering the church but only by those who are leaving the church, this text: “[the one] to whom little is forgiven loves little.” The first text is the altar’s invitation; the other is the altar’s justifica1 . See John 3:17–19, 12:47. 2. See John 6:68. 3. Cited from the 1819 Danish edition of the New Testament, with the capitalization of “but” added and the comma after “forgiven” left out. See SKS K12:365, line 11. 4. See Matthew 11:28. Part 4 128 tion, as if it were said there: “If at the altar you were not sensible of the forgiveness of your sins, every one of your sins, then it is due to yourself ; the communion is without blame, the blame is yours, because you only loved little.” Oh, just as it is a difficult matter in praying rightly to be able to come to the Amen—for the one who has never prayed it seems easy enough, easy enough to be finished quickly; but for the one who felt a need to pray and began to pray, it surely has happened that it continually seemed to him as if he had something more upon his heart, as if he could neither get everything said nor get it all said as he wished it said, and thus he does not get to the Amen—likewise it is also a difficult matter rightly to receive the forgiveness of sins at the altar. There the gracious forgiveness of all your sins is pledged to you. If you hear it rightly, take the forgiveness of all your sins quite literally, then you will be able to go away from the altar, divinely understood, as light of heart as a newborn child, upon whom nothing, nothing weighs heavily, thus even lighter of heart insofar as much has weighed upon your heart. At the altar there is no one who would spare you even the least of your sins, no one—if you yourself do not do it. So cast them all away from you; and the recollection of them—lest you retain them in that; and the recollection of having thrown them away—lest you retain them within yourself in that. Cast it all away from you; you have nothing at all to do except, believing, to cast away from yourself and to cast away from yourself what weighs heavily and burdens. What could be easier! Ordinarily the difficult thing is to have to take burdens upon oneself, but to dare, to have to cast away from oneself! And yet how difficult! Yes, even rarer than the one who shouldered all burdens, even rarer is the one who accomplished the apparently very easy task, after having received the assurance of the gracious forgiveness of his sins and the pledge of it, of feeling entirely relieved of every—even the least sin, or of every—even the greatest sin! If you could peer into hearts you would no doubt see how many go up to the altar burdened, groaning under the heavy burden; and when they then leave there, if you could peer into hearts you would possibly see that basically there was not a single one who went away entirely relieved, and sometimes you would perhaps see that there was one who...