A Mighty Fortress

On his 525th birthday, Martin Luther’s influence is still strong

By Rachel L. Wagley

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on Halloween in 1517, he hoped that his words would inspire reaction—though he was not so concerned with selling tickets like the plethora of “Prisoner of Azkajam” flyers. In fact, it was the selling of tickets—tickets out of purgatory and penance—that motivated Luther to respond to the corruption of the Catholic Church. The Theses discuss the Biblical validity of papal authority, indulgences, and the nature of penance. 

On November 10, Lutherans celebrated Martin Luther’s 525th birthday. As my father is a pastor in the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod, my family always noted his birthday. In Fall 2003, when the film Luther was released, my dad—who dislikes movies of any kind besides J.R.R Tolkien adaptations— accompanied everyone he knew to the theater. The film documents Luther’s life: a life that changed the course of religious and secular history forever. Although in 1517, Luther’s thinking had not fully matured, his eventual perspectives on repentance, grace, and personal relationships with Jesus Christ inspired the Protestant Reformation. 

Across the street from Johnston Gate, the doors of the Unitarian Universalist church scream that there is “liberation in worship.” And though Luther rolled over in his grave when the Unitarian denomination established its warped doctrine, his movement commenced the philosophy of liberation through worship. Luther’s legendary hymns celebrate the joy of believing in Christ and receiving God’s gift of life, as evidenced by the famous “Good Christian Men Rejoice!” According to James White in his book Protestant Worship, Luther’s hymns “became an important means of reshaping piety away from a penitential model to one that could rejoice in salvation as a free gift.” 

Luther denounced the extreme structure and authority that the Catholic Church force-fed to its followers. Christ’s grace is available to all and cannot be dictated through human doctrine and promises. The twenty-seventh thesis discredited the Church’s authority to claim that “as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.” The Bible decrees a lifestyle of repentance through the death and resurrection of Christ, not a penitence penalty-and-reward system established by mankind.

Few Catholics today debate the truths of the 95 Theses or defend the corruption of the Church before the Reformation. As 1 John 2:1 says, “If anybody does sin, we have one that speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” No true believer need purchase an indulgence for remission of sins, as Christ intercedes for our forgiveness. In the eighty-second thesis, Luther explains how Christians at the time questioned, “Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?” Pope Leo X instituted the Jubilee Indulgence to build the expensive basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

Ironically, it was Peter himself who preached Christ’s grace and forgiveness. 1 Peter 1:18-19 reads, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Luther’s reminder of salvation through grace universalized Christianity, making it accessible to the poor. 

The Protestant Reformation inspired those who were formally ostracized by religion. Luther’s writings, liturgies, and vernacular hymnody brought the teachings of Christ to the uneducated. Luther’s use of the printing press disseminated his teachings to the entire Western World. He refuted celibacy with his marriage to Katharina von Bora, a nun, on June 13, 1525. Earlier that year, he smuggled oppressed nuns out of a convent in a territory ruled by the anti-Reformation Duke George. He had a merchant make his regular delivery of herrings late at night and removed the nuns in the emptied barrels. After unsuccessfully attempting to find a husband for Katharina, Luther married her himself. In jest, Luther referred to himself as a “willing servant” to his wife, “Lord Kathe,” a strong-willed redhead. 

Luther rejected the hierarchy of Catholicism. Individuals shared a direct relationship with the Savior and institutions often harmed this relationship. Christ tells His children in Revelations 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Luther battled a Church that acted as a jealous doorman attempting to restrict access to salvation.

Luther transformed religion. A small-town nobody pitted against the most powerful man of his day, the Catholic pope, Luther was hardly guaranteed success. Yet his renovation yielded a Christ for the poor, salvation for the broken, and grace for the masses.