Martin Luther

The crisis

By the early 1500s, forgiveness had become something a person could appear to buy. Preachers sold indulgences with the promise of release from punishment after death. The Bible was read in Latin by clergy. Most believers depended entirely on someone else to tell them what God had said.

Martin Luther was a monk and a professor of Scripture, deeply aware of his own sin. In Romans and Galatians he found that a person is made right with God by faith, as a gift. On October 31, 1517, he posted ninety-five theses for debate in Wittenberg. Printers copied them, and within weeks they were being read across Germany.

What he did

He stood on a standard above himself. In 1521 Luther was summoned before the emperor at the Diet of Worms and told to take back his writings. He refused unless he could be shown his error from Scripture and plain reason, saying his conscience was captive to the Word of God. He was declared an outlaw.

He translated. Hidden at the Wartburg castle, Luther translated the New Testament into German in about eleven weeks. The complete German Bible followed in 1534. For the first time, a farmer or a shopkeeper could read the text for himself, or hear the text read at his own table.

He used the tool of his day. The printing press carried short pamphlets, sermons, and woodcut pictures faster and more cheaply than anything before. Luther wrote for ordinary readers, in short pieces, in their own language.

He equipped the home. The Small Catechism of 1529 was written so that the head of a household could teach the faith to the family. He also wrote hymns, so that people who could not read could still carry sound teaching in their memory.

What leaders can take from him

Put the tools in people’s hands. Luther did not ask people to trust him in place of the old authorities. He gave them the text. Shared leadership begins when people can see what the leader sees.

Teach deep things simply. A question, a short answer, and a way to practice at home. If a parent could not teach the lesson at dinner, the lesson was not finished.

Equip the people who equip others. The catechism was aimed at the person who would teach the next person. That is the pattern of 2 Timothy 2:2.

Stay correctable. Luther’s courage was real, and so were his faults. His harsh writings against the Jewish people late in life were a grave wrong. A leader who was right about one great thing still needs people who can tell him when he is wrong about another.