[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters!With the Word of God one is often like with people one knows: we often see each other, meet each other, greet each other, have known each other for a long time. But once I meet such an acquaintance in such a way that I can start a serious, deep conversation with him, then I begin to really get to know him, and then I wonder how much richness and depth I have never known in this man!
So it is with the Word read. We have heard it so many times: "What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?" (Mt 16,26) I think we are all familiar with this Word. But have we ever immersed ourselves in this Word and grasped the deadly seriousness and infinite richness it contains? Have we ever felt what an unheard of greatness is at stake? On the one side is the world - not only the sinful world, not only the material world, the sensual world, but the whole world, without any limitation or delimitation. On the other side, the soul - not all souls, but only one soul, only mine, only yours. And even here it is not about the whole soul, but only about some damage, some scratching of the soul, just as a porcelain ornament is damaged: it cracks in a barely visible way, but it can still remain in the room to decorate it. What a contrast Jesus is expressing here: the whole world on one side, and on the other a wounded human soul. It is well known that Jesus loved to speak in paradoxes. It could almost be said that he deliberately exaggerated the contrasts in order to give greater emphasis to a truth. For example, when He says that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19,24); or, for example, that even the hairs of our head are numbered (cf. Lk 12,7). So Jesus is indeed convinced that a small injury to the human soul is worse than the loss of the whole world.
This seemingly exaggerated claim can be proven. Recall the story of Jesus' temptation. Satan only asked for a very small place in Jesus' soul, only to get him to turn stones into loaves of bread - a miracle for individual interest that would have been a barely visible deviation from the divine line, a barely visible crack in Jesus' soul. But Jesus fights it to the end. And when the tempter offers the whole world to Jesus, he drives him away: 'Depart from me, Satan! So if Satan values that little crack in the soul so highly that he is willing to pay a whole world for it, then surely that soul is worth far more than the price offered for it! Here, in the wilderness, at the very beginning of his redemptive career, Jesus experienced the great truth that "what profit is it to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
Let us not think that Jesus was free from such tempting thoughts, oh no, in fact that was His very struggle. The biblical story we read tells of such a case. In the story, Jesus consciously and with very firm steps moves towards Calvary. When he was at the height of his glory, so to speak, when his disciples had just recognised in him the Christ, the Son of God, when even his enemies did not know what to do with him: Jesus had already begun to tell his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer a lot from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day rise again. Then Peter confronts Jesus with his human anxiety: 'God save me, Lord, this cannot happen to you!' - Behold, just a hair's breadth of tempting thought, and the glass bell, hitherto ringing crystal clear, would have cracked in a thin, barely visible way. And if there is a crack in the glass bell - however small the crack - it will never ring quite clear again. Indeed, the greatest loss of all is damage to one's soul. This applies not only to the soul of Jesus, who was sent by God with the special commission to be a heavenly glass bell on earth, to ring the crystal-clear sounds of the kingdom of God into the world and to make our souls sing with it. It is true not only for Jesus, but for all of us, that the soul is worth more than the whole world.
My Christian Brothers and Sisters, this statement sounds like a pious speech that people have become accustomed to hear from the priest's mouth from the pulpit. But what happens when it is not just a phrase, but a reality? What happens if it is not just a generalisation, but also applies to me? It means that then there is something in me that is so precious and valuable that I am truly richer than someone who can hold the whole world. The whole world - that's an awful lot of value! It has everything we ever dreamed of in our wildest dreams: wealth, respect, love, health, beauty, power, pleasure and so much more. Looking back on our lives now, we are sad to see that the price was not the whole world, oh no - it was something much lower, much more miserable, for which we have often risked our souls! A little nerve-play, a little unleashing of animal instincts, and there went our innocence, our purity. We bought a little comfort for ourselves with a lie, a little business profit with a procedure that barely exceeded the bounds of decency. We have paid for an amusement with remorse, a joke with annoyance. We are outraged when we read in the newspaper that a despicable villain was able to murder an old, defenceless woman in order to steal a few forints from her. He is capable of murder for a very small amount of money! But are we not risking much more when our souls are harmed for a few forints, or for something even more worthless? Let us remember that if a man loses his money, he has lost something; if he loses his life, he has lost much - but if he loses his soul, he has lost everything!
Jesus' main concern in life was to keep his soul pure. If something in the world tempted him, he would match that something to his soul, and he knew immediately what he had to do. We often treat our souls carelessly, thinking that our clothes are not clean anyway: a few more spots or seals don't really matter! And so our clothes become dirtier and dirtier, the vitality of our souls diminishes, the sound of the glass bell becomes more and more faded as the crack in it penetrates deeper and deeper. No wonder then if our religion does not satisfy us, if our prayers are not answered, if there is no peace and happiness in our souls. For we are willing to sacrifice our highest value for something trivial. Though we know well that our souls are eternal, do we show any sign of having a value that the whole world cannot equal? And let us remember well: yes, we do have such unheard-of value, each one of us individually! We possess a richness that no other richness can equal.
But with wealth comes obligation. Anyone who is entrusted with such wealth as we are should take much better care of himself, should simply live differently. If a bank clerk is entrusted with hundreds of thousands of pounds to take somewhere, he will certainly not be walking around the fairgrounds with the value entrusted to him. Or if he has an expensive crystal vase in his hand, he won't take it out into the crowd or slip on the ice. But we, who have been entrusted by God with an immeasurable value - an eternal soul - walk calmly everywhere, unafraid in the crowds of the fair or on the many flat roads. We are on our guard against all pickpockets, but we open our doors to the most dangerous thieves who seek to steal our souls, and who then take advantage of our carelessness! For he who has once lost his innocence can be tortured to death and never regain it. A sea of tears have been wept for this in the world - in vain. And the soul! Is there any ransom for it in the world?
There is a German proverb which says that if a man wants something at all costs, he will go after it like the devil after a poor soul. Indeed: there is no more tempting prey for Satan than the human soul. Therefore, Satan will pay any price. That is why I can never buy back my soul. What can a man give in exchange for his soul?- the only answer can be nothing, absolutely nothing! If it were not for someone who could pay a much higher price, who could offer a more valuable ransom, we would be irredeemably lost. Behold, that is why he had to die on the cross and go down to hell: because a lesser price would not have been enough for a human soul! Jesus paid a very great price for me, His blood was the price of my soul. "For God did not redeem us with vain things, with silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of His lamb without blemish and spotless, Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:18-19) Do you realize, my brother, how much you have cost God, and how much I have cost God? Behold, so precious and so precious is this soul here in us!
I am convinced that Christianity remains so desperately ineffective and ineffective in people's lives because modern man takes absolutely no account of his own soul or of the soul of another man. In other words, he healed his soul first, and only afterwards he said, "Arise and walk. Jesus saw very clearly that where the spiritual sickness is healed, the physical sickness no longer plays any part. We are of the opposite opinion: I think that if the majority of the sick and suffering were given the choice between forgiveness of sins or physical healing, the majority would choose the latter without a second thought, and would postpone forgiveness in the hope that there would be another opportunity later. This shows how little we take our souls seriously.
The only way to truly understand the whole of Jesus' ministry, His teaching, His actions, His death, is to remember for a moment that He placed the value of the human soul above all else. For this soul He died on Calvary. If that is so, then I should take my own soul and the souls of others, and all the damage that can be done to them, deadly seriously! And then I cannot go on taking more care that a glass is not cracked than I do of my own soul or the souls of others."-If this be so, then we must see in every man the bearer of a soul of eternal worth, and whoever he may be, we must make him feel that we take him seriously for his soul. For this soul is a piece of God's eternal world, and we must therefore show it due reverence. We need to make the other person feel that we take the word of Jesus seriously and value the human soul above the whole world! So where the goods of one soul are at stake, the whole world must take a back seat.
It is for the good of souls that all the efforts of our Church, and especially the plan to build a worthy and suitable church house, are intended. My Christian brother, if you have understood the Word of God, you must also take part in this work. You must put your individual comfort and peace of mind before the cause of the 2,000 Reformed souls who are displaced from here, for of those 2,000 souls, one soul is more precious than the whole world! I am convinced that when our church house is built in the summer, the mere sight of this building will stir the spirit in many people. Many people who have not cared about their own souls will wonder and think to themselves: if my soul is taken so seriously and valued so highly by strangers, then my soul must be very, very precious!
Would that the Holy Spirit of God would convince us all of the great truth that "what profit is it to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Do you believe this, my Christian Brother? If you believe it, you will know what you must do!
Amen
Date: 20 March 1938.
Lesson
Mt 16.26