What is Reformation Day?

 

In exactly one week we will celebrate Reformation Day.  I preach this every year, Christians should have nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. So, here we are again.  If Christians want to celebrate a holiday on Oct. 31, then celebrate Reformation Day, it’s much more fitting for people who claim to follow Jesus,

What is Reformation Day?  I’m glad you asked.

A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31, 1517. Martin Luther, a monk and a scholar, had struggled for years with his church, the Roman Catholic Church. He had been greatly disturbed by the churches sale of indulgences and felt the church needed rehabilitation and he was just the monk to stage an intervention, so to speak.

A young bishop, Albert of Mainz was bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. This was against church laws because he was far too young for the office.  So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X.  Leo X greedily allowed his tastes to exceed his financial resources. In other words, he loved wealth and comfort.

When Albert appealed for a papal dispensation, Leo X was ready to deal. Albert, with the papal blessing, would sell indulgences for past, present, and future sins. All of this sickened  Luther. Can we buy our way into heaven? Luther had to speak out.

But why October 31? November 1 held a special place in the church calendar as All Saints’ Day. On November 1, 1517, a massive exhibit of newly acquired relics would be on display at Wittenberg, Luther’s home city. Pilgrims would come from all over, kneeling before the relics, kiss the feet of Jesus and Mary, and take hundreds, if not thousands, of years off time in purgatory. Luther could no longer keep silent. None of this seemed right.

Luther, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church. The 95 Theses sparked far more than a debate. The 95 Theses also revealed the church was far beyond rehabilitation. It needed a reformation. The church, and the world, would never be the same.

One of Luther’s 95 Theses simply declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That alone is the meaning of Reformation Day. The church had lost sight of the gospel because it had long ago papered over the pages of God’s Word with layer upon layer of tradition. Tradition always brings about systems of works, of earning your way back to God. It was true of the Pharisees, and it was true of medieval Roman Catholicism. Didn’t Christ Himself say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light?” Reformation Day celebrates the joyful beauty of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is Reformation Day? It is the day the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness. It was the day that began the Protestant Reformation. It was a day that led to Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and many other Reformers helping the church find its way back to God’s Word as the only authority for faith and life and leading the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It kindled the fires of missionary endeavors, it led to hymn writing and congregational singing, and it led to the centrality of the sermon and preaching for the people of God. It is the celebration of a theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural transformation.

So we celebrate Reformation Day. This day reminds us to be thankful for our past and to the Monk turned Reformer. What’s more, this day reminds us of our duty, our obligation, to keep the light of the gospel at the center of all we do.