The Great Reformer was a pastor and a son too. We tend to forget that.
In his work as a Pastor to try and console the grieving or the dying Luther made a remarkable statement that Jesus ‘became incarnate to comfort’. When his Mother is dying Luther wrote her……
You know the real basis and foundation of your salvation, on which you must rest your confidence in this and all troubles, namely Jesus Christ. . . . He says, ‘Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ If he has overcome the world, surely he has overcome the prince of this world with all his power. And what is his power but death? . . . But now that death and sin are overcome, we may joyfully and cheerfully listen to the sweet words, ‘Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ . . . He is the Conqueror, the true Hero, who in these words, ‘Be of good cheer,’ gives me the benefit of his victory. I shall cling to him. To these words and comfort I shall hold fast.1
1To Mrs John Luther, May 20, 1531: Letters, 33-36 (34) (WA Br 6.103-104).
