John Hus: A Courageous Witness to the Word
This festival-day message tells the story of John Hus, a pastor in Prague who challenged a corrupt church that kept worship and the Bible locked in Latin and out of reach for ordinary people. Hus’s insistence on preaching, printing Scripture, and providing hymnody in the language of the people helped give birth to the Moravian tradition of strong Christian education and personal engagement with God’s word. The message calls our congregation to open the Bible, test every teaching, and look to Jesus alone as the answer for sin and the center of our faith.
Transcript
Today is the day when we recognize the martyrdom of John Hus.
If you study church history and listen to the scholars, you will hear his name pronounced “Jan Hus,” in the Czech way. But most of us in America, especially in the South, say “John Hus.” John Hus was a pastor in the Catholic Church, serving at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague.
John was not happy that when his people came to church, they had no idea what was happening around them. Everything in the service had to be done in Latin. If you were from an affluent family and had been raised and educated in that tradition, you might know Latin. But everyday people had no idea what was going on.
They could not read the Bible, because it was all in Latin. They could not sing from the hymn book, because it was all in Latin. Because of that, people—not just in his congregation, but in churches all over—were being taken advantage of by the clergy.
Since they could not read the word of God for themselves, they did not know what Jesus had done to pay the price for their sin. A pastor could look at you—like I might look at Caleb—and say, “Caleb, you want forgiveness for talking bad about your grandma? Well, it’s going to cost you $50 a week for four weeks. Once you’ve paid that, your sin will be forgiven.”
The church had become crooked and corrupt. At that time there was only one church body; there were no denominations. So, John Hus stood up against that. He opposed the sale of indulgences. He opposed everything being kept in Latin. He began preaching in the native language of the people. He worked to have the Bible available in the native tongue. He produced hymnals in the native tongue. He did everything he could so that people did not have to depend solely on the word of the clergy to tell them how to get rid of their sin. Now they could see for themselves that Jesus was the answer.
The church authorities did not like that. They told him to change his ways or face the consequences. They invited Hus to come and appear before the pope. It was supposed to be a friendly trip, a safe-conduct: “No one will harm you. We’re going to work this thing out.”
Instead, he was arrested and jailed. He was ordered to recant his teachings, and he said, “I will not.” For that, he was burned at the stake.
His followers—the people in his church—feared for their lives and went underground for a number of years. Eventually they emerged again, and from those followers of Hus came what we know today as the Moravian Church. They carried forward the same conviction: that everyone should be able to recognize and know Jesus for themselves. That is why education has always been such an important part of the Moravian Church.
That is also why you hear me say all the time, “Don’t just take my word for it.” Look at the scripture while I’m preaching. Open your Bible and read it. If you do not, you open the door for wolves in sheep’s clothing to come in and tell you anything they want to tell you.
So today we celebrate our beginnings in a courageous man who was martyred for the cause of Christ. We mark this in our service of Holy Communion. And now you know why today is a festive day, and a special day, in the Moravian Church.