In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.
 
Our constant temptation is temptation to unbelief.  That’s why Luther, in his explanation of the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, says that the petition, “Lead us not into evil” is a request that “God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.”  Our temptation isn’t  necessarily to sins of varying varieties, but to a particular sin, but to unbelief, to doubt that what God says is true, to no longer believe that God has our best interest in mind in all that He allows to come our way.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.
 
One of the most discussed lines in “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is the last phrase of the third stanza: “One little word can fell him.”  That “him” is the devil, but what is that “one little word?”  Many people have speculated through the centuries.  Jesus is the most popular answer.  It makes sense.  The Name of Jesus carries with it all that Jesus has done, so speaking the Name of Our Lord to the devil would certainly defeat him, because in Christ’s death is Satan’s undoing.  Fortunately Luther himself gives us the answer, although it is two different answers.  In a sermon from 1528 Luther explained that the “word” is actually a referent to the Word of God, and a lead-in to the fourth stanza, “The Word they still shall let remain…”  He said, “All ruthlessness is meant to fall upon Christ and His Gospel, so that the devil pours out all his wickedness and his power upon Christ and in Him becomes powerless, for the salvation and comfort of us who believe in Christ.  Thus they may drive back the devil with a single word and cast him down.  To the godless and unbelieving, the devil is a prince, indeed, a god of this world.  But to believers he is powerless.  When he hears a Christian speaking the Word with true faith, he falls down as if struck by a thunderclap” (AE 69:265).  But later in his life, Luther also said that the same “little word” is able to strike down both heretic and devil, and that word is “Devil, you lie” (AE 41:185-86).  In the case of today’s Gospel Reading, both answers are perfect and go hand-in-hand.