“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Matthew 16:24

In his letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, Sir Isaac Newton stated, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Five hundred years earlier, Bernard of Chartres said the same thing this way: “We are like dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance—not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical height, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant stature.”

The truth remains: we are who we are because of the people who went before us. You know this to be true in your life as you think of your family who formed you and your mentors who showed you the path. You experience this yourself as the words of your mom come out of your mouth when you are raising your own kids. You are so much more than a glob of DNA, cells, and tissue. You are so much more than the sum of your parts. You stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.

Who modeled for you the manner in which you ought to live? How you treat people? How you respond when things don’t go your way? What you do when you get caught red-handed? Who showed you the ropes—not just the rules you need to follow but how you go deeper than following rules to flourish?

You stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before you. And your shoulders bear the responsibility of carrying the next wave of people too. This is what we do for those we love. This is one of the hallmarks of community: support, encouragement, and mentoring.

Yesterday, as a part of Reformation Sunday, we remembered Martin Luther and his ongoing legacy. His work, thinking, and effort did a great deal to reshape the church. He uncovered the hidden treasure of God’s grace; he was the first in almost 1,000 years to translate the Bible from the original languages of Greek and Hebrew—this time into the language of the German people. He spoke against the abuses of the church as it substituted the gospel of Christ with something else.

Luther removed the ‘and’ from the gospel. The church had fallen into selling a gospel that included Jesus+. It was important to love Jesus and celebrate His work, but you also needed to do these things. Believing in Jesus wasn’t good enough. You needed to believe in Jesus and follow these rules; give this amount; perform these religious duties. The gospel had been corrupted into a “Jesus and” gospel. Which is no gospel at all.

Luther spoke against this. He taught against this. He fought against the religious industrial complex. And he won. It started on October 31st, 1517.

But, he stood on the shoulders of the goose who went before him.

John Hus died 102 years prior to Luther’s hammer to nail on the church door at Wittenberg. There is a statue in his honor in the Old Town Square in Prague. On it is inscribed one of Hus’ quotes, roughly translated, “The truth prevails.” It was Hus who first spoke of many of the truths that are now attributed to Luther. He spoke of grace and a faith in Christ alone. Hus, a priest and professor, often preached in the language of the people. He advocated that Christ alone was the head of the church during a day when the Pope was considered as such as well. He was the frontrunner to the Reformation.

And Luther stood on his shoulders.

Condemned to death at the Council of Constance in 1415, Hus was burned at the stake. Prior to the fire being set, he made this bold declaration. “You may roast a goose now, but a hundred years from now a swan will arise that you will not silence.” In Czech, Hus means goose. And, 102 years later, Martin Luther rose to prominence with 95 talking points tacked onto the door.

Many paintings of Luther include a picture of a goose at his feet. He stands on Hus’ shoulders. And, we continue to stand on his.

“I hope, by God’s grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~ John Hus

I invite you to pray with gratitude for the way these giants of our faith were formed by others—such is the way of God.