If you really, really want to read all 95 Theses from 31 October 1517 to see what all the fuss was about, you can find them easily enough. Today – which some in the Church mark as Reformation Day – I’m just going to post the first 3; plus a few lines from Martin Luther’s later commentary on number 3. Here goes:

"Out of love and zeal for truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following theses will be publicly discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the reverend father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology and regularly appointed Lecturer on these subjects at that place. He requests that those who cannot be present to debate orally with us will do so by letter. [There actually was no formal debate following.] In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

"1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

"2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.

“3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh.”

Then from Luther’s August 1518 explanation of the Theses, some of his comments on the 3rd Thesis:

“It follows that the three parts of satisfaction (fasting, prayer, and alms) do not pertain to sacramental penance… But since these satisfactions are related to evangelical penance, fasting consists of all chastenings of the flesh apart from the choice of food or difference in clothes. Prayer includes every pursuit of the soul, in meditation, reading, listening, praying. The giving of alms includes every service toward one’s neighbor. Thus by fasting a Christian may serve himself, by prayer he may serve God, and by the giving of alms he may serve his neighbor… Therefore all mortifications which the conscience-stricken man brings upon himself are the fruit of inner penance, whether they be vigils, work, privation, study, prayers, abstinence from sex and pleasures, insofar as they minister to the spirit. The Lord himself showed forth these fruits of the spirit as did all his saints.”

[I especially like that in his next to last sentence he includes “study” as a “mortification.” Something to think about there!]

Luther, Martin. “Ninety-Five Theses, or Disputation in the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” (1517) Luther’s Works Vol. 31. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957, page 25;

Luther, Martin. “Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses, or Explanations of the Disputation Concerning the Value of Indulgences” (1518) Luther’s Works Vol. 31. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957, pages 86-87.