The city of Wittenberg in Germany has its unique place in the history of the Protestant Reformation as the city where Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church (Schlosskirche).
Yet one of Luther's greatest sins was his sin against the Jewish people; his anti-Semitism. On the side of one of the churches in Wittenberg is a plaque featuring the common medieval symbol of the Judensau (Jewish pig).
Martin Luther wrote about the plaque in his 1543 book, Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi:
Here in Wittenberg, in our parish church, there is a sow carved into the stone under which lie young pigs and Jews who are sucking; behind the sow stands a rabbi who is lifting up the right leg of the sow, raises behind the sow, bows down and looks with great effort into the Talmud under the sow, as if he wanted to read and see something most difficult and exceptional; no doubt they gained their Shem Hamphoras from that place.
It is a deliberate mixing of the holy and the profane on at least two levels.
Firstly, the image is a direct insult to the Jews, given that pigs are regarded as unclean, and for pigs to be suckling human beings made in the image of God is degrading to the infinite value God has placed in us.
Secondly, the very fact that such a plaque has been placed on the wall of a church is an abomination, for "what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14)
The plaque remains at the side of the Wittenberg parish church to this day, mark of a history of anti-Semitism which is a scandal upon the Lutheran Church, the Reformation and the whole of Christendom.
As I stood before the horrid image, I bound the spirit of anti-Semitism in the name of Jesus and repented for the sins of those who came before. On my lips were the words of that Jewish man - the Messiah, the Son of God - as He hung on the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34, KJV)
