Two years before the marriage discussions in Poland, Johan Hirschberg, a young Swiss shepherd, leaned against a solitary tree that rose from the middle of a verdant meadow in the heart of the Alps. Not far from where he sat, the great snow-capped peak of Hirschberg Mountain loomed, a forbidding tower of granite and ice. A small herd of goats grazed nearby while their kids gamboled in the green grass. From his vantage point, he could see the farms around his village clinging to the sides of the high valley that spread like a cobbled blanket toward the town of Basel.
A cool breeze soothed his brow, and the gentle bleats of the goats were a familiar language to him. The smell of the wildflowers that carpeted the meadow was a sweet perfume, and a thrush perched in the tree lifted a sweet song. An unsaddled mare stood near Johan, her bridle trailing in the long grass of the meadow and her long tail sweeping an occasional fly from her back.
Johan often came here to sit in quiet reverence and awe of God’s creation. Here he felt as though his soul was sending roots into the heart of the towering peaks of the Swiss Alps. His father, Samuel, had come to this valley fleeing the peasant’s revolt in Galacia. He had taken a new name from the mountain and Johan had been the first of his family born a Hirschberg.
He heard a rustle in the brush behind him, and as he turned, a magnificent red stag with wide antlers jumped from the trees and ran straight through the herd of goats, scattering them like leaves in a windstorm. Moments later, his father, crossbow in hand, and their Laufhund hunting dog burst from the same thicket. Both were panting.
“Johan, did you see the stag?” Samuel asked. “Where did it go?”
Johan pointed. “There, Papa.” The deer’s tail waved like a flag just before it disappeared over a rise.
Between breaths, Samuel said, “I nearly had him. If Adolphus had not barked, I would not have missed my first shot.” He glared at the dog. Adolphus whined and cowered at his master’s feet.
Samuel relented and leaned over to pet the dog. “Das, ist, Adolphus, ganz richtig. I, too, almost shouted, when I saw him. One of these days...”
He took the arrow from his bow and sat in the grass beside his son. “Something on your mind, Johan? You only bring the goats this far up when you are thinking about something.”
“Yes, Papa. What David taught at the meeting last night… I have thought much on it today, and I know he is right.”
Samuel nodded. “I agree, but it is strange to receive words that, even while they sound harsh in your ears, ring true in your heart.” He took off his leather jacket and used the sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow.
“All these years we have obeyed, without question, the Catholic Church’s rules. Our family has faithfully attended Mass, we have prayed for those we assumed were in purgatory, and we paid indulgences to escape our sins. Then Martin Luther...” He shook his head.
“But what we did had nothing to do with Christ, did it, Father? I mean... Christ paid for every sin on the cross. Last night David said Luther teaches that we are justified by faith and faith alone. We need not be the priests’ slaves and pay them money for every wrong thing we do, while they live in wealth and comfort. We are free from the moment we place our trust in the Lord.”
Samuel looked both ways as if someone might be listening. “Yes, what Luther says is true, but truth does not make the priests happy. Many people are being persecuted for following the German.”
“I know, Papa, but must not a man stand firm for the truth, even though it may cost him everything? That’s what David said last night. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must bear the same cross our Lord bore, even unto death.”
Samuel stared across the valley. At last he spoke. “You are only thirteen but you are wise beyond your years, Johan. The mountain gives you strength and the pure air gives you a strong mind. But never forget the Catholics hate the Lutherans. Much trouble will come as Luther’s teaching spreads. It is difficult to understand.”
Johan picked at the grass while he thought. At last he spoke. “David said the priests should not baptize infants.”
“That is hard, Johan. I can see the wisdom in it, but the church...”
“Should we not wait until we are old enough to understand what following Christ means? I know this is right. But why do they persecute people for accepting such a simple teaching?”
“It is much to ponder.” Samuel rubbed his jaw. “I am not yet old, my son, but I am set in my ways. I will need to hear this new truth many times before I understand it.”
“Will we go to the meeting again tonight then, Papa?”
“Yes, Johan, though this teaching will bring trouble, for us and for others who accept it. But, as you say, we must stand for the truth. I will listen again. Almost this man persuades me.”
“But for now, Johan…” Samuel rose to his feet. “Will you not help me run that stag to earth? He was in the garden again today, eating our cabbages. Your mama will not be quiet until I hang the thief in the tree beside the door.”
“Yes, Papa, I will go with you. The goats will find their own way home. Lisle, come.”
The horse raised its head and nickered and then came to Johan’s side and stood patiently while Johan rose. Samuel smiled and shook his head. “Such a way you have with horses, Johan.”
Johan grasped the mare’s mane and swung up on her back.
“She is more than a horse, Papa. She is my friend.”
Johan stood at the back of the small barn, listening to the speaker from Basel. Torchlight flickered against the walls as the speaker taught from the Scriptures. After years of Catholic dogma and the priests’ insistence that Jesus’s work was an incomplete one, this man’s teachings blew through his heart like a fresh wind off a glacier. Men and women listened intently. Here and there small children sat quietly or slept in their parent’s arms.
“While not worshipping the Bible itself,” David was saying, “for that would be idolatry, we accept the Scriptures as the authoritative Word of God. The Word must always guide believers.”
Heads nodded in affirmation.
“Those of us who reject infant baptism are called Anabaptists. We derive our understanding of Christ from the Word alone, and we have a deep commitment to follow Jesus’s teaching in every part of our lives. Such a view runs counter to notions that the commands of Jesus are too difficult for ordinary believers or that Jesus’s significance lies only in providing heavenly salvation.”
He lifted his Bible. “God’s Word tells us the salvation of the soul is part of a total transformation that begins in this life. When we place our faith in him, our spirits, souls and bodies are forever changed.
“And now,” David continued, “I want you to know how Anabaptists differ from other Christians. For many of us, following Christ’s command to love one another is not optional. We renounce violence in all human relationships. We base this view on Jesus’s words when he said ‘But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ Peace and reconciliation—the way of love—are at the heart of the gospel. God gave his followers this ethic not as a point to ponder, but as a command to obey. The way of love was costly for Jesus, and it will be costly for his followers. The way of peace is a way of life.”
Johan folded his arms. The words sounded right, but to apply the teaching—that would be difficult. Priests encouraged secular authorities to use force to control outbreaks of the “heresy” spreading from Germany. Not that long ago, German aristocrats had slaughtered thousands of peaceful peasants for adhering to Protestant beliefs.
No, that would be too hard a way to live.
The door flew open and the man who had been standing guard rushed into the room. “Soldiers are marching up the mountain. I can see their torches. We must all leave and leave now.”
The people in the room gathered their children and bolted out the door. In seconds, the only ones left were Johan, his father, and David, the speaker. Samuel took David by the arm. “Our house is up the mountain. You can rest there and tell us more of your teaching.” He smiled at the look of doubt on David’s face. “The soldiers will not come to our home. It is too far for lowlanders.”
Samuel lifted a torch from the wall while Johan doused the other torches in a bucket of water by the door.
“Come quickly now. The soldiers must not find you here, Brother David.” Samuel hurried Johan and David from the barn and up the mountain.
Later that night, the Hirschberg family sat around the kitchen table—Johan, his father, Samuel, his mother, Mareili and his younger sister, Annalisa. David, the teacher from Basel, sat in the place of honor at the head of the table. Outside, the wind had picked up. Johan could hear the first raindrops hit the roof as a summer storm blew in off the peaks.
Samuel smiled. “We thank God for this providential storm. It will drive the soldiers off the mountain. By now, they’re on the way back to their warm barracks in Basel.”
The Anabaptist teacher smiled and refused another helping of cheese and bread that Johan’s mother offered. “I have met your sister, Elspeth, in Basel, Brother Samuel. She was one of the first to agree to our beliefs.”
“I received a letter from her about her and Hans’s new beliefs.” Samuel nodded. “I get the impression she is preaching to everyone who will listen, which worries me. Things are so uncertain now.”
Johan looked up from his meal. “I am proud of Tante Elspeth. She is not afraid. I want to be like her.” He turned to David. “Tell us more, David. I want my mother and sister to hear your words.”
“I am happy to speak the truth.” David smiled. “One thing we know for certain is that the church, the body of Christ, has only one head. Jesus is lord of his church, and we are his body. We put aside racial, ethnic, and class distinctions and those between men and women because the unity and equality of the body sets them at naught.
“As the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans, we are all equal in Christ Jesus. Whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, we are one in Christ Jesus.”
Johan’s mother smiled and shook her head. “This may be the most difficult part of your teaching, Brother David, this part about no difference between men and women. It is freeing for me but will be hard for most men to receive.”
After Brother David had retired, Samuel and Johan remained before the fire. Samuel took out his pipe and lit it. “I am sure what our guest says is true, Johan, and I believe du leiber Gott has shown us the way. Tomorrow, I will tell David that I and my house will follow the new way he speaks of.”
They sat in silence, watching the fire die to ash. Finally, Samuel rose. “I have much to do tomorrow, my son, as do you. You should take your rest.”
“I will come soon, Papa. I want to think on these things a while longer.”
Samuel left but Johan remained long into the night, puzzling over the things David had taught. When the gray of first light was creeping into the room, Johan stood and stretched. He slipped out the door and walked down the path and into the small barn behind the house. The mare nickered in the dark as he brought her some grain. She nuzzled against him and he whispered to her. “I am afraid, Lisle. I think our peaceful life is about to change... forever.”