Preaching and the Reformers

When Ulrich Zwingli mounted the pulpit in the great Grossmunster Cathedral in Zurich, Switzerland, on Jan. 1, 1519, he began his preaching ministry by opening up to Matthew 1:1. Thereafter he preached consecutively through this book and others that followed. He had previously discovered the treasures in Erasmus' newly published Greek New Testament and he believed his people needed to be fed the Word of God in this manner, rather than the Roman Catholic tradition of prescribed lectionary readings, accompanied by homilies often unrelated to the text. Like Martin Luther, he believed the Word of God had truth and power within itself to meet the spiritual needs of the people. Zwingli and other Reformers replaced the sacrifice of the Mass with the preaching pulpit as the primary source of spiritual life and power as the Word of God was proclaimed. The restoration of Biblical preaching by these great Reformers thus began.