The Parable of the Sower is such a familiar story, one you’re no doubt well acquainted with. It’s easily remembered over time, and on the surface it seems so readily understood. Jesus even gives an explanation, so you might suppose the meaning should be obvious. And yet, the most crucial point of the Parable itself is the great difficulty with which the Word of Christ is understood at all.
One thing the Parable makes clear is that God’s Word is preached with reckless abandon, scattered to the four winds without prejudice. The Lord is not stingy with His Word. As Christ Jesus was crucified for the salvation of all people, so does His Word go out for all people without exception.
But the Parable is chiefly concerned with what happens to that Word in the hearts and lives of those who hear it. And that is where the difficulty starts in grasping the point at hand. Many want to make the success or failure of the crop depend upon the prior condition of the soil; which is to say, they want to make the success or failure of God’s Word depend upon those who hear it.
At face value, that sounds like an obvious interpretation. And yet, it’s another example of hearing the Word without understanding. The birds have flown off with the real meaning in their gullets.
What is it, then, that constitutes a genuine understanding of the Word of God? It is more than just knowing the facts about Jesus. As for that, a person could have the whole Bible memorized without really understanding any of it. But to understand the Holy Scriptures is to hear and believe God’s Word as the Gospel of Christ Jesus from start to finish. It all points to Him, to what He has done for you and all people, and to what He continues to do for and with His Church on earth.
Hearing His Word with understanding means repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins — knowing your sins and your unworthiness, and yet believing and trusting that the Lord has gotten forgiveness, life, and salvation for you by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and that He bestows these good things upon you, by His grace alone, through the preaching of His Gospel.
The fact is, no one understands the Word of Christ and His Gospel by their own reason or strength. Apart from the Spirit of Christ Jesus, it is never more than “facts” and “information,” which will not save you. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is never absent from the Word of Christ. He is actively present and at work — through that Word — to open up your heart and mind, and to give you the ears of faith. As Jesus says to His disciples, therefore, “Blessed are your ears, because they hear!”
It’s frustrating to admit, but there’s nothing you can do to make yourself or anyone else believe the Gospel. For yourself, you can only listen to the Word — and leave it to the Word to do its work. Likewise, for others, you can only sow the Word into their ears — and leave their hearing of it to the Holy Spirit. Those who do hear and understand, who believe the Gospel, are blessed to do so.
Of the great crowds that gathered around Jesus, there were many who heard His saving Word and yet bore no fruit. So, too, those who heard the preaching of St. Matthew and the other Apostles.
And there are likely some of you here today, who hear the Word of the Gospel in this preaching and Liturgy, but who will nonetheless relinquish that Word — and who will thus whither and die.
God grant, by His mercy, that it would not be so. God grant that each of you would continue to seek out His Word and the preaching of the Gospel, and that you would always hunger and thirst for the precious Sacrament of His Body and Blood. For it is only by these holy Seeds of His grace and mercy that His Word will survive and grow within your heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.
In the Parable at hand, do not wonder that so much Seed is wasted and lost. Instead, praise God that anything grows at all! For in spite of the soil and its enemies — in spite of the rockiness of our hearts, and the ravenous birds of Satan, and the weeds of the world — the Lord still brings forth a harvest from the Seed that He has sown. And that is truly a miracle of His divine grace.
Consider those various enemies that are lined up in force against your soil. And think of all the many ways they are working together to root out the Seed of God and get a foothold in your heart.
To begin with, there are those who never hear the Word of the Gospel at all — no doubt many who are closer to home than you prefer to think about. And that ought to bring a sobering sadness to the heart of every Christian. Perhaps even worse, there are those who do hear the Word of God in some sense, but for whom the message of the Gospel is twisted and distorted by false doctrine. In such cases, the Seed is contaminated to the point of being altogether lost. That is surely one of the primary ways whereby Satan and his “birds” snatch the Word away from those who hear it.
In some cases, a church body or a preacher distorts the Gospel into a new kind of legalism, which effectively destroys the Word and steals it from the hearers. In other cases, it is the Law of the Lord that is denied or downplayed, to the detriment of repentance, faith, and love. Elsewhere, the Law and the Gospel are rightly preached unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins, but those who hear are scandalized by the straightforward simplicity of that Word of the Cross, which is so contrary to all the “wisdom” of this world. It makes no sense, it does not sink in, and so it is rejected. It sits on the surface of the road, until the hungry birds come to snatch it away forever.
In the second place, it is a sad irony of life in this fallen world that, whether things are going well or poorly, you are pulled away from the Word and promises of God. As Jesus here says, the thorns that choke the growing Seed are both the anxieties of this age and the deceitful appeal of riches.
When the anxieties of your life are piled high — when everything is going wrong, and the weight of the world is heavy on your back — then you are tempted to conclude that God has abandoned you. His Word of the Gospel seems powerless to help, whereas the challenges are so demanding — and so you are choked away from your only real hope, which is in Christ Jesus, your Savior.
In much the same way, when everything seems to be going right — when you are blessed with food and drink and all that you need to support this body and life — when your family and friends and your possessions appear to be safe and secure — then you are tempted to lose interest in God, as though you did not need Him. You ignore Him and favor the false security of material things. His Word seems so pointless, His Gospel so unnecessary, because you see no need for anything. But in this way, also, you are choked away from real security, which is found only in Christ Jesus.
In the third place, it is easy to see how the world and your flesh cooperate to strip away the Seed of Christ from your heart and life. By your inheritance from Adam, you are superficial, petty, and shallow. Going to church, hearing the Gospel, living the Christian life — well, that’s all fine and good from time to time and for awhile. Many Christians may be active and excited about God’s Word and faith at first. But even the simple passage of time can wear you down. You get bored and overconfident, imagining that you’ve heard it all before, that you already know it sufficiently, and that you’ll be just fine coasting forward without the preaching of God’s Word. All of which goes to show how little you comprehend His Word, its character, content, power, and necessity.
And what happens when the heat begins? When it falls on you to bear the Cross of Christ Jesus in a world that would eagerly put you to death? When you are called upon to stand up for the truth of the Gospel in the face of mockery, ridicule, and persecution? When you’ve already undersold the Word and oversold yourself, it is so tempting and so easy to throw in the towel and give up. You get tired of the hassle, and it just doesn’t seem all that important or worthwhile. So you shut your ears and harden your heart to the Word, and you refuse to let it put down roots within you.
What is it, then, that makes the difference from one type of soil to the next, in light of the fact that none of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are immune to the enemies of God’s Word? The disciples were themselves attacked — and sometimes overcome — by these enemies. Indeed, Christ Jesus Himself was assaulted by them, as you know from the story of His temptation. But how did Christ Jesus defeat those temptations? By relying on the Word of His God and Father.
Heed and follow His example, and resist the assaults and accusations of the devil, the world, and your own flesh, by availing yourself of God’s Word. Give attention to the preaching of the Gospel, eat and drink the Word-made-Flesh-and-Blood, and so receive the forgiveness of all your sins. Immerse your home and family in the Gospel of Christ Jesus by the catechesis and daily prayer of His Word. Bind it to your forehead, nail it to your doors, and speak it to your children when you get up, as you go about your day, and as you go to bed. That is how you hold on to the Seed.
The thing of it is, no matter what the soil may be like, there simply is no produce whatsoever apart from the Seed. It is the Seed that grows and produces fruit after its own kind. All the soil can do (of itself) is hinder or destroy what the Seed would otherwise do. The advantage of the “good soil” is not in the soil itself, but rather in the fact that it hangs onto the Seed as it grows and matures. The other types of soil, for all of those various reasons, allow the Seed to get away from them. Likewise, your only hope for producing fruit is in clinging to the Word and Sacraments of Christ.
With all the many hardships lined up against the soil, those little Seeds of Christ seem so small and powerless. And as you face the trials and tribulations of this life, the Ministry of the Gospel in the simple Means of Grace appears to be of little or no help in preserving your body, soul, and spirit.
To be sure, the Gospel includes no promise of an easy or trouble-free life in this world. Quite the opposite is true. The Lord Jesus promises a cross and suffering to those who follow after Him — the very sorts of things that harass the soil in this Parable. It is therefore only by faith — and not by sight or sense — that you cling for dear life to the Seed in spite of its helpless appearance.
It is by faith alone that you know and understand this seemingly insignificant little Seed — the Word of the Gospel — to be the power of God unto salvation. For it is quite true that the Gospel gives no guarantees of any easy answers for your life in this fallen world. Likely as not, your life here will get worse, as the devil, the world, and your flesh rebel and rage against you.
Yet, that tiny Seed of the Gospel, buried underground (as though dead and gone), will accomplish the good and gracious will of God for your salvation. His Word will not return to Him empty or void, but it will accomplish all that He desires and achieve the purpose for which He speaks it.
Sprouting, and growing, and digging down roots deeper and deeper into your heart, mind, body, and soul — the mustard seed becomes a mighty tree! The grain of wheat becomes a bushel. And at the last, the Sower and Lord of the Harvest will gather His sheaves — and because of His Seed, He will gather you — into the harvest home of heaven. God is faithful, and His Seed will do it.
In the meantime, Christ Jesus is already bearing and producing His own good fruits in you by His Word and Spirit through the Ministry of His Gospel. For the Seed that He sows brings forth good fruits after His own kind. Which is to say that He brings forth the fruits of the Gospel in your life.
Thus do you bear the fruit of forgiveness for your neighbors. You bear the fruit of Christian love, not only for your family and friends, but also for your enemies. You bear the fruit of sacrificial service on behalf of others, not expecting payment or praise, but out of gratitude for the Sacrifice of Christ Jesus. In short, you live the Gospel in your life, as the Lord has lived and died for you.
Of course, you no doubt realize that you are daily falling short of such fruits of the Gospel. Even so, the beauty of the Gospel is that Christ Jesus keeps on coming after you with His Word and the preaching of it. He goes right on sowing His Seed with reckless abandon, planting His Word of forgiveness in your heart, and feeding you with the fruits of His Cross, His holy Body and precious Blood. He tills your soil with His Law, then sows again your rows and furrows with His Gospel.
And like the soil of creation — cursed by God in the Garden of Eden, in the hope of liberation from the curse of sin and death — you also wait in eager expectation for the Resurrection of all flesh, for the final healing of your soil, and for the redemption of your body unto everlasting Life.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment