Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
On our recent trip north, my mother and I regularly reflected on the types of crops in the fields by which we drove: rice, beans, corn, hay, and wheat—all in various stages of growth and development. Wheat or barley may have been the kind of seed that came to the minds of the great crowds of people gathered about Jesus as He told them the Parable of the Sower that we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, but the precise type of seed really does not matter. Better than we do, the people of Jesus’s day knew both the circumstances of such sowing of seed and the form of teaching in parables that Jesus used. In fact, in a Jewish writing not included in the Old Testament there were even parables quite similar to Jesus’s Parable of the Sower (4 Esdras 8:41; 9:3137). The Gospel accounts of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke all record Jesus’s Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-9, 13-20; Luke 4:4-8, 9-15), though today is the only time that the Parable of the Sower comes up in our three-year series of appointed Gospel Readings. Considering primarily the Gospel Reading this morning, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, we realize that “The Word does produce fruit”.
Since we last week heard Jesus call all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest (Matthew 11:25-30), in St. Matthew’s Divinelyinspired Gospel account, Jesus had continued both calling people to repentance and faith and being rejected, even by His own family (Matthew 12:1-50). Those who did repent and believe in Jesus likely wondered why so many others did not repent and believe in Jesus, and Jesus arguably tells the Parable of the Sower at least in part to address that issue of why so many others did not repent and believe.
In the Parable of the Sower, the same seed is seemingly sowed everywhere: along the path, on rocky ground, among the thorns, and on good soil. Sowing so broadly is hardly what we might consider efficient! Yet, though some seed is snatched, some scorched, and some choked, other seed produces fruit: one-hundredfold, sixty-fold, and thirty-fold. For all the given distinctions, there are really only two different situations: seed falling on unfruitful soil or seed falling on fruitful soil, and whatever the percentage of the seed that falls on fruitful soil still leaves the sower with a plentiful harvest. Those who did repent and believe in Jesus, who might have been wondering why so many others did not repent and believe in Jesus, are assured that Jesus knows what He is doing, even in inefficiently sowing on soil that was unlikely to produce fruit, for in the end He will still have a plentiful harvest. “The Word does produce fruit”!
Too often we wrongly base our sense of how things are going at church on numbers and statistics. Is attendance for Bible Class and the Divine Service up? Are there more members than before? If someone falls away, or if the finances are too tight, we may wrongly blame the messenger or even the message. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus Himself enacted the Parable of the Sower as He spoke it, and He continues to do so. As Jesus was rejected by many then, so He is rejected by many still today. As Jesus may have had marginal finances then, so His Church may have marginal finances now (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Revelation 2:9), The Parable of the Sower may explain that different people are different types of soil, but the Parable does not explain the mystery of why different people are different types of soil. Though we cannot make ourselves good soil, by God’s mercy and grace we are good soil, and so we can be sorry for our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and at least want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our actual sin. God forgives our sin of wrongly judging His Church and Word. God forgives whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
In the Parable of the Sower, we hear and understand God’s “reckless love” for all people in His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord (Lutheran Service Book 586:3). The Sower sows the goodly seed of His Word even to people who He in His omniscience knows will not persevere in repentance and faith. We marvel at His generosity! That same love led Jesus to live the perfect life that we fail to live. That same love sent Jesus to the cross to die for our failure to live that perfect life. On the cross, Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. Then, Jesus rose from the dead. More than any other, Jesus is the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies and then bears much fruit (John 12:24); Jesus is the first-fruits of those Who have fallen asleep, as, if need be, those who belong to Him also will be raised at His final coming (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). Jesus Himself is still sowing the seed of His Word through others to us. When we repent and believe in Him, then we are spared the eternal torment that we deserve on account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin.
The Sower sows the seed of His Word to groups such as this group through that Word read and preached, and the Sower sows the seed of His Word to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 8:12-17), in Holy Baptism we receive the Spirit of the Son of God by whom we cry out to God the Father. In Holy Absolution, the pastor’s forgiveness is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself. And, in the Sacrament of the Altar, the few who believe and do not fall away come to the Lord, Who alone has the Word of eternal life, in order for Him to give them, by His Body and Blood, forgiveness, life, and salvation (John 6:66-69). As we heard in today’s Appointed Verse (Isaiah 40:8), the Word of our God will stand forever (confer Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25), accomplishing, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 55:10-13), that which the Lord purposes. In short, “The Word does produce fruit”.
And, the Word does produce fruit through us! The fruit that the Word produces through us is in keeping with repentance and faith, such as our confessing both our sin and His Name in which we are forgiven (Hebrews 13:15). We do good works in keeping with our various callings in life as children, spouses, parents, employees, and the like. We know that God’s Word is efficacious, even though it is not effective in every case; we know that God’s Word can be rejected when it is first heard or at any point after (Scaer, CLD VIII:111). We are mindful that the devil can snatch away the Word, that tribulation or persecution on account of the Word can lead us to fall away, and that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches can choke the Word, so, over and over again, we hear the Word and strive to understand it, and we share it with others. With daily repentance and faith, we live in both the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and the forgiveness of sins that we in turn extend to and receive from one another. Even if much of the labor seems “futile and fruitless” (Jeremias, Parables, 150), even if, as Jesus might be taken to suggest, yields might seem to get smaller and smaller over time, we are assured that the Harvest Lord, Who gave the sower seed to sow, will watch and tend His planted Word (LSB 586:6).
From seemingly hopeless beginnings, in spite of every failure and opposition, God will bring forth the triumphant end that He has promised (Jeremias, Parables, 150). “The Word does produce fruit”. We have the Word’s peace and joy already now! And, as we prayed in today’s Collect, we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Holy Scriptures, so that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +