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Sermon for Sexagesima
2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9 + Luke 8:4-15
During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus preached to all sorts of people, as illustrated in His parable of the Sower and the Seed.
Some people who heard Him preach the Word of God, calling all men to repentance and to faith in Him, the Savior sent from God to redeem mankind from their sins—some of them just dismissed His words out of hand. His words fell on deaf ears. They didn’t care enough to think about what He said, or to compare His teaching with the Old Testament Scriptures. They didn’t take Him seriously. They never applied His words to themselves.
Others who heard Jesus preach the Word of God were excited, at first. They latched onto Him immediately. They liked the nice things He said, about love and peace. They believed He was some kind of Messiah, that He was going to save them (somehow). They started out following Him gladly. But their excitement didn’t last long. The more He preached, the more it became apparent to them that actually following Him and putting His words into practice wouldn’t be very easy, or exciting. It would require effort on their part. It would come with persecution attached. And some of the things He said were just so extreme. It wasn’t all love and peace, actually. And so those hearers would follow Him for a while, but then whatever faith had begun to grow in their hearts would soon wither away, and they would abandon Him.
Others who heard Jesus preach the Word of God nodded in agreement with what they heard. They believed in Him. They went along with Him for a while. They kept listening, kept following. The Word of God was starting to make more and more sense to them. Until, you know, politics is also really important to follow, and there’s work, and friends, and fun, some opportunities to make some extra cash, to have some nicer things. They got too busy with day-to-day things to keep listening to Jesus, and to keep growing. They eventually, slowly, drifted away.
But there were always a few hearers—at certain times, no more than a handful—who heard the Word that Jesus preached, and believed it, and took it seriously—took the warnings seriously, took the comfort seriously, understood that they needed to keep hearing, keep pondering what they heard, keep praying for God’s help, not allow themselves to be distracted and drawn away by less important things. These hearers knew that they had found a treasure in the Word of God, and in the Person of Jesus—a treasure that was worth more than anything in this world, more than life itself. And so they remained with Him, learned to practice His Word each day, bore up under the hardships that came with the Christian life, and produced a life full of faith and love, for God and for their neighbor. Four different reactions to the hearing of God’s Word, but only one that had a happy ending.
Now, it was to a very large crowd of people that Jesus told the parable of the Sower and the Seed, preaching the Word of God to them as a farmer walks alongside his field and tosses out handfuls of seed in every direction, knowing that some of His words would fall on deaf ears, while others would be quickly believed but soon abandoned, while others would be believed but eventually thwarted by earthly concerns, while still others would find fertile soil, and would be not only believed at first, but would grow, and grow, and grow, until they produced a bountiful harvest. And so He spoke, and kept speaking, knowing, always, that most of those who heard would not remain with Him to the end.
We have to assume that most of those who heard Jesus speak that parable didn’t understand what He was talking about—this seed falling along the path, and on the rocky soil, and the thorny soil, and the good soil. His own disciples may not have understood it, if they hadn’t asked what it meant, and if He hadn’t explained it to them. But thankfully, they did, and He did. And so, what those crowds heard on that day with confusion, you are privileged to hear with understanding—the understanding given to you by the Son of God Himself, and by His Holy Spirit, so that you can benefit from the story your Savior told, so that it can take root in your hearts and produce in you the kind of hearers who not only have ears, but who also use them to hear, believe, and put into practice the words and the warnings of your God.
The parable of the Sower and the Seed helps you to understand what happens when other people hear the Word of God, so that you’re not surprised when you see most people, even most Christians, turning away from God’s Word, either quickly or eventually.
But more importantly, the parable of the Sower and the Seed helps you to know what to watch out for, not only when you come to church to hear the Word of God, but also when you leave church to go back to your life in between church services. When you hear the Word of God—His commandments, His promises, how much He hates sin, how much He loved mankind, to the point of sending His Son, the Christ, to suffer and die for your sins, to make you into beloved children of God—When you hear that Word of God, don’t harden your hearts to it. That’s just what the writer to the Hebrews says, citing a Psalm that was written originally for Israel: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as [the Israelites at the time of Moses did] in the rebellion. Be aware that, as you listen to God’s word, the devil is right there, wanting to snatch away the Word from you as a bird snatches away the seed that falls upon the hardened path. But, with God’s help, you won’t leave the word sitting on the surface. You’ll listen to what you hear and allow God’s Word to penetrate down into your heart.
When you hear the Word of God, receive it with joy, as when a seed that falls on rocky soil sprouts up quickly. That’s good! Because it really is good news, that God looked at us in our misery and in the filth of our sins, took pity on us, and sent His Son to save us. And it really is a joyful thing, that God has promised a happy ending to the story and the eventual wiping away of every tear. But don’t let your joy at hearing about those good things overshadow the reality that, as the apostle Paul said, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Remember, Jesus never promised that the Christian life would be all sunshine and roses. It requires the deepening roots of a faith that is regularly watered with Word and Sacrament, and the roots of a knowledge of God that can only come from persistent study of God’s Word. Only by growing in these things, with the Holy Spirit’s help, can anyone hope to survive the burning heat of trials and persecutions.
When you hear the Word of God, let it take root in your heart, but remember that thorny weeds are dangerous things. As you go along through the Christian life, there will be one distraction after another. The cares, riches, and pleasures of this life will always be vying for your attention, tempting you to pay more attention to them and less to the Word of God, threatening to take over the field of your heart, to ensnare your fragile faith and to choke it out. But, with God’s help, you can watch out for those weeds and distractions and recognize them for the danger that they are, and you can clear them out before they choke you to death.
Yes, when you hear the Word of God, strive, with the Spirit’s mighty help, to be the good soil, the ones who hear the Word with good and noble hearts, hold fast to it, and bear fruit with patience, with endurance. This is your God speaking to you! Teaching you, guiding you, correcting you, upholding you, nourishing your faith and sustaining the eternal life that He planted in you when He first brought you to believe in His only-begotten Son. Take His warnings seriously. Take His comfort and forgiveness seriously. Take His commandments seriously, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Your life literally depends on hearing the Word of God, as the life of a plant depends on a continual supply of water and light. And God, your Father in heaven, knows that your faith needs sustaining, and has promised never to remove His Word from those who cherish it. This is the one on whom I will look, God says through the prophet Isaiah: On him who is of a poor and contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. Tremble at it, as something sacred, as something precious, as that which gave you new birth into God’s family, and as that which will sustain your precious faith until the end. The voice of the Lord Jesus still calls out into the world: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Amen.
