Luke 8:4-15

Sowing the Seeds

Sexagesima

February 4, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus compares His Word to a seed and Himself to the sower of the seed. Just as in nature the seed does not bring forth fruit in every place upon which is falls, so too it happens in the world. Jesus wishes us to know about the kingdom of heaven, about how things happen. And so He sets out four groups of those who hear the Word.

The first group are those who hear, but do not understand or pay attention to it. These are people who hear God’s Word, who even want to be called true students of the Word, who live in the Christian congregation, who participate in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But they have fleshly hearts who do not accept this Word, who find it too harsh or think it too complicated, and so the Word goes in one ear and our the other.

What’s more, the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  Not only are hardened hearts further deprived of God’s Word, but the devil himself sends false preachers who trample the Word out with their false teaching.  They hear the Gospel but produce no fruit. Rather, they are ruled by the devil, and explain the Word of God according to their own mind and opinion.  Make no mistake, the devil does not want you here. He does not want you to pray or hear God’s Word.

The second group are those who receive the Word of God with joy, but they do not persevere. This is the group who hears the Word, believes the Word, rejoices in the Word. But when it comes to the point of suffering harm, insults, loss of job or property or life, then they fall away, keep quiet, and deny the Word, for they do not have the Word planted deeply enough. They are like the seed planted in shallow, rocky soil that withers in the sun for it lacks moisture.

The third group are those who hear and understand and believe the Word, but then fall off the other side into laziness and they do nothing with the Word. They don’t take the Word seriously, but instead become lazy and absorbed in the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.  This the prosperity gospel preachers who replace Christ with health, wealth, and happiness.  Therefore, they are like the seed that falls among the thorns. Although there is no rock, but it land among good soil, there is no path but deeply plowed ground, the thorns will not let it grow, but choke it out. They have everything necessary for life in the Word but didn’t use it, so they rot in the earthly pleasures. They are those who hear, but do not act accordingly, those who teach, but do not follow it themselves, and remain in their sinfulness.

The fourth group are those who hear the Word of God and believe it, who cling to the Word and would risk everything for it. Among these, the seed sprouts and produces fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit of patience.  A humble faith dwelling in a repentant heart is able, by the grace of God, both to endure persecution and avoid falling into the trap of worldly and satanic temptations. 

All of this is said for our instruction, so that we do not go astray, since so many misuse the Gospel.  When the Gospel goes out, it will fall on good soil, not only on the stony path, the shallow or thorny ground. Wherever the Gospel goes, there Christians will be, for the Lord says in Isaiah 55, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty”

And yet, not everyone is saved, though everyone is paid for. Jesus says elsewhere that “many are called and few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14). God’s Word has no magical power. When people reject it and refuse it entry into their heart and life, it will not grow. But when and where it received, it is sacramentally effective, brings forth life, has the power of grace and life. And so we must examine ourselves to see whether we have a hard heart, whether the passions of our flesh are great, when and where the devil torments us.  When we do so, we find that we don’t need to ask ourselves which kind of ground we are, for in truth, we resemble all. There are no good hearts that are good by nature.  There are only hearts that are made good by the grace of God working through His Word and Sacraments.  The power for growth lies not in the soil, but in the seed, in the Word of God. The hearts that are good are only good because God’s plow has come and deepened our shallow soil, pulled out the weeds, and softened the hardened heart.

All Christians undergo the same type of struggles and temptations.  You are no different, your temptation and struggle is not new nor unique. The sinful nature, the world, and the devil all resist the Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In Jesus we have One who has suffered when tempted, and who is able to help those who are tempted. By God’s grace, only by God’s grace in Christ, can our faith not only withstand trial and temptation, but grow stronger as it led to look more and more to Jesus.

That’s exactly what we hear of the Disciples after Jesus tells them the parable. When they didn’t understand exactly what Jesus was saying, they go to Jesus and ask Him what it meant. And that is faith.  It’s not that the disciples had a perfect faith, but this Word-created faith has created in them a trust and desire to go to Jesus, to ask of Him to provide for them in their time of lack and need.

For that reason Jesus tells them, and us, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand”?  These “secrets” are the things hidden in the kingdom, such as Christ with all His grace. It is called a secret because it remains a mystery unless the Spirit of God reveals it, as St. Paul says in in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  The Spirit of God gives it to you, so that you not only hear and see the Word, but recognize and believe.

So listen up, keep your ears and hearts open to the Word of God. When temptation comes, trust not in your own power, but in the Word of God.  The seed is the Word of God.  That means that the life is in the seed, and only God is good.  So it is the power of the seed that transforms the soil to be like Him, that is, good.