"The Sower and the Seed"
Luke 8:4-15
Sexagesima, February 7, 2010
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

When Jesus told a parable, he didn't just sit the people down and start telling them a story for no particular reason. There was almost always some circumstance or event that moved him to tell it. So, for instance, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, in part, to humble a self-righteous lawyer. Our Lord tells the parable of the Prodigal Son to explain to the Pharisees why he's eating with tax collectors and sinners.

And the context of today's Gospel is very important, too. It is written here that a great multitude had gathered before Jesus and that people had come to Him from every city. Everyone had heard about Him and wanted to see Him. And so Jesus tells this parable to make something clear, especially to His twelve disciples, who might have been thinking at this point that this was going to be just one big victory procession, everything seemed to be going so well. Jesus tells a parable that gives a dose of reality. He says that there are four possible outcomes to the hearing of the Word, and only one of them is good. For three out of four hearers, the Word of God comes to no effect. The apostles are going to experience more failure than success, more rejection than acceptance in the long run. They shouldn't be fooled by the large crowds coming out to see Jesus. Big numbers don't mean anything. Not all of them were believers.

In fact there came a point in Jesus' own ministry when the crowds stopped following Him; just about all He had left were the 12 disciples, and even one of them would turn away from Him and betray Him. Jesus had been teaching how the bread that He would give for the life of the world was His flesh, and how His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink (John 6:55). That was too hard for the people to accept. Finally Jesus asked the 12, "Do you also want to go away?" Peter replied in those familiar words, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

And that's finally what we must cling to–not outward signs of success, but the sure promise that the Word of Christ brings true and everlasting life, despite how many mock it or ignore it. As God said through the prophet Isaiah, "(My word that goes forth from My mouth) shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

The going forth of God's Word is like the scattering of seed on all different kinds of soil. God scatters the seed of His Word recklessly, freely, even on places where there seems little hope of a harvest. For in His love He desires all to be saved, all of us descendants of Adam created from the dirt. The Lord's Word is living and powerful to give life even to the worst of soils.

In the first instance, the seed that is sown falls on the hardened path. It can't penetrate the soil, and so it is gobbled up by the birds. This symbolizes those with a heart that is hardened to the Word of God. They may know about the Word, but they don't listen to it–"heard it all before." They may understand it mentally to some extent, but it doesn't penetrate their heart so that they believe it and trust in it. And one of the ways in which the devil hardens many people's hearts to God's Word is by calling the Word itself into question, getting you to doubt it trustworthiness. It will be suggested that you can't trust the Bible because it's been copied so many times throughout the centuries that we can't even be sure it's accurate anymore. Of course, we have boatloads of evidence to the contrary, not the least of which is the Dead Sea Scrolls which many are seeing now down at the museum. Things such as that greatly affirm what the church already knows, that the Scriptures have been faithfully and reliably transmitted through the centuries. But still, some will use that as an excuse not even to give God's Word a hearing. Others will dismiss the Bible as being a relic of some past patriarchal, morally oppressive world view, and in that way will avoid its actual message. The pop culture will mock it as something that the intellectually weak and foolish rely on.

And lest we become guilty of only pointing the finger at others, we also harden our hearts to the Word whenever we hear a Scripture reading or a sermon and think to ourselves, "That really applies to so and so a few pews behind me," or "I sure wish a couple people I know were here to listen to this. They really need to hear it." That may be true–it may even be a good thing when we want someone else to hear God's Word–but to think in that way is also dangerous, letting the seed of the Word bounce off of you and say, "This doesn't apply to me but to someone else."

Some are like the stony, rocky ground on which the seed was sown. These are the ones who have an impulsive faith, who haven't counted the cost of what it means to follow Christ. Initially they seem to have a great deal of enthusiasm for the faith. But then something happens in their personal life or in the life of the church that changes all of that. When things start to get too difficult, when life becomes a mess, then the doubts and questions creep in. Their once seemingly strong faith is now shown to be only a surface faith, easily scorched by the heat of testing and temptation. It is based on feelings and emotions. Their faith is not deeply rooted in God's words and promises but on how well He's coming through for them right now. In the end when it becomes clear that following Christ means getting out of the easy chair and taking up the cross, they become offended; they stumble and fall away. They wither spiritually, never having been firmly rooted in the faith.

In the third instance, the seed lands among the thorns that choke out the young seedlings. This symbolizes how many hear the Word of Christ and believe it, but then they fail to mature in the faith because there are so many other things clamoring for your attention, wanting to be the top priority in your life, that faith in the Word of Christ gets choked off. The one thing that is truly needful gets ignored. This is a huge challenge for a Christian today. There are so many pleasures and distractions and diversions offered to you that you can end up becoming spiritually paralyzed. The thorns of the world sink their poison into you and you're left anesthetized in front of the screen, desensitized to what's going on in the world, numb to the things of God. And then there are so many cares, Jesus mentions, so many things to be worried about and think about, that you don't know what to do. There's 168 hours in a week, and yet we can hardly find 10 minutes a day to pray and meditate on the Scriptures, there's just so much else that has to be done first. Of course, maybe some of those worries and cares would dissipate a bit if they were brought to God in prayer and put in their proper context. The thorns want to grow even here in church, to crowd into your heart and mind so that you can't dwell on God's Word as you would like.
As you hopefully can see, this parable is meant to shake us up and knock us in the head. For who among us here cannot see himself or herself in one or more of these first three soils? Who here can claim to be that fourth good and perfect soil? None of us can. Therefore this parable cuts through us all like the sharp blade of a plow, calling us to acknowledge our condition and repent.

The good news is that the Father sent forth His Word, Jesus, from heaven precisely to rescue you from what has infested you. Christ has cleared away the debris in your soil through the power of His suffering and death. Christ Jesus Himself is the seed that is cast, the seed that is sown; for He is the Word made flesh. Therefore, whatever the seed in the parable experienced–on the path, on the rock, in the thistles–Christ has experienced for you. Thorns were placed on the head of Christ, the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. For you and for your deliverance Jesus was crucified in some hardened and rocky soil called Golgotha, the place of the skull. There, He bore the withering heat of the day and the fire of our judgment. There, people trampled on His Name with their insults, and the devil and his demons, like scavenging birds, hellishly pecked at Him and wounded Him and devoured Him. Do you see? All that happened to the seed in the first three instances happened to Jesus. And now, because Christ suffered all of that in your place, the devil and the world, sin and death are conquered for you. Christ has destroyed the power of the raven and the hard clay, the thorn and the rock. For on the third day our Lord broke through the soil, rising from the depths of the earth, bringing with Him mercy and new life for you.

The truth is that it is Christ Himself and Christ alone who is that fourth good soil. For only Christ is without the stain of sin; only He is not overcome by the devil or the world. He is the divine Word of the Father who was cast like seed from heaven into the good soil of His perfect humanity, which He took upon Himself in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary. He alone is the One with the noble and good heart who received His Father's will and perfectly carried out His Father's Word, growing up and producing a bountiful harvest of those who believe and are saved.

Jesus once said of Himself, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." Our Lord Jesus is the promised Seed of Eve and Abraham and David. He was planted in the tomb in order that abundant life might spring up and that a great harvest might be brought in through His bodily resurrection. And you are a part of that crop. You are one in whom the Word of life has been planted. In Christ alone, by His grace alone, you become the fourth soil. The seed of the Word was planted in you by the Holy Spirit with the water of your baptism. It is sown still in the absolution and the proclamation of the Gospel. And the seed of Christ will land on the soil once again today as the very body and blood of Christ are placed into your mouth, onto your tongue, for the forgiveness of your sins. The Word of Christ is at work in you now, that you may bear fruit one hundred fold–the fruit of patient faith toward God and fervent love toward one another. The Sower is still sowing His seed, that you may have His life forever.

Let us, then, seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him, for He is near; His Word is here. Return to the Lord, for He will have mercy on you, and He will abundantly pardon. His grace in Christ is more than sufficient for you, even in the midst of your weakness. For His strength is made perfect in the weakness of the cross. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit