Luke 8:4-15
Sexagesima

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

In His parable about the sower and the seed, Jesus is teaching us again about the kingdom of God.  Through the common symbols in this story–a farmer, seeds, various kinds of soil–He is teaching us about higher and greater things.

As we move farther and farther away from being an agricultural society though, and as children are less educated, especially about where food comes from, you wonder how long it will be before future preachers will have to explain what a seed even is.  Then again, if you have never seen a seed germinate and sprout, it may actually add to the wonder of our Lord’s story.  For what if you knew nothing about seeds, and I handed one to you, and told you that if you put it in the dirt and put water on it, in a few decades it could possibly feed 1000 people?

You might think that this sounds like superstition; it doesn’t sound possible.  For how does a little seed know what to do?  Where do the stem, the roots, and the leaves come from?  And what about the fruit?  And how does it seem to work perfectly all the time – if it has the right conditions to grow?

The original listeners of our Lord’s story all knew that if you plant seeds, they will grow and become food, if they were placed in good soil and watered.  People were more connected to where food came from.  They didn’t just figure that it magically appeared on the store shelves.

But what a wondrous thing a seed is if you’ve never seen or heard about it before!  Many of us planted seeds in a little paper cup in school when we were children, perhaps a sunflower seed.  We observed with wonder as the little stem burst forth out of the dirt and started to grow leaves.  And if we stuck with it long enough, the sunflower might have grown to be taller even then our dads, with a flower bigger than a grown-up’s face – and in time, it would have a bunch of new seeds in the middle – which we could plant and start the process again – with no limit to the potential number of plants that would come from that original seed.

This sense of wonder should equally apply to the Word of God.  For the seed in our Lord’s story symbolizes the Word of God.  Just as the little seed contains microscopic DNA instructions embedded in the cells, which start working like a computer program when water signals the seed to do its thing – so too does the Word of God contain power – true power to bear everlasting life by germinating faith in Christ.  The DNA of salvation is carried within the preached Word of God.  How it works exactly, we don’t know any more than the original hearers of Jesus knew how seeds germinate and mature.  They didn’t know about DNA in the first century.  But they knew that the seed had some kind of hidden power: power to feed an countless people – so long as there was water and good soil.

The Kingdom of God also begins with water: baptismal water that sets in motion the activation of the Word of God.  Water and the seed of the Word are placed onto and into the dirt.  And you are that dirt.  For you are sons and daughters of Adam who was created from the dirt and dust of the ground.  From this watered Seed faith sprouts.  It starts out small.  Its beginnings are humble.  But it grows.  And with the right conditions, a seed will transform into a large plant, multiplying itself a hundredfold.

In our Lord’s story, the sower of the seed tosses it everywhere.  He doesn’t discriminate.  He doesn’t try to predict what soil will ultimately be good soil.  Likewise, preachers do not discriminate.  We cannot predict who will hear the Word and come to faith.  We cannot see into hearts.  We cannot point to any group or category of person and project who will be good soil and believe, and who will ultimately prove to be bad soil, and the Word of God will die in their hearts.  We don’t know, so we just sow our seeds everywhere, recklessly and at times desperately.  Sometimes we preach convinced that nobody is listening, that nobody cares, that our words are being wasted.  But the Word, of course, is never wasted.  It carries out the purposes of God regardless of appearances.  And when we least expect it, sometimes in surprising ways, the Word takes root and grows in the hearts of our hearers.

First, Jesus speaks of the seed sown “on the path.”  It was trampled on, like those who mock the Word of God and try to trample it down through lies and distortions, hardening people’s hearts to what it says like a footworn path.  The seed was carried away by birds.  This is like the devil coming and snatching away the Word of God because it never had the chance to take root.  

Second, Jesus speaks of other seed that falls amid rocky soil.  It doesn’t get enough moisture and dies.  This is like those who initially hear the word “with joy.”  But their faith is shallow, built in large part on feelings and how well God seems to be coming through for them at the moment.  But the Word itself has “no root.”  And as soon as difficult times come–relationship troubles, financial difficulty, a bad health diagnosis–this person loses his or her faith.

Third, Jesus speaks of seed that does take root and sprouts, but then gets choked out by thorns, and it bears no fruit.  This is like the people who hear God’s Word, who may even come to church fairly regularly.  But then they go out and get distracted by the “cares and riches and pleasures of life.”  These are all the things that make us anxious and fearful and stressed out, and it’s also all the distractions that this world offers–the phone screens, the never-ending sports, the mindless media entertainment–all of this leads to a faith that fails to bear the fruit of good works in God’s sight.

Hearing all this, it’s easy to see ourselves unfortunately in the first three soils, isn’t it–at times having a shallow faith, or distracted from the Word, or hard-hearted and cold to its message.  When we hear of the fourth soil, the good soil in which the seed sprouts and grows up healthy and strong, those who hear the Word with a noble and good heart who bear fruit one hundred fold, it’s hard for us to look in the mirror and say, “That’s a description of me.”  This parable most certainly is call for us all to repent.

But let your repentance be the kind that turns you to Christ.  For at the end of the day, the good seed in the good fourth soil in this parable is a description of Jesus.  He is the eternal Word of God, the Seed, who has taken root in the earth of our humanity–fully human but entirely without the rocks and thorns and hardness of sin.  He has sprung up from the grave and yielded a crop a hundred fold, bringing you the abundant fruit of forgiveness and new life.

And this is how He did it.  The Word became flesh and bore all that has infested your soil.  Behold how this Seed is cast to the earth, how Jesus is thrown onto the wayside, the way of sorrows, where he is dragged to His cross, mocked in His suffering like the caws of scavenging ravens.  But notice that the birds of the air do not devour Jesus’ body, as was often the case with other crucified criminals who would be left for the animals to consume.  This Seed is hurled upon the rocky ground of Golgotha, where he lacked moisture and cried out, “I thirst!”  But in spite of his suffering and thirst, this Seed would not wither away permanently.  And Jesus was even crowned with thorns, the very symbol of Adam’s curse; yet this Seed would not be choked out of existence, but would rise again.  A Seed has to die, if it is to rise out of the earth and bear much fruit.  The fruit of Jesus’ suffering is your salvation.

In this way our Lord has overcome all that stands against you, all that keeps you from having life, all that keeps you from growing to maturity.  In Christ you are free from hard-heartedness and the rocks of shallow faith and the thorns of this world.  In Christ alone you are the holy fourth soil, pure and righteous and fruitful and forgiven.  In Him you have a noble and good heart, as we pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  In you, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Word of God is implanted.  It is sown in the soil of your body even today, preached into your ears, placed on your very tongues in the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.  The power of God to give life is in the Seed.  And the Seed of the Word is in you and with you and for you, the Word of the Father who wants with all His heart for you to share forever in His life.

Let us, then, be eager to confess this Word with our mouths before the world.  Let the scattering of the holy Seed continue outside of these walls, out in the daily callings that God has placed you in.  Let the Word accomplish its purpose with your unchurched or de-churched friends and family.  Take courage and invite them in to divine service, to adult instruction classes.  Together with them, let us all seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near; for 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 ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane)