Isaiah 55:8-11; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9; Luke 8:4-15
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Gardening is full of surprises. The volunteer pumpkin you didn’t plant sprouts and grows a healthy, orange pumpkin. Green, leafy buds on a plant that looked all but dead all winter long. Trees that can be grafted with 4 different varieties of apples or pears.
It’s no wonder Jesus used planting and farming imagery in so many of his parables. For his parables often have a surprise of their own.
There’s always a twist or an unexpected turn of events. The Father who throws a party for his lost son. The shepherd who leaves the 99 to seek the 1. The sower who’s a reckless spend-thrift when it comes to sowing his grace and mercy. All parables about Jesus’ surprising, free grace to us.
A sower went out to sow seed and he scattered everywhere. It fell on hard pavement, shallow rocky soil, weedy soil, and good, plowed under soil. And it yields thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold what was sown. “He who has ears to hear, let him ear.”
Notice Jesus points to our ears, not our eyes. The eyes of faith are your ears. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
Thankfully, Jesus guides us and his disciples to the trailhead of this parable, like a legend or key on a map. The seed is the Gospel of the kingdom, in a word the seed is Jesus, the promised Seed. The soils are various conditions of the heart.
First there’s the seed that falls on the hard pavement. This is the hardness and stubbornness of unbelief. The Gospel is heard, but it bounces off the pavement like a hailstone in a thunderstorm. This is the tragedy that occurs when people hear the word of forgiveness but don’t think they have any need for it. We’ve probably all met or known someone like that. It’s a refusal to be forgiven. This is why we need to come to church weekly, not to fulfill some kind of obligation to God, but to receive what he’s giving us: free forgiveness that cracks the hardness of our sinful hearts.
Then there’s the seed that fell on rocky, shallow soil. This is the faith that mirrors its surroundings like a chameleon: a shallow faith based on feelings and emotions. But faith based on feelings is faith without roots, a shallow faith unable to endure the heat of persecution, hardship, and testing. Thankfully, Jesus gives you a faith that is grounded outside of you: firmly rooted in Holy Baptism, planted in the Word, fed to you in the Holy Supper. These gifts of Jesus are objective and don’t change, no matter how you feel.
Still, some seed fell among the weeds and thorns. The thorns are the cares and concerns of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Anxieties about life, such as what will we eat, what will we wear.
And then there’s the seed that falls upon good soil, soil that’s felt the plow blade. Broken and turned under soil. It yields a harvest – one hundred, sixty, thirty. The best and fruitful soil is plowed.
And out of death the seed springs to life, grows, and bears fruit. Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus is that seed, his own flesh cast into the earth. Dead. Buried. But out of death springs life. Resurrection. For you and for the world.
He’s done the same for you in Baptism. All sin in you is buried and dies and Jesus raises you to life. Jesus takes your hardened, rocky, weed-ridden heart; he plows it and then sows his own life, death and resurrection and makes you good soil.
The only soil in which the seed of Gospel, that is Jesus, is soil that he has plowed. Broken down soil. Soil that can say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Our hearts must be broken. Our hands emptied.
Soil can’t plow itself. But wouldn’t that be great? Self-plowing soil. Gardening made easy. Of course, just ask any gardener you know what; it takes work: digging, turning, rototilling. Hard packed soil cannot turn itself into good soil. Rocks do not automatically clear themselves from a field. Weeds do not pluck themselves. Sinners, children of Adam and Adam’s sinful condition, cannot make themselves receptive to the saving Word of Jesus. They will not let Jesus in no matter how many times He knocks. We do not naturally and willingly repent. We must be driven to it.
The rototiller of God’s law must plow us under. We need to be broken, turned six feet under, crushed if the Word of Jesus is going to be fruitful in us.
For the truth is, there is no good soil in us. We think that compared to the hearts of the really big sinners, ours is a beautiful English garden. We think that the Sower chose to sow his seed in us because we’re such good and fertile soil. But that’s the lie we love to believe for it is a lie that makes us feel good about ourselves.
The truth is that when the sower sowed his seed in you, it fell on rock-hard soil; and where there weren’t rocks there were weeds; and where there weren’t weeds there were birds of the air waiting to devour it. But the seed of God’s Word doesn’t look for good soil to fall into; it creates the soil for itself, no matter how rocky and weed-infested your heart may be.
Jesus doesn’t look for the right kind of people to believe. He doesn’t scout out the best planting ground for his word or take soil samples. He simply sows and lets his word do what he promises; and it does not return void or empty. His word transforms you. Christ, the Seed makes you alive.” (Chad Bird)
God doesn’t leave the plowed field to lie fallow. The sower sows the seed. Recklessly. All over the place. That’s the great, and gracious work the Lord has called the LWML to participate in. The reckless, gracious, abundant spreading of the seeds of the Gospel, planted in each of you by the Great Sower himself. Some of us may plant, others may water. But God gives the growth. His Word does what he says: forgives you. Saves you. Rescues you. Plants and roots you in the cross. And sends you out to sow the seeds of his Good News.
That in Jesus the Divine Sower, you are rooted in his death and resurrection by Baptism. You are nourished and fed in with his body and blood.You are good soil of his own making. You are firmly planted in Christ who has firmly planted himself in you by his Word.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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