Isaiah 55:10-13; 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9; St Luke 8:4-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
A sower went out to sow his seed. And no sower ever had better planting conditions. There was nothing matted flat. No rocks, no thorns, no scorching sun. Nothing but good soil. But this sower was not interested in amber waves of grain. His mind was on a harvest of souls for hell.
So he sowed his reckless hate. No handfuls of seed scattered abroad. This sower was stingy. He has only one seed and eyes for only one plot of ground - the good and noble soil of man’s heart. So with skillful precision he planted his poisonous and ruinous seed. Did God really say? And he found very receptive soil. In through the ear, down to the heart, out to the hands. That planting yielded a bumper crop of ruin and that goes on to this day.
Look around and see the wreckage he wrought. He ruined some, you might say, by giving them attention-deficit disorder when it comes to not only hearing, but actually listening to the Word of God. They’re not interested in His Word because they have no interested in Him. Some he ruined by making them fair-weather disciples of our Lord. Those who love God when the flight is smooth, but hate Him when He takes them through some turbulence, some tentatio. And some he ruined by disordering their loves. Their ruined hearts would still love, but those hearts would be hopelessly devoted to insignificant things - their wallet, their fun, their stuff - rather than the All-Significant One.
Picky-eaters can weary you with their constant, “I don’t like this,” and “I don’t like that.” But the jaws of hell are not picky. Whether your disinterested, fickle or pleasure-lusting, it matters not. People like this are all tasty treats to be gobbled up by hell’s gullet.
A sower went out to sow his sees and what a harvest! You still see it all around you. Everywhere you look. He got some. More than some. Look inward. You see that wreckage in your own heart? He didn’t get only some. He got all. He got you. This parable is a warning. All four soils received seed. That is, all four groups heard the Word. But either through the devil, the world, or their own sinful flesh, for one reason or another, all within themselves, through no fault of the Seed, they are not saved, fall away, or do not mature. Repent and be warned.
But at the same time, be cheered and encouraged. For one night, within a manger in the ruined soil of Bethlehem, the evil sower’s worst nightmare came true. God so loved this world of wrecked and ruinous hearts that He sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, born to be the Good Sower, come to destroy the devil’s harvest.
This Sower is God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. And unlike the devil He is not a stingy sower, but a reckless Sower, flinging His Word everywhere. Sending it out to the ends of the earth, “intent alone that all may have the wholesome loaves that all men need” (LSB 586:3). He is not a hateful, bitter sower with evil intent, but a loving Sower sent from heaven to plant His goodly Seed within your heart by way of your ear. A Sower not of ruinous seed, but good seed. Seed so good and powerful that it actually takes those stony, thorny, matted flat hearts and creates its own good soil.
Be of good cheer even more. For that Sower born in Bethlehem is also God’s Seed born in Bethlehem. The skull-stomping, curse ending Seed of the Woman promised to man back in the freshly-ruined soil of Eden. Be further encouraged, for that Promised Seed is being planted on this very plot of ground, right here, right now. And you are here receiving it. We come, bringing no goodness of our own, nothing. Worthless, lifeless soil - dust, taken from dust, returning to dust. But Jesus came to be Everything.
Here’s the joy of parables. They are analogies, but not always one-to-one. Scripture is bounteous with meaning. For Jesus is not only the Sower, He’s also the Seed. He’s not only the Good Shepherd, He’s also the Lamb. He is not only the Worker in God’s Vineyard, He’s also the Vine. He’s not only the Preacher, He’s also the Message. He’s not only the King, He’s also the Servant. He’s not only the Teacher, He’s also the Subject. He’s not only the Righteous One, He is also the Sinner.
The One who brought no sin of His own, but came to bear in His own flesh the sins of your at times hard, wishy-washy, idol-infatuated hearts, and die for them. So that He might rise over them and leave them in the dust of His Resurrection in order to bring you the Seed of His life-giving Word and make you good, faithful soil, holding fast His Word in honest and good hearts.
He is Everything and He did all you needed for God to see you as good and faithful soil. He is the Sower and He is the Seed. He sowed His Word into your ears and it turned your hard, rocky, thorny heart into receptive soil that’s still producing a harvest. His sowing, His Seed, actually gives you ears to hear! His sowing, His Seed, is why hard times don’t overwhelm you and why worldly temptations have not choked off your faith in Christ Jesus.
Who would send a Sower to take on such a hateful, sophisticated, and powerful foe of man as Satan? A loving God would. And He has. He sent for Christ our Lord, the Word made flesh, forth from His mouth and He has not returned to Him empty, but He has accomplished that which He purposed and succeeded in the thing for which He sent Him.
For our Sower not only stretched out His arms and flung His Gospel forgiveness and peace everywhere, but He Himself, as Seed into the ground, was flung outside the walls of Jerusalem, and stretched out His arms upon a Tree planted in a garbage dump to save a world of rebels.
What a picture, Jesus, the Seed picked at by birds and rocks and thorns, hounded by Satan, maligned by the world, pummeled with our sin. Jesus our Sower, walking this cursed ground, teaching His Gospel everywhere. Amazing!
But even better, when that same Sower who is the Seed staggers to the Cross and dies for our faintheartedness, falls into the earth, only to rise again on the Third Day, the first fruits of God’s resurrection harvest.
By virtue of your Baptism, planted within the watery soil of Christ’s own death and resurrection, that harvest includes you!
Our God in the Flesh, the Sower, casting seed among the thorns of this idolatrous world, most of it being snatched or scorched or matted flat, His heart crying out, “Oh, what of that, and what of that?” But then, that same Sower, the Promised Seed, His own head being crowned with thorns and choked, while His pierced feet mat Satan’s skull flat, and bring his evil harvest to ruin. “Ah, what of that, Lord, what of that!”
It is no mistake that you are here, beloved. The Spirit has called you by the Word and planted you in that pew to receive the Good Sower’s gifts once more. His Word does it. First upon you, then in you, and then through you. For it is through you that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus continues to bear good fruit in this evil world. A harvest a hundredfold! Into this world of hate, despair and strife, there you are for your neighbor with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy and peace. In this self-indulgent and nasty world, there you are with your Christ-bestowed patience, kindness and goodness. In our rebellious and out-of-control world, there’s you, with the Spirit-wrought faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
For tribulation and persecution shall arise on account of the Word (Mk 4:17), not only against you, but within you, even as they did for St Paul. Labors, imprisonments, beatings, danger at every turn, toil and hardship. This all came on account of the Word, the Seed, our Lord Jesus Christ whom Satan attacks even within you! This is a hard lesson. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Above all, people loved by God, do not fear. For you are invited into paradise, to Eden restored, and even greater. To the Tree of Life and its life-giving fruit of Jesus Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. His grace is sufficient for you. His power is made perfect in weakness. Satan cannot have you. You are the Sower’s harvest.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
A sower went out to sow his seed. And no sower ever had better planting conditions. There was nothing matted flat. No rocks, no thorns, no scorching sun. Nothing but good soil. But this sower was not interested in amber waves of grain. His mind was on a harvest of souls for hell.
So he sowed his reckless hate. No handfuls of seed scattered abroad. This sower was stingy. He has only one seed and eyes for only one plot of ground - the good and noble soil of man’s heart. So with skillful precision he planted his poisonous and ruinous seed. Did God really say? And he found very receptive soil. In through the ear, down to the heart, out to the hands. That planting yielded a bumper crop of ruin and that goes on to this day.
Look around and see the wreckage he wrought. He ruined some, you might say, by giving them attention-deficit disorder when it comes to not only hearing, but actually listening to the Word of God. They’re not interested in His Word because they have no interested in Him. Some he ruined by making them fair-weather disciples of our Lord. Those who love God when the flight is smooth, but hate Him when He takes them through some turbulence, some tentatio. And some he ruined by disordering their loves. Their ruined hearts would still love, but those hearts would be hopelessly devoted to insignificant things - their wallet, their fun, their stuff - rather than the All-Significant One.
Picky-eaters can weary you with their constant, “I don’t like this,” and “I don’t like that.” But the jaws of hell are not picky. Whether your disinterested, fickle or pleasure-lusting, it matters not. People like this are all tasty treats to be gobbled up by hell’s gullet.
A sower went out to sow his sees and what a harvest! You still see it all around you. Everywhere you look. He got some. More than some. Look inward. You see that wreckage in your own heart? He didn’t get only some. He got all. He got you. This parable is a warning. All four soils received seed. That is, all four groups heard the Word. But either through the devil, the world, or their own sinful flesh, for one reason or another, all within themselves, through no fault of the Seed, they are not saved, fall away, or do not mature. Repent and be warned.
But at the same time, be cheered and encouraged. For one night, within a manger in the ruined soil of Bethlehem, the evil sower’s worst nightmare came true. God so loved this world of wrecked and ruinous hearts that He sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, born to be the Good Sower, come to destroy the devil’s harvest.
This Sower is God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. And unlike the devil He is not a stingy sower, but a reckless Sower, flinging His Word everywhere. Sending it out to the ends of the earth, “intent alone that all may have the wholesome loaves that all men need” (LSB 586:3). He is not a hateful, bitter sower with evil intent, but a loving Sower sent from heaven to plant His goodly Seed within your heart by way of your ear. A Sower not of ruinous seed, but good seed. Seed so good and powerful that it actually takes those stony, thorny, matted flat hearts and creates its own good soil.
Be of good cheer even more. For that Sower born in Bethlehem is also God’s Seed born in Bethlehem. The skull-stomping, curse ending Seed of the Woman promised to man back in the freshly-ruined soil of Eden. Be further encouraged, for that Promised Seed is being planted on this very plot of ground, right here, right now. And you are here receiving it. We come, bringing no goodness of our own, nothing. Worthless, lifeless soil - dust, taken from dust, returning to dust. But Jesus came to be Everything.
Here’s the joy of parables. They are analogies, but not always one-to-one. Scripture is bounteous with meaning. For Jesus is not only the Sower, He’s also the Seed. He’s not only the Good Shepherd, He’s also the Lamb. He is not only the Worker in God’s Vineyard, He’s also the Vine. He’s not only the Preacher, He’s also the Message. He’s not only the King, He’s also the Servant. He’s not only the Teacher, He’s also the Subject. He’s not only the Righteous One, He is also the Sinner.
The One who brought no sin of His own, but came to bear in His own flesh the sins of your at times hard, wishy-washy, idol-infatuated hearts, and die for them. So that He might rise over them and leave them in the dust of His Resurrection in order to bring you the Seed of His life-giving Word and make you good, faithful soil, holding fast His Word in honest and good hearts.
He is Everything and He did all you needed for God to see you as good and faithful soil. He is the Sower and He is the Seed. He sowed His Word into your ears and it turned your hard, rocky, thorny heart into receptive soil that’s still producing a harvest. His sowing, His Seed, actually gives you ears to hear! His sowing, His Seed, is why hard times don’t overwhelm you and why worldly temptations have not choked off your faith in Christ Jesus.
Who would send a Sower to take on such a hateful, sophisticated, and powerful foe of man as Satan? A loving God would. And He has. He sent for Christ our Lord, the Word made flesh, forth from His mouth and He has not returned to Him empty, but He has accomplished that which He purposed and succeeded in the thing for which He sent Him.
For our Sower not only stretched out His arms and flung His Gospel forgiveness and peace everywhere, but He Himself, as Seed into the ground, was flung outside the walls of Jerusalem, and stretched out His arms upon a Tree planted in a garbage dump to save a world of rebels.
What a picture, Jesus, the Seed picked at by birds and rocks and thorns, hounded by Satan, maligned by the world, pummeled with our sin. Jesus our Sower, walking this cursed ground, teaching His Gospel everywhere. Amazing!
But even better, when that same Sower who is the Seed staggers to the Cross and dies for our faintheartedness, falls into the earth, only to rise again on the Third Day, the first fruits of God’s resurrection harvest.
By virtue of your Baptism, planted within the watery soil of Christ’s own death and resurrection, that harvest includes you!
Our God in the Flesh, the Sower, casting seed among the thorns of this idolatrous world, most of it being snatched or scorched or matted flat, His heart crying out, “Oh, what of that, and what of that?” But then, that same Sower, the Promised Seed, His own head being crowned with thorns and choked, while His pierced feet mat Satan’s skull flat, and bring his evil harvest to ruin. “Ah, what of that, Lord, what of that!”
It is no mistake that you are here, beloved. The Spirit has called you by the Word and planted you in that pew to receive the Good Sower’s gifts once more. His Word does it. First upon you, then in you, and then through you. For it is through you that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus continues to bear good fruit in this evil world. A harvest a hundredfold! Into this world of hate, despair and strife, there you are for your neighbor with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy and peace. In this self-indulgent and nasty world, there you are with your Christ-bestowed patience, kindness and goodness. In our rebellious and out-of-control world, there’s you, with the Spirit-wrought faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
For tribulation and persecution shall arise on account of the Word (Mk 4:17), not only against you, but within you, even as they did for St Paul. Labors, imprisonments, beatings, danger at every turn, toil and hardship. This all came on account of the Word, the Seed, our Lord Jesus Christ whom Satan attacks even within you! This is a hard lesson. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Above all, people loved by God, do not fear. For you are invited into paradise, to Eden restored, and even greater. To the Tree of Life and its life-giving fruit of Jesus Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. His grace is sufficient for you. His power is made perfect in weakness. Satan cannot have you. You are the Sower’s harvest.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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