Sexagesima Sunday – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 8:4-15
In Christ Jesus, who promises all who abide in His Word that they are His disciples, set free from sin, death, and every lie of the devil (Joh. 8:31-32), dear fellow redeemed:
If we studied Jesus’ parable by itself without the interpretation He gave, we would miss the point of the whole thing. We might first of all question the method of the farmer who sowed the seed. Couldn’t he be a little more precise about where the seed was broadcast? Three quarters of the seed fell where it was unable the survive and thrive—the hard path, the rocky ground, and the patch of thorns. Only one quarter fell into the good soul, grew up, and yielded fruit. We might conclude that it was the farmer’s fault that the seed did not do better.
Or perhaps we would blame the difficult conditions for growing seed. With all the birds flying around, with all the rocks, and with all the thorns, what chance could the seed have? It seems that the seed was destined to fail. Or possibly some would also criticize the seed. If the seed were better engineered to handle the challenging conditions, a crop could grow even there.
But Jesus does not interpret the parable in this way. His focus is not on the one who scattered the seed, the challenging conditions, or the seed itself. His focus is on the people who hear His words. As He spoke the words of the parable, He called out to everyone around Him, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” That should have told the people that Jesus wanted them to learn something from His words, something that applied to their faith and salvation. But what were they supposed to learn? Were they the farmers? Were they the seed? Were they the birds, the bad ground, or the good ground?
Jesus’ disciples were not sure themselves, but they knew this was important. They asked Him what the parable meant. We learn to ask the same question from our study of the Catechism. We recite something from the Bible like the Ten Commandments, and we ask after each one: “What does this mean?” We don’t just want to know the words, we want to understand them. We want to know how they apply to our lives. We want to meditate on what God is saying and receive the rich blessings He wants to give.
But many don’t take the time to dig into the Word like this. They have a basic understanding of who God is and what Jesus has done, but they don’t go any further. They think they know as much as they need. They don’t have any strong desire to learn more.
This is something like people who have never watched a football game before. They turn it on and figure out that the players with light stretchy pants are going against the players with dark stretchy pants. They both want to play with the same ball. Sometimes they throw it, sometimes they kick it, and sometimes they steal it. They seem to want to punish one another. That kind of watching might entertain to some extent. But the game means a lot more when you know the strengths and weaknesses of each player, and how the offense and defense are looking for leverage against each other.
The more understanding you have, the more appreciation you have. Isn’t that how love develops between a young man and a young woman? They want to spend time with each other, learn about one another’s likes and dislikes, talk about their difficulties and their dreams. You and I won’t have a love for God’s Word unless we spend time with God’s Word, learning what He has done for us and how He wants us to live, sharing our problems with Him through prayer and hearing about the plans He has for us.
So we don’t read the Bible like an ancient history book, as though it’s only about things long past. We don’t read it like an instruction book that we can set aside as soon as we know the rules. We don’t read it like a children’s book either, looking only for a cute story or a simple message. We take the Bible in our hands and soak it in line by line like the love letter that it is. We pour over it as we would the smallest details on a treasure map. We read a passage and then read it again and again, absorbing the words, chewing on them.
I heard about one Christian who writes a new Bible passage on a small piece of paper every day and pulls it out of his pocket throughout the day to keep it in his head. Others read a portion from their Bible each day. They have maybe read the Bible multiple times and are constantly surprised by what they didn’t notice before. There is no right or wrong way to meditate on the Word of God, as long as we are letting His Word speak for itself. We don’t come up with our own unique interpretations of His Word. We read a passage in its context; we compare one passage with another, this part with that part, and the interpretation becomes clear.
In today’s reading, Jesus provides the interpretation for His own parable. After His disciples asked, “What does this mean?” Jesus explained how to understand and apply each part. He did not identify the farmer who sowed the seed, so that is not a detail we need to explore. The seed is the Word of God. And all the types of ground—the hard path, the rocky ground, the patch of thorns—are those who hear the Word.
The seed was the same wherever it fell; all hear the same powerful Word of God’s grace. This shows how God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Ti. 2:4). He generously broadcasts His Word, so that it is heard by people who might not seem to be good soil for the Word. But sometimes they are! Since we do not know in whom the Lord will work faith, our mission as members of His Church is to “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mar. 16:15), to “Go… and make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28:18).
Since we are all born with the same original sin, none of us is a naturally “good” candidate to hear His Word and believe. Even we who believe need encouragement to “hold fast” His Word because we are always tempted to loosen our grip, to let other things become more important. When Jesus describes the reasons people lose faith, He is not providing a list of excuses. He is not telling us why some are justified in rejecting what they have heard.
The devil snatches the Word from some hearts because the people who hear pursue temptation instead of faithfulness. The seed in the rocky soil does not take root because some turn away from God in times of testing and difficulty instead of turning toward Him. The seed choked by thorns is when priority is given to “the cares and riches and pleasures of life,” when faith is taken for granted instead of being fortified and strengthened.
These things can happen to any of us, and at various points in our life, they probably have. But our Lord is merciful. When He sows His Word, He does not snatch it away from us. He does not withhold the moisture of His “living water” so that our faith cannot sink down roots. He does not send thorny trials to choke our faith. It’s just the opposite: “a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isa. 42:3).
He wants you to hear His holy, soul-saving Word. He wants you to hear the message again and again that He loves you—even weak, unworthy you. He wants His sweet words of absolution to sink into your ears and heart, that He forgives every single one of your sins. He wants you to be confident that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa. 1:18). He wants to assure you that a place is prepared for you in His kingdom, and that He will come back in glory to take you there.
When you receive these words in faith, trusting His gracious promises, gaining the comfort He wants you to have, this is the “good soil” in which His Word does powerful work. The more we hear the Word, the better and more fruitful becomes the soil of our hearts. You have seen this in your own life, that difficulties you could not have managed on your own, God gave you the strength for. People you could not have forgiven on your own, God moved you to forgive.
The Word of God is “living and active” (Heb. 4:12). It does not return to Him empty but accomplishes what He wills (Isa. 55:11). His Word creates the faith and strengthens the faith that bears fruit toward the people around us—the good fruit of love, kindness, faithfulness, patience (Gal. 5:22-23)—in our homes, our church, and our community.
Today’s parable is Jesus’ word to us. His message rings out even to the other side of the world and thousands of years after He originally spoke it: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when we listen, when we treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts (Luk. 2:19), Jesus leans toward us and says, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.” To you! To know the secrets of the kingdom of God!
The secrets are that you are not meant for this world; you are meant for something much greater. You are not destined to die and remain dead; you are destined to live. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Joh. 3:17). Jesus came to save you, and He wants you to know it.
Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word
We are gathered all to hear Thee;
Let our hearts and souls be stirred
Now to seek and love and fear Thee,
By Thy teachings, sweet and holy,
Drawn from earth to love Thee solely. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #1, v. 1)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Hortus Diliciarum, a book compiled by Herrad of Landsberg in the 12th century)
The Feast of the Holy Nativity of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
At 3 weeks from conception, the tiny heart of Christ started beating, the same heart that would feel the stress of intense suffering as He sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.
At 4 weeks, His arms and legs began to develop, the same arms and legs that would be stretched out on the cross.
At 6 weeks, the fingers of His hands had taken definite shape, the same fingers that would close in searing pain over the nails.
At 12 weeks, brain impulses moved His facial muscles, the same face that would twist in agony as He suffered the punishment of hell.
At 17 weeks, His ears heard the sound of Mary’s voice, the same ears that would hear the crowd’s jeering and the sobs of His dear mother as they gathered around His cross.
It’s somewhat unnatural to put Christmas and Calvary together, Christ’s birth and His death. Christmas is about a tiny Baby, born on a quiet night with angels singing His praises. That is a warm picture in our minds. Calvary is where a grown Man hung bleeding on a cross paying for all the world’s sin. That picture is cold.
And yet, it is the same Christ. The Baby in Mary’s womb was no ordinary baby. He was God incarnate, God in the flesh! The components of His human body were developing, even as He reigned as Lord over all things. He looked so helpless, yet He was the all-powerful God. He seemed so vulnerable, yet He had come to “destroy the works of the devil” (1Jo. 3:8).
The unbelievers of the world laugh at this. They laugh at your supposed God-in-the-flesh. They find Santa from the North Pole more compelling than this. And we admit that this does seem foolish. Why would God spend nine months in the dark womb of a poor woman? Why would He choose to enter the world in this way, as a little Baby, in the humblest of settings? Why would He put Himself under the care of Mary and Joseph?
The Son of God came to redeem every second of your life and every inch of your person, from your tiny first existence in your mother’s womb to the final breath of your life on earth. He came to live it, experience it, sanctify it—the womb, childhood, adulthood—and then redeem you through the sacrifice of His perfect life in your place.
This is what God was doing at Christmas, for you and me and whole world. Please join me in singing our festival hymn, #142:
Rejoice, rejoice this happy morn!
A Savior unto us is born,
The Christ, the Lord of glory.
His lowly birth in Bethlehem
The angels from on high proclaim
And sing redemption’s story.
My soul,
Extol
God’s great favor;
Bless Him ever
For salvation.
Give Him praise and adoration!
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Sermon text: St. Luke 2:15-20
In Christ Jesus, the Savior of the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and you and me, dear fellow redeemed:
What was the most fantastic sight the shepherds saw on the first Christmas night? It’s hard to imagine anything more amazing than the angel of the Lord appearing while the glory of the Lord shone around them, followed by a multitude of angels filling the sky and singing the praises of God. But I don’t think the shepherds would tell you that was the most amazing thing they saw. They would tell you it was the tiny Baby lying in a manger.
It wasn’t so much His appearance as the explanation of who He was. The angel said to them, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luk. 2:11). As they gathered around the little Baby, they knew they were looking upon more than a Baby. They were looking upon God in the flesh. They did not know how it could be; they did not fully understand it; they did not grasp what this Child would do. But they believed, they trusted.
That is the first thing we hear about in today’s reading. They TRUSTED the message that the Lord delivered to them through the angel. This trust got their feet moving: “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem,” they said, “and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” They didn’t take their time; they “came with haste,” and searched diligently through the town until they found “the Babe lying in a manger.”
The setting was not impressive. Mary and Joseph did not look like much. Jesus appeared to be an ordinary Baby. Was He really “Christ the Lord”? Was He really the promised Savior? Was He really God in the flesh? There is no indication that they viewed the Child with suspicion or doubt. They trusted what they had heard. They trusted that here in the manger lay their Savior and the Savior of the whole world.
Their trust was evident in what they did next. They TOLD. “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child.” As unlikely as it is that these shepherds were the first witnesses to see the Christ-Child, it is just as unlikely that they became the first evangelists, the first to spread the good news about Jesus. God didn’t choose the priests to do this or some practiced orators or the powerful and influential to spread the message. He chose shepherds.
But then their lowly status is consistent with the way God does His work. He chose to work through humble Mary and the fishermen disciples, and today He even works through unimpressive you and me. 1 Corinthians 1 reveals this shocking strategy of God: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (vv. 27-29).
So the shepherds traveled all over telling everyone what they had heard and seen, but especially what they had heard. The angel’s words about the Christ-Child were so clear and comforting. It’s safe to say the people in and around Bethlehem had never heard the shepherds talk so much about spiritual things. What had gotten in to these men? “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.” The message of the shepherds filled them with wonder and amazement. Could what they were saying actually be true? But why would God reveal it to the shepherds, of all people?
The shepherds did not worry about how their message was received. Whether it was received warmly or with disdain, they could not but speak of what they had seen and heard (Act. 4:20). News this great could not be kept to themselves. Call them crazy, but they would not stop telling what the angel had “told unto them.”
The last thing we hear about these shepherds is how they THANKED God. As they returned to watch over their sheep in the field, they were “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen.” They could not explain why they were chosen for this tremendous privilege. Why should the angel appear to them? Why should they be chosen to lay eyes on the Christ-Child? It was all a gift.
God had mercy on those men, just as He has on the entire human race. He delivered a gift in special wrapping—a “Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” No one earned this gift; no one was worthy of it. But God sent it in love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (Joh. 3:16). The Son of God entered the world as a Baby to rescue sinners from eternal death in hell.
So we see how the shepherds TRUSTED the message of the angel and went to see the Christ. They TOLD everyone about the amazing events of that night. And they THANKED God, glorifying and praising Him that He had revealed these glad tidings to sinners such as them. My dear friends in Christ, do you stand where those shepherds stood? Do you see what they saw? Do You Hear What They Heard? Because the Christ-Child came for you too.
What did the angel tell the shepherds? “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The good news was not just meant for them; it was given “to all people”—“to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). That means the angel’s announcement was meant for you. God sent His Son to earth for you. He was born in lowliness for you. When the shepherds looked upon Jesus in the manger, they were looking at your Savior too.
Those shepherds provide a good pattern for us, a good roadmap to follow. Just as they heard the good news and received it with joy, so do we. We have gathered here today for this very purpose. We have heard the Christmas message many times before, but it never gets old. We listen in wonder and amazement what God has done for us sinners. Like Mary, we treasure all these things and ponder them in our hearts.
But we don’t keep the good news to ourselves. As individuals and as a congregation, we make known abroad that a Savior has come for all people. We share the glad tidings of the forgiveness of sin and eternal life through Jesus. We tell our neighbors, no matter how disinterested, prideful, or stubborn they may seem, that the Son of God took on flesh for them too. Like the shepherds, we can’t point to anything in ourselves that causes God to show us mercy, but we know that He does. The Proof is wrapped in swaddling clothes, hanging on a cross, and leaving the tomb empty on the third day.
Like the shepherds, we also give thanks today. There may be a lot of things in your life that are causing your Christmas to be less than merry. You may be carrying regret or sadness or pain. You may see no end to your troubles. The Christ was born for you. Your Father in heaven wants you to know it and hear it. Jesus came to bear your griefs and carry your sorrows. He came to redeem your soul and open the way for you to heaven.
You are not insignificant to Him, a nameless face that He does not recognize. He sees you and chose you like He chose those lowly shepherds. He has great things in store for you just as He did for them.
Now let us all with gladsome cheer
Follow the shepherds and draw near
To see this wondrous gift of God,
Who hath His only Son bestowed. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #123, v. 6)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Shepherds and the Angel” by Carl Bloch, 1879)
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-15
In Christ Jesus, through whose saving work we have been united with the one true God, dear fellow redeemed:
At various times during His public work, Jesus spoke this phrase: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” That phrase should make our ears perk up. We should be asking the question: what does Jesus want me to learn and keep in mind? In our reading for today, Moses begins with the same message: “Hear, O Israel.” What should they hear? What should they pay attention to and remember? They should hear this: “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” And then, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
First of all, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” We worship one God, the God called Yahweh—I AM—, the name He told Moses to say to the people of Israel. This God is uncreated, infinite, eternal. He is omnipotent (almighty), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent. This one LORD and God is the only God. There are other made-up gods, other make-believe gods, but there are no other true gods.
This is why Moses warned the people, “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you.” There were plenty of false gods in Old Testament times, just as there are plenty of false gods today. Humankind has been creating its own gods ever since the fall into sin. In Romans 1, St. Paul writes that fallen mankind “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things…. [They] worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (vv. 23, 25).
The devil and the demons tempt us to do this. These demons are not gods, but they are more powerful than we are. They try to trick us into thinking there are other gods, and that those gods can help us. So some people think “the gods” send them special messages through their dreams, through the stars, through tarot cards or ouija boards, or through certain individuals who claim they can connect with these powers.
Even we Christians who have been chosen by God as His own dear children can be taken in by these things. Maybe we want to find a supernatural way to punish those who have hurt us. We want to connect with the spirits of the dead. We want to know what will happen in our future. We want answers to deep questions or concerns or ways to find out other people’s secrets. The devil is only too willing to encourage this thinking which leads us away from God and His promises.
And if the devil does not succeed in turning us toward other gods, he tries another tactic. He seeks to confuse us about the true God. We are taught in the Bible that God is triune—one God in three Persons. That means God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have always existed and always will exist—three Persons of the same essence and power. As one God, the three Persons work in perfect unity. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
It is wrong to think of the Triune God in a hierarchical way, as though the Father were the most powerful, followed by the Son, and then the Holy Spirit. Or that the Son of God did not fully exist until creation or until He took on flesh in Mary’s womb. Or that the Holy Spirit is a motion or a force but not really a Person of God. In recent times, we hear people changing the terms for God by teaching that the Holy Spirit is feminine, or that God is not “Father” but “Mother.”
These attacks on God’s unchanging truth will keep happening until the end of time. But we must not be taken in by them. Our fear, love, and trust should be in the LORD our God only. That is the second thing Moses wanted Israel to hear: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” There is no part of you that should love anything besides God. All your heart should be committed to Him. All your soul should be bound to Him. All your might—every ounce of your power and the force of your will—should be applied to His truth and His service.
But if we are supposed to love God with every part of ourselves, how can we also love our neighbors, including our parents or siblings or spouse or children? Wouldn’t that divide our love? Well God doesn’t tell us to love our neighbors instead of Him. We show love for our neighbors because of our love for God. And He counts the love we show to others as love shown to Him (Mat. 25:40).
We wouldn’t know anything about love if we did not first learn it from God. Love did not begin in the world. It came from outside the world to us. It came from God. The apostle John writes, “for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God…. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1Jo. 4:7,9).
God the Father showed His love for sinners by sending His only-begotten Son to save us. The Son of God became one with us by taking on our flesh. He was “incarnate,” He was made man (Nicene Creed). He did this, so that He could live the life of perfect love on our behalf that God requires of us.
You might think this was easy for Him, since He is God. But Jesus in His state of humiliation did not make full use of His divine powers. He was able to feel weakness and pain. The author to the Hebrews writes that Jesus can certainly sympathize with us, because He “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). His righteousness far exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mat. 5:20). He fulfilled every tiny detail of God’s holy law (Mat. 5:18), so that perfect life of love could be credited to us.
And so it is! You and I have not perfectly used our ears in hearing and learning the Word of God. We have not perfectly honored the true God and loved Him with all our heart, soul, and might. But Jesus perfectly kept the Scriptures and obeyed His Father’s will in our place. He dedicated every part of Himself in love for us sinners. He did nothing out of selfishness and everything for our salvation, including sacrificing Himself on the cross as the payment for all sin.
This victory over sin and death is yours. You don’t have to earn it by being good enough or by proving your love for God and neighbor. It is yours as a gift from God through His Word. For many of you, perhaps all of you, this gift first came to you through the water and the Word of Holy Baptism, “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3:5). At the baptismal font, you were baptized in the name of the Triune God—“in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mat. 28:19).
Through Baptism, the one holy God caused you to be united with Him. Baptism made you a member of the body of Christ. All that is His—His perfect love toward God and neighbor, His perfect life of righteousness—belongs to you and covers over you, so that God does not see your sin or count it against you anymore. St. Paul writes that you who have been baptized into Christ “must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).
You live in God and for God. You are one with Him. Jesus prayed for this to His Father, and the Father heard His prayer, just as He hears every prayer in the name of His Son. Jesus said, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (Joh. 17:22-23). The one true God—the Triune God—loves you. He gives you every good gift from above (Jam. 1:17). No other god can do this for you, because there are no other gods.
So we gladly hear and learn the Word of the true God. We teach it diligently to our children. We talk about it in our homes and while we are out and about (including at camp). We meditate on the Word from morning to evening. We commit it to our memory, we wear it on our clothes, and we put it on our walls. There is nothing better than God’s gracious, life-giving Word. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus in Prison” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
Sexagesima Sunday – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 8:4-15
In Christ Jesus, who sows the Seed of the Word of God for all to hear, sowing forgiveness and grace in you, dear fellow redeemed:
Living in Iowa, there is one part of the scenery that I have gotten used too. The land is flat, and since it is flat, there will be corn. Miles and miles of corn. Jesus’ parable is very straight forward and knowing these congregations, you should hear Christ speaking directly to you. This message is very fitting. You know what it takes to get that corn to grow. The field has to be tilled. The rocks have to be picked out of the field and thrown to the side. The field has to be treated so that the weeds don’t attack and kill the baby corn stalk. Lastly, you pray to God for rain and look expectantly for it to grow. Jesus has designed this parable for you. Now as you are the sowers of your fields, in our text we see Jesus, the sower of the Word. Jesus warns us how the Word is under threat. He teaches that this is not just a parable of categories and where you fit in. Jesus is teaching us the truth that we can’t grow His Word on our own. We have to rely on him.
Jesus uses imagery that easily sticks in our minds. The parallels are very easy to spot. Pesky birds fly down and eat the seeds on the road. The Devil is a hunting lion stalking his prey and ready to strike. He is constantly working to make those who hear the Word reject it. The seed is eaten with almost no chance for it to ever come back. The seed can be planted multiple times and a person can reject it every time. Where the field’s edge sits, the rocks are thrown. The Word is believed and quickly forgotten. Many people love how the Word can be refreshing and comforting. But when the troubles and absolute hard times put us on our knees, those refreshing words can be tossed aside because what can they do to help me now?
Where weed killer isn’t used, the thorns grow. When God’s Word isn’t active, then faith is choked out. Jesus shows the crowd how easily the pleasures and riches of world can be those temptations that make faith wither. They saw the life He was living, yet they looked at all of their possessions and they did not want to give them up. The good fruit that comes from the Word is twisted into fruit selfishly used for oneself.
Did you hear yourself in any of those categories? A misconception of this text is to think that this text only applies to the world and not to those who believe. Most of the time if not all of the time we will consider ourselves in that field, holding onto the Word and yielding a hundredfold. A key verse to think about is when Jesus called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” How often do we let the Word of God go in one ear and out the other ear? We hear; honor your parents, honor authority, don’t covet, don’t look at someone with lust, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. When we sin, we are rejecting God’s Word and Satan lies in wait.
Jesus tells his disciples that, “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.’ Jesus has given us the understanding of this parable. But like the unbelievers, who can harden their hearts again and again, we also can harden our hearts. We cave to the pressures of the world and fail to live our Christian lives. We sin often which puts us under intense scrutiny. The more that we behave like the unbelievers do, the more we let God’s Word drift away.
When we are not listening to God’s Word, our faith will not grow. And if we set aside the Word long enough, our faith will die out. God says to rely on him, yet the pleasure of this life, the pleasures of our sins make us feel so good. It might not even be the pleasures of life either. We might ignore the comfort that Word brings in the hardest times in our lives. The budget might be tight, we begin to worry that God is not providing for us. Just because we have ears, doesn’t mean that we actually hear and learn. As we get caught up in our sins and problems, Jesus’ parable does point to a solution. The question to be answered is, why is Jesus so concerned that we listen to what He says? Why should we listen?
The reason that Jesus is so concerned about us listening to Him is because He is the one who is sowing the seed. “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). The truth is taught to us in the Word of God. The Word of God is a Means of Grace. It brings forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. The Word shows us that Christ is the one who saves us. It teaches how He died on the cross, taking away our sins, and rising from the dead. Why should we listen? This is how Christ comes to us. He comes to us directly in His Word. He doesn’t hide himself. This is where we find understanding. It’s not in what the world has to offer. We find it in the Word.
With your ears you hear that the Word of God is powerful and effective because it is how Jesus comes to you. Your sins are many and there are many times that you have failed to listen to God’s Word. You can’t grow the seed, but when you acknowledge that you have sinned against God, it is Jesus’ Words that you hear when the pastor says to you “I forgive you all your sins.” That word of absolution works powerfully within you. Jesus sows His forgiveness and grace in you. He takes and not only plants the seed, He waters it and He makes it grow. The Word brings you assurance. Your sins are not attached to you.
As you grow in the Word, it provides you with strength and comfort when the temptations come and the thorns grow. This is how you know that you are in the good soil. Jesus says, “as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Jesus planted His Word in you and made your heart into good soil.
Holding fast to the Word of God, the honest and good heart is revealed. It is nurtured by Christ. We know that by nature our hearts are sinful. The heart is against God all the time and knows can’t rely on itself. But Christ comes to our hearts through the Word and dwells in us. With growing and patience in God’s Word, Jesus produces fruit in us, fruit that is shared with those around us.
Jesus teaches with this parable that the Word is not going out only to believers. After hearing God’s Word, and hearing how plainly the truth is taught, some people will still reject it. This is a sad truth and an all too familiar one. But knowing that the truth is rejected does not stop us from sharing it. We want people to hear how their salvation has been won. The Gospel has the power to change hearts. The Law reveals that we are fallen people. We needed to be redeemed. The Gospel proclaims the truth, that we are saved by faith alone. The Word brings us comfort and joy as we continue to grow in it.
As the Word works, we see how powerful it is. The Word is powerful through the working of the Holy Spirit. This is what we confess in the third article of the Apostle’s Creed. We can’t increase our faith on our own. It is the Holy Spirit who calls us by the Gospel. He opens our ears so that we hear the saving message. He is the reason we keep our faith. Not only does He keep us in the true faith through the preaching of the Word but He keeps the whole Christian Church on earth with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. The Word is working throughout our entire life.
The spring and fall are the two seasons that are looked on with great anticipation. It is the time for seeds to be planted and for them to rise up for harvest. Thankfully the Word of God does not work in seasons. The Word continues to work when we are in it, exploring, and hearing all that God has done for us. As we learn and hear His Word, Jesus comes to us. The world wants a personal Christ. He doesn’t get more personal than in His Word. We hear the comfort that He brings us which helps us through our trials and temptations. The Word of God tells us what Christ has done. The Word keeps us strong in our faith. The Word grows our fruit, fruit that is meant for the world. A testimony of Christ’s constant love to the world that comes from hearing the Word of the Gospel. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Hortus Diliciarum, a book compiled by Herrad of Landsberg in the 12th century)