Sexagesima

Luke 8:4-15 - Sexagesima - February 12, 2012

What God Accomplishes

The word of God is powerful.  The reason that it is so powerful is because it is the word of God — and God is powerful.  God has the power to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.  And God accomplishes things by speaking His word.  That’s how He does it.  God does not speak simply to hear His own echo, but in order to accomplish on earth His good and gracious will toward men. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth by speaking.  When He had finished, He looked at what He had made and called it good.  God doesn’t create bad things.  He creates good things.  The purpose for which God continues to send His creative word today is a good purpose.  Through it, He accomplishes good things.  The word of God is powerful and good because God is powerful and good.  And because God is everlasting, so also the word of God shall not pass away.  

God speaks to us today in the words of Holy Scripture.  There is no other place where we can expect to hear His voice, because there’s no other place where the Almighty God promises to speak.  Only by hearing what God wants to tell us in the Bible are we able to come to saving faith in Him, because there’s no other place where God makes promises to save us.  We are saved from our sin by believing what we hear. 

You know that the word of God speaks to you.  You know this because it speaks to everyone.  The word of God does not discriminate between young and old, rich and poor, successful and failing.  The word of God is simply intended for sinners – something that everyone has in common.  This is why it is scattered so indiscriminately like seed upon the ground.  

God’s word is intended to create something good.  By His word, God creates faith in the hearts of sinners who need the blood of Christ to cleanse them from their sin.  But if this is God’s intention – if this is the gracious purpose for which He sends His word from heaven – and it does not return to Him empty – how is it that so many people simply disregard it as foolish?  Doesn’t this indicate some sort of weakness or ineffectiveness in God’s word? 

This question is exactly what Jesus addresses in the parable that He told in our Gospel lesson.  A sower went out to sow his seed.  His seed was good.  His seed was the word of God.  Notice that Jesus didn’t explain different effects that the seed had on different types of soil.  There was only one effect that the seed could possibly have, and that was to take root and bring forth fruit.  Instead, Jesus’ parable explains the different sorts of reception to the one seed.  These represent the different responses to the one word of God. 

The first seed is thrown upon the ground where it was trampled and eaten by birds.  This represents those who hear the word of God, but, “then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”  Jesus calls the devil the father of lies, and indeed he is.  It is his devilish nature to lie about the word of God.  That is how he snatches it out of so many hearts.  He’s been doing this since the very beginning when he led our first parents to place the devil’s lie above God’s truth. 

When God speaks, He speaks through the ears of man, and into the heart so that we might believe and be saved.  God creates life; He is the author of everything good.  The devil cannot create a thing; he can only pervert what God has made good; he is the author of sin, which leads to death and everything bad.  The source of all sin is unbelief.  The devil attacks and destroys faith in God by contradicting the word of God upon which faith lives. 

When objections of human reason, and thoughts of doubt dismiss the words of Scripture as foolish or irrelevant, this is the devil taking God’s word from man’s heart.  When the doctrine of the Trinity, the virgin birth of Christ, the clear teaching of the Bible concerning man’s spiritual depravity and helplessness – when these are rejected out of hand by those who hear the word of God, this is a case of the good seed being devoured by the birds of the air. 

Other seed fell on the rocky ground.  This seed was as good as it always is.  But rocky ground does not allow for roots to grow deep (that’s why it couldn’t get any moisture).   So likewise, faith that does not continually hear the word of God so that the word might root itself deep inside the heart quickly becomes no faith at all.  It becomes faith in the idea of faith – in the experience of faith – a faith that no longer holds onto and receives its life and joy from the actual promises of God’s word. 

In time of tribulation, when one must suffer loss, when the gracious face of God appears to turn away, such shallow faith is revealed for what it is and soon withers.  But we do not find God’s favor in the comforts of a successful life.  In fact, sometimes God allows us to lose what we have succeeded in gaining in order to teach us this very lesson.  True faith roots itself in what God says so that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope (Rom. 15:4).  The Christian seeks God’s gracious favor in no other place than where His word is preached in its truth and purity.  Faith that receives the deep roots of the word of God is able to withstand even the harshest of conditions. 

But in order for seed to take root deeply into the earth, the earth must be softened and plowed and made receptive for the seed.  Likewise, in order for the word of God to root itself deeply into the heart of a sinner, the sinner must be made aware of his need for Christ.  Only the holy law of God can do this for us, because only God’s law reveals the sin within our hearts from which we need Jesus to save us.   We cannot prepare our own hearts*.  Contrived feelings of guilt and sorrow do not prepare anyone for the gospel.  They can only prepare for hypocrisy. 

But when you see that the law demands from you the very righteousness of God Almighty that you cannot produce, then you see your need for Him who obeyed the law in your place.  When you experience that God’s revealed will for your life serves to reveal to you the failures of your life, then you see your need for Jesus who did His Father’s will.  When the law teaches you to hate the deep corruption of your heart, your self-centeredness, your pride, and laziness – when you hear the law require a love and self-giving attitude toward others that you know you can never produce, then it is that you see your need for another word. 

God filled this need by sending His own Son, the eternal Word, to take on your own flesh and blood – to love and serve from a pure heart both God and neighbor, and to suffer without complaint what your sins have earned.   And His Son who did this for you comes to you today through the same word that forgives you your sin. 

Like a farmer sowing seed, God sends His word – both His law and His Gospel.  The steel blade of the law digs deeply in order to expose a need that only God can fill.  And by God’s grace, the living roots of the Gospel fill that need.  When God forgives you your sin, He gives and credits to you what Jesus lived and died and rose again to accomplish.  It is this promise that we lay hold of by coming here to listen to His word, and receive His Holy Spirit.  And so it is here that God’s promise holds tightly on to us.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

The third type of ground that the seed lands on in Jesus’ parable is soil that is well prepared.  The Gospel took root.  But the cares and riches and pleasures of life took root as well.  And they became more important than continuing to hear the word of faith.  This is a stern warning especially to us in these last days when the quest for pleasure is regarded by most people as the highest of virtues.  But such thorny weeds choke out true faith by choking out the hunger and thirst for righteousness that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of the faithful.  But do not let the lusts of the flesh keep you from hearing God’s word. 

The final type of ground is good soil.  It is plowed, watered, and made fully ready to receive seed and sprout.  And it does; and it produces fruit in abundance.  It produces fruit in patience.   

“What kind of soil are you?” How do you receive the word of God?  Does the devil try to snatch it from your heart?  Of course he does.  He roams around still – especially among Christians – like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.  But you have the word of God that silences his lies.  Does temptation come?  Do trials and tribulation come to test your faith?  You better believe it.  And they won’t stop this side of heaven.  But the word of God does not fail to take root in the heart that continues to listen in true repentance. 

Do cares and pleasures of the world allure us?  Absolutely.  While we are still in this sinful flesh, we must contend against its many contrary desires.  That is why we continue to hear and meditate on that word which alone is able to work holy affections toward God, and forgive our worldly affections toward mammon.  So, what kind of soil are you?  You are the kind of soil upon which the sower sows his seed.  You are the kind of hearer who hears the word of God.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

It sounded at first like Jesus had just told a story about agriculture.  And so the disciples asked Him what He was talking about.  Good thing.  Jesus told them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets, or rather, the mysteries 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.’” 

The mysteries that God gives us to know are not whodunit mysteries.  They are not secrets that God wants to keep quiet.  They are the Gospel and Sacraments which Jesus has given to His Church in order to reveal what only He can teach us about God.  “To you it has been given to know why God speaks to man.” Jesus said.  “To you it has been given to know what only I am able to give.”  By saying what He said, Jesus offered Himself as the key to all of Scripture.  “What is God talking about?  What is His purpose in sending His word?  What does He hope to accomplish in me?”  Look to Jesus.  And you will learn.  See Him fulfill the faithful promises of the Old Testament prophets.  See Him sharpen the sword of the law against your sin only to suffer its condemnation in your place.  See every promise for grace and mercy and life that God makes in the Bible met in the suffering and death of Jesus.  See this salvation delivered to you in the words that our risen Savior speaks through His servant today. 

If we wish to see, we must look to Jesus.  If we wish to hear, we must listen to Jesus.  If we struggle with sin and regret, and wish to have stronger faith, then we come here to where Jesus comes to us.  One cannot preach the word of God without preaching Christ.  It is for His sake that we hold God’s word sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  And it is for His sake that the word of God takes root in our hearts as seed in fertile soil, and produces fruit – fruit that gives joy today, and that pleases our God forever. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.