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Luke 8:4-15
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The professional theologians had turned hostile. The Pharisees were ganging up on Him. Jesus had been driven from the synagogues. There had been setbacks and discouragements. His own family had shown misgivings about Him. Small wonder that His disciples and followers began to feel discouraged. Was the Kingdom of God already doomed to failure?
This parable was the answer to such fears. Here was an image from real life, ready for His purpose. Some of the Sower’s seed, Jesus said, fell on the footpath, only for the birds to devour it. Some fell on ground where there was only a thin dusting of soil on top of rock. Up shot the young seeds, but when the sun pierced the shallow soil, the plants soon withered and died. Other seed fell among thorns that choked the life out of the growing shoots. But then, some seed fell on good soil and yielded a good crop, some even a hundred-fold. If, as we are told, tenfold was considered an average crop at that time, then these were bumper crops, a harvest to gladden any farmer’s heart and make him forget his losses.
In the same way, in spite of frustrations and obstacles, the Kingdom of God will reap a harvest that exceeds expectations. As certain soils are unproductive despite the work that is put into them, in the same way, there will be opposition to the Gospel and people will fail to believe. But the Kingdom of God belongs to the realm of the eternal, and so we must keep in view the harvest, not the apparent failures. This parable was intended by Jesus as a call to faith in God. Though we know that the enemies of the Church are many; though all around us there may be empty pews and dwindling congregations and spiritual apathy; however gloomy the outlook for the Church may seem to be, we must learn from Christ that God’s Kingdom succeeds according to His will and good pleasure. The Spirit of God is unceasingly at work in this world of men. He can be trusted to finish His work.
But this was not the only purpose Jesus had in mind when He told this parable. That the various soils are described as they are is no accident. It was a reflection of our Lord’s own experience of preaching the Gospel and His awareness of the need for attentive hearing. And so, this is also a parable about hearing the Gospel, a hearing that moves faith into action. So how do we hear the Gospel? We can choose to listen only with our ears, as often happens in polite conversation. What is heard goes in one ear and quickly out the other, which suggests the seed that fell along the hardened path. Or, we can listen with our minds only, as we might to a great speaker. While he speaks, we are thrilled and, perhaps even for the moment, persuaded by what he says. But then, that persuasion evaporates as quickly as the moisture from the shallow soil. Or we can listen to a passionate appeal for an important cause, maybe even within the Church. But something else gets our attention, and the appeal goes unanswered, like the thorns that choked out the young plants as they began to grow. And finally, there is a message that so grabs hold of our attention that it will not let us go; we hear our own name, we learn that a loved one is desperately ill, or something like this. And we hear not with our ears only, nor only with our minds, but with our whole being; and we act at once, like something that is a matter of life or death. And that is the kind of hearing the Gospel calls for. Momentous issues are at stake; they concern us, and we must listen.
As you think of this parable again, answer these questions for yourself: What kind of soil am I? Am I hard, or shallow, or thorny, or good soil? Of course, you might brush those questions aside: “I am just the way God made me, and there is nothing to be done about it.” But that is a kind of fatalism which is really a denial of the truth of the Gospel. The grace of God changes hearts and lives, and that is undeniable. The real truth is that in each of us there is something of all four soils. And the message of this parable, as it is connected to each soil, has something to say to each of us.
And yet, there is a still deeper meaning here. We who stand on the this side of the cross and resurrection know something many of those who first heard Jesus may not have known. We know who the teller of the parable is. He is the “Word made flesh,” God’s saving purpose embodied in human flesh. And by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, that living Christ still confronts us with His challenge: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” To be sure, such a confession is not within our human power. As Jesus said it was for Peter, it is also revealed to us from above. Not flesh and blood, but only that which is of the Holy Spirit can confess Jesus Christ. But what we do with Jesus and His Gospel is of eternal significance. And how we hear and how we respond, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, is, in the end, what matters eternally. God is faithful. His Holy Spirit will work within us, so that we may hear the Word of God and confess His holy name. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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