Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel of the Matthew, the thirteenth chapter:
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
Today’s text tends to lend itself towards one question that is in everybody’s mind: what kind of soil am I? Am I good soil? Well, certainly, we’d never think that much of ourselves. Am I the soil on the path? Do I get eaten by birds? Do I get scorched by the sun? Do I get choked out? What kind of soil am I? What’s going to happen to me?
See, these are all the wrong questions. The question shouldn’t be, should never be, what kind of soil am I. That question has the wrong focus. Rather, the question should be, why is the sower in this passage so lazy, so stupid, so wasteful?
Now, before I answer that, I gotta say, I don’t know much about gardening. In fact, nothing really at all. I know enough that you put the plants in the ground, water them, maybe put some fertilizer on them, maybe keep the bugs away. That’s about it. I know even less about farming management. I’m always impressed when I drive down the road and I see those huge watering systems farmers have that pivot on their stand. I’m always amazed by those huge machines that just tower over everything.
I’m not much of a man who works with hands, especially when it comes to doing things with plants. But I am wise enough to know that in Jesus’ parable this morning, the sower looks like an idiot. I don’t just mean someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing, I mean he looks like someone who does know better, should know better, must know better, and doesn’t care anyway. If the sower has a boss, maybe someone who owns the field, you can bet that he’d be fired for what he’s doing. And if he’s his own boss, well, then, again, he seems like an idiot because he will lost all his profit.
I mean, what does he think that he’s doing? The sower is lazy, he doesn’t clear the rocks out of the field before he begins. The sower is stupid, because you never throw seeds in the thorns, right? They’d never get light and you could never reap there. And the sower is wasteful, because who in their right mind throws seeds on a path, so hardened, well-worn, packed down that nothing would grow there.
You see, this is where Jesus wants you to keep your focus. He wants you to keep focusing on this sower who makes no sense. Because Jesus knows that when you try to figure out what kind of soil you might be, you look to yourself and you realize, and you definitely should be realizing this, especially as a repentant Christian, that you have no depth, at least not the way you think you should have it.
This is what theologians call being turned in on yourself, it means that you’re navel gazing. You’re looking down and in without any understanding of what’s going on around you. You’re depending on yourself. You’re relying on number one. You’re looking to yourself for explanation. That doesn’t sound like the Christian thing to do.
And so when you are navel gazing, you miss the whole point of the parable. It’s on the sower. It’s on the actor. After all, the soil can’t change or control who it is. Rocky soil can’t make itself grow thorns. Good soil can’t place itself up on the road. Soil can’t do anything at all. It’s inanimate. It’s like saying that your toys become alive in the middle of the night when no one’s looking. It’s ridiculous. Soil can’t change itself any more than I magically spin around and become a leprechaun.
So, that’s who we navel-gazers are in relation to the sower. Inanimate objects for the actor, the sower, to act upon. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the sower here is representing God the Father. He does the action, the sower sows the seed, the Father is sowing something.
So, does that mean that we are calling our Father in heaven lazy, stupid, and wasteful?
Perhaps. Perhaps I’m accusing God of being this way, but to our human eyes, our limited eyes that cannot perceive that which God does for the reasons He does them, our eyes that are always looking into our own bellies, a sower should be taking care of His garden. So should God, then, we think.
But this is our God. While He is not stupid, or lazy, or wasteful, He does whatever He pleases to do according to His will. And what He is pleased to do is to spread the seed of His Word upon the entire garden, the entire world, rocky, thorny, beaten down, or good, all alike. This seed of His Word is the Gospel. And this Gospel is all about Jesus.
The Gospel never stops to consider where it goes. The Good News of Jesus Christ goes out into the world and it is for every human who has lived, is living, or will ever live. The Gospel makes no distinction, Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, saint or sinner, rejecter of God or beloved of God. The Gospel makes no distinction of people because it for all people. God has so much of this Gospel that He spreads it out everywhere that He sees, and He sees all things. There is no end to the Gospel. It’s as if there’s a jar in heaven full of the Gospel, and the more you take out of it and spread it, the more there is in the jar. The Gospel never runs out.
But, you do have to realize, this Gospel is the most costly gift in all of creation. This Gospel is free to you and me, but it cost our Father His Son. And it cost our Lord Jesus His life. It’s a costly, expensive thing, this Gospel. It’s like the Hope Diamond, one of the most expensive diamonds in the world. That is the Gospel. And the Father never runs out of this diamond Gospel, He never runs low on supply, and He just keeps spreading it around, He gives the diamond Gospel to you. Like Oprah. You get the Gospel, and you get the Gospel, and you get the Gospel, everybody gets the Gospel!
After all, our Lord Jesus Christ died for all people without distinction, without worry, without having to worry about not doing His job or fulfilling His mission, or running out His forgiveness. Our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, came to this earth, taking on our flesh, to bear our sin, to be our Savior, to die for us upon the tree, to take our place, to be raised into life, and to give us that same promise of the Resurrection. This Good News, this Gospel, this is for you. You have received this Gospel because the Lord Jesus did it for you, He did it all for you, and for all whom He desires to hear His Word. And yes, Jesus even died for those who would reject Him. Jesus died for those who would fall away, wither away, walk away, be led away. Jesus died to show them His love, that they would turn and live.
So, is Jesus stupid, lazy, or wasteful? Is it dumb to die for people who hate you? Perhaps if we were asked to do that. Perhaps if we were asked to die for our enemy it would be dumb. But Jesus has died for all those whom He loves, which is all of creation. Our Lord created this world and all that is in it. He loves every bit of it, and He loves all people in it, for He lavishes His grace and mercy upon all people, without regard for what they will or will not do in the future. The sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, we are all given gifts of God, for He is good and His mercy endures forever.
This is where the focus of the parable is: the goodness of God. It looks stupid to us, but the sower, God goes into all the world giving the Gospel, sharing His gift of Christ Jesus with everyone, without worrying whether or not they will believe. It looks dumb to us, if we were God we would do it another way, but we’re not. We’re not God. We wouldn’t send our son to die for our enemies. He did. We wouldn’t love our enemies. He did. We wouldn’t spread the Word of salvation to all people, but God does.
And so our God is good, all the time. Oh, and getting back to that question we all want to ask, what kind of soil am I? Didn’t you confess your sins this morning? Didn’t you hear the Word of God this day? Weren’t you washed in the baptismal waters? Haven’t you eaten and still desire the Lord’s Body and Blood, trusting in the words “given and shed for me?”
Do not fear little flock. You’re the good soil. I say that with the same confidence in which I declare that I forgive you. I say that with the same confidence that you may trust in the Lord. I say that with the same confidence that I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I say that with the same confidence in which I feed you. You are the good soil.
For there, in the good soil, the Father has sown His seed. There, Jesus has taken root. There, the Spirit has grown your faith. You are the good soil. The Father has given you the Word, the Son has redeemed you, and the Spirit makes you to trust in Christ and Christ alone. You have been shown the Lord’s love, and you know it, and you will be shown the Lord’s love in the Gospel each and every day of your lives.
The Lord loves you. The question isn’t what soil you are, it’s how good is my God? And He is very, very good, for His Gospel in Christ, the Good News of what Jesus has done for you, His Gospel is great, and so is His work, for you and for always. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment