Matthew
13:1-9; The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost; July 12, 2020;
Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;
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.” (Mt 13:1-9, ESV)
Grace and peace to you
from Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Wow this is such a familiar
text… in some ways that makes it really
hard to preach about. First, we’ve all heard it so much we think we know
everything there is to know about it. Second, there’s the real danger of saying
something that disagrees with a long held and favorite understanding. “That’s
not what pastor so-and-so said it meant!”
That’s the burden of a preacher. Just like the sower my job is to sow
the Word.
You’ve all got some corn
this morning. We’re going to talk a little bit about that in just a moment, but
I gave you corn because it’s obvious the seed that the farmer is sowing in the
parable is corn. Who can tell me why? The clue is right there in the text… Well, it’s obviously corn because after the
parable Jesus says, “He who has ears, let him hear.” I couldn’t give you all a whole ear… but he
who has ears let him hear. Just hang on to that seed a little longer, we’ll get
back to it.
Let’s talk a little about
this parable. It’s been called the parable of the sower, or the parable of the
soils. Now both of these have their
merits. The seed lands on the soil and it grows according to what kind of
conditions it finds there. Jesus is telling us that he casts his word out upon
human beings and they react differently depending on their soil type. Originally, I was going to stick the corn
onto different colored pieces of paper, so that each of you would get different
colors. But it didn’t seem quite right. After all I’m assuming that if you hear
in church, you’re here to hear God’s Word, and have it sown on you. So, you
must in some sense be “good soil.” We
could go into a detailed description of all the kinds of soil there are. Accusing
those who aren’t here of being the path or rocky or weed infested. “Shame on you!”
we could say about them. But the truth is that we all have those same kinds of
problems. We reject God’s Word that we hear, it just bounces off of us
especially when it tells us of sinful behavior we don’t want to change. Satan
comes and snatches it away, “you don’t need to worry about that little sin. God
isn’t really talking to you. There are so many people who are so much worse
than you are, that one little weakness doesn’t matter. God doesn’t mind, he
just wants you to be happy.” We all at
times don’t have God’s Word deeply rooted. Trouble and hardship in our lives, which
should push us to Christ, instead our faith withers. Instead of looking to
Christ and saying that without Him we are lost, we look inside ourselves to
find the strength to go on. And we all have those weed that threaten to choke
out God’s Word, too. It’s so easy to get out of the habit of coming to church. Life
is busy all year round not to mention our “summer schedule.” And there’s even the temptation to think that
we come to church to be entertained. It’s easy to think that God’s Word by
itself isn’t enough to do the job, we’ve got to make it more acceptable, by
doing something flashy. All of it serves to distract us from hearing the simple
message of God’s love for us in Jesus. Those weeds seem to grow up before we
know it and choke out our interest in worship, and bible study, and prayer, and
even a five-minute devotion from Portals of Prayer (a friend once called them “portable-Prayers”. And then there’s the good soil… we’ll talk
about that later. You see how it really doesn’t matter what type of soil we are.
We’re really all kinds of soil. Jesus is describing where the seed of His Word
falls. He’s describing human beings, just like you and me. Without faith in
Jesus we’d all reject His Word. Satan’s word to us would always sound like the
truth. Without faith in Jesus, we’d all get scorched by persecution and trouble.
Without faith in Jesus, His Word would always be choked out of our lives.
Well, I think there’s
different point being made by this parable. When we are looking at the soil, we
are looking at us. Whenever we look at ourselves as the answer to any problem,
we’re looking in the wrong place. God doesn’t promise that you’ll have the
strength to do whatever you want or need to do. He promises that He’ll give you
whatever you need. When we look at ourselves, in light of the soil the best we
can do is say, “Let’s be good soil!”
We don’t have many
farmers in the congregation, but we have a few. Can any one of you tell me what
the dirt does to be good dirt? Can the rocky soil get rid of the rocks? Can the
earth beneath the bean field zap its own weeds? Can the soil that lacks
nitrogen get it on its own? Of course, it can’t. But a farmer can do something
about it. Where I used to live in Creston, the soil was good by it flooded. Landowners
hand dug tiles that drained the water. But the land couldn’t do it by itself.
But I don’t think this
parable is so much about the soil as it is about the Sower. In fact, one way of
interpreting parables is to look for the thing that’s out of place, look for
the thing that people would never do. When you find that crazy thing, you’ll
usually find what Jesus is saying about himself. So, what’s the thing out of
place here? What’s the thing that someone would never do? Let me ask you this
question. What’s up with this Sower? What farmer is going to run his planter
over the road? What farmer is going to through his best seed corn in the fence row?
What farmer isn’t going to do something about the weeds that are growing up
among the plants he planted? You see, this isn’t a proper Sower. He’s very
reckless with His seed. He seems to throw it all over and He doesn’t care where
it lands.
Actually, what Jesus is
saying is that He, as the Sower, is very generous with the gift of His Word. He
spreads it all over, without regard to where it’s going to land (I like this
picture… see the sower, he’s not even looking!). His Word is for all people, those
who out right reject it, those who let the concerns of the world choke it out,
people who don’t take is seriously, and even those who don’t hold on to it and
treasure it. You see, that’s God’s great
love for all people. He wants all people to know what He has done for them in Christ.
He spreads His Word high and low to all people. That’s the God we have. He
loves to give and give in amounts and ways that are more than we can fathom. We
see the generosity of God in Jesus. Not just that He feed people who needed
food. Not just that He healed people who needed healing. But mostly that He
gave His very life on the cross for sinful people. There were those who were
there at the cross who mocked Him. His
death was even for them. You and I are sinful people who need the generosity of
Christ. Our sins and failures keep us from a relationship with God. But God
tells us in the seed of His Word that Jesus blood covers our sins. And that
even though we aren’t “good soil” in the sense that we can earn His love, He
gives us the forgiveness we need as a free gift for the sake of Jesus.
How about a concrete
example? At the very beginning of the service we confessed our sins to God. Well,
He knew them all already. He knows even the ones we don’t know and the ones we
keep hidden very deep in our hearts. But have you ever noticed that God’s forgiveness
isn’t conditional? The Word of God that I speak to you from Christ’s lips isn’t
“I forgive you some of your sins.” Or “I forgive you only the sins you know
about.” Or “I forgive the sins of those
of you who were in church last week.” No
Jesus says through me, “I forgive you all your sins…” I’m not offering you my forgiveness. That
wouldn’t mean a thing. I’m offering you Jesus forgiveness, in His own Words. You
see that’s the Sower sowing the seed. It’s as if it took corn and threw it over
all of you. Not caring where it lands. Not being specific to throw it at anyone. But to everyone. That’s the
reason God has given you a pastor. He wants you to hear and see God forgiving
you of all your sins. He wants you to be sure that the forgiveness that Jesus
accomplished on the cross covers the 2000 years of history and gets to you
right here and now. So, look at that corn in your hand. If you didn’t get any
raise your hand now and the usher will give you some. Think of that corn there
like God’s Word given to you, God’s forgiveness, just as if I’d thrown it out
and hit you in the head.
I think that’s what the
OT lesson is talking about too. Did you remember that phrase, “seed to the sower and bread to the eater?”
(Isa 55:11) When
you are hungry for forgiveness, when you are starving to hear God’s Word, when
you know that you are doomed without God, He gives you the Bread that you
need. He offers you forgiveness in
Christ. He offers you comfort in the promises found in His Word. That’s bread
to the eater. Eat the gifts of God here and be satisfied! God loves to give
bread to the eater.
And there’s another thing.
It’s in that “seed to the sower.” You
know what God offers to you. You’ve received it today through God’s Word. Think
about the Sower again. He sows all over without regard to the reaction, without
regard to the reception, without regard to the fruitfulness of the soil. You
see that corn in your hand, that’s for you, and it’s for you to spread around. You
see, there’s plenty where that came from. God sows His seed Himself; He doesn’t
need you to do it. But He gives you another gift in that Word that He gives. He
gives you the gift of sharing that Word with other people. He gives you the seed
to sow right where you are. Now your first thought it that you’re supposed to
find people to share the Word with that don’t know Jesus. But that wouldn’t be
like the Sower in the parable would it? The person right next to you needs to
hear about Jesus too. They already know about the forgiveness of Jesus. But
they need to hear about it again. I need to hear it again. So, take one of
those kernels of corn in your hand and give it to a person sitting next to you.
And when you give it say, “Jesus died for you, you are forgiven.” Now take a kernel to someone across the room,
and say “Jesus died for you, you are forgiven.”
Wasn’t that easy? What a privilege to give the Word of God to someone
who needed to hear it! Now this week you take that little pile of corn with you.
Find just one person (it doesn’t matter who!) to give it to and say, “Jesus
died for you, you are forgiven.” When
you are helping your neighbor, given them one of those kernels. They’ll look at
you funny, but you can blame it on me. Tell them that your pastor made you do
it. Don’t forget to say, “He wants me to tell you, Jesus died for you, you are
forgiven.” And when take the offering you
can put one of those kernels in with your gift. That’s to help you remember
that the money you give to the church here is for the sowing of God’s Seed. And
the money that you give to support missionaries and mission projects is God’s gift
to you to sow God’s Seed. And just think, Jesus doesn’t tell you to worry about
the reception of the Seed. That’s His department, that’s His worry. Some of
that Seed will produce fruit and some won’t. But God promises that it won’t
return “empty” but will do what God wants it to do.
Well, even if you don’t
give any away… remember, “Jesus died for you, you are forgiven.” Amen.
The peace of God that
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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