The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
One of the greatest Christian missionaries of all time is not widely known, probably because he was a “loser.” He was a German Lutheran man named Ludwig Nommensen. He came from a small town near Denmark. In the year 1862, he was sent by the mission society in Barmen, Germany, to Sumatra, Indonesia. For several decades, he faithfully sowed the seed of the Gospel among the Batak tribes in Sumatra. Frequently he had to preach and teach and live the Gospel in the face of open hostility. It was three years of him working on the mission field before he saw any tangible, visible, discernible result of his preaching, which came in the form of one single baptism. It took even more years before the next noticeable mark of progress was made in converting the Batak people.
Nommensen worked. His work was hindered by local political problems, with the Batak king and tribal chiefs who decided to wage war on the Dutch occupiers. In 1878, he completed his first translation of the New Testament into the Batak language. He continued to work in the face of difficulties over many, many years, basically taking up the balance of his life, which ended at the age of 84. Pastors, by the way, never used to retire; they just stopped. That’s how it worked. It’s a modern notion that pastors end up retiring. At the time of his death, there were about 180,000 Batak Lutherans who were direct results of this one Christian missionary preaching, teaching, and translating the Word of God over a period of nearly 50 years in the mission field. Today the Batak Lutheran church is a thriving Asian Lutheran church.
Throughout chapters 12 and 13 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is on the missionary field. Crowds have gathered to see and hear Him. Many were not friendly to Jesus or to His message. You would know chapter 12, because this is where Jesus is called by the leaders of the people the prince of demons. Still, crowds grew over the couple of days He was there. They became so large that Jesus had to leave a house, go over to a beach, preach a bit on the beach, and then finally get into a boat and push away from the shore so that He could see the people and they could see and hear Him. They were looking at Him, but He also was looking at them. They saw something in Him, and He saw something of them too.
As He stood in the boat, He looked at the people. He saw a sample of the true visible church on earth, that is, the real church, the one that we see with our eyes, not the one comprehended by faith. The Lutheran confessions say that in the church there are both hypocrites and true believers. He sees, in the language of His own parable, four kinds of soil before Him. And what He sees prompts Him to tell a series of parables: the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the hidden treasure.
Chapter 13 begins with a phrase: “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.” “That same day” shows you there’s a connection between the crowd in chapter 12 and the crowd in chapter 13. They’re one and the same; it’s just in chapter 13 they grew a bit larger. In chapter 12, Jesus experienced unbelief and outright opposition by the various groups within the crowd. In chapter 12, He taught the crowds that they were not members of the heavenly Father’s family, but rather the disciples, whom He calls, are members of His family: those who hear the Word of God and believe it, and who do His Father’s will in heaven. Those are rightly called members of the hidden church. That was offensive to the people.
So Jesus tells the parable of the sower, to teach them something about both the seed and the sower, as well as something about themselves, us included. So Jesus began. He said, “Behold,” that means pay attention, “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.”
Now, there’s a wonderful irony and mystery in the telling of parables, especially this particular parable, because Jesus, after all, is Himself the sower of the seed in the parable. He’s the one preaching, speaking, and teaching God’s words to the crowds. He’s the one casting His words onto the different kinds of soil right there on the seashore. He’s casting the seed of His words onto different people with different soil. Jesus is also the seed. He’s the promise. The Hebrew word for “seed” is zera; that’s the one used in Genesis 3:15, where God promises the seed of the woman who will do battle and prevail over the devil. Jesus, you see, is also the seed, not just the sower. He’s the seed of Genesis 3:15. The seed is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. He is the sower and He is the seed. So as He speaks the parable, He Himself is acting it out. As He’s preaching and teaching, He’s putting into action the very parable that He’s telling.
In the case of people of different soils, we tend to focus on that in the parable. But you see, Jesus’ target isn’t most people. Jesus’ target are the people on that shore. And Jesus’ target this morning is you. The people who aren’t in church, of course, don’t hear this parable. Jesus isn’t speaking to them at the moment. As Jesus sows His seeds of His Word in our church service this morning, we should not only think about those people who gathered on the shore to hear Jesus preach when He first told the parable; we ought to think of the contemporary church in the West, this congregation, and especially we ought to consider our own minds and hearts when we hear these words of God.
I mean, how many of us daydream during the service from time to time? Even pastors. It’s hard to stay focused on the words of God when they’re being preached or read or sung or embedded in the liturgy. How many of us actually listen and catch the nuances of the Old Testament, the Epistle, and the Gospel lesson this morning, let alone the collect and the other parts of the liturgy? How many of us take to heart what we learn each time we leave a church service, and let the Word grow to maturity and bear good fruit?
According to the parable, the majority of the people who hear this Gospel do not go on to bear fruit. And remember, He’s talking to the visible church; He’s talking to people who claim to be believers. He’s telling us that three-quarters of the people the Word reaches will be lost on them, because of the kinds of soil they have become. You see, Christians are supposed to know things, understand things, believe things, and put them into practice, and it’s that last part that we have particular problems with.
So Jesus attributes the failure to receive and to live the Gospel to three fundamental circumstances or soils. Number one: when a person hears the Word and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown. In the parable, this is the one on whom the seed was sown along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. I know it’s a shocker, but Christians are actually supposed to know something from the Bible. Christians are supposed to know something about Christian doctrine. That’s why the Lutheran church and other liturgical churches always have catechisms or confessions, to teach prospective new members what the true Christian faith is. Christians are supposed to know some history from the Bible. There’s also Christian doctrine, which is best expressed in the themes of law and gospel throughout the Old and New Testament. Christians are supposed to always be disciples, students, engaged in learning theology and doctrine. The more we understand, according to this parable, the deeper our roots go, and the less likely they are to be snatched away from the kingdom of heaven.
Then there’s the people who hear the Word and immediately receive it with joy, but they don’t have a firm foundation. They don’t have depth. Immediately they fall away because of persecution or hardship. They’re likened to seeds falling on rocky soil. These are people who lack understanding and depth, so they walk away from Christ because things become too difficult. They think they deserve better. They have bought into a fundamental notion of a theology of glory, that somehow the Christian faith is supposed to make life easier and better and more wholesome, that you’re going to be insulated from the sins of yourself, of your family, of your community, of your nation, of your church. They don’t understand the Christian faith is rooted in a theology of suffering, not a theology of glory.
Then there’s a third kind of person: the one who hears the Word, and the worries of the world and wealth choke the Word. This is likened to the seed that fell upon thorny soil, and the thorns grew up and choked out the Word. This is the person who is so worldly-minded there isn’t any room for spiritual matters. He doesn’t even think about them. He’s not animated by gospel truth. He doesn’t think the law really has any effect or any application to him. He’s animated by base needs: worldly wealth, sports, popularity, the pleasure principle, and the like. So though he hears the gospel, it begins to take root, it’s immediately choked, and he goes upon his way reflecting the image of the world rather than that of Christ.
So what happens when you hear the words of God spoken, prayed, preached, and sung in a church service? Are you tuned in, or are you tuned out? Does it change and sharpen your thinking of Christian doctrine, or do you just sort of run past it? Does it tame your tongue? Does it cause you to say and do things for other people that you might normally not do? Do you become a little more gracious towards others, or do you still complain about one thing or another incessantly? Do you sow the seeds of God’s Word among your family and friends, or when you’re given an opportunity, even before a stranger, to speak the gospel? They’re tough questions, but it shows that we’re plagued by the soils too, all four of them.
The problem isn’t just with those die-hard unbelievers who think and act like unbelievers, immoral reprobates and pagans and the like. I had a pastor once who said, “Don’t expect non-Christians to act and speak like Christians. There’s a reason they’re non-Christians.” Maybe, like me, you recognize the bad soil Jesus profiles in the parable in your own life. I have enough rocky soil, hard soil, thorny soil in my personality and my person; it makes it kind of hard to pay attention to the Word of God from time to time. The truth is, as sinners we are a composite of those kinds of soil, a mixture of the three. We are the hardened, trodden path, where the seeds are sown and just bounce off and scatter and become food for the birds. We hear the gospel; it makes little impression on us beyond the moment. We think of it as information, as data, and little more.
Then there’s the stony-ground reception of the Word. We hear it; it germinates. We understand the message of forgiveness, but it doesn’t take deep root. It doesn’t change our thinking. We speak and think and act like the rest of the world. We buy into philosophies and ideas and theologies that are simply contrary to the words of Christ and to the Old and New Testament. It doesn’t influence our conscience. It doesn’t change our underlying values. When life gets difficult, it’s shallow, so it withers away.
Then there’s the thorn-infested soil in us. We may hear and understand what God says; it may take root in some way. But the competition for this space is simply too strong for us. Our worries about this life, our worries about family, our property, worries about goods and income, earthly security, all crowd out and choke out our faith. Thus people fall away. It should be no surprise, ever, in any time, in any generation, that with the passing of each generation we start to see fewer and fewer people in church, because the three soils have taken their effect.
Jesus’ words in the first part of the parable reveal even our own spiritual dryness, our hardness, our slowness to hear and to believe. And even though Jesus talks an awful lot about the soil in this parable, that’s not the central theme of the parable. It’s not the center. The sower is the central actor in the parable. You need to ask the question: who’s doing the action? When you hear a parable, you’ll discover it’s almost always Jesus and the Word of God.
The sower, knowingly, throws most of his seed into arid, parched soil, and much less ends up in the good soil. The sower holds back nothing. He spreads his seed generously in places where it will not be well received. Why? Because Christ died for all, including those who reject Him. The sins of the whole world have been paid in Christ Jesus, and heaven is open to all. The sower of this parable knows more than we do. He knows that God’s Word goes forth from God’s mouth, and it accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent, even if that purpose to us looks peculiar or contrary to what we think Christianity ought to be. The sower still sows His gospel of salvation, and he goes on sowing it in the various soils that show up in His visible church and in the world, good soil or bad.
It’s not about the soil, really. It’s about what the sower does in the world and in the church, the visible one and the hidden one, even in you and me with our rocky, weed-infested hearts. The sower knows where his seed is landing. And day by day, Sunday by Sunday, the same life-giving seed continues to be sown through the Word and Sacrament ministry, in your hearts and in your minds, making you good soil. Not to be worked, but of the Word’s work. The seed prepares its own soil. When He looks over the field of your life, what does He see? He sees that His seed has fallen on good soil. You have been made holy and righteous in His sight, imputed, given that good soil. The church, for all of its soil problems, is living. It’s bearing fruit, good fruit, produced by Christ the seed, His Word, aided by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God being sown all around our country, in our communities, in our churches, is in fact increasing, though we may not see it. It’s doing its work. It’s bearing its fruit. And you are its fruit. For your sins have been forgiven. You’re all good dirt. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.