Sexagesima + Luke 8:4-15 + February 4, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Moses tells us in Genesis 2:7, “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” God created man from the soil of the earth and to remind him of his ancestry, God called him ‘Adam,’ which in Hebrew means ‘earth.’ The Lord God created man out of soil to signify that as man was cultivate and seed the soil of the earth, so God would cultivate and seed the heart of man, which had been brought forth from the earth. As the ground beneath our feet was created to accept seed and bear fruit, so God created the hearts of men to accept the seed of the divine word and bear spiritual fruit. God implanted the seed of His Word into Adam. That seed took root in Adam’s heart, but was soon torn away from him by the wiles of the devil. The devil tempted our first parents to be like God, to turn away from faith in their Creator and turn towards themselves as their supreme authority. By falling to the devil’s temptation, Adam and all his descendants have hearts which are by nature hardened and uncultivated, unable to receive the imperishable seed of the Word unless God cultivates our hearts. Even then, the devil is still perched nearby, waiting opportunities to tear the seed of God’s Word from our hearts. This is the point of Jesus’ parable today: We must take care for how we hear God’s Word when it is sown and what kind of soil our hearts are.

Jesus is the sower who goes out sow His seed. And now that Christ is ascended into heaven, He has not stopped sowing the seed of His Word. In this age of the Church He sows the seed through His called servants. St. Paul reminds the Corinthians: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. We are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7, 9). It’s through His ministers that Christ continues to sow the seed of His Word into the hearts of men. As it was in the parable, so it was for Christ in His ministry, for St. Paul and Apollos, and it is for ministers today as well. The seed is sown into all kinds of different soil. God’s Word is preached and taught to all different types of hearts. Jesus’ parable is not just about the seed that is sown that causes a person’s initial conversion, so that we only have to worry about the condition of our hearts when we first believed. The point is that God’s Word is continually being sown into our hearts through preaching and teaching, so we ought to continually be concerned with what kind of soil our heart is whenever we hear and read the Word.

Jesus says there are four kinds of soil, that is, four kinds of hearts we can have when the Word is preached. The first is the worst type. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.” Jesus later explains that “those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.” This heart is likened to the wayside, or the path on which people walk. It is hard and compacted and so the seed cannot penetrate the soil and take root. Not only is the heart hard and unyielding, not accepting the seed, but it is exposed for the bird of prey to swoop down and easily snatch it off from the compacted soil. It is necessary for us to remember this parable when our evangelistic efforts don’t reap the benefits we hope. Christ says that this is the natural state of mankind because our sinful state. Not only this this type of soil our natural state because of our relation to Adam, but it is the state of the majority of people. In the text, Jesus tells the parable to a great multitude that had gathers to Him “from every city.” But only His disciples gather around afterwards to learn the meaning. The multitude has eyes that refuse to see and ears but refuse to hear. Their hearts are the hard, compacted soil of the wayside that does not yield to the seed of the Word of God.

But Christians must also be on guard against this type of heart, because this type of heart is our default mode thanks to our sinful nature, and the devil is always tempting us to revert to that way of hearing. We who hear the Word preached regularly, we who read the Word regularly, and we gather together to study the word regularly, are not exempt from this. There are times in which you may find that you are externally hearing God’s Word but it does not take root internally. There are times when the Word of repentance goes out and we give no thought to how we ought to repent today. There are moments when the Word is sown in our hearts that tells us to strive after holiness, yet we do not think of ways in which we can work to mortify the sinful flesh and cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. There are times when the Word of absolution for sins rings forth, yet our hearts do not grab hold of it, treasure it, or rejoice in it. When this happens, our hearts have become hardened and compacted and the devil is near, waiting to for the opportune moment to snatch the word from us, lest we consider it again and believe it anew. What do you do for soil that has become hardened and compacted? You cultivate it, plow it, and turn it over so that it is softened and receptive for seed. That is what God our Lord does with us as well. He plows our hearts with the preaching of His Law, which condemns us for our hard-heartedness. He cultivates our hearts sometimes by trials and hardships. These serve to soften our hearts so that more willingly hear the Word and gladly contemplate it so that it sinks into our hearts. In this He fulfills His promise to “take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

The second type of soil is that which falls on rock, “and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.” This soil is shallow. There is no depth for the seed to develop roots and find water. Jesus explains that “the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in times of temptation fall away.” These are the hearers who hear the Gospel, who hear the pure doctrine that we preach, and are overjoyed at it for a brief time, but when temptation strikes, they give up on the Word. These are those Christians who falter in times of hardship and suffering. The Word has not taken deep root in their rocky heart, nor can it, because the rocky heart imagines that faith makes life into a sunny spring day without a cloud in the sky. They imagine that the Christian shouldn’t be faced with temptations to sin, or persecutions from the world and the false church. These are those who readily believe the Word, but then grow to be offended at the size of the church or the church’s humble ministry through the means of grace. The believe that if the Word is true, the Church should be large, and if the means of grace truly worked, people would flock to them. These are those who stumble at Christ’s words, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33) and St. John’s reminder: “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). So too, we must not let our own ideas about the gospel and the church overtake what Christ says about His gospel and His church, lest we take offense at these and fall away.

The third type of soil is that which is infested with thorns which “sprang up and choked” the seed. Jesus says, “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when the have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” This is the heart that more concerned with the things of this life than it is with the Word. This heart wants to hear God’s Word and wants to bear fruit, but worries about money and possessions, family and business, and sinful pleasures and comfortable living, these cares and lusts grow up like thorns and choke the Word so that it cannot bear the fruit that God intends. Greed easily suffocates the Word so that it cannot bring forth the good fruit of love for neighbor and charity to those in need. Lust left unchecked smothers the Word so that it cannot bring forth the good fruits of chastity and prayer. Worry about the things of this life chokes the Word so that it cannot bear the fruit of faith which trusts God for every good thing in this life and confidently leaves all things to God’s discretion and Fatherly will. So we must ways be on our guard against these and many other thorns, sins which easily entangle our hearts and lead us away from the Word. These thorns are always trying to grow up and strangle the Word from our heart, so we must be on guard against them and examine ourselves regularly to see that we use the things of this world but do not invest our hearts in them, trusting them in place of God’s promises.

Finally, there is the good ground which, when the seed falls on it, bears fruit. Jesus explains these as “those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.” These are those who hear the Word and understand it. This heart that is noble and good is not noble and good by its own nature or doings, for we all receive from Adam a heart that is wicked and deceptive. The heart that is noble and good is the heart that hears the Word in faith, for we are only good and noble when we are hearing the Word of God, treasuring it, clinging to it, seeking to understand it, and then finally, bearing fruit in patience. The fruit of this hearing in faith is threefold. The first fruit God wants to bear in us is righteousness. Hearing the Word in faith, believing the promise of the Gospel, God declares us righteous for Christ’s sake so that all our sins are forgiven. The second fruit is peace of conscience, because when we are justified by faith we have peace with God because we know that He is not wrathful or angry with us because of Christ. The third fruit of faith is good works that we do for our neighbor out of love. Dust thou art, you children of Adam. And as children of Adam, God wants to sow the seed of His Word into your hearts so that you believe that Word, trust that Word, and confidently rely upon it for your salvation and every good thing.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.