2 Corinthians 11.19–12.9 & Luke 8.4–15
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pay attention to how you hear. That’s the point of the parable of the sower. A sower sows seed on four types of soil. Some seed falls the wayside—a well-worn, compacted path—and that seed is trampled on people so that the birds of air devour it. Some seed falls on the rock. It springs up momentarily, but quickly withers because it couldn’t establish roots to get moisture. Other seed falls among thorns. The thorns grow up alongside the tender plant and choke it. Still other seed falls on good ground. This seed springs up, establishes roots, and grows to the point of bearing fruit, even a bountiful harvest.
The four types of soil upon the seed falls represent four types of human hearts who hear God’s Word. The first type, the wayside, is the heart that is hardened and compacted. The seed falls on this ground but bounces right off because the heart is impenetrable. These are those who hear God’s word preached and think nothing of it. The word is heard but not understood and so it can’t implant itself in the heart. It bounces off their hard, compacted heart, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They go about their life, never again thinking of the word which they heard.
The second type of heart is represented by the rocky soil. The seed penetrates this soil for a brief time. It tries to grow, but can’t establish roots to collect moisture, so it withers and dies. Jesus explains that these receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. These are the people who hear God’s word and accept it with great gusto. They believe for a while. They rejoice in the free forgiveness of their sins for Jesus’ sake. They enjoy the peace of conscience the gospel brings. But then temptation comes. The word translated temptation can also be translated as testing. When God is the subject of the verb we translate it as “testing. James teaches us in his epistle, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (Ja 1:13). But when the devil is the subject of the verb, then it’s translated temptation. God tests for the strengthening of faith; the devil tempts into sin for the destruction of faith. Jesus doesn’t say from whom this time of temptation comes, but it really doesn’t matter. od allows the devil to tempt believers, just as He allowed the devil to tempt His only begotten Son, so that we might exercise our faith in the midst of temptations to sin, just as He wants to exercise our faith through trials, afflictions, and suffering. The heart represented by the rocky soil starts off strong, but when temptation and testing come and they realize that the seed of the Word isn’t given to make life easier, their faith withers away and dies.
Thorny soil represents the third type of human heart which has the seed of God’s Word sown on it. The thorns grow up alongside the tender shoot, become intertwined with God’s planting, and choke it so that it cannot bear mature fruit. Jesus says the thorns which choke the plant of faith are cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Cares are anxieties and worries. Jesus describes these cares in Matthew 6:25 as worries about what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Anxious worrying about the stuff of this life can easily choke faith. Riches are just that, wealth beyond what we need for everyday life. Paul reminds Timothy that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim 6:9-10). The desire for riches chokes faith so that it cannot bear fruit, but dies. Finally, the pleasures of life do the same they are prioritized over the word of God and not controlled and directed by the word of God. Cares, riches, and pleasures of life all choke faith so that it is unproductive, sickly, and moribund because they fight tenaciously for our attention, each one seeking to be the highest good in our life.
Then there’s soil number four: good ground, which Jesus calls a good and noble heart. The good and noble heart is the heart that, having heard God’s word, keeps it. How does it keep God’s word? It hears God’s word preached, it accepts the seed the word so that it becomes implanted, and then it is nurtured so that it grows. What does this look like, practically speaking? It’s the heart that hears God’s word as it is sown through preaching, seeks to understand it, and then applies it to oneself. And not just at the time of hearing. If we only apply God’s word to ourselves while we are listen to the sermon or singing in the Service, then walk through those doors and not think about it again until we come back next Sunday, then aren’t keeping it, because out there in the world, in your daily life, are temptations and trials, cares, riches, and the pleasures of life, which want to be prioritized and pursued. The seed must be received, it must become implanted, and it must be kept in mind, lived, and applied to oneself each day. This is how the heart bears fruit with patience. It takes time, moisture, nurture, weeding the soil of the heart to keep thorns at bay, for the word to bear its fruit.
What fruit does the seed of the word want to bear in us? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). And while its tempting to make this fruit an abstraction, the Holy Spirit bears this fruit in us toward real people and real situations in our real lives. If we make the fruit the Spirit wants to bear in us an abstraction, then we can say we love someone while treating them spitefully and with disdain. We can claim to want longsuffering—patience—yet demand of ourselves and others that they be where we want them to be right now. We can claim to be good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled in the abstract, while treating ourselves and others badly, unfaithfully, harshly, and let our sinful nature run our thoughts, words, and behaviors. When we see ourselves doing this then we must repent, removing the rocks and uprooting the thorns in our heart, so that God can implant the seed of His word—the gospel of forgiveness, new life, and the Holy Spirit—into our hearts once again and we can keep it, seek to understand it more deeply, and apply it to ourselves more confidently.
And lest we still want to make the fruit the Spirit bears in us through His word an abstraction, He gives us the very real example of St. Paul in today’s epistle. Look at the fruit the word bears in him. He sufferings temptation, trial, affliction, and cross. Scourged, imprisoned, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, shipwrecked three times, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Yet he bears it all with patience. He bears every affliction and cross out of love for Christ, for the churches he has planted, for the saints whom his ministry serves. He endures all this, along with a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and He does so in the strength that Christ provides, the strength that is perfect in human weakness and suffering, although we do not always sense it and understand it. Christ sowed the seed of the word in Paul’s heart and Paul, by the working of the Holy Spirit, kept it and bore fruit with patience, even the fruit of suffering what God sent with patience and trust.
Pay attention to how you hear. That’s the point of the parable of the sower. Don’t think you can hear it here and leave it here until next week. The bird of prey will snatch it away. Don’t hear God’s word and imagine that it’s the path of least resistance to ease and glory, but hear it and apply it yourself so that when you are tempted, and when Christ lays the cross upon you, it encourage you and strengthen you in the midst of your weakness, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. Don’t hear God’s word and still think the cares, riches, and pleasures of life can be prioritized above God’s word, because if you do, they will become your greatest good and choke the plant of faith. No, may God instead grant our hearts to be good ground, soil receptive to His word, so that we hear it, read it, mark it, learn it, inwardly digest it, apply it to ourselves each day, and live it. May God grant that that His word—which He has implanted in us here today— bears fruit with patience, not fruit in the abstract, but real fruit towards ourselves, towards others, and towards our Lord. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Grant this, Lord, to us all. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds Christ Jesus. Amen.
