Sexagesima Death of Martin Luther (observed) The Word Does Bear Fruit Luke 8:4-15 by Rev. Michael G. Lilienthal 4 As a large crowd was gathering and people from one town after another were making their way to him, he spoke using a parable. 5 A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path. It was trampled, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6 Other seed fell on rocky ground. As soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 Other seed fell into good soil. It grew and produced fruit one hundred times as much as was sown. As he said these things, he called out, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! 9 His disciples asked him, What does this parable mean? 10 He said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest I speak in parables so that even though they see, they may not see, and even though they hear, they may not understand. 11 This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear it, but then the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root. So they believe for a while, but then fall away in a time of testing. 14 The seeds that fell into the thorns are the ones who hear the word, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of life, so they do not mature. 15 And the seeds in the good ground are the ones who hear the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it tightly, and produce fruit as they patiently endure. Hymn: ELH #589 Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word Let us pray: Help us to grow in the knowledge of Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to remain firm in the confession of His blessed Word. Give us the love to be of one mind and to serve one another in Christ. Then we will not be afraid of that
Luke 8:4-15 2 Dear hearers of the Word, which is disagreeable, nor of the rage of the arsonist (Satan) whose torch is almost extinguished. Dear Father, guard us so that his craftiness may not take the place of our pure faith. Grant that our cross and sufferings may lead to a blessed and sure hope of the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, for whom we wait daily. Amen. 1 When Jesus told this parable to the crowd that gathered near him, he intended to emphasize for them how salvation would come to be theirs, and what threats stood in the way of that salvation. Thus his parable is about the Word, because, and follow St. Paul s train of thought: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:13-14, 17, ESV). As Rev. U. V. Koren said, The purpose of the Word is, in fact, salvation. This purpose is achieved when the Word bears fruit, but the fruit is repentance. This must be genuine. It must be continued, and it must become apparent in the person s life. 2 Or, as Dr. Martin Luther put it in the Small Catechism: the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. 3 The Gospel calls, the Word of God calls to each person, and it seeks to bear fruit, because it is leading to a great and final harvest. 1 Luther s Prayer for Growth, Edward Engelbrecht, comp. & ed., The Lord Will Answer (St. Louis: CPH, 2004), 35, in The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis: CPH, 2009), 2375. 2 Koren s Works, volume 1, translated by Mark DeGarmeaux (Mankato, MN: Lutheran Synod Book Company, 2013), 121. 3 Small Catechism, Third Article of the Apostle s Creed, in ELH (Mankato, MN: Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 1996), 32.
3 The Word Does Bear Fruit I. Leading to the Harvest In the parable, Jesus tells of three soils that fail to grow the seed and sustain it, until he comes to the fourth: Other seed fell into good soil. It grew and produced fruit one hundred times as much as was sown. In his explanation of the parable, Jesus stated, And the seeds in the good ground are the ones who hear the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it tightly, and produce fruit as they patiently endure. That patient endurance is key. Notice the element of time in this parable: The seed that fell on the path is trampled, and the birds of the sky devoured it, or, the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. In these, the Word never takes root at all, but is snatched away before any growth can take place. Other seed fell on rocky ground. As soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture, which is explained: these, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root. So they believe for a while, but then fall away in a time of testing for a while, they believe, but not until the harvest. Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it, which means, as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of life, so they do not mature, again, believing for a while, but not until the harvest. But those represented by the seed on the good soil produce fruit as they patiently endure. As the purpose of the Word is salvation, it is salvation which culminates at the end. You see Jesus here is intimately concerned with the salvation of those who hear, which is why he cries: Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!
Luke 8:4-15 4 Desperately he pleads, Let him hear! because those who hear the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it tightly, and produce fruit as they patiently endure, endure to the end and are reaped in the harvest of salvation. The Word sown in hearts takes time and perseverance, but needs to be sustained and upheld the entire time, until the end: This is the reason for living in a community that regularly hears the Word of God, 4 I mean the church, your congregation. Sustain one another with this Word, and know that you will be sustained by your brothers and sisters in this Word. This is the goal. The Word, which finds us the dead dirt we are, springs into life within us, bringing us to salvation. This is why Jesus would say, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15, ESV). That gospel is essential in order to bring salvation to people, as Luther would confess in the Smalcald Articles, which he considered his Last Will and Testament : the Gospel offers counsel and help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the Gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through Baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys; and finally, through the mutual conversation of the brethren. 5 It is necessary, therefore, if you will achieve this goal of salvation and eternal life, for you to continue to receive this Gospel, this Word: the spoken word in sermons, devotions, and Bible Studies, Baptism, which you receive once, the Lord s Supper which 4 Just, Luke, 351. 5 Smalcald Articles, III.iv. in Theodore G. Tappert, trans. and ed., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 310.
5 The Word Does Bear Fruit we offer as often as possible, the office of the keys, which is when your pastor or another Christian tells you your sins are forgiven on account of Jesus grace, and the mutual conversation of the brethren, which is the fellowship we share as Christians, bearing one another s burdens (Gal. 6:2) and gathering together in Jesus name (Matt. 18:20). It is necessary to attend to all these means given by God s grace and power, because we are incapable of sustaining faith ourselves. II. By God s Grace and Power Like the disciples who asked Jesus, What does this parable mean? we Lutherans are trained to ask that question, What does this mean? And so we ask that question at the Third Article of the Apostle s Creed, where Luther s meaning states, I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. 6 This is scriptural, and in fact corresponds exactly to the truths that Jesus explains as the meaning of the parable: Ultimately, the four categories are boiled down to two: there are those who hear the Word and, in the end, believe, and there are those who hear the Word and, in the end, do not. But those who do not believe do not believe for any of a number of reasons, specifically three. 6 Small Catechism, ELH, 32.
Luke 8:4-15 6 In the first case, the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. Satan is the first listed obstacle to the growth of the Word in one s heart. In the second case are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root. So they believe for a while, but then fall away in a time of testing. The world persecutes those in whom the Word seeks to take root, whether as the first-century Christians were persecuted: thrown to the lions, crucified, burned; or as many today are persecuted: belittled in public opinion, called bigots and hypocrites, shunned by families and friends. Finally, in the third case, the ones who hear the word, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of life, so they do not mature. Their own sinful flesh seeks to choke the Word in people s hearts, as we are tempted to worry and doubt, or to seek riches and pleasure, so that our sinful flesh puts our personal truth in opposition to God s Truth. Against these enemies, who can stand? The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh are the unholy trinity that war against the Word of God and the faith which seeks to take root in us. The devil, that greatest spiritual adversary and Prince of Lies, the Tempter, is unassailable by weak human beings; the world, the whole wide world which is corrupted by the sinful brokenness our first parents brought in, stands as an innumerable army against us; if it were just these two, however, we might say that we stand against them, but because our flesh is sinful, we in fact stand with them and against God: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not
7 The Word Does Bear Fruit submit to God s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8, ESV). Against these enemies, therefore, what heart can receive the Word? what soil can nourish the seed? There is an answer to that question and in fact, there is only one possible answer: Jesus, the perfectly faithful, has already faced the devil in the wilderness, 7 and he said, I have overcome the world (John 16:33, ESV), and he in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15, ESV). But what is remarkable about all this, truly remarkable, is that the same one who faced the devil in the wilderness was nevertheless bruised on his heel by that serpent as he went to death on the cross (Gen. 3:15). The one who has overcome the world nevertheless submitted himself to the whole world who mocked him and watched him die on that cross (Luke 23:35-39). The one who was without sin was made to be sin (2 Cor. 5:21, ESV). But why this paradox? Why be both victor over these enemies and vanquished by them? Here is one of those things, one of those parts of the mysteries of the kingdom of God which Jesus says is revealed to us who receive the Word in faith. Paul describes the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27, ESV). You see, Jesus is the one who heard God s Word and obeyed it perfectly against all these obstacles, against all enemies; we did not do this, and yet, we are sustained by Christ living within us, as Paul writes, again, I have been crucified 7 Just, Luke, 350.
Luke 8:4-15 8 with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20, ESV), and if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom. 8:10, ESV), which he described earlier: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith (Rom. 1:16-17, ESV). So we understand how this parable applies to us. We are not good soil, not in ourselves, but we are sinful and enemies of God. But the good soil is good solely by the grace of God in Christ, who, through the very Word sown, brings that goodness to the soil. Now, if we understand that all soil apart from Christ is path, or rocky, or thorny, inhospitable to the seed of the Word and faith, then we understand Jesus intention in telling the parable. In the context of this Gospel text, Jesus would just one chapter later send out the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2, ESV), or, to spread the Word. They, and we, need to understand that there will be obstacles and enemies to the Word, and many will not receive it. But despite these obstacles, they [and we] are simply to sow the seed. 8 No one can grow seed by themselves. In this parable, and in reality, the power of life lies entirely in the Word. Just as Jesus is the perfectly good soil, and we are the soil clothed in his righteousness, so also Jesus is the perfect sower, proclaiming the Word to all, and we are sowers clothed in his righteousness and given 8 Ibid., 347.
9 The Word Does Bear Fruit the same mission to proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:16, ESV), as he said, As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you (John 20:21, ESV). And here s how: as the sower in the parable scattered the seed without determining what kind of soil it landed on, we scatter the Word to all, indiscriminately, for one because we cannot know the hearts of men, but also because then we would be looking for power in something other than the Word. Our attitude should be like Paul s: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Cor. 3:5-6, ESV). And this should be a comfort to the one who proclaims the Gospel, that is, it should be a comfort to each and every one of us: the growth of the Word and faith, and therefore the results of salvation, do not depend upon us; and although the Word will be resisted by many, because that Word is God s gracious means of salvation, in some hearts the Gospel that we preach does take root and grow and remain to the harvest. It is the Word, the Word alone, that brings salvation to hearts, through faith, by God s grace in Christ Jesus. Therefore we entrust our faith, and we consign those with whom we share the faith, in Scripture alone. Amen. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version TM (EHV TM ) copyright 2016 The Wartburg Project. All rights reserved. www.wartburgproject.org Some quotations from the Old Testament are samples and may not reflect the final wording. Comments and suggestions may be submitted at: wartburgproject.org/contact/ Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.