Sermon for Sexigesima Sunday
Luke 8:4-15
Rev. William L. Gleason
The parable of the Sower and the Seed shows us the value of having God’s Word rooted within us. Jesus teaches us how grace comes to us through His Word like seed sown in the harvest field of the world. Our Lord scatters the seed of His Word by his Holy Spirit who, moving like a wind, carries the seed to receptive hearts.
But the parable also illustrates hindrances to that Word. We find that people can reject the Word of God. Instead of listening to it, as one would expect, we mock it, pervert it, or simply ignore it. The devil, too, is busy tampering with God’s Word, plucking it from the hearts of those who hear it. On top of that there are anti-Christian forces in the world and the evil intents of our flesh that are constantly fighting against God’s Word. This is all found in the parable of the Sower, illustrating how the Gospel fares in the world.
Jesus begins by teaching about three barriers to the Gospel. These are the spiritual forces against which we Christians struggle. They include attacks from the devil, persecution, and worldly temptations. We might say that every spiritual battle we face comes from one of these three enemies. But note the goal of each. They are not out to get the heart directly; rather, they are out to get the Word that has been sown in the heart! The common characteristic of each of these forces is to steal the Gospel away from us and keep our devotion focused on something other than God. Jesus warns us to watch for these hindrances to the Word because they are forces that would rob your heart of the Gospel. And when the Gospel is gone from your heart, then the light and life of God is gone from your soul.
What I want to look more closely at today, however, is the success of His Word that Jesus pictures for us here. He says the one who hears the word and receives it is like one in whom the seed takes root and bears fruit. It is how we get from the root to the fruit that I want us to focus on.
The first thing to learn from this parable is that we do not get rooted in the Word; rather the Word gets rooted in us. From that it follows that that we do not bear the fruit, but rather that the Word of God bears fruit in and through us. That’s an important point to bear in mind lest we kid ourselves into thinking that we can live holy lives by our own strength and efforts. On the contrary, we must rely solely on Christ and His strength. That’s what St. Paul meant when he wrote in Galatians 2:20, “...it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.” So the Word of God must be rooted in us to bear fruit in us!
Now for the Word to be rooted in us, it must be sown in our hearts by God; and He does this through very ordinary means. First, He sows the Word by the preaching of the Gospel. Then, through the Word sown, He plants His Church by gathering believers around the Word. Finally through the Church planted He bears fruit in the world by calling and gathering more believers into His Church. This is the progression—the propagation, if you will—of God’s Word; and nothing can stop this movement of God because His power is behind it. Thus by the movement of the Spirit, the Word of God is sown through the world. It is scattered into the hearts of people by the preaching of the Gospel, so that by hearing they may believe. The Spirit breaks through the barriers of the world and the attacks of Satan. He bears fruit when souls are saved and troubled hearts are given assurance of eternal life and hope in the kingdom of God.
That fruitfulness of the Word is illustrated in the last part of Jesus’ parable when He speaks of the seed bearing fruit a hundred-fold. This fruitfulness is also the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit plants in our hearts the Gospel of our blessed Savior, who suffered and died for our sins and rose from the grave to give us life, He causes that Word to sprout forth with faith. By God’s gracious love and working we believe that message of grace. From that point on, our faith must be cultivated continually—cultivated by devoting ourselves to the Word through daily scripture study and prayer, through Sunday school and worship, through every opportunity to “serve and obey, pray, praise, and give thanks” to our Lord. Again St. Paul said, “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you.” That’s sound advice because Christ’s Word is the seed of our faith. Without his Word there is no root; and without devotion to that Word we have no defense against the evil forces of the world and no shield against the attacks of Satan. It is spiritually vital for us to cultivate that divine Word within us.
Another aspect of the fruitfulness of the Word is the work of the Spirit spreading the Gospel throughout the world— beginning in our own homes, church, and community. What an amazing process of growth we see in the movement of the Holy Spirit! He carries the Word into the hearts of people “when and where He pleases;” and He creates faith in those hearts. Then, when He has gathered His people together, He establishes the Ministry among them. He gathers His people together so that through this Ministry they may sow his Word and his grace to another place and another people. Then they in turn go with Him through the same Ministry of proclaiming the gospel, sharing the sacraments, and caring for one another. That is the fruit of the Spirit moving through the church into the world.
The final fruit of the Word will be seen when God’s sons and daughters are revealed at Christ’s return. Until that day, the church will continue to grow with the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of our spiritual growth stems from the Gospel rooted in our hearts. The Gospel is cultivated by our devotion to that Word producing the spiritual fruits of repentance, faith, and works of love. Martin Franzman puts this hope in poetic form in his hymn, “Preach You the Word,” which concludes with God’s promise to be with and bless His Word wherever it is sown:
Preach you the Word and plant it home
And never faint; the Harvest Lord
Who gave the sower seed to sow
Will watch and tend His planted Word.
Amen.
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