Sexagesima

This Sunday is called Sexagesima, which means sixty days until Easter. The theme for this Sunday is Sola Scriptura, the Word of God alone. Here is the chief treasure of the Christian. Here is the source of life, truth, and salvation. Everything begins with the Word of God. The spiritual life does not begin with you, when you make a choice, when you properly prepare your heart, when you summon up enough faith. It begins in this way: A sower went out to sow his seed. God is the Sower, and the Seed is his Word. This is where it begins. God is the Author of salvation, and he desires that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. And so God scatters his seed everywhere, on the hardened path, on rocky ground, on thorny ground, and on good soil.

Of course, the seed can’t grow in many of these places. But there’s nothing wrong with the Seed. Nothing needs to be added to the Word of God in order to produce fruit. We don’t need a marketing plan, smoke and lights, or any other gimmicks to help God out. His Word is effective by itself. Even so, God allows men the free will to reject his Word, and many do. This parable teaches us about four kinds of soil – four kinds of hearts in which the Word of God is sown.

The first soil is the path. Everyone knows that you don’t plant precious seed on the path where people walk. The ground is too hard. Yet God the Father scatters his seed anyway. He is extravagantly wasteful in this way and gives even the most hardened unbelievers the opportunity to hear and believe. And Jesus tells us that these people do hear the Word of God, but their hearts are hard, and the seed never takes root and grows. It doesn’t even have a chance, because the devil comes along and snatches the seed away. The birds gobble it up. Even though God desires that all would be saved, even though his Word is preached to all, the Bible also tells us that God will not strive with man forever. He punishes hardened unbelievers with more unbelief. When men do not want the Word, God eventually takes it away. He will finally say, “Thy will be done,” to those who persist in their hardened unbelief. The first kind of soil is the only kind where there is never faith. These people are not Christians, and they never become Christians.

This is how all of us are born, as unbelievers. Our hearts are hard and resistant to the Word of God, and so he must prepare the soil for his Word. We know how farmers prepare the soil – with a plow. The plow is sharp. It cuts deep into the hard ground, turns it up-side-down, and breaks it apart. God’s plow is his Law. It cuts deep into our hardened hearts. The farmer’s soil might not feel the plow, but we certainly do. The Law hurts. It accuses. It declares us guilty before God. No one enjoys that feeling. It’s not comfortable or appealing. Yet the Law must be spoken in order to prepare our hearts for the saving Gospel of Christ. Without the plow of the Law, our hearts would remain hard, and then there would be no seed, no growth, and no fruit.

The other three kinds of soil are examples of Christians. Some of the soil is thin, just above the bedrock, some soil is full of thorns, and some soil is rich, and deep, and good. What do these three soils have in common? The seed springs up and grows in all of them. Here are three types of Christians, in whom the Word of God takes root and grows. There is life there. Faith has taken hold. The seed sprouts. These people are true believers. In fact, Jesus even tells us that the ones on the rocky soil hear the Word and receive it with joy (Lk 8:13). And then what happens? They have no root. The ground is shallow. And when persecution comes, they wither and die.

Let me tell you something: Persecution is coming to the church. We would all love to be Christians and have the respect and honor of our non-Christian friends. We would love to be admired by the world for being open-minded and tolerant. These are not necessarily bad things, but we must remember that peace with the world is enmity with God. As this world grows darker and darker, casting off the last remnants of Christian virtue, every Christian will be forced to choose between the Word of God and the praise and acceptance of this world. Karen Pence, wife of our Vice-President, has been demonized because she teaches Art at a Christian school that espouses biblical values concerning sexuality and marriage. There is no middle ground here. Persecution is coming, and many Christian will choose the path of least resistance. Many who once heard with joy will fall away in the time of testing, rather than cling to the Word of God.

The third type of soil is the one that applies most directly to us as a warning. The seed that fell among thorns is those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature (Mt 8:14). Once again, these are Christians. In fact, this could easily every one of us. The devil wasn’t able to gobble up the seed. Instead, by the mercy of God, the seed took root in your heart and sprang up. You became a believer. You heard the Word of God with gladness. Yet there is always danger. We are surrounded with the cares of this world. Many people tell me they plan to start coming to church once their life settles down and things go back to normal. Guess what? Things will never go back to normal. Life will always be filled with a thousand cares and troubles.

Many Christian parents want to give their children the best opportunities in school and in a host of extra-curricular activities. “Of course our faith is important,” they say, “but right now we have Little League.” And when baseball season is over, then comes football, then basketball, and so on. The devil has snatched away nearly a whole generation of young Christians because their parents did not teach them by word and example that God’s Word was their most precious treasure. Instead, the children were taught that sports, careers, and entertainment were the most important things. And then many Christian parents are surprised when their children go off to college and live as unbelievers. “What did we do wrong? We got them baptized. They made confirmation. We brought them to church when there was nothing else important to do.”

The devil hopes to use the cares of this world and the pursuit of riches and pleasures to drown out the voice of the Gospel, to choke and smother the seed of faith in you, in your children, in your grandchildren. And all the while he’s whispering in your ear how your faith is strong – so strong, in fact, you don’t need to go to church to hear the Word of God. It may be true that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, but it will certainly keep you a Christian, because faith comes only by hearing the Word of God. Thorns always grow bigger and faster than the good seed. Apart from regularly hearing the Word of Christ and receiving his Sacraments, none of us is a match for the devil.

The final soil is the good ground, those who hear, and keep on hearing, those who hold fast to the Word of God as their chief treasure, those who patiently endure in the time of persecution and suffering. These are the Christians who remain in the faith and bear fruit a hundredfold. Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). The purpose of this parable is not so that you can go out and try to become good soil. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. We can’t soften our hard hearts; we can’t dig out the rocks, or pull up the weeds. We certainly can’t make the Seed grow. God does all these things. He prepares the soil. He plants his Seed. He causes the growth. And what do we do? We remain in the vine with Christ. We hear his Word with gladness. We come again and again to the place he has promised to be to receive the gifts he has promised to give. We suffer persecution and the ridicule of this world with patience and with hope, because we know that the Seed of God’s Word will bear fruit unto eternal life. Amen.

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