Remembering the Forgotten Sin
LSB Lectionary, Series A • Sermon • Submitted
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Text: “4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:4-9)
Again we see our ongoing theme: the difficulty of the Christian life. Our Lord puts before us a picture of our daily battle. He describes the tribulation persecution which test our faith; the cares of the world/deceitfulness of riches which would threaten to choke out our faith; and the Devil hard at work snatching the Word away from you.
And make no mistake: this is a daily battle. You might hear this parable and imagine that you are to be found only in the image of that last patch of ground— the good ground in which the seed has taken root. To you, this parable only explains why those others do not believe, why they despise God’s Word. But that’s not at all our Lord’s intent. It’s not unbelievers who endure the persecution and tribulation represented by the rocky soil. It’s believers like you. Are you not pressed upon by the cares of this world? Even now, right this very moment, as you are sitting here, isn’t your sinful flesh bringing to mind everything that you left undone at home? Everything you could be doing right now? What you intend to do this afternoon? Isn’t the devil hard at work right now in your heart and mind, snatching away the seed of God’s Word that is being planted within you?
It’s interesting that, of all the sins that we rightly acknowledge and submit to, there is one that has very nearly been forgotten.
Martin Luther writes of it in his Large Catechism in the explanation of the 3rd Commandment:
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions The Third Commandment
99 Likewise, those fussy spirits are to be rebuked who, after they have heard a sermon or two, find hearing more sermons to be tedious and dull. They think that they know all that well enough and need no more instruction. For that is exactly the sin that was previously counted among mortal sins and is called akadia (i.e., apathy or satisfaction). This is a malignant, dangerous plague with which the devil bewitches and deceives the hearts of many so that he may surprise us and secretly take God’s Word from us [Matthew 13:19].
We’ve done ourselves a disservice in the way we teach the faith to our children. We are incredibly blessed to have our Lutheran schools, to handle the instruction of our children like it should be: not just training minds, but bringing in, building up, and sending out disciples of Jesus Christ. You, yourselves, know the blessings of a Lutheran school— blessings that would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate any other way.
At the same time, we have allowed it to take the Word of God from us. We send our children there to get God’s Word. It becomes another subject that they have to learn. The Bible, itself, becomes another textbook that is left in their desk when they come home. The needs and the cares and the concerns of daily life are here. God’s Word stays over there. But His Word was never meant for a classroom. It is meant to be lived, to be prayed, to sung, to be written on the doorposts of our houses, tied to our hands and foreheads, on our lips when we sit at home and when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you get up. But we leave it to the pastor and teachers to teach.
Let’s be fair: Pastors don’t necessarily help, either. Theology should be an ongoing hymn of praise to God for who He is and what He’s done. Instead, it often takes the form of a biology lab, in which you have God pinned down on the table and are coldly dissecting Him. In the way we preach, the way we teach, it becomes a lecture on the acts of God rather than the living message of everything that God has done for you. Forgive us, Lord, and spare your people from such preaching!
But the fact remains: you and I do not love the Word as we should. Our mouths are so full of the world’s delights that we cannot taste the sweetness of the Word. There is a far more dangerous plague among us than any virus: apathy toward God’s Word.
God’s Word will not return to Him void. It will bring about the purpose for which He sends it. And that includes bring about judgment. As Johann Gerhard has written in a prayer for those who hear the word:
“May they hear attentively, may they hear carefully, may they hear fruitfully—otherwise the Word that is preached to them, because it has not been mixed with faith, will judge them on the last day” (Johann Gerhard. Meditations on Divine Mercy. https://books.apple.com/us/book/meditations-on-divine-mercy/id966417732).
Thankfully, it is in the Word that we find our hope.
The Word of the Lord endures forever. No one can overrule it. Nothing can prevent it. That alone is an awesome thought.
But, there’s more. Even before the creation of the universe, He chose you to be saved. Because of that, His first word after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin was the promise of a savior. God’s Word to you is the promise of grace and mercy.
And the Word of promise began to become a Word of fact when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He took on that flesh to offer it as the final sacrifice for human sin.
He faithfully spoke all that the Father gave Him to speak, omitting nothing. In word and in deed, He faithfully carried out all that He had promised in the Old Testament. How many times in the book of Matthew have we heard those words: “This took place to fulfill what God spoke through the prophet...”? Even when it meant His arrest; even when it meant giving Himself over to the mocking, the whips, the nails, the crown of thorns; even when it meant enduring the pains of hell in your place, His reply was, “How else could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:54). Because His Word can not return to Him void.
Finally, from the cross, He said, “It is finished.” Not only does the Word of the Lord, itself, endure forever, with those words, it even ceased to be a promise that still, in theory, might not come about. God’s eternal Word was now written in unchangeable history. His promise of salvation was now written in time and space.
The Word we study is not the dead word of a textbook that you have to learn and master and then try to apply to your life. It is the Word that spoke the universe into existence, saying, “Let there be...” and there was. It is the Word that cried out at the tomb of our Lord’s dear friend, “Lazarus, come out!” This was not a word for Lazarus to study and master and apply. No, just the opposite. Because it was the eternal Word, now taken flesh, speaking, that command had the power to raise the dead.
It is my privilege to declare to you today, “Lazarus, come out!” You have given yourself into sin. You have presented your members as obedient slaves to sin, which leads only to death. But your Lord has sent forth His Word to you: “I forgive you your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” You are delivered from sin and death and from the power of the devil and are now slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:15-18).
The battle rages on within you every day, so He offers you His word every day. You face persecution and tribulation on account of the Word. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches continue to try to choke it out. But God sows the seed of His Word into your heart and mind again and again and again and again and again.
Through simple means like water, words, bread and wine, His promise of salvation is now written in the time and space of your life. He has made it an unchangeable part of your history. He has joined His eternal Word to earthly elements in order to give you the benefit of what He did on the cross, to join you to that moment in history.
What is baptism?
Baptism is not just plain water. It is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.
Which is that word of God?
Christ our Lord says in the last Chapter of Matthew, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19). (Luther, Martin. Luther’s Small Catechism, “Baptism”)
Baptism cannot be simply a symbol of an internal change because God has attached His Word to that water. That ordinary water now has the power of God’s Word behind it. The waters of baptism that were applied to you have not returned to Him void but have accomplished the purpose for which He sent it: to bury you with Christ and raise you, with Him, to new life.
The absolution spoken by the pastor is not just the word of another person. It is the word of God, Himself, speaking to you. The Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, Himself, said to His apostles, “Whoever hears you hears me” and sent them out to forgive sins in His name. That word of absolution that has been spoken to you has not returned to Him void but has accomplished the purpose for which He sent it: to unlock and throw open for you the very gates of heaven.
The Word not only became flesh and dwelt among people 2,000 years ago. He took bread and said, “This is my body, given for you.” He took wine and said, “This is my blood, shed for you.” According to these words, He gives you His very body and blood to eat and to drink. Because of that eating and drinking, the eternal Word of God dwells in you, bearing the fruit of eternal life and salvation. And, in this life, He
Water[s] that seed with the heavenly dew of [His] grace, poured out from above, so the most abundant harvest of good works may spring forth (Gerhard, Johann. Meditations on Divine Mercy. “Prayer for Pastors and Hearers.”).
This bread and wine will not return to Him void, but will accomplish the purpose for which He gave it: yielding in you, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, once again, it’s not a fun picture. Our Lord, in describing our daily lives, describes conflict and temptation and satanic attacks. How could any hope to endure it? Trust the Word. At times it will fall upon the rocky places of your heart; at times it will be choked out; at still other times it will be snatched away. But it will accomplish the purpose for which God has sent it to you, for which He continues to pour it into your lives until the day when His angels go forth and you are bundled, body and soul, in the harvest of the living God and you reach the eternal fellowship of joy.