“THE SEED SOLEY: SAVES”
Saint Luke 8: 4-15
Sexagesima: 7 February Anno Domini 2021
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
“Much people were gathered together.” Yes, we would wish it were all people. No Christian wants anyone to go to hell; neither does The Lord. His desire is clear: “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” [1 Ti. 2.4]. But He will force no one to become a mindless robot. His mercy is only for the miserable. The questions surrounding election and pre-destination are beyond our abilities to command and master for our own intellectual predilections. Know this: You are saved because God loves you and has saved you—no merit, worthiness, or action, on your part is part of His salvation. Those who will be damned are lost not because of ANYTHING that God does, or doesn’t do, but solely due to their own unbelief. We must leave it at that because God leaves it at that. His revealed Word is our only rule and norm of Truth in matters of salvation.
The parable of the sower and the seed is one of Christ’s more well-known illustrations. One doesn’t need a pastor to necessarily explain all of it, for Jesus Himself gives you the essence: “the seed is the word of God.” No seed, no plant, period. No seed no wheat and thus no bread. No seed no vine and thus no branches. No egg fertilized by seed and thus no baby. Sure.
But the seed of the word is not just your Holy Bibles. Many Christians don’t even know where their Bibles are…and if they do, they know there will be some dust to blow off before they can even find Psalm 23 or John 3.16. Should they wonder why they’re so weak, hungry, and malnourished? There is no germination, growth, and harvest without seed!
So, in one true and real sense, you, all of you, AS CHRISTIANS—“branches of the vine” should DO what branches DO. Stay connected to The Vine. Stay watered. You should daily remember your Holy + Baptism; daily repent of your trespasses; come to Confession; “hold the Word of God sacred, and gladly hear and learn it,” and receive the precious Sacrament of The Altar every time it is offered.
And that is what you do, do. But that is not how you came to be here this morning. We all do well to not disparage the “way side” and that broad and easy path where Satan’s demonic fowls (fouls) “bats out of hell” come and devour the seed. We pray for those who need the seed and we do what we can (prayers, mission dollars, our own invitations) to help all the people on the roads of our lives. We likewise do not feel superior to any “rock” hard earth where, due to lack of moisture, the seed seems initially to take root and then withers under the hot sun. We too have to face the heat of temptation and Law-deserved decay, every day in our own walk under the cross. The same is illustrated in the thorns of mammon and cares of the world.
The dangers of misinterpreting a parable of The Lord are as great as misinterpreting any other part of Holy Scripture. Old Adam, our fallen natures, is always seeking to make the victory partly due to our participation and heroics. Were you there when they crucified The Lord? No.
So, the import of the parable is not just that words spoken from Jesus’ mouth, deeds done from Jesus’ active ministry in Palestine, were eventually recorded on parchment so as to be read publicly by His Apostles and their successors. The kernel of Truth, to keep with the seed metaphor, is that CHRIST Himself is THE SEED. “Her Seed” (Eve’s offspring) “shall bruise thy head” (The Messiah shall crush the devil’s skull). Or, as Paul makes clear to all you Galatians, picking up on God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” [Gal. 3.16].
Jesus THE Seed, Jesus THE WORD does all the work. That’s why it’s good news!
The Seed journeyed into the “way side” of the wilderness. The Seed was beaten down by the heat of the day, the cold of the night, hunger, thirst, the threat of wild beast. The Seed stood firm not just against the “pigeons of hell” but against the great Pterodactyl of Terror himself, Satan. That brimstone bird fled in defeat while The Seed stood resolute.
The Seed stood firmly on the rocky soil of the twin rocks of the Two Tables of Law. The Seed obeyed them and crushed forever their dominion over His bountiful harvest—all of you. The moisture of His sweat and His Holy Blood, soaked the dry death of Torah, and made it moist disc-ing and cultivation worked by His own Body as it was whipped and punctured. And now, your Seed is That “Rock of Ages” that crushes and smashes all those who reject Him, but Who opens up a cleft—a gaping wound in His ever-beating heart, to place you safely into His side—closer to Him than even St. John was when reclining his head on The Master’s breast during that First Supper. Others may fall away because they have foolishly neglected water, but Not The Lord. And now, IN The Seed, you are eternally watered + and moistened.
And though we all feel from time to time, every day, that the world, our flesh, and temptations, are choking us to death like thorns—piercing our spirits, our health, and our emotional well-being; we are refreshed once again by He Who was literally pierced, punctured, and pinned to the dead wood of the cross, to be our Crucified Seed. Christ speaks: “verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat (The Seed—The Body of Jesus) fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” [Jn. 23.24].
Because The God/Man Christ Jesus is the Perfect victim and priest; the Word of The Father; The Seed of Salvation; The “Good Ground” of Sabbath rest; here, and hereafter, His Fruit—Word and Supper—Body and Blood—has brought forth you. You are His good fruit. You hear the Word of God and keep it. THE WORD…or rather also, THE SEED OF THE LORD!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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