Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 4th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 26 – 34:
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Today is one of those days when a sermon seems almost counter-productive. Why? Well…the words of Jesus in our Gospel lesson are quite simple and easy to understand. This is basic teachings. Mostly everyone has heard and knows the parables of sowing seed and the tiny mustard seeds growing into the grandest and largest plants in all the garden, and to mostly everyone the words are self-explanatory. And even if you are unfamiliar with these parables, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to “crack the code” and decipher a fairly obvious meaning. Sow the seed of God’s Word! It’s all so simple. A sermon almost seems unnecessary, like we’re just “gilding the lily.”
But…in saying that…. All too often we come at these parables from a very methodical, practical perspective. Basically, we tend to look only as far as the “how to” being taught but we never get to the “why.” WHY did Jesus teach these parables? You see, the real lesson to be learned here is found in the reason for Christ’s teaching; not in the method that is taught.
Why did Jesus teach this lesson to His disciples; His followers? If we look to the parallel accounts recorded for us in Matthew and Luke, we find that the ministry of Jesus was — not surprisingly —under a lot of scrutiny and persecution. Many people were following Jesus, but many more doubted. Many more were out to silence Him, mock Him, discredit Him, and even harm Him. In fact, last week’s Biblical account of Jesus’ own mother and brothers and sisters—His own family—trying to lay hands on Him and silence Him and to take Him home, as if He had a mental illness, bringing great shame upon the family with His behaviour, immediately precedes these parables. Basically, we hear of Jesus’ own family trying to shut Him up and discredit Him, and then Jesus immediately begins to teach His disciples these lessons about the reign and rule of God and how God works.
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. You see, the disciples of Jesus had witnessed a lot of things happening with Jesus’ ministry, and not all of it was good (at least by worldly standards). In fact, there were many times that Jesus seemed like a rather unloving extremist who was concerned more about right doctrine and practice than He was with establishing relationships and friendships and building up numbers. There were more than a few occasions that people turned and walked away from Jesus because they didn’t like what He was teaching; they didn’t like what they heard (e.g., the rich young ruler, the crowd of disciples who turned back and no longer walked with Jesus after hearing His teaching on the Bread of Life). Jesus wasn’t matching up with what they wanted, expected, and demanded, so they took their business elsewhere. If the customer is always right, then there were more than a few times that Jesus was bad for business.
And it wasn’t just this “bad for business” reality that was alarming the remaining disciples. There was also the fact that following Jesus could prove hazardous to your health. John the Baptist certainly found this out the hard way, as would all the apostles. And don’t think it went unnoticed that Jesus was public enemy number one with the religious elite. Those were men you just didn’t want to cross. If you got on the wrong side of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin, you could expect a high degree of misery in your immediate or short term future. You see, there’s nothing new under the sun. People have always tried to avoid conflict and be liked by everyone in the room. That’s just human nature. No one likes to be disliked, and yet faithfully following Jesus will make you disliked by a lot of people.
There’s also the fact that following Jesus wasn’t exactly a fast-track to all the finer things in life. In fact, following Jesus often put one lower than the animals in terms of finer things and luxuries. “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” “Take nothing for your journey; no staff, no moneybag, no bread, no money, and do not have two tunics.” “If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” So faithfully following Jesus wasn’t exactly the world’s perfect picture of success, which is why many of His own disciples would doubt and despair and turn and walk away. It’s all bad for business.
Now, I know at this point that it’s rather easy for us to look down upon those “disciples” who turned away from Christ when things didn’t go the way they planned. After all, we would never do that, would we? And yet…we do. We do it all the time. Just think about how often we try to “help Jesus out” when things aren’t working out the way we anticipated or hoped for. Just think about how often we try to build a better churchly mousetrap. You know, every generation of Christians since Christ walked this earth has worried that the Church will die out with them because the younger generations aren’t showing up and packing the pews. This is when all kinds of interesting stuff gets introduced in the name of “mission” or “church growth.” It’s happened for centuries. Faithful Word and Sacrament ministry gets put on the back-burner (or forsaken altogether) in favour of the newest gimmicks and marketing ploys and business models, all geared at winning market-share and specific demographics and more money and more people. We turn our Lord’s Divine Service to us into something that we hope will appeal to the masses, essentially changing God to suit the consumer, rather than letting God change the consumer to suit Him.
Dear friends: This is the reason why Jesus taught these parables. This is the reason why He still teaches these same parables to us this very day. In a very real way Jesus is teaching us to stay the course—His course. He has given us His means of grace as the seed that grows His kingdom. “Go and make disciples of all nations….” How? By sowing His seed; that is, by baptising and teaching ALL that He has commanded and taught. His Word and His Sacraments give life. New life sprouts forth from these seeds of divine grace, and ONLY from these seeds of His divine grace. How? Like the farmer who scatters seeds, he knows not how they sprout and grow. He just knows that what he sows sprouts and grows. And the littlest, most unassuming seeds that our Lord plants in us (and gives to us to sow) sprout and spring forth life and peace in the grandest fashion and scale, just like the little mustard seed that grows to become the largest of all the garden plants.
Look no further than right here to your Lord’s feast table. Look to the very unassuming and scant elements of bread and wine. Look no further than the baptismal font and the few drops of ordinary water that wet your brow so long ago. Look no further than this pulpit, this lectern, and this book. Look no further than the words of absolution you heard and received earlier in this Divine Service. In all these mere things—these little unassuming mustard seeds—Almighty God is at work, working miraculous, mighty, life-giving, life-saving deeds. These simple mustard seeds, freely sown with no strings attached—no caveats or conditions—spring forth and produce the fruits of everlasting life.
Nothing else can do that! There is nothing else that the world can offer that can produce these fruits and this rich harvest of life, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and peace. We can try and sow other seeds. People have been doing it for centuries. We can try and grow God-pleasing wheat all we want, but if we’re not sowing His seed, all we’re going to find is a crop of weeds (tares) sprouting up. We can try to doctor up the seeds that God gives us, as if we’re going to improve upon the Master Gardener’s design. We can try…and we will fail.
This is the reason our Lord teaches this lesson. Yes—we are called and taught to freely sow the Gospel seeds God gives us. I will never deny that core teaching of these parables. But as I said, there’s a very good and Godly reason our Lord teaches us these lessons. Believe it or not, He does know all that we’re experiencing in this fallen and sinful world. He does know how His Church is suffering and struggling in the midst of a culture and a people who despise Him, and His means of grace and His holy bride—the Church. He does know all the things that are eating at us and causing us to doubt, despair, and worry. He also knows how we tend to respond and behave when life gets tough and things start looking bleak; how we tend to panic and flail about like a person drowning; how we, like our first parents, willingly reach out and sample the goods that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh hold out to us; how we tend to look elsewhere for the things we think we need to allay our worries and satisfy our desires and give us our version of “peace.” He knows…and He cares. He loves us and cares for us so much that He still cries out to us and teaches us that He’s got it all covered and under control. I know it may sound unusual, but these parables of Jesus are just a different way for our Lord to cry out to us in the midst of the storms of life, “Fear not! Fear not, for it is I, and I am with you always! Trust in Me above all things. I’ve got it all in my control.”
I will say it again because it bears repeating, and the ears of faith never tire of hearing the sweet words of the Gospel: Look here at what our Lord and Saviour is sowing, planting, and growing in our midst. Look at these amazing, yet unassuming mustard seed means of grace…and rejoice! Here is Christ! Here is the Master Gardener at work in our life, bestowing upon us His super-abundant harvest of peace that surpasses all human understanding. Look to and embrace the eternal and unconditional grace given to us in Holy Baptism. Look to and embrace the mighty life-giving, life-saving Gospel promise in, with, and under the ordinary and unassuming mustard seeds of word, water, bread and wine; the life-giving, life-saving Gospel that sows and produces the fruits of complete forgiveness, everlasting life, and God’s inexhaustible grace, mercy, and peace to all who believe.
In the words of the champion of the Reformation, Dr. Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” In the same way, Here we stand as the ones who have been called by Christ to freely sow His seeds of grace. We can do no other, and by His grace we will do no other.
By the boundless grace of our Triune God, may we ever and always trust in God above all things, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and may we ever and always take shelter in the mustard seed of the bloody cross of Christ; that cruciform mustard seed that, recognised through the eyes and ears of saving faith, gives unconditional and abundant shelter and sustenance and peace to all who hear and believe. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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