Video and Sermon of Divine Service on the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Philemon 1:21
Luke 14:25-35
O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
While the scribes, lawyers, and pharisees don’t appreciate Jesus’ ministry among them, the rest of the population can’t get enough of him. Since Luke 9:51, Jesus has been on the long, slow, journey toward Jerusalem. Large groups of people continue to follow Him. They listen intently to what he says. All along the way, Jesus is catechizing, instructing, his disciples about life in the kingdom of God. Like parents and teachers in every time and place, Jesus regularly repeats himself to hammer his instructions into the catechumen’s minds and hearts so that they will be shaped by His teachings. For to be a disciple is more than a follower, a disciple is one who imitates the teacher in word and action.
The Gospel reading is at the end of chapter 14. In today’s Gospel Jesus is repeating himself by offering further explanation to the Parable of the Sower back in chapter 8. This Parable and its explanation is probably familiar to you, but I read it now to strengthen the points that Jesus is making here.
Luke 8:4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
In St. Luke, the only two times that Jesus says the last sentence, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” is in chapter 8 and at the end of the Gospel for today in Luke 14. This saying is an oral and literary marker that indicates that the parable of the Sower and today’s explanation are connected. So, we dutifully listen up.
You recall that after Jesus said the Parable of the Sower, the disciples asked him what he meant. Jesus said:
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are 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.15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
We appreciate the explanation that Jesus offers here. His explanation does help. The seed is the Word of God that people hear. The seed, the Word of God, lands in people’s ears and experience teaches us that every person’s response and inner terrain is different. We are told that there are four different types of terrain that the seed lands on: 1) the path or hard ground; 2) ground covered with rocks where there is dirt but no depth; 3) ground covered with weeds or thorns; 4) good soil.
While picturesque, the imagery and accompanying brief explanation does not tell us a lot. It strikes me as being somewhat theoretical. In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to the parable and offers further explanation. This explanation provides concrete examples that amplify the magnitude of the sacrifice that Jesus is calling His disciples into. There is no theoretical here. These are sacrifices to which all of us can relate because they get to the core of who we are: family; discipleship; and possessions.
The person who receives the Word of God but is like the hard ground is the person who hears, receives, and wants to hear more. Yet, when he hears that he must not love his Mom, Dad, and family more than God and that the potential disciple must choose God over family, he realizes that he just can’t do that.
In his preaching, Jesus tells us that in the kingdom of God the family of God is your true family. If all of your kin are Christian, no sacrifice is needed. You will all walk into the kingdom of God together. Your family and God’s family are one. But if not, then the call to love God more than the family, the call to be more loyal to the Lord than to your family is going to rest hard on you. Not everyone can make that sacrifice and it will be as if the birds took away the seed.
The second sacrifice is carrying the cross, or said another way, it is true discipleship. This means you will experience what Jesus experienced with the Pharisees, lawyers, scribes, and temple leaders. You will meet stiff resistance. You may be ostracized or worse because the reaction to the Gospel of Christ can be fierce and brutal. The image of carrying the cross is apt because it no pleasure to carry and awful to be hung up on. To carry the cross, means that you die to yourself, for the sake of the one who gives you eternal life. If you cannot sacrifice your sense of self and dignity in order to suffer through the resistance, the danger of the negative reaction, the pain of persecution, and you turn away from the Word, then it will be like the seed that fell on the rock and withered because of the lack of moisture. You will be like those who, according to Jesus, receive the Word with joy but have no roots and fall away in times of temptation (Luke 22:40-46).
The third sacrifice of discipleship is renouncing possessions. Jesus has plenty to say about the proper use of possessions. The issue in the first century as well as the current one is that possessions are a symbol of who we are. Our choice of clothes, the house, the property, the car, and so on, affirm ourselves and announce to the world who we are. Jesus is keenly aware that the danger of possessions is that they may inadvertently possess us. Which is more important? Follow Christ wherever and whenever He leads, or staying safely at home amongst our symbols of status? If the possessions own us, then these are the potential disciples who hear the word but as they learn more about life in the kingdom of God, they grow choked by the weeds and the thorns. These are people who hear the Word but are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life. (Luke 8:7, 14)
What is at stake in Jesus’ teaching here? Jesus explained that in chapter 13 with the Parable of the Narrow Door and the Wedding Feast. On the last day, when we come to the final Banquet feast of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, the question is whether we will be thrown out of the feast because we tried to enter without faith in Jesus as the Christ and failed to recognize him as the Lord of the Banquet? Jesus says that the answer is yes. The banquet you presumed you were entitled to is not yours. You are excused. Luke 13:28.
Jesus says that discipleship is not easy. His fuller description of the sacrifices that is required of us can be alarming. And it should be. Yet, when our souls grow anxious, we remember Jesus’ Parable. The Word also falls on the Good Soil. The seed goes deep, and strong roots develop as it grows. It does not grow alone. There are other seeds growing right along side each other. The seed is able to flourish to maturity because it receives regular watering of the sacraments and the promises of God. Faith grows and grasps the promise of the Cross. Jesus died for you. Jesus dies to set you free from your sins. Those sins include when you do not want to go forward, when you are having trouble leaning into the challenge of being owned by Christ in this troubled world. You are aware of your failures and your sins. You confess them to God. The promise of Christ Jesus is that on account of his cross, you are forgiven. You are put back into the good soil along with your fellow companions on the way to the gates of heaven. Jesus forgives you so that you can live another day to die to yourself and live for the Lord God.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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