June 17, 2012 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
”The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not
how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full
grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle,
because the harvest has come.”
Jesus speaks of the kingdom of
God as something planted. He tells two parables with planting at its heart: the
Parable of the Growing Seed and the Parable of the Mustard Seed. That should
not be unexpected: the Scriptures are replete with descriptions about the
kingdom of God and the members of that kingdom that use planting imagery. The
nation of Israel is often described as a vine planted by the Lord. Today’s psalm speaks of the
righteous man being “like a tree planted
by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not
wither.” Jesus has other parables about planting. Following on this, the
apostle compares the resurrection of believers from the dead as a seed planted
in the ground that is raised imperishable.
All of these usages of planting
imagery reveal truths about the nature of the kingdom of God and those who
belong to it. First and foremost is that the kingdom of God has its origin in something
done to it. The kingdom of God is planted. It does not sprout up by itself. No,
the Lord purposely plants it
according to His will. That origin must always be recognized. It shows the
dependence upon the Lord for
existence—not only for earthly life, but for spiritual life also. His good and
gracious will is to have a kingdom, to have people under His merciful and
benevolent rule and influence.
This is the activity promised in
the Old Testament Reading for today. The promise is for divine action to be
done for people, a people conquered and afflicted by enemies. The Lord declares that the exile to Babylon
will not be the end for the Covenant People He has established. He pledges a
restoration that is found in what He will do: “I Myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will
set it out…. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear
branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell
every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.”
The Lord declares that this action
will testify about Himself: “And all the
trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord;
I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree,
and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord;
I have spoken, and I will do it.”
The Lord’s promise is fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus, the
Messiah. His appearance in Israel is the planting that starts the kingdom of
God on its way to being the noble cedar with all sorts of birds living in it.
The Lord’s promise in the Old
Testament is the foundation for Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed: “[The kingdom of God] is like a grain of
mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds
on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the
garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can
make nests in its shade.” This is the purposed goal of Jesus’ work: the
establishment of a kingdom with people of all ethnicities to be part of it. His
obedience to the Father, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection are all
done to make individuals belong to Him. It is done, so that you can say: “that
I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”
But how is this accomplished?
How are people brought into the kingdom of God? That is what Jesus’ Parable of
the Growing Seed discloses. Jesus says that people are brought into the kingdom
of God through a planting that is done. He explains the purposeful act that
brings about people who belong to Him: ”The
kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and
rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The
earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in
the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the
harvest has come.”
The key to understanding Jesus’
parable is to know that everything has a purpose. Everything has a particular
role that it is meant to fulfill. Jesus speaks about a planter who does what he
is meant to do: the planter scatters seed on the ground. That’s what makes the
man a planter and not a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker. But the planter
only scatters the seed; he does not make the seed grow. Making the seed grow is
not the assigned role of the planter. Instead, this is what the planter does: “He sleeps and rises night and day, and the
seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” But the seed does indeed grow.
The seed grows because that is what the seed is meant to do when placed into
the ground: “The earth produces by
itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” And
then the planter can go about doing what he is meant to do: “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts
in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” The planter goes out and
harvests what the seed produces: all is done according to the particular role
that the Lord has assigned.
What Jesus describes is the way
that you are made part of God’s kingdom. This is important to note: you are
made part of God’s kingdom. It happens as assigned roles are fulfilled. A
planter comes and scatters the seed on the ground: the seed of the Gospel is
planted in you. It is planted into your hearts, minds, and souls. You have the
testimony and witness about Jesus spoken to you. You hear about who Jesus is.
You hear about what Jesus has done. You hear about the purpose of this, the
reason why the acts have occurred. Without this happening, you would remain a
fallow field, something with no life in it. But since the seed of the Gospel
has been planted in you, it brings forth faith and the fruits of faith. That is
how you are made part of the kingdom of God.
Your being part of the kingdom
of God is dependent upon His will for you being fulfilled. Membership in the
kingdom of God is given to you. Various planters have come doing what they are
supposed to do here. You have had Planter Paar, Planter Lindenmeyer, Planter
Kraus, Planter Nemoyer, Planter Nickel. You have had fathers acting as spiritual
heads of their households who handed down the Gospel to you. You have had your
own Eunice and Lois, mothers and grandmothers who spoke of the gracious acts of
Jesus. Other planters have been present doing the same thing: scattering the
seed of the Gospel on you. That is how you entered the kingdom of God, how your
sins were forgiven, your life created, your salvation bestowed. The same Gospel
was proclaimed by the planters, just as the first apostles spoke: “For the love of Christ controls us, because
we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and
He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but
for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”
But none of the planters made
that seed grow. No, they just scattered the seed. Then they slept and rose
night and day. The Spirit of God caused the growth. It looks automatic: there
is no method, no process, no strategy that the planter designed to make the seed
grow into plants. The only command followed was the one that came from Jesus
who gave the seed to be planted: “Scatter the seed of the Gospel. Baptize
people. Teach them to observe what I told you. Give them to eat and drink for
forgiveness of sins. Tell what I have done. That is how the field will bring
forth plants.” And so what was purposed came to pass. For what do you see
around you? All that the seed of the Gospel has brought forth—the members of
the kingdom of God, those who confess Jesus as Lord and follow. You see all the
plants that the seed has produced in all the various stages of growth: “The earth produces by itself, first the
blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”
This is how the kingdom of God
came to this place. Speaking in the language of Jesus’ parable: this is not a
fallow field; there is a field of corn here at Calvary. You are it. It has come
as the Lord willed it. He gives
purpose to your lives here on earth, even as the kingdom of God strives toward
the goal of life everlasting. The Lord
means for a crop to arise and be gathered: “When
the grain is ripe, at once [the planter] puts in the sickle, because the
harvest has come.” It is as Paul wrote: “For
while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be
unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who
has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” Even now your lives have a purpose:
“Whether we are at home or away, we make
it our aim to please Him.” You are different because of the planting that
has happened to you: “If anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has
come.” This is the path of growth that all of you are on. It is the role
that you are meant to fulfill.
But note this well: you did not
determine this purpose for yourself. No, it has been given to you. It has
happened according to the way that the Lord
determined. You have been made members of the kingdom of God by the scattering
of the Gospel seed. You cannot explain how it worked, but you know the truth of
what has happened. You know the activity that the Lord has done in and for you: “I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the
green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” He has done it
for you, taking you from being a fallow field with no life to being the
vibrant, living plants that produce the fruits of faith. You have been planted
by Him. That gives you your identity. This is what Jesus desires you to know
with His parable: “The kingdom of God is
as if a man should scatter seed on the ground….”
+ In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment