The Powerful Seed of the Gospel

Mark 4:26-29 Over these forty days of Lent we are visiting biblical gardens to see how God’s salvation in Jesus Christ is planted and grown and gathered into an amazing harvest of souls. 

Last week we were in the Garden of Eden and we heard how God planted the seed of our salvation already in the beginning by promising Adam and Eve and us here tonight that sin and Satan and eternal death will not be victorious over us—but that in Jesus Christ we have a Savior who has rescued us from evil.

That was the promise that God made when he said to the devil:  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  That promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and it stands today.  But thousands of years separate us from that time and place. 

And so the question before us tonight is how does that Gospel promise of a Savior from sin and death come to us in this place and time.  What is the bridge between the Garden of Eden and our lives?  The answer is found in another garden—the Garden of Proclamation.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.”

            This is the time of year in South Texas when fields and gardens are being planted.  Caroline and I were in Lowes on Sunday and the man before us had a handful of seed packets.  If you travel around the county you will see farmers in the fields.  The harvest to come begins with the planting of seed.

So it is in God’s kingdom.  The seed is the Good News of God’s salvation in Christ first given in Eden and the scattering of the seed is the preaching of the word.  That is the bridge that connects Eden with our lives.  The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

God made and kept a promise of salvation in his Son Jesus Christ but for us to benefit from it—for us to be born again to new life—for us to be a part of his harvest of souls--the living seed of his word must be planted in us by hearing that promise as it is proclaimed to us.

Every one of us confesses this in the words of the Small Catechism:  I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or come to him but that the Spirit has called us by the Gospel and enlightened me with his gifts.

That task of scattering the seed, God has especially entrusted to pastors.  The charge that Paul gave to Timothy two thousand years ago is exactly the same charge that is still given to every pastor today: Preach the Word! 

It is the responsibility of pastors to see to it that the great distance between the Garden of Eden and us sitting here tonight is bridged by preaching the promise of salvation and giving it in the sacraments.  In fact, there is no other way to come to faith and live in faith than by the Gospel as it is preached and given in the sacraments.

This task, done publicly and on behalf of the whole congregation, God has entrusted to pastors.  But the power does not reside in the pastor but in the seed of the Gospel itself.  And so when any Christian speaks the Word of God, there in that moment the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being planted in the hearts of those who hear it.

And so when parents and Sunday school teachers and Christian Day School teachers instruct others in the Word of God they too are scattering the faith-giving seed of the Gospel.  In fact, when any Christian tells of the hope they have in Jesus Christ they too are proclaimers of the Word, scattering the seed of the Gospel and they can be confident that the Good News they share is powerful and effective in the lives of others. 

Jesus says that the farmer sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

            I don’t know any farmer or gardener who is not amazed all over again each growing season by the miracle contained in one seed.  To watch those seeds go into the ground and a new seedling appear and grow into a plant that is then harvested into much more than went in the ground is still a miracle that our modern knowledge of DNA has not diminished in the least.

How much more powerful and wondrous and miraculous is the power contained in the seed of the Gospel.  Just look at how it has grown in the Kingdom of God! 

The seed that was sown in two people thousands of years ago as God made his promise to Adam and Eve has grown into a kingdom that has produced the fruit of faith in billions of people for thousands of years in every place and culture despite the opposition of the world and the devil.  And we should be very clear…

It was not the faithfulness of Adam and Eve that made it grow.  It was not the wisdom of a wandering tribe of ancient Semitic shepherds that preserved it from extinction.  It was not the marketing ability of eleven fishermen and a tax collector who transformed the pagan Romans into a Christian empire.  It was not the devotion of pastors and priests and prophets.  The power of the seed of the Gospel is the power of the One of whom it speaks.

What a comfort this is as we go about our Christian work of spreading the seed of the Gospel to know that even though we cannot answer every objection and even though we are not particularly eloquent so long as we scatter the seed we can be confident that it has the power to change lives for time and eternity!  What a blessing to be invited to scatter that seed as we go along in life knowing that have taken part in God’s great work of saving the world!

Those who teach in our Sunday School- and those who witness in their daily work- and those who serve the church- and those who tell their children about Jesus- have done something with their life that God loves and their work will bear fruit for eternity.  Jesus says that:  the earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

There are two points that need to be made here.  First of all the seed of the Gospel works just like any other seed:  growth is not instantaneous.  Growth is a process.  Second of all, fruitfulness is the goal of the planting.

When the farmer plants seed in the field he does not drive back by early the next morning with the combine, ready to harvest.  He knows it is going to take time and he rejoices in the progress. 

There’s the first little hint of green as the seedling pushes through the dirt.  There’s the growth of the plat itself and the formation of the fruit.  And then there is the maturing of the plant and finally the harvest.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes time. 

So it is with the seed of the Gospel.  None of us are everything that God has intended us to be.  There’s still room for lots of growth.  That’s true of us and it’s true of those around us.  And so we have to be the patient gardener waiting and watching for the harvest. 

But neither should we be confused that a fruitful harvest is expected.  A gardener doesn’t simply sow the seed and forget about it.  There is watering and weeding and fertilizing and pest control.  The gardener continues to work because he wants to reap the harvest.  So it is in the kingdom.

We make sure that the seed of the Gospel is planted in the lives of our children as we bring them to Holy Baptism.  But sadly there are many parents think that then their work is done.  But that is simply not the case.  Every Christian parent wants their child to live a fruitful Christian life.  Planting the Word is the beginning.  But that little seedling needs to be nourished in worship and Sunday School.

So it is for all of us.  We need the life-giving water of worship and the nourishment of Bible study and the weeding of confession if we are going to be the fruitful growing Christians that God intends us to be. 

It is detrimental to every Christian’s growth in the faith to miss out on worship and Bible study and we need to be reminded of that because there is a harvest time when God will come looking for the fruits of the Gospel seed he has planted in us.  Jesus said that when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

There is a particular beauty to crops rows that are straight and green.  We want our garden plants to be lush and vigorous.  But the farmer and the gardener have but one purpose that goes far beyond that:  to gather the harvest.  That’s the whole point. 

When a kernel of corn is placed into the ground the farmer expects a harvest of corn.   So it is with God.  He has sown the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament.  He has caused new life to spring up within us. 

But God has a purpose in that—for us as individuals and for our congregation.  He wants us to grow up into the fullness of that seed which is Jesus Christ.