Luke 8:4-15
Those who practice sorcery believe that the incantations they speak, in casting spells, have the power to produce the effect that they want. It is believed that if the sorcerer says the right words, in the right way, those words will make something happen.
It doesn’t matter if the person or people who are affected by this spell believe in what is happening, or understand what is happening, or even know what is happening. The incantation itself has the power to bring either a curse or a blessing to them.
And the words of the spell are believed to have this power even if those words don’t have a particular meaning, according to the vocabulary of a specific language. Linguistic scholars and historians are still trying to figure out the original source and meaning of the word “abracadabra.”
An incantation supposedly retains its power even if no one understands what it means. It is not necessary for people to reflect on such words, or to ponder them. All that is necessary is for a sorcerer to speak them.
Christians believe that the Word of God also has power. It has power in itself to accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. God’s Word is supernaturally alive and is able to impart life.
We do not believe that God’s Word in Scripture is merely a collection of interesting but inert religious information. Rather, when God’s message of law and gospel comes into contact with people, it is able to change them: to change their standing before God; and to change their inner will, attitudes, and character.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God speaks about this power of his Word, when he says:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
God’s Word has within it an active, divine energy. It does not go out from him empty, and it will not return to him empty.
But the way in which the power of God’s Word operates in a person’s life is very, very different from the way in which a sorcerer’s incantation is thought to operate. An incantation does not require, or stimulate, any conscious interaction, or thoughtful deliberation, on the part of the person whom it affects.
An incantation works externally. It forces its power onto the person on whom a spell has been cast.
But God’s Word does its work precisely in the heart and mind of the person with whom it comes into contact. That’s where its power is unfolded and made known.
And that’s one of the main points of the parable of the sower, which we heard in today’s Gospel from St. Luke. In this parable, Jesus speaks of a sower who spreads his seed around in a way that seems a bit haphazard.
The seed – like the Word of God – goes everywhere: on the path or wayside, on the rock, among thorns, and into good soil.
It does not get planted or germinate in every place where it lands, although there is always someplace where it does get planted and germinate. A potential for life and growth is inherent in the seed, but sometimes that potential does not get released, or bear its fruit.
Remember this, dear friends, if you are ever tempted to think of the Word of God as if it were the same as an incantation, which has the desired effect regardless of the state of mind of the people who are touched by it. God’s Word is not like that.
Jesus teaches us that some people who are exposed to God’s Word harden their hearts against it as soon as they hear it. We might say that when God’s Word comes to them, they immediately push it back, in unbelief.
Jesus explains: “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”
The people Jesus is describing here are those who do not understand God’s Word. Actually they refuse to understand it. They refuse to listen to it. The devil has his way with them instead, keeping them in a state of spiritual ignorance.
They do not believe what God tells them about the danger and destructiveness of their sin, or about his remedy for their sin. Consequently they receive no benefit from their outward exposure to this message, or from their passing curiosity about this message.
So if, say, a man’s wife drags him to church every week, and he is willing to go to please her; but if he is not willing to listen to, and try to understand, the message of the sermon and the hymns, his physical attendance at church will do him no good.
And if a woman goes to church chiefly for the sake of the social aspects of such a gathering, but also thinks somehow that a spiritual benefit will come to her simply because she is physically in the presence of preaching and singing, this is nothing more than superstition.
If through unbelief you keep the Word of God on the outside of your mind and heart – even if you are externally religious in your habits – you will not know the power of God’s Word to save you. God’s Word does not work like an incantation: externally and by force.
It works, and accomplishes its saving purposes for you, on the inside – where repentance and faith can take place – just like a seed works and germinates only when it is planted in the soil.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus also teaches that there are cases when the Word of God is believed or acknowledged only temporarily, or only superficially. He explains:
“The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
You cannot comfort yourself with the memory of a faith that you no longer have. Of course, it is a good thing if you have been baptized – that is, if you were given the washing of water with the Word at some point in the past. It is a good thing, too, if you attended Sunday School as a child, and believed then what you were taught.
But if your baptism is not living in you right now – if you are not living in your baptism, in daily repentance and faith – then God’s Word is no longer benefitting you. If you do not believe at the present time what you were previously taught from the Bible, then as far as your current state of salvation is concerned, you might as well have never believed these things.
The power of God’s Word in your life cannot be limited to the realm of sentiment and memory. It is either a contemporary and vibrant power – impacting, shaping, and directing your mind and heart right now – or it is not truly a power in your life at all.
God’s Word does have within it a supernatural power that can indeed drive us to our knees in shame and humility, when we have sinned, and when God’s law makes us admit that we have sinned. And, God’s Word has within it a supernatural power that can lift us up in Christ – up to the glory and peace of heaven itself – when the gospel dresses us in the pure garment of Christ’s righteousness, to cover over all our sins.
The power of God’s Word is a power that can permeate all aspects of our life with the life of God himself, so that we bear the fruit of the Spirit in what we think, say, and do.
God’s Word confronts and subdues the sinful impulses that still plague us. It shines brightly to dispel the darkness that still lurks in the corners of our old nature. It brings understanding and contentment to our confused and frightened minds.
God’s Word makes us truly alive in Christ. Jesus describes all of this in this way:
“The [seeds] that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
What is the basic difference constitutionally between those who respond positively to the Word of God, and those who reject it, either immediately or eventually? Why are some saved and not others?
This is a question that ultimately cannot be answered, because Scripture does not answer it.
The point of comparison of the parable is also limited in what it is attempting to teach us. The imagery of the parable doesn’t raise or answer this question.
We cannot say that God does not earnestly intend to plant the seed of his Word in the lives of those who end up not believing. This would violate the Bible’s teaching that God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
We also cannot say that those who have the “good soil” of faith were, in their unregenerated nature, more receptive to the gospel than others. This would violate the Bible’s teaching that we are all by nature sinful, and unclean.
This would also violate the Bible’s teaching that those who are saved are saved by grace alone, through a faith that is itself a gift of God. We are not saved through a faith that arises from the unconverted heart and mind of man as a prelude to conversion, since the unconverted heart and mind are still in the condition that St. Paul describes in his Epistle to the Romans, when he writes that
“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
And Paul explains in the same epistle that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
We are saved by a faith that God gives us, miraculously, through the power of his Word, when he engenders within us a new nature, and a new way of being and living.
If you are resisting the operation of God’s Word; and are closing yourself off to what God wants to do, for you and in you, through his Word; then be warned that the power of God’s Word will not benefit you.
If you are trying to fabricate some kind of assurance for eternity on the basis of a past faith, or on the basis of a former relationship with Christ that does not exist any more, do not deceive yourself.
But, if you today do repent of your sins – if you acknowledge, today, that what God says to you about those sins is true – then know that God, in his love for you, is making you to be a person of “good soil.”
If you today do trust in your crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness – if you stake everything, today, on him and his promises – then know that Christ, your true hope, is planting the Word of his kingdom in you.
God’s Word is in the means of grace that are presented to you, and is united to the earthly elements of the sacraments that are offered to you. And through these divinely-appointed instruments, God’s Word then enters into you.
It delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation to you. It rescues you from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And recall again what the Lord had said through Isaiah:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth…”
In the parable of the sower, and its explanation, Jesus compares the seed that is planted in the good soil to his Word. But in the Prophet Isaiah, God reminds us that his Word is what makes the good soil to be good.
God’s Word, as it were, “waters” you, and makes the “soil” of your heart and mind to be receptive to the gospel. God’s Word does everything.
As a seed that is planted, it offers forgiveness and life to those who will receive these heavenly blessings in faith. As a refreshing rain that invigorates the soil of the heart, it creates the very faith that it calls for.
The power of God’s Word is not like the power of a sorcerer’s incantation. God’s Word addresses and engages your mind. It plants itself in your heart.
It transforms you internally. It changes your way of thinking and your way of living.
God’s Word brings to you a faith that is centered on Christ, to receive from him his pardon and all his mercies. And God’s Word brings to you a faith that is alive in Christ, bearing the fruit of good works.
Almighty God, Thy Word is cast Like seed into the ground;
Now let the dew of heaven descend, And righteous fruits abound.
Oft as the precious seed is sown, Thy quickening grace bestow,
That all whose souls the truth receive, Its saving power may know. Amen.