On the night when Jesus was betrayed he was arrested and
brought to the chief priest’s house. St.
Peter followed at a distance and when Jesus entered the house, Peter stood in
the courtyard, warming himself by a charcoal fire. While he was standing there someone
recognized him as being one of Jesus’s disciples. And so she asked him, “Aren’t you one of
Jesus’s disciples?” And he said,
“No.” Then he was asked again, “You are
one of Jesus’s disciples though, aren’t you?”
And again he said, “No.” Finally
they said, “But I can tell from your accent that you are a Galilean, you must
be one of Jesus’s disciples.” Then Peter
swore, saying, “I do not know the man.”
Peter had talked big about sticking with Jesus, come what
may, but after Jesus was arrested, fear seized him. He did not also want to be arrested and
killed and so he cursed, swore, lied, and deceived in God’s name that he had
nothing to do with Jesus. Prior to this
he had certainly believed. In fact his
fervent love for Jesus is clearly evident.
But now in the courtyard he is an unbeliever.
This goes to show that nobody is safe because of some
imagined strength in the individual. If
anyone should have had the ability to retain his faith, then it should have
been Peter. He had been bold and courageous
and all the other apostles looked up to him.
But he lost his faith here in the courtyard. Likewise this can happen to anyone of us, and
frankly it does happen. None of us are safe until we close our eyes
in death with the word of “Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner,” on our
lips. The forces against us and our
Christian faith are strong and no joking matter.
The only real history that counts is not about politics or
progress or the other things you might find in history textbooks. The only history that counts is the way that
the Word of God has fared among certain peoples, families, and individuals, and
this history is full of people who once believed, but in one way or another
lost their faith. Something happens
along the way, just as we hear about Peter’s fall, and Christ is no longer
confessed. Without faith in Christ the
forgiveness of sins is not received. If
such people are not converted again, then upon their death they will receive
the just punishment for their sins in hell.
This extremely grave and serious matter is what Jesus takes
up with his parable today. Because we
are familiar with this teaching we easily become complacent. We know how the parable works and so we
imagine that we understand it. But we
must realize that eternal lives are at stake.
This parable deals with the decisive factor of history sifting all
people and every individual: What happens when people hear the Word of
God? Some believe. Some don’t.
Some believe for a while, then fall away. Some believe, but then the cares, riches, and
pleasures of life choke it out. Then
there are some who endure and produce fruit.
The Holy Spirit rules their hearts and minds so that they are enabled
constantly to serve God. Jesus Christ
becomes a living fountain in them, bubbling up more and more, unto eternal
life.
At the end of the history of this old world, there will be a
story about each and every one of us. The
story of our earthly life will consist of stumbling, falling, and (God willing)
getting back up again. The reason why
Jesus tells us this parable today is so that we can become wise, fear God, and
be warned and strengthened for the battle of the Word of God for possession of
our soul that lies ahead for each of us.
Opposed to the Word of God are the devil, the world, and even,
mysteriously, our very own sinful flesh.
Jesus’s parable is about the fight that takes place in a person’s soul
between good and evil.
And so let us get into it.
First is the soil that is along the path. This soil is compacted and the seed doesn’t
really have a chance. The birds of the
heavens come and gobble it up, lest it should sprout and grow. Jesus says that these are those who hear the
Word but it does not sink in. Demons
prevent it from happening. These are
people who hear God’s commandments and threats of punishment, but they do not
fear. They hear of the redemption and
salvation that is worked for all people in Jesus Christ, but it changes
nothing. They go on living their lives according
to their own lights.
Just as God’s goal for us is that the Word of God should
have its way with us and that we should produce fruit, in like manner the goal
for the devil and the demons is that our hearts should become stony and cold
and hard. The goal for them is that we
should not be moved by anything. Threats
and punishments bounce off. The love of
God in Christ makes no impression. For
them life is about something else. Their
thoughts and actions that make up their life might involve noble and high goals
and achievements. Such people might cure
cancer or bring about world peace. But
they have no love for Christ who died for them.
They remain under the devil’s thumb.
The second type of soil describes those who undergo
persecution. Everyone who believes in
Christ is going to undergo persecution.
We might not yet be killed in this country, but that is certainly not
unheard of elsewhere. But even if we are
not killed or physically harmed, we still must undergo the scorn or ridicule or
belittlement of friends, family, or false brothers and sisters in the
congregation if we hold to the truthfulness of our Christian convictions. The devil’s goal with persecution is always
that fear, shame, and other intense disagreeable emotions would turn us away
from confessing the truth.
The example of Peter with which we began shows us this. Fear and shame silenced him at first, and
then eventually he outright denies Christ altogether. We face this difficulty when people challenge
us about the truth. There are many ways
this might happen. They might say to us
that God’s Word isn’t that important, or that it’s not reliable, or that
something God has said isn’t actually true but outdated or harmful. Confrontations are always unpleasant, and so
we’d like to avoid them. But these spiritual
confrontations are more important than even physical conflicts like war,
because these confrontations have to do with the soul and eternity. Therefore we must pluck up our courage and
open our mouths, regardless of the consequences.
When we do not fight against lies, but instead remain
silent, the fall has already begun—as we see with Peter. That’s because the course is already being
set where we are no longer desiring the praise of God, but rather the praise of
our fellow human beings. This is an intense,
difficult, and dangerous struggle. Jesus
pictures that with the hot sun beating down upon the soil. If there is no root, the plant will burn up
and die.
Challenges to our faith, to say the right word, are intense
and require courage. Supposing we maintain
our courage and our convictions, what then?
Then come the weeds of desires.
They start out small. They grow
over time. They are never enough to
choke out the life of faith at the start, but inevitably if they are not
resisted, they will take over the entire garden. The hot sun of persecution is the devil’s
short game. The weeds of cares, riches,
and pleasures are his long game. Slowly,
ever so slowly, he nurses along what our flesh is already predisposed to prefer
over the Christian life of sacrifice and love.
Discipline is gone and so the garden turns shabby. At some point the crop is lost. It’s hard to say just when. And that works to the devil’s favor. If we can’t tell just when our greed and lust
will choke out our faith, then our flesh sees an advantage for itself. If we can’t tell just when the cares, riches,
and pleasure of life will choke out the Christian faith, then we might as well
indulge these lusts up to but not past the point where we are no longer
Christians. Then we could have our cake
and eat it too. We could live for
pleasure and not for love, but still go the heaven.
But this is awful logic, particularly because it seems like
it should work. Fish might nibble at
bait that is offered to them, and as every fisherman knows, sometimes they get
a tasty meal without getting caught.
Likewise we can nibble at the cares, pleasures, and riches of
life—disregarding sacrifice and love—and might get away with it for a
time. But somewhere in that bait is the
devil’s hook. And the trouble with all
that tasting of it is that it only creates a hankering for more, until before
you know it all our sacrificing and love are gone. We produce no fruit. We are living for ourselves. Although we might remain members in good
standing of the Christian congregation, we no longer care about the
Gospel. There is an honoring of God with
the lips, but the heart is far from him.
Finally, the fourth type of soil are those who upon hearing
the Word, hold it fast with an honest and good heart and bear fruit with
patience. Being a Christian is much more
a matter of standing and enduring, rather than wiping out all our enemies once
and for all and being done with them.
We’d, of course, like that because then we wouldn’t need to continue to
fight and work. But overcoming the
challenges that come with the Christian life is like doing the dishes. As soon as you are done with them, they only
get dirty again. Likewise, the
challenges to our faith do not stop until we lay down our heads in death. Over and over again Christians are put to the
test with persecution. They are
constantly annoyed by their sinful flesh which is always pulling them away from
their first love of Christ. But by God’s
grace they endure these things.
Therefore, Christians have their battle stories to
tell. The story is not of their own
fortitude or strength or greatness, but the abiding love of God towards
them—strengthening them when the stand, and picking them up when they fall. What becomes abundantly clear with all the things
that come in the Christian life is that we are dependent upon God’s mercy. The Word of God is a precious thing that over
and over again brings us to repentance and through faith in Jesus we receive
the divine and almighty power of salvation—the forgiveness of sins that Jesus
worked through his death and his resurrection.
The Christian story is the story of the sowing of the seed. The word of God comes and does its work.
And so from Jesus’s parable today we can learn something
important—especially in our day. People
think that being a Christian is the easiest thing in the world, that it’s no
big deal, that seemingly nobody loses their faith, or ends up in hell if they
have made some vague commitment to being a Christian. But the truth is as the hymn writer puts it:
“I walk in danger all the way.” Jesus
tells us this parable to warn us so that we are not complacent and apathetic
when it comes to the Word of God. If St.
Peter was able to fall, then certainly each of us can also fall. God was gracious to him and Jesus restored
him to faith, but that is not something we should assume will always
happen. That would be tempting God. Instead, we should learn from what Jesus actually
teaches us in our parable. Pay attention
to the Word of God and do not think of it as a small matter. In it is the Gospel which is the power of God
unto salvation for all who believe. Hear
it with glad and open hearts, hold fast to that promise—applying it to yourself,
and do not let anything get in the way of it.
Nothing is more important that the Word concerning the Son of God who
became Man, suffered, died, and rose again for the salvation of sinners.
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