[AI translation] You may remember, we talked last Sunday about how election is not only election for salvation, but also election for service, for witness, for the advancement of the kingdom of God, the reign of God. So: God has chosen you for fellowship with himself, so that through your word and the witness of your life he may call others to the same fellowship. You have heard His calling so that others may hear that same calling through you. The privilege of already knowing God's free grace obliges you to make that same grace known to others... This is what we came to the other day.But now another question arises: how do I spread the kingdom of God in my environment? For many believers, the problem is precisely this: how can I lead to faith those who are not yet believers? How can I pass on to them what is most precious to me, the beauty, the value, the reality of faith in God? Is there a good way to do this? What could be done, what should be done to lead or lead back my child or my father or my brother or sister or anyone to God? Yes: these are the questions that I have been asked throughout the week about last Sunday's sermon.
Well, brethren, in this parable that we are about to read, Jesus seems to be answering such questions directly. In short, it is that the kingdom of God - that is, the coming of men under the rule of God - is by seed sowing! The kingdom of God is spread by sowing. What do you do for others and how do you do it? What the sower does and how the sower does it! Behold, that man only sows the seed. And having done that, he goes on, tends the animals, cleans the yard, repairs the tools and things that need repairing, goes into town, takes care of his business, goes to bed at night, sleeps soundly at night, gets up early the next morning, does the thousand things of daily life. And while he is busy doing all this, something happens that he no longer has any part in, that is no longer his business, that he can neither hurry nor prevent: the seed that has been sown begins to germinate, then sprouts, grows, forms into a ears of wheat and the wheat grains ripen in the ears. So once the seed has been sown, the soil produces the crop by itself. No special tactics, tricks, methods or effort are needed, because the seed that is sown will grow by itself.
Jesus repeatedly compares the Word of God to a seed: a kernel of grain, a kernel of wheat. The grain of wheat is a wonderful thing. It has life condensed in it. The Word of God is like this living thing, a life force that sprouts, grows and produces by its own power. It is the Word of God, the Word of God in it, so in the Word the presence, the guidance, the creative power, the life force of the living, omnipotent God Himself is at work. So when this Word enters into the heart of a man, like a seed into the ground, it begins to germinate there of its own accord, by its own power: it creates faith; it grows: it extends its power over the sphere of human life; it bears fruit: it works out the grace of complete redemption in man. Yes: the Word of God, by itself! By the divine vitality in it! God does not forget, He knows where His Word has gone, into which man's life, where it lies dormant, like a seed sown under the earth. God keeps account of His heavenly sowing, of every grain of wheat in the soil of men's hearts. Well, that seed is not there in vain, once it does the work in that heart, in that life, that only God can do! For we know, don't we, that a man's coming to a living faith, his conversion to God, is not the result of our human skill, effort or tactics! Only God can create new life in the heart of any of our fellow human beings. Just as it is God's grace that you can believe in Him, it is God's grace that any other fellow human being, whether your son, daughter, mother or colleague, can believe in Him! May he come to a living faith! Well, that is what that seed, that is God Himself, does in him through His Word, through His power.
Our task in all this is just to get that seed into the ground! So that this living Word of God, with its wonderful power, is put into the heart of that other person. The kingdom of God, the reign of God, is spread by proclaiming the Word into the hopelessness and lostness of faithless human life, and then the miracle will happen: the result will be there! Even if this seed of the Word has been lurking hidden for a long time in the heart in which you sowed it, even if it has been covered by a frosty crust for a long time, or even if it seems as if the seed has already died there, do not despair, for one thing is certain: the sowing of the seed was not in vain! For sowing is never in vain! Even if a large part of that sowing has fallen on stony ground, or on thorns, or on trampled roadsides, you never know which of your words or gestures has fallen on the right soil, in the heart of it!
In this parable, Jesus is warning us against the very discouragement and impatience that comes from the appearance of ineffectiveness in our witness. We feel that every word we say is a pile of peas, that the example of our life will not be planted on the other side, that the seeds we have sown with so much effort will not sprout. Never mind! Go on doing your other work, like the farmer who went to sleep after sowing his seed. In spite of all the hopelessness and all appearances, believe what Jesus said about the seed, that "the earth will grow by itself, first grass, then ears of corn, then full wheat in the ears of corn." After a couple of weeks, one and another started to sprout, coming out from under the bark of the soil and growing visibly. But there were three that showed no sign of life. I was impatient. I started scraping the soil over one of them to see if the tuber was still alive. It was alive. There were already tiny sprouts on it, but the scraping had broken off the sprouts and the planting was futile. I left the other delayed tuber and waited... It sprouted at the same time and is now blooming in the garden. That's what impatience gets you! Don't scratch the bark of that heart, don't wonder what the result of your testimony will be, when it will come out, whether the effect will be seen, because you'll spoil the whole thing. The sowing is your business, not the result.
I knew a woman, she was a believing, praying, Christ-like gentle soul. For 50 years she tried to sow a seed in the heart of her cynical, unbelieving husband with her quiet words and attractive Christian life. Apparently to no avail! The hard, mocking male heart remained as still as the earth's crust in the winter frost. Once the man became ill. They knew the end was near. No result! The woman continued to sow the seed with thick prayers. The man was in agony. The woman prayed. The man was no longer conscious. The woman did not stop sowing, she asked the Lord in prayer to call the unconscious soul. Suddenly the man began to cry, crying bitterly like a child. She could almost feel that now, now the seed had been conceived in his soul! After a long crying, the man opened his eyes, looked at his wife - fully conscious - smiled, smiled peacefully, happily, triumphantly - and died! The woman knew that the seed had sprouted! Her faithful sowing was not in vain! Faithful sowing is never in vain!
What would I, for example, see the point of trying to preach God's Word here week after week if I didn't believe that I was trying to sow a seed in some human heart? If I looked at the results of my work, I would be discouraged, I would have given up long ago - if I did not believe in what Jesus is encouraging me to believe in this parable, if I did not think that all my efforts in preaching the Word were in vain! But this way I know it is not in vain, because you never know which seed will reach someone's heart and then "the earth will grow by itself, first grass, then ears of wheat, then whole wheat in the ears of wheat" - How can you bring that other person under God's lordship? Not by some trick, method, or human ingenuity, but simply by sowing the seed with the testimony of your word and your life, and entrusting the rest to the earth and the seed sown in it!
Once, a long time ago, in the days of the racial persecution, a young student came to the pastor and wept bitterly how much he had suffered from his fellow students because of his origin. He poured out many of his painful, sad experiences in tears in a quiet conversation. So touched was the boy's grief that the pastor could not say a word, but his eyes filled with tears, and he came to the boy, embraced him, kissed him, and held him for a long time, sobbing, while the tears of the two men ran down their cheeks. That young man then had in his heart an unspoken Word of God - "Weep with the weepers" - and years later he had sprouted, grown up and was now bearing fruit for others in a small Hungarian village through the life of a blessed pastor. Behold the power of a weeping Word in the life of another weeper! You never know which word, which gesture, which action of yours will sow in the heart of another person the heavenly seed that will one day be ripe for harvest! Just do your sowing and sleep soundly, and that seed will do its work in that earth!
I have always admired Jesus' calmness, even though He had a great task ahead of Him! For He came to spread the kingdom of God, the reign of God on earth. For Him, this world is the field of work that He wants to win for God. He sees sin as the hostile power from which human life must be delivered, he sees eternity as the triumph he must win over transience! What goals! What tasks! And yet he is in no hurry! His tasks do not drive him, impel him to restless activity, do not run from one country to another, do not rush, do not shout, do not blare their voices through loudspeakers into the world - no! But he performs this great task like the farmer who plants the seed in the ground and sleeps quietly and wakes up as it is sown or dawns on him night and day. Then he sows the seed again, and again he sows it. In the meantime, he has time to stop by a ragged, blind beggar, to enter a despised tax collector's house for a visit, to hold little children in his arms, to care for insignificant nobodies... And all the while, he knows that the time will come when his work is done, and he will leave the field alone. Oh, how calmly and confidently he can die! To go to the Father! He will not fear that he will be ruined and that all his work will be in vain! No! The seed sown will germinate, ripen, and the time will come when it must be reaped! Let not your disciples be impatient! Let them do their work in faith and with the certainty that it is not in vain! Believe only that His Word is a living seed, and trust in its power and divine efficacy!
But the seed that you sow in the lives of others by the witness of your word and your life: let it be a seed indeed, a kernel of wheat, not a concoction! A credible, viable Word, a living testimony. A living Word, not just a learned one. But let it be a word or a deed prayed over, a word or a deed of life, so that it is truly the Word of God, even through human mediation! The word of Jesus was so powerful because He always first spoke His words to the Father, because He always came to men from silence before the Father! The word and deed that comes from the silence of intimate prayer always carries the Word of God, always sowing the seed! Your only concern should be that the word or deed that you sow as seed into the lives of others should spring from faith lived authentically: then, with one last look at the field, you can lie down and sleep peacefully, even forever, trusting that the seed will be sown at harvest time!
Amen.
Date: 27 August 1967.
Lesson
Mt 9,35-38