"No Depth of Soil" (Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23)
1. Please pray with me. Sanctify us in the truth, O Lord, Your Word is Truth. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 4th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 13:1-9 & 18-23, it’s entitled, “No Depth of Soil,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. People often use the same words but have entirely different meanings in mind. For example, Johnny Carson, on the day after a World Series, asked band member Tommy Newsom: “Well, Tommy, what do you think of the Cincinnati Reds now?” Tommy answered, “I just don’t like Communists! I don’t care where they live!” (David F. Burgess, comp., Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations [St. Louis: Concordia, 1988], 204). Who can forget the baseball conversation of Abbot and Costello: “Who’s on first; What’s on second; I Don’t Know’s on third”? Hilarious! When someone is trying to have a meaningful relationship with someone else, though, such misunderstanding isn’t funny. It can be devastating. Communication experts tell us that filters often inhibit meaning between the sender of the message and the recipient. They encourage people to use active listening to enhance communication. However, active listening won’t overcome the filter of sin that prevents us from a relationship with God. Instead, God breaks through with his powerful and effective Word. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to break down the barrier so that we come to know, trust, and understand Jesus Christ as our Savior. This is what Jesus is getting across to us today in the Parable of the Sower.
3. The parables of Jesus have always aroused the imagination of those who read or hear them. Jesus takes the ordinary events of life and sanctifies them into a spiritual significance. How often have we seen a farmer plant crops and thought only of the backbreaking and tedious hours in the extremes of weather?
4. But Jesus saw more. To the simple act of sowing seed, the Savior gives a heavenly interpretation. The sower throws out a handful of seed, but because it doesn’t fall on fertile ground, the plant dies. There is no depth of soil on the hard roadside, the stony plot, or the weed infested corner. It is amazing on what tiny bit of ground a weed will grow, but not the wheat. Without proper moisture and sunshine, the plant withers and dies. But what does this mean?
5. Let’s look at what Jesus says here in Matthew 13. “1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9He who has ears, let him hear.”…18“Hear then the parable of the sower: 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
6. Jesus doesn’t always explain His parables, but in this instance He makes some pertinent points and gives some significant interpretations. The devil goes to church, but not to hear. He goes to divert our attention from the preaching so it doesn’t benefit us and strengthen our belief. If we begin to daydream, the Word won’t take root. Or we may go to church and our feelings may be hurt. Someone wasn’t as friendly as they ought to be or we thought the preacher was aiming his darts and arrows at us. We leave in a huff and the Word finds no room in our hearts. Who among us hasn’t let everyday problems take over our thinking while we should be meditating on God’s Word? A child misbehaving, another child is causing great trouble at home, and expenses seem to be greater than our income. We worry and worry. It’s doesn’t help but only closes our heart to the hearing of God’s Word. We go back home to our problems without finding comfort in God’s gracious promises in our Lord Jesus Christ.
7. Our sinful nature hates God. It doesn’t wish to listen to Him but would rather listen to the devil’s lies that tell us we don’t need God. This is why Jesus tells us in Luke 8:18, "Take care then how you hear.” God’s Word speaks of “stopped and heavy ears.” Many people have grown so fat with prosperity and are so surrounded by the pleasures of this life that nothing penetrates their mind. They have no interest in anything spiritual. With their abundance of possessions they are satisfied to feed their souls on the ashes of the temporal pleasures of this life. They have goods laid up for many years, so they may just as well eat, drink and be merry and enjoy life.
8. But, Jesus’ warning in this parable is clear. If we don’t appreciate the good news of salvation found in His death on the cross for our sins, it will be taken from us and given to others. If we persistently turn from Him and His Word by not going to Church to hear His Word, by resisting our devotional time to read His Word, by avoiding the study of His Word, then God’s judgment will strike us. Then when we hear God’s Word, we won’t understand it. This is why the Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonian church in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, “They refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.”
9. This is why sermons fail. Our minds become closed to the spiritual truths of God’s Word, and our interests lie in another direction. This is why Jesus urges us to hear properly and adds, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear.” So Jesus uses this parable of the sower to help us understand the importance of recognizing our responsibility as Christians to be hearers of the Word of God and to be careful how we hear His Word.
10. We must remember that our Lord Jesus is the sower in this parable. He is the Word of God made flesh as the Apostle John says who was sent by God the Father to save us from our sins. God’s Word tells us that God the Father wanted all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So He commissioned His Son to carry out His wish. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” God’s salvation began in a manger at Bethlehem, it continued on into Jesus’ public ministry, and it reached its climax in our Lord Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and His resurrection from the dead.
11. As we join in our Christian worship and fellowship, we should ask ourselves whether by our testimony and conduct we are drawing others to hear the Good News about Jesus. Men and women observing us note something about us that makes us different. Being reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus’ blood shed on the cross makes us new creatures whose lives give off an inward peace and hope. Those who don’t have that hope see it in us and would also like to have it. It is our God given task to let our light shine before men that others may know we belong to Jesus. Amen.
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