A Hundred Fold Harvest

A HUNDRED-FOLD HARVEST
LUKE 8:4-15

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
In the name of Jesus:
Let’s see a show of hands, how many of you are gardeners? Quite a few. Good, now I have a question that I want you to consider, what is the most important element to a fruitful garden? Is it location? Watering the garden, sunlight? You can have a great location for you garden, it can have the optimal sunlight and just enough fertilizer and water, but if you don’t have that which is most important, you can’t have a garden. What am I forgetting? The seed. Seeds are the most important part of agriculture, whether it is on a farm or in a garden. You can have all of the fancy equipment to grow plants and vegetation, you can have the optimal conditions, you can spend time pulling weeds and making certain that everything is just right, but if you don’t have the seed, you got nothing.
It isn’t by accident that Jesus, when speaking of the Kingdom of God, and the Church, talks about it in terms of agriculture or farming. People in Jesus’ day and age knew what it meant to work the land so that they could have food for their families. For us living in the 21st century, well, not so much, because unless we understand some basic principles to growing things, we won’t understand what the Kingdom of God is like. And this is the reason why Jesus speaks in parables, It is the reason why Jesus gives us the secrets to God’s Kingdom in parables, so that we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, might understand what God is doing in His Kingdom, the Church, and what He continues to do among us today.
Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a sower, which goes out to sow His seed. Here Jesus is telling us that He is the Sower, the Seed is His Word, the Gospel, which is planted in the hearts and lives of people. Just as a sower sows seed in the field, so Jesus sows seed in the hearts of sinners. If you can imagine a famer picking seed out of a pouch and spreading it by hand, the seed would fall in different places. The seed would fall on pathways where it would be trampled or eaten by birds, on rocky soil or rock where it would wither under the heat of the sun, among thorny plants where it would grow for a time and be choked off by the thorny plants, and on the good soil where it would grow a hundred fold.
Jesus says that the different types of soil represent the different people who hear the Word spoken by Jesus. Some are like seed thrown on the path, where once they hear the Gospel they let it go in one hear and out the other. Others are like seed thrown on rocks, where they believe for a while, maybe they are caught up in the emotion or experience of it all, and when push comes to shove and when testing comes their way, they leave the faith. Still others are like the seed that falls among the thorns, they believe but soon the cares of the world, the opinions of others, or maybe just their love for the world and riches and pleasures of life they leave the faith and do not mature n the faith.
But there are those who hear the Word as if seed planted in good soil. They hold this Word fast, in a good and honest heart, and they bear fruit, fruit as in a hundred fold, with PATIENCE. It isn’t the heart that brings forth the fruit; it is the seed, the Gospel. So how does this happen? How does the Christian bear fruit a hundred fold?
It is only by the grace and work of God! Our hearts are hardened by sin. Like lumps of rock or clay, God cannot penetrate with His love into our hearts because we are cold hearted. Our first love is not God. It is our sinful self. That is what sin is, a turning away from God. Our sinful nature questions God, our need for God, our want of a relationship with God. We try to come to God on our own terms. We think that God might be pleased with our intentions. Our good intentions. Or perhaps God might love us if he sees that we are sincere in our relationship with Him. Or maybe we can get on God’s good side if we do something for God, surely then He will be pleased! We want God, we seek a relationship with God, on our terms, setting our rules and regulations, we make God into what we want, rather than hearing who God reveals Himself to be and listening to what He has to say. We want God on our terms, to be like a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand, so as to meet our every wish and need and whim in life. But what DOES HE have to say?
He says, “their end will correspond to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:15). His Word reveals our sin in our hearts and in our lives, for “the Word of God is living and active, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:12-13).
We must give account. We must answer to God, for all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. Sin pays off with death! Temporal and eternal death. Satan, the world, even our sinful flesh, attacks our faith. We are all lost if not for the grace of God in Christ! And it is be God’s grace that we are saved.
God calls the sinner to repent. That is how God breaks our heart, our stony cold hearted heart, by showing us that we have sinned and we need God’s mercy. He calls us to repentance, to turn from sin, from self, from the world and its sinful pleasures, and to turn to God in Christ! For God has sent Christ to bear the attacks of the Evil One in His life and death. God so loved the world that He sent Christ to be nailed to a tree, so that by His cross-planted on the hill called Calvary your sins would be forgiven! Even though Jesus was hounded by the devil on the cross, even though He became sin for you on the cross, by His stripes, by his life, by His bloody death YOU ARE FORGIVEN! Through His dying and rising again Jesus destroyed death and Hell and all who believe. Jesus came down from heaven to die and rise so that all who believe in Him will rise to new life, bringing forth fruits to the glory of God.
This is what it means when Isaiah writes: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Jesus has sown the seed of His Gospel deep into your heart in the waters of your Baptism. There God has drowned your sin so that by the power of the Holy Spirit a new person will come forth to live before God. You have been made a new person in Baptism in Christ. As you read the Scriptures, as you hear the Word proclaimed, God brings to you Christ. The Word brings Christ and God’s promise is that this Word will not return to the Lord empty but it will accomplish what the Lord wants. And what does the Lord want? He wants all to be saved and come to faith in Christ, a faith that is rooted in the heart and is lived in your life.
Yet this faith is a mystery, when according to God’s good pleasure is revealed in bearing fruit in your life. Jesus says that He is the Vine, we are the branches and that if we remain in Him, we will bear abundant fruit. The key is remaining in Jesus, being rooted in Him. And how is this done? By being faithful in worship, hearing the Word, receiving the Lord’s Supper, reading and meditating on the Word for the Word brings Christ. God makes this promise, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. To those who hear His Word, treasure it, believe it and trust in Christ and His promises, God works to bring not only faith but uses that person to bring forth fruits of a living faith in Christ.
But all this happens in God’s time, which is why our text talks about bearing fruit with patience. Fruit comes from patience. Look at the fruits in your garden. Does the garden bear fruit today? No because it is not time. Will it bear fruit in April, May, or June? No matter how much you want it to bear fruit, you cannot force it. Fruit comes with patience, in God’s time, trusting in HIm. So it is with our lives. God calls us to be rooted in Christ and His Word, to be faithful in our reception and He who plants the seed will bring forth its fruit in our lives. In His time, according to His will.
There is an old Native American story, which, as a modern day parable, can help us in our understanding of how God works. It is a story about an opossum, who one day visited his good friend, a raccoon, at his home near the river. The opossum marveled at his friend's lush garden and asked if he could grow one like it. The raccoon assured the opossum he could do so, although he cautioned him, "It is hard work."
The opossum eagerly vowed to do the hard work necessary, then asked for and received some seeds. He rushed home with his treasure, buried them amid much laughter and song, went inside to clean up, ate, and went to bed. The next morning he leapt from bed to see his new garden.
Nothing. The ground looked no different than it had the day before!
Furious with anger and frustration, the opossum shouted at his buried seeds, "Grow, seeds, grow!" He pounded the ground and stomped his feet. But nothing happened. Soon a large crowd of forest animals gathered to see who was making all the commotion and why. The raccoon came to investigate with all the others.
"What are you doing, Opossum?" he asked. "Your racket has awakened the whole forest."
The opossum railed about having no garden, then turned to each seed, and commanded it to grow. When the animals began to mock the opossum for his silly actions, he only screamed louder. At last the raccoon spoke up once more.
"Wait a minute, Possum," he said. "You can't make the seeds grow. You can only make sure they get sun and water, then watch them do their work. The life is in the seed, not in you."
As the truth sank in, the opossum ceased his yelling and began to care for the seeds as the raccoon instructed, watering them regularly and getting rid of any weeds that invaded his garden. (On some days, though, when no one was watching, he still shouted a bit.)
Then one glorious morning the opossum wandered outside to see that multitudes of beautiful green sprouts dotted his garden. Just a few days later, gorgeous flowers began to bloom. With uncontrollable excitement and pride, the opossum ran to his friend, the raccoon, and asked him to witness the miracle. The raccoon took one long look at the thriving garden and said, "You see, Opossum, all you had to do was let the seeds do the work while you watched."
"Yes," smiled the opossum, finally remembering the wise words of his friend many days before, "but it's a hard job watching a seed work."
You and I are called to bear fruit. But how is this done? By trusting in Christ, rooting our lives in Christ, being faithful to Christ, hearing Him, receiving His gifts in the Lord’s Supper, attending worship, for in all of this we received the seed of His Word. And we have His promise, that His seed will not return empty, but will accomplish what He wants. There is an old saying: “We know the number of seeds in an apple, but only God knows the number of apples in a seed." Rooted in Christ, God will use your life in unique ways to share and spread Christ’s love to all.
Jesus said:” unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Christ has died and risen to give you life. In dying to sin and clinging to Jesus, God uses His Word in our lives to bring forth abundant fruit. May God grant it in Jesus’ name!
Amen