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Sermon by the Sea - Matthew 13:1-23
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
But welcome. My name is Jeremy. And if you are new to Commons in the last month or so, you may have no idea who I am, and that's great. Except I actually get the privilege of helping to lead our team here at Commons. However, I've been here at work and I've been here at church the last few Sundays, but I've been doing some writing.
Speaker 1:And so we've had the chance to hear from some of our other pastors in this past series, and that has been a real gift to our community. I love hearing what our community brings to the table as we celebrate different voices and the perspective that they bring, and we welcome that kind of diversity in our conversation together. And so hopefully, you've enjoyed the opportunity to listen to Scott and Devin and Bobby, and then Joel just this past week and Ash Wednesday as they led us into this season. But now, the fun is over because I still need to earn a paycheck around here, and so I'm back for at least a little while here. Speaking of which, my son has just started to kind of grasp the idea of money and shopping and buying things except that he's three years old and so he doesn't really understand the concept of where money actually comes from.
Speaker 1:Although it's fair, I'm not sure I do either. But his new standard answer now, anytime his mom or I say no to him, or if we just say, well we don't have that right now, is he just immediately responds, maybe we could go buy some. And I've tried to explain to him that that's not how it works all the time. But so far, my wealth management coaching has yet to produce any meaningful changes in my son's imaginary spending habits. Regardless, we are starting a new series tonight.
Speaker 1:I am back. And this is called the Sermon by the Sea. And this conversation is gonna take us through tonight all the way through to Holy Week, where we will experience together at Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and then finally Resurrection Sunday. And so another way to say that is this is our Lenten series. That is why I am wearing my clerical stole tonight, and I'll be wearing this as I teach from now through until Easter.
Speaker 1:It's why we have artwork up on the side walls to remind us about this Lenten season that we're in. And it's why this past Wednesday, we gathered together and we marked each other with ash, the sign of the cross and the symbol of our journey together towards Easter. Because this is the moment that we're approaching in our calendar, and it's the central story of the Christian faith. That God would give himself so that we might be made at one with the divine. However, in order for us to properly experience the joy of resurrection, the intimacy of return to relationship, we have to prepare ourselves by experiencing the loss and the lack and the gap of this season that we call Lent.
Speaker 1:And so this is why we have chosen this sequence in Matthew 13 as our focus for the next five weeks together. It's presented as a sermon that Jesus gives to a large audience. Think Sermon on the Mount like Matthew five through seven, and yet this sermon by the sea is so very different from that earlier, perhaps more famous Sermon on the Mount. In fact, it's almost like a completely different Jesus that we're reading here. I'll read you a quote from Robert Farrar Capon, who I will likely reference incessantly in this series.
Speaker 1:At first, because he is one of my favorite writers, but second, because particularly when it comes to the parables, I think his work is just brilliant. But he writes that early in the story, the gospel show us a fairly upbeat Jesus who for all his mysteriousness can still be taken as a standard issue wonder working messiah. But as the story shifts toward Easter, the story becomes dark and brooding. Jesus says in so many words that his messiahship will inevitably involve death and resurrection. And the certainty of this terrible exodus as Luke calls it, colors all of his subsequent sayings and actions.
Speaker 1:And so what we have here beginning in Matthew 13 is Jesus as he sort of comes to understand his purpose and his mission as he moves through life, and as he speaks with his father, and as he is guided by the spirit toward the cross. And in one sense, saying that can be kind of disconcerting. Right? I mean, Jesus is divine. Right?
Speaker 1:How can he learn and grow and come to understand his purpose? But at the same time, he has to grow and learn. Right? I mean, he's human. He was a child at one point, and obviously, he didn't understand the magnitude of the universe when he was in his crib crying for want of a changed diaper.
Speaker 1:The gospel of Luke even tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature as he got older. That growth is actually happening all through the gospel narratives as we read. And so one of the really fascinating things for us to look for are these transition markers. These sort of flags that show us at least where the gospel writers themselves are noticing something new in Jesus. And for me, Matthew 13 is one of those moments.
Speaker 1:Because this is the moment where Jesus begins to really speak in parables. And it starts with a very famous parable that's actually recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels. That's what we call Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And so anytime all of the different gospel writers key in on a singular moment, that should be a signal for us as well to pay attention. So let me go back to Farrar Capon here.
Speaker 1:I paraphrase what he says. He says, till now, Jesus has been aware in a general way that his kind of messiahship is not what the people were expecting. But from here on in, he takes that perception and he really turns it on its head. Well, he seems to say, since they've pretty much misunderstood me anyway, maybe I should capitalize on that. Maybe I should start thinking up examples of just how profoundly the true kingdom of God will differ from their kingdoms.
Speaker 1:If they think that my kingdom will be parochial, visible, propositional, a military established theocratic state that will be just handed to them at some point in the future. Well, what if I were to turn all of that on its head? What what if I came up with stories that said the kingdom was everywhere and mysterious and already present in their midst? What if I told them that my kingdom was already aggressively demanding the response? I wonder what I could come up with.
Speaker 1:And so what Jesus comes up with is exactly what we want to immerse ourselves in during this season of Lent. As Jesus turns his face toward the cross, and we prepare our hearts for Easter. So let's pray. And then tonight, we'll jump into the parable of the sower and the soil. God of resurrection and return, we set our sights on you in this season, But we also recognize that to truly move towards the celebration of your victory at Easter, we must enter into the uncomfortable space between, a space where things are mysterious and sacred, and in some sense unknowable.
Speaker 1:And so as we read your parables in this Lenten season, your invitation to explore with you, Would you begin to rewrite our imagination so that we might glimpse a kingdom that transcends our categories and invites us into new possibilities? Might resurrection somehow become more than a story that we read about, but a lived experience in our daily lives. We pray that our hearts would be good soil today, that your words would fall where they are needed in our conversation, that they would take root where you intend them to. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. Sermon by the Sea. Matthew 13, the sower and the soil. Here we go. And let's jump straight in here.
Speaker 1:We're gonna go to Matthew 13 verse one, and we read, that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake, and let's stop here already just to set a little bit of context. Because in the previous chapter, Jesus has been talking to these various groups of people. There are religious leaders who are upset with him. There are people who have been bringing their sick friends to him for healing. There are people who want him to just perform for them.
Speaker 1:They want a miracle or a sign so that he can prove himself to them. And all of this has created this larger and larger crowd that has been gathering outside of the house where Jesus is staying to see what all the commotion is about. But then right at the end of chapter 12, we get this odd little story where Jesus' family, the text says his mother and his brothers try to get his attention. Now, by the way, this is one of the reasons that we tend to think that Jesus probably experienced the loss of his father at some point earlier in his life. We don't know the story, but, of course, we know about Joseph from the Christmas narratives.
Speaker 1:And yet here, later in his life, actually, at one of the most significant seasons of his life where he's really stepping into his identity, his father is absent. And so Jesus' family at this point is his mother and his brothers. And I don't wanna stay on this point for too long, but it is important for us to know that that if we have experienced the loss of someone close to us, this is not something that is unfamiliar to God. And Jesus joins you in the beauty of your memories, but also in the heartache of that loss. Here at the end of chapter 12, it's Jesus' mother and his brothers that try to confront him.
Speaker 1:Basically, the crowd has just gotten bigger and bigger as he's talked, and the attention is becoming more and more focused. And his family comes out, and they just wanna say, like, dude, can this is getting crazy here. Can you just chill for a bit? Like, come inside. We'll have some tea.
Speaker 1:We'll settle down. We'll wait till the people leave. You know, we'll have dinner together. It will be nice. But truth is we're just getting a little bit nervous about all this attention you're bringing back home.
Speaker 1:The thing is, Jesus is outside and he's talking to this crowd, and they can't get his attention. And so someone comes up to him, maybe one of his disciples or friends and says, listen, your mom and your brothers are here, and they wanna talk to you. To which Jesus replies, publicly in front of everyone, I might add, he says, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And then pointing to the crowd, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother.
Speaker 1:That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake, which takes us back to where we were. Now, the reason I bring all that up is because that's what the story he's about to tell is going to be all about. Who is part who is invited into this family of God. Now at the same time, it's important that we don't hear Jesus dissing his mom and his brothers at the end of chapter 12. That's not the point.
Speaker 1:Now we see later in the gospels that Jesus cares very, very deeply for his biological family as well. So this is not an either or thing we're going on with. It's just that Jesus is using what happens in the moment to make a point about the kingdom of God. It's bigger than we think. It crosses our natural boundaries.
Speaker 1:It is bigger than familial connections. Regardless, the crowd has gotten too big, so he leaves the house, he goes down to the lake, but even there, it's such a large crowd that gathered that that's not enough. And so he gets into a boat, and he sits in it while the people stood on the shore to listen to him. And I like this idea. I just think whoever's teaching should get to sit, and everyone else should have to stand.
Speaker 1:I'm just not sure how well that would fly here, so you can remain seated. But maybe at some point in the future, we'll give it a shot. We'll just see how it goes. I don't know. However, this is why even though this section here in chapter 13 is not as well known as the sermon on the mount, it's why we sometimes call this the sermon by the sea.
Speaker 1:Because Jesus is teaching all through the gospels, but there's actually only a few of these times where he gives these large open air sermons to gathered crowds. Except that this time, rather than give them what they expect, a nice little sermon with some things to take home and reflect on, Matthew says that Jesus told them many things in parables, and this is new. Now, part of why this is interesting is because Matthew seems to be very aware of the shift that's going on in Jesus. When Matthew describes the Sermon on the Mount, he says that when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside and sat down and he began to teach them. So very similar situation there.
Speaker 1:Right? Except the word he uses there is didasco in Greek, and that means to teach or to explain. Here he says, Jesus began to speak to them, but this time the word he uses is Lego, and that means to speak or to tell, even to story tell. Matthew seems to want to make this point very clear because he actually uses the word twice. In Greek, it literally reads something like this, and saying to them using parables he said.
Speaker 1:So Matthew seems to be very aware of the difference between the sermon on the mount and the sermon by the sea. And the difference between teaching and explaining or storytelling. The closer Jesus gets to the climax, now the closer he gets to the mystery of his life and death and resurrection, the closer we move toward Easter, the more it seems like Jesus leaves the teaching and the explaining behind, and instead, he starts to invite us into the story. And this is the story that he begins with. A farmer went out to sow his seed.
Speaker 1:As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it didn't have much soil. And it sprang up quickly, but the soil was shallow. And when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns where it grew up and choked the plants.
Speaker 1:While still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop a 160, or 30 times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. That's Matthew chapter thirteen one through nine. And a bit later, Jesus is actually going to give us an explanation of this parable. And that's really the only time Jesus does that for a parable, and so we're going to need to look at that in a moment as well.
Speaker 1:But since that explanation is really just for his closest disciples and friends, for now, let's try to put ourselves in the sandals as it were of those on the crowd on the shore who were listening in the moment. And to do that, we have to start with something that's actually not here in our English version. The NIV is what I put on the screen. And it starts the story this way, a farmer went out to sow his seed. And that's a nice normal way to start a story, sort of generic and nondescript.
Speaker 1:In Greek, however, it actually reads a little differently because what Jesus actually says is, look, the farmer went out to sow. And so some scholars suggest that it's possible, maybe even likely, that what's going on here is that Jesus gets in a boat and pushes off, sits down, gets ready to speak, and then off in the distance somewhere, he notices a farmer. And he says, look. There's a farmer going out to work. Why don't I tell you a story about farmers and seeds and soil?
Speaker 1:And none of that changes what comes in the story, but it does help us to get into the vibe of how Jesus teaches. Someone brings up his mother and his brothers, and he talks about the surprising inclusiveness of the kingdom. He sees a farmer in the distance, and he speaks about seeds and soil. Jesus just has this knack for pulling and building from images that aren't just familiar to his audience. They're present and real and immediate in the moment when he's speaking.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, we need to remember that God speaks in the language of life. As much as I love to get up here and go on about history and context and translation issues, good news comes to us in the language that is familiar to us. And ironically, I think that's actually sometimes why we miss it. Whoever has ears, let them hear, Jesus said. But for Jesus, the good news, gospel, it's happening all around you all the time.
Speaker 1:If only you can slow down long enough to notice it. Yes. Jesus confronts injustice when it pops up from time to time, but he also seems to live in this awareness that he is immersed in images of God's kingdom and grace everywhere he looks. If you have ever gotten the impression in church that the gospel should make you pessimistic about the world, you have missed the point because resurrection is everywhere around us. Even in Lent, especially in the words of Jesus, if we only have eyes to see it.
Speaker 1:However, to really dive into what Jesus is saying here, we're gonna need some understanding of ancient farming practices. Because we can be honest here. This guy does not sound like he's good at his job. Now, I don't know anything about farming or at least very little. I know about computers and books and coffee.
Speaker 1:That's about it. But even I can see that this guy does not do a very good job here. I mean, he's putting seeds on the road, and he's putting seeds on the rocks. He's throwing seeds in with the weeds and the thorns, and only after he has seemingly exhausted most of his seed supply does he even bother to put any seed on soil that's worth seeding. So it seems to me like he doesn't know what he's doing.
Speaker 1:But especially in the ancient world where seeds were fairly important to the average person, this seems alarming. Well, part of the problem here is that ancient farming practices were simply not very efficient. There were essentially two ways of seeding that were done in ancient Palestine. The more dedicated way was for a farmer to take a bag of seed and to walk around scattering seed by hand wherever he wanted it. Now this is what a poor farmer with a small plot of land would do.
Speaker 1:And inevitably, the wind would blow some of that seed off course into situations like Jesus describes. But for the most part, scattering seed by hand would get the job done and put the seeds where they were meant to go. The second way to seed, which would have been more common, especially in in larger operations where several fields needed to be seeded, was for a farmer to take a bag of seed and to tie that to an animal like a donkey, and then to tear a small hole in the bottom of the bag, and then you would lead that animal up and down the field, and the seed would trickle out and land on the soil. Now, the fields were arranged in ancient Palestine into these long narrow strips. And between them was something called the right of way.
Speaker 1:Basically, was a footpath or what you might even call a road in the ancient world so that could people could walk through the different fields. And so if you were using a donkey to seed in this way, the reason you're doing that is because you have multiple fields that you need to seed. And so as you cross to the right of way from one field to another, you would inevitably scatter seed across the path in exactly the way that Jesus describes. So this is not a crazy image. It's a very common one, and people would have understood that.
Speaker 1:They would have seen this on the paths before. It's not a big deal. The the one difference being that in Jesus' story, this seems to be a farmer who scatters seed by hand. So this is a farmer with a lot of fields to tend to who's crossing paths, and yet he's doing it personally. He just doesn't really seem to care where the seed goes.
Speaker 1:And we see that again in the second image. Right? The stony ground. This is probably not a reference to unmanaged fields with a bunch of rocks in it, as if the farmer is just too lazy to pick up the rocks and move them. This is probably a reference to the fact that in Palestine, you have these large limestone shells that often sit a couple inches below the surface.
Speaker 1:And so there is soil. You definitely could plant things, and they definitely would grow, but they would only grow a few inches down before they hit that limestone shelf, and that would stop them from really flourishing. Now the thing is, those areas would definitely be well known for the most part. And so really, it's only someone who had more seed than they could possibly use or someone who is really desperate that would take a chance on that kind of soil. And finally, before he gets to the good soil, which obviously makes the most sense to do, Jesus talks about a field that's filled with weeds and thorns.
Speaker 1:Now, when he says that the weeds grew up and choked out the plants, it could be that the image here is meant to give the idea of an owner who doesn't know that there's weeds in the field. And it's only after they sprout and they grow and they take over the seeds that he planted that he realizes what's going on. That would be a very common problem for a lot of farmers in the ancient world, probably for a lot of farmers today too. The thing is Jesus' very next parable is about precisely that scenario. A farmer who doesn't realize that there are weeds in his field.
Speaker 1:And we're gonna look at that story next week, so that is probably not what he's describing here. In fact, if you take all of these examples together, it seems pretty clear to me at least that the image Jesus is going for is hyperbolic. This is a successful farmer with lots of land to cover who's got more seed than he can possibly exhaust, and so he just goes crazy with it. He scatters some on the path, and he drops some on the risky soil, he throws some in the bushes to see what will happen, and yes, of course, he makes sure that his fields get covered as well. That's the point of the story.
Speaker 1:This is an image of extravagant hand delivered grace all over the place. There is no one that is not worth God's investment. There is no one that God won't take a chance on. There is no one that God won't work to reveal himself and his son to. And that, for my money, is actually the key for reading this parable.
Speaker 1:Now a few verses later, Jesus is going to explain the story for his friends. He says, listen then to what the parable of the sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. So hearing good news, meeting with Jesus, coming to a good church service, all of that is great, but it's not the same thing as knowing Jesus and coming to understand his way.
Speaker 1:Right? The seed falling on the rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they only last a short time when trouble or persecution come because of the word, they quickly fall away. So buying in, even being really excited about Jesus, this is not the same thing as really rooting ourselves in his story. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke out the word and making it unfruitful.
Speaker 1:Now, this one's an interesting one here because see how deliberately Jesus pulls finances and money into the equation. Honestly, that is not what I would have gotten if I just read the parable on its own. That's interesting. We don't talk about money a lot here at Commons. That's because churches often have a terrible and deserved reputation for caring about people's money more than they care about their stories.
Speaker 1:But listen to me, you cannot serve Jesus with everything but your resources. That's not a thing. If your faith doesn't cost you something financially, then it won't cost you anything because eventually, it will end up getting choked out. But finally, Jesus says, the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. So they understand who Jesus is.
Speaker 1:They're excited about that. They root themselves in his way of being. They realize that it will cost them something in all kinds of different ways. And Jesus says, they produce a crop yielding a 160, or 30 times what was sown. Now, this one's interesting to me too because as a preacher, this final line reads almost completely backwards to how I would want it to flow.
Speaker 1:If I was writing this, I would want to say, they produce a crop producing thirty, sixty, or a 100 times what was sown because I wanna build to the climax. Right? I'm like, Jesus, you missed a good opportunity here. Yet, it's almost like Jesus is saying, I don't wanna play that game. You know, comparisons are for people who are stingy with their seed, and that's not my father.
Speaker 1:So good soil produces a crop. That's a nonnegotiable. But what good news looks like in your life, that is not the measure of what good news looks like in mine. Don't even bother getting into this comparison game because it won't serve you well, and it's not what Jesus is orienting us toward. But here's what I think we often miss in this parable.
Speaker 1:We hear this story about a farmer who sows seed, and we hear about all these different soils who receive it, and we imagine that what Jesus is talking about is what I'm doing right now. I mean, this is every preacher's favorite parable because we get to set up here and say, hey, listen to me. But here's the thing. I'm not the farmer in the story. God is.
Speaker 1:And the story is not about preachers and sermons. It's about the goodness and the grace of God that is sprinkled everywhere. You see, when Jesus says, listen to what the parable of the sower means, in English, we read something like when anyone hears the message about the kingdom. That makes us think sermon. But in Greek, what Jesus actually says here is when anyone hears the kingdom word.
Speaker 1:It's actually the Greek word logos here. And it's the same word that the writer of John uses to describe Jesus in the opening of his gospel. Now it's true that this logos theology doesn't get fully developed until later when John writes. But that doesn't negate the fact that Jesus is tapping into a very rich Hebrew imagination of God's word, his logos, as his creative presence in the universe. You see, I'm not the farmer in the story, and sermons aren't the seed in the story.
Speaker 1:God is the farmer, and Jesus is the seed, and he is sprinkled everywhere. That's the point. Now, don't lose the hard edge of this story. Jesus is still telling you that you need to have your eyes open to see him. And he is still saying that you need to be listening for him.
Speaker 1:He is still saying that you have to respond appropriately with everything that you have when you notice him. But this is Jesus telling us that we can expect him to show up where we least expect him. He's everywhere. So it's Lent. And this is the season where you are meant to remember the gaps, the space between death and resurrection.
Speaker 1:And yet Jesus is still all around you in this season. It's the last dregs of winter, and things are still brown or white again all of a sudden. And maybe that's how you feel in your life right now. Like, life is being choked out of you, and yet Jesus is still all around you if you notice him. And maybe things are great for you, and things are going well, and the deceitfulness of wealth has almost even convinced you that you're good on your own.
Speaker 1:And yet even here, if you pay attention, you will notice that Jesus has been sprinkled everywhere all around you. Because life is God's field, And that means that grace and graciousness and love and opportunity are scattered everywhere we turn if only we can notice them. And that is the story that Jesus begins in our movement toward resurrection. The surprising presence of Christ and his kingdom even in the places you least expect to find him. Whoever has ears, let him hear.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. God, as we begin this movement towards Easter and we enter this season of in between, Lent, where we live in the gap, and we wait with longing and anticipation your return. Would you remind us that you are still present to us, scattered everywhere we look, if only we would notice. If things feel hard right now and our life feels very shallow, like there's nowhere for us to sink our roots in and really flourish, Would you, by your spirit, help us to realize that you are very near, that you're standing beside us, helping us to change and grow and move towards something more healthy, that you want us to flourish even in that season? And God, if things are good and we're actually at the point where we're starting to think we don't need you, God, could we notice that you are there as well, reminding us that you are always available and ready if only we could turn to you, notice you, and welcome you back in.
Speaker 1:God, as we move into this season together, would you remind us that you are present in every moment, in every relationship, in every conversation, in every opportunity that presents itself. And the more we notice you, the more we live in your story, and the more we can then begin to bring awareness of your kingdom and grace to those around us, to live in the little pocket of soil that you've given us to occupy, and to bring your presence and your grace into every encounter that we have. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.