Confused? [Sexagesima; St. Luke 8:4-15]

On this the 57th, I mean the 60th day before Easter, we hear Jesus speaking to us of the 4 soils, I mean the Sower. Regardless of what you hear or think you hear, Jesus says,

“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.’”

So are you given to know the secrets or do you see and hear without understanding? The birds of the air could be real birds or they could be metaphors. The devil is no metaphor, or is he? What of the rocks and the thorns? They probably stand for something as well, but I don’t understand it.

Thank goodness that Jesus explains it for you. Thank goodness that you have such a loving and caring Savior, that He would take the time to explain this parable. So He tells you the seed is the Word of God and that it is trampled, eaten, dried up, and choked by those hearing it. Some of it gets to grow though, so that’s nice.

Kind of confusing.

At this point, it is always the way of lazy pastors to ask, “What does this mean to you”? I suppose in some way they are trying to get you to talk, but really, they want you to interpret. They want you to proclaim the truths that you find inside yourself, instead of telling the one truth, as they are commanded to.

However, even if you were left by Jesus to interpret this in your own way and even if Jesus interprets this for us, how much do you really understand and how much hope do you have that you will get it right? It seems as if Isaiah’s prophecy of not seeing and not understanding is directed at you.

Of course, in today’s post-modern world, you don’t have to be right. In fact, there is no right or wrong because everyone does what is good in their own eyes. You don’t have to be right, in the absolute sense, because what you think is right, may not be right for someone else. The saying goes, “There are no absolutes”.

Which is an absolute statement in and of itself and therefore not true. There is a right and a wrong that is true for everyone. There is a true and an untrue. Even Jesus says “the Parable is this” and “the seed is the Word of God”; both absolutes.

Your own sense then, is not to be trusted to interpret Scripture, because it is corrupted by sin. Every heart knows its own bitterness (Prov. 14:10) and who can know the depths of their own sins (Ps.19:12)? This is where Holy Scripture tells you to lean not on your own understanding, but that of God’s, right? By this you know that your inner voice can not be trusted and you start to think that maybe God has stopped talking to you.

Thus Jesus’ call to repent. Repent. It was Jesus’ goal for you since the beginning and it is still what He preaches to you today. Do you read the Scriptures and not understand? Repent. Do you attempt to use your own, subjective ideas to interpret God’s Word? Repent.

Part of repentance is you being backed up against a wall and feeling the wrath of God against your sin. For one, sin is horrible and two, if you could figure everything out on your own, what need would you have for Jesus?

This is the heart of repentance, then. That we see our horrible sins, turn from them, and believe. True repentance only comes from the Holy Ghost and through Faith; the Faith that was purchased and won on the cross, by Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.

There is a proper explanation to all the parables Jesus tells us, but it is found only in the cross of Christ. It is only in understanding that Christ was made man, suffered, died, and rose again three days later that we can see and hear the Word properly.

Do you get it? Do you understand? Let the Sower sow His seed. Let there be different soils and different reactions to the Word being preached. It matters little compared to holding fast to the Word of the cross.

And the Word tells us that the Sower does and will continue to sow. That the Seed of God is spread everywhere and that it will continue to grow and continue to create Faith, even in you. The Word of God will accomplish its purpose and its purpose is to die, rise again, and redeem you from sin, death, and the devil.

This parable, and all parables, are not confusing if heard in Faith. For Faith hears the Savior preaching His Gospel and dying for His Gospel that many would be saved from their sins. For the Lord does not delight in the death of anyone. Jesus would rather you live.

So He dies so that you may live to hear this parable. That you may see your sin in this parable, repent, and be forgiven. That in hearing this parable, you would find the absolute truth of Christ crucified for you and giving you absolution.

For repentance never stands on its own and no amount of penance or understanding makes up for it. Repentance is always found with Absolution. Jesus does not leave us in the depths of our sin, neither does He leave us in the despair of sin, but will always quickly proclaim Absolution for those sins.

Indeed, you are forgiven and Christ absolutely offers eternal life in this Church, today.