The Sabbath is hearing [Sexagesima; St. Luke 8:4-15]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus speaks to you today, saying,

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ, the seed is the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God, being the seed that will crush the serpent’s head, and preaching is the seed which plants the Gospel inside of you every time the root of sin takes hold, which is every second of every day.

In this way we see one analogy in this parable: that is “spreading the seed” is “preaching the Gospel”, because all the soils that received the seed, received it by hearing, as Jesus explains.

Dr. Luther brings this out in his explanation of the 3rd Commandment. In this command we are commanded to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Sabbath, as opposed to Sabba-oth from the Angus Dei, is the 7^th day of the week. It is elevated to holy day status by God on the very first Sabbath day, when He rested from creating all things.

Yet this Sabbath was not just a one time event, neither was it just a weekly event, it was and is an eternal event. Celebrating the Sabbath is a never-ending decree from the Lord. However, in one sense, the Christian is freed from the Law and therefore this celebration has no jurisdiction over him.

In the sense that we understand it as simply not-working one day of the week, this is the command we are not beholden to, especially if people want to make a law that says we need to worship on Saturday. St. Paul specifically tells us that the Lord has cancelled our debts against God and nailed them to the cross so that no one can judge you according to the observance of Sabbaths.

As is always the case with God’s Word, there is another level to this command of celebration of rest. That level is the Christological level, as in, what this has to do with Jesus. This is where we get into the preaching and the forever aspect God promises on the Sabbath.

In the 3^rd Command, we are to fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Being a Christian means you have a duty to worship together, in fact, if you do not gather around the Divine Service regularly, you call into question your own faith.

There is no specific day, especially not the Sabbath, especially not Saturday because we think that the Sabbath is Saturday. We were not created to bow down to the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for us and our rest. The Sabbath was made for us to set aside the work we do so that God can work in us.

Thus “despising preaching and the Word of God” comes in the form of not attending public worship, not using the Word of God and the Sacraments, or when we use them in a negligent or careless way.

It is not enough to take time out to read our Bibles. It is written that we might hear it, because those who belong to God hear what God says not just once, but as often as possible. So Jesus gives His Church to you so that you may always have a space where you can say, “God’s will truly is done on earth as it is in heaven”.

Jesus spreads His Gospel, the forgiveness of sins, through preaching. We need to hold it sacred by giving it top priority in our lives. We need to gladly hear it, learn it, and meditate on it, not just reading it at home, but preaching it to our family and hearing our pastor preach it to us.

We need to honor and support this preaching and teaching, ensuring that it continues among us in this church. We need to diligently spread the Word of God ourselves. This is only done by being able to give Christ, but He must first give Himself which He does in His Word and Sacrament. Your greatest witness to your neighbor is bringing them to church.

This is not a new Law that Christian’s are freed from, this is faith acting out in real life. God requires all this not because He loves to lord it over others, but because what He offers in the preaching of the Gospel is the priceless treasure of His Son.

The Christian faith is a personal thing but not a private thing!  God does not call us to isolation, but into His church.  We are to stir one another to love and good works.  We are not to neglect meeting together. 

Because Jesus lovingly promises to come among us with His Word and Sacraments, His invitation in Matt. 11:28 is a beautiful expression of what He desires for us to receive in weekly worship, “Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The very word Sabbath means “rest.”

So Jesus is the hard way of the cross which the seed of the Gospel falls upon and walks the hard way to the cross, for you. Jesus is the Rock that seals up death and the power of the devil and is rolled away to produce life and light. Jesus dons the crown of thorns in order to root up the thorns of sin and produce forgiveness.

The Sabbath day finds its “forever” in Jesus. It is not enough for us to observe it, it must be paid for in Blood. It is not enough for us to only rest one day a week. Either there is an eternal rest to be provided or we remain locked in a futile battle with death forever. Jesus completes the Sabbath day and fulfills its purpose, for us.

This does not mean the Sabbath goes away. It means that we now live in the fullness of the Sabbath. Because of Easter, the Sabbath now has an evening and a morning. It means we get to fulfill the Sabbath perfectly with our Lord Jesus Christ, in faith, on the eighth day, Easter Day. It means that when we gather to hear the Gospel preached in its purity and receive the Sacraments administered according to the Gospel, we fulfill the third commandment.

The true Sabbath is observed by faith, not by deed. The necessary deeds are accomplished only by Jesus and only by His holy, innocent suffering and death. In the parable, trampling paths, arid rocks, and choking thorns are a sign of death. In Christ, these tools of death are forced to produce life, in you.