He who has ears… A Meditation on the Gospel
by Donavon Riley
He who has ears, let him hear. She who has ears, let her hear: Jesus alone sows the good seed. Jesus alone is the good seed. The world for all of its optimism in the future of human progress, for all of its faith in the potential for change that exists just around the next
corner – for all of its investment in the future, the world is nothing more than a field which must wait for its sower, its Creator, to
plant, to water, to raise up, and to give growth.
Those who are planted are the sons and daughters of his kingdom. These are his brothers and sisters, the fruit of his harvest. And because he plants, waters and gives growth, he does not want your dirty rags – your works, your words, your thoughts, or any other thing you can imagine. He has sown you and gathers you from amongst thorns, thistles and weeds to be his own. That is why he gathers you up each morning, and brings you into a place of safety and calm each Sunday morning, so that he might delight in you and that you might receive comfort from him, especially when the enemy sows evil amongst you.
The evil one, the devil, attempts to sow his seeds as well, turning men and women in on themselves; turning them back on their own
thoughts of progress, of moral improvement, of proving their worth to God by way of some scheme, project or plan to do right by God. But in the end you will be judged by these same schemes, projects and plans and by them you shall receive the reward you so richly deserve – for the man and woman who seeks to gain their future by doing right by God will be cast away from him into the fire. At the close of the age, Jesus declares, the angels shall at last come to reap a harvest; the weeds will be cast into the fire to be burned and the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
You are the seeds he is sowing. You are the field in which the evil one plays and plants his seeds. You are being gathered. But how are
you to know who is who, and for what purpose you are being sown when so many enemies abound (Ps. 3:6)? There is no shortage of wicked schemes to defend against and adversaries to drive away. We are hemmed in, pinched at, and put upon. Limits rise up around us, and even within us, so fast and so often it becomes impossible to keep track of who is doing what to whom and for what reason. From the day you are born until the last moment you draw breath the evil one, that old devil, is working on you. As he did in the garden so too does he whisper (and oftentimes roar) to your Old Adams and the Old Eves, insisting that you know what is best for you, what will fulfill your wants, and what you must be like to please yourself, others and God. But, in truth, you are so bound up in your own imagination that it is really about trying to figure out and fulfill what other people want from you and what God likes best about you. It is the pious lie, the grand deception, the work of the one who wants to stand in the place of Christ so that he and she can become both sower and Saviour, no longer a creature but a Creator, and if all goes well not just a creator but THE Creator. But regardless of your noble goals and high ideals the world you would like and the God you get are closed off from one another as far as east is from west.
And in between…
Enemies abound. From the plucking of forbidden fruit to Jacob’s deceit. From the first stones of Babel to Dinah’s rape. From David’s
betrayal to Job’s distress. Our history is marked by the dull thud of Cain’s ax driving Abel lifeless body to the ground. His creatures, his
beloved creation, fighting to the death for a place in the sun, where the stronger triumph and right is a light unto the ways of power. In
truth you can hear in this the battle between belief and unbelief, God’s word and our rebellion against him. In fact, the history of the
world is marked by the sound of Cain’s ax finally becoming dynamite.
And having become dynamite phosphorous, and having become phosphorous hydrogen bombs, and from that it’s the end of the world as we know it! It’s the end of history. The end of the terse age-old story of Cain and Abel repeated ad nauseum. But in the midst of this doomsday narrative full of sound and fury, angels and devils, weeping and gnashing of teeth the LORD has set a table.
Why?
Perhaps a last meal for the highly moral and religious who can escape all the ugliness of reaping and judging and consuming fire. But why would he do this? Why set a table for you now when so much is at stake? Why now when your enemies look to be closing in from every corner? Who is this God? Is this the one who sows? Is this your Saviour? Is this your mighty Protector in whom you are to trust for
everything?
The drama between Cain and God still erupts daily to take captive house and home. Spilling over into the family, spreading out over
neighborhoods, into our cities and finally to all nations, creeping and crawling through the most elemental relationships of human life.
And what does the LORD your God do? Does he set a mighty wall around your house? Does he dig a deep un-crossable moat around his field? Does he bless you with a bigger ax or better yet, a bigger gun? He is a jealous and vengeful God after all, declaring to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you…”
He has to do something… Doesn’t he?
He has to do something to keep you safe so that you might grow and increase! He has to do something so that swords are turned into
plowshares and your enemies are put to flight on hobbled legs the Lord your God has broken! Doesn’t he?
Yes, the prophet proclaims, “He prepares a table before me against my enemies.” He prepares a table before you so you will eat and drink and in this way defeat your enemies. But instead of eating and drinking would you not rather wage war? Would you not rather crush your enemies? But what if victory could be assured by doing nothing else but sitting at a table, eating and drinking to your heart’s content while your enemies are returned to the dust from which they came? By these words, “You prepare a table before me against my enemies,” the LORD overwhelms you completely with the boundless security of his word so that through his word you are flooded by rich comfort for your heart. He washes you in joy and comfort in spite of your best intentions. In spite of your moral dilemmas. In spite of your fears and resentments that are constantly surging upward and outward to determine who you are and who your God will be. In spite of what you want and what you like. Even in spite of God’s wrath and judgment against you. Through the comfort of his word you are encouraged and you are unbeatable. Because of Christ Jesus the enemy will not overcome you or succeed against you. Because the LORD sows his seed amongst you – His good word, Jesus Christ – the more your enemies rage and rave against you the less you need to worry. Instead, you can rest happy, secure, and cheerful because you are given this word, His word.
Only his good word – the word of our good LORD – only he can give strength, and comfort in the presence of your enemies. Only this word can put you at ease as night and day without ceasing the Old Adams rage and the Old Eves rave against you. Only the word of the LORD could gather such a harvest and set such a table before you, giving you all that you need to live from day to day; food, drink, joy,
pleasures, and music. All this is sown through the word of your good LORD. Because in Scripture, eating and drinking means believing and clinging firmly to the word of God – Jesus Christ. From him comes peace, joy, comfort, and strength. From him you have gained the
victory over the devil, the world, the flesh, sin, conscience, and death. All because you have eaten and drunk – believing and clinging
to the word of God alone.
Common sense re
volts against this of course. A reasonable man knows better. An intelligent woman would not be so naïve as to think that enemies could be defeated by stuffing your belly with bread and getting drunk on wine. The world is governed by power not bread, by political order not wine. Words are not what is needed, but military potential and political intelligence. The church, if it is to be relevant, thrive, and serve the greater good needs to get beyond the routine business of baptizing, marrying and burying!
And as for the rest? Do not fear the floodgates of violence bursting open upon you. If you just do your best, God will do the rest – or so
the old serpent would have you believe. Of course, that is why everything having to do with God’s word finally happens in a way that
more often than not confuses, confronts and contends against you. You see nothing but the valley of the shadow of death stretching under your feet, but you hear that every treasure of paradise is set before you. You have yet to see stones turned into bread; only unrelenting hunger, distress, anxiety, and trouble. But you hear his dear word in the Sacraments instructing, restoring, and comforting you through his body and his blood. You see believers inwardly tortured by the venomous fiery arrows of the devil (Eph 6:16) and outwardly imposed upon by heartache, harassment, lies, blasphemy, damnation and even murder. But you hear yourself called as sheep, innocent defenseless lambs which neither will nor can do anyone any harm. Not only is the good seed sown amongst you, but as he gathers you together from his rich harvest he also acts as your shepherd, carrying you on his shoulders past the enemy and his children, through the close of the age, through angels that reap and cast into fire, through weeping and gnashing of teeth to set you at the Father’s table in the kingdom of heaven forever.
This is his unbreakable promise to you and upon this promise the world will not stand. Therefore it cannot and does not want you any more than it wants him. But they will not overcome you! They will not overcome you because they cannot overcome him who carries you! They, like you, will not overcome sin, death, and the power of the devil with an ax or by putting your best foot forward. But the LORD your God will overcome all of them as he has overcome you – by the good seed, the word of his mouth, Christ Jesus. With his word he will comfort you and put the devil and every enemy of his word to flight. As the psalmist himself declares, The LORD is your shepherd, you shall not want.
This is your ax – your weapon. This is the victory that trumpets “Hallelujah” until the judgment day! The more the devil and the world
attack and torture you the sweeter the song. The more you are set upon by enemies who set their will against God and take counsel against his word, his beloved Son, his beloved sons and daughters the more comforting the voice of the singer, “And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us; we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us…” The more you can
delight that it is the LORD who carries you on the wings of his will and counsel, that it is he alone who is your armor and weapon, your
refuge and fortress, your strong arm and salvation in the coming battle… And now, as for you. Instead of going out dressed to do
battle you can go about your business looking as if you were on your way to dinner. And this, in the words of the catechism, is most
certainly true!
The good LORD anoints your head and fills your cup to overflowing so that you may drink, and be happy, and get drunk! He has prepared a table for you! This table is to be your armor, this is your helmet and sword, and with these – a table and a cup – you will defeat all your enemies. All of this is done because he has sown a good seed amongst you, his word Jesus Christ. Through his word the good LORD, your shepherd, feeds and strengthens you so that you might laugh at all your enemies and sing with the psalmist: I am not afraid! I will not fear a hundred enemies! I will not fear a thousand times one thousand who set themselves against me round about (Ps. 3:6)! I will fear no evil for thou art with me!
Instead, I will get drunk! Intoxicated by hope and joy. Unlike Noah who enjoyed the fruit of the vine a little too much you will get
drunk, as the apostle Paul writes, “on the power of God” (Rom. 1:16). And what is this power? Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ murdered, mocked and alone. Jesus Christ crucified. Jesus Christ, given to you as the good seed. And with this seed you have been given the Sabbath bread. And with the Sabbath bread you have been given fellowship with your neighbor who is seated at the table with you. And now the time has arrived… The feast of Jesus Christ is set before you – his word of promise. Jesus Christ who pours himself out for you. It is he whom insists that though the sins of the world, your own, were laid upon him when he went in the tomb his victory was assured. And when the Father raised him from the dead he had no more sins upon him. No more death in him. No devil over him. And so today he comes to get you. To bestow his full inheritance and estate on you, all the nations of the earth and even heaven itself, that you might be his own and live under him in his kingdom. This is the blessed drunkenness you enjoy through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). This is your armor and weapon with which the LORD your God equips you against the devil and the world. He puts Jesus Christ himself into your mouth and puts the Holy Spirit – who is courage and wisdom and might – into your heart. Such joy is heard in
peace and prosperity to be sure but even more so when you yourself suffer and finally die. As Paul wrote, “We also rejoice in our
sufferings” (Rom. 5:3). But who can rejoice when suffering comes?
Again, the suffering you see and the joy you hear more often than not appear to contradict each other so that when suffering comes upon you, not only the devil and the world set themselves at your doorstep waiting to gain entry but another enemy crawls into your house, onto your bed, and worms its way into your conscience. As the old comic strip character Pogo said, “we have met the enemy, and he is us!” To not take full joy and confidence in God or on account of his word to take no pleasure and enjoy no patience in distress and affliction is the same as calling God a liar. Not confident in his promises to you, you wither under the guilt. Not trusting his word, you complain about the injustice; complaining that you ought not to be despairing so soon, that you ought not to have to be weak and fainthearted so often, that you ought not to have to be distressed: distressed so much that surely it must be the case that God has abandoned you to your enemies or worse, to yourself. He has abandoned you so that not even scraps from God’s table will satisfy you. But who shall separate you from the love God? Who will pluck up his seeds? Who will ruin the leaven so that their will be no bread? What can possibly upset the table he has set before you? Who can silence his word? He who did not spare his only Son but gave him up for you all will he not also give you all things with Him? Will tribulation, distress, or persecution, poverty, guns or bombs separate you from him?
No! The LORD has searched you and known you. He knows when you sit down and when you rise up. He discerns your thoughts and searches out your paths and your lying down. He is acquainted with all your ways. Even before a word is on your tongue the LORD knows it. He sets himself around you, behind and before you. He lays his hand upon you in order that he might deliver you from this body of death. All the days of your life he will make goodness and mercy to follow you and you will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
But where is the house of the LORD? How will you find it? God’s house is where he himself dwells. And he dwells where his w
ord Jesus Christ is, be it in a field, in church, or on the sea. On the other hand where Christ Jesus is not preached there the devil dwells. Though it
be a church of gold blessed by all the bishops on earth. Thus, whether you climb up into the heavens or descend into the darkness of the
grave Christ Jesus goes before you and his right hand holds you with an unbreakable grip. Even if the darkness covers you and the light
about you becomes as night. The darkness is nothing to him who has overcome death and the grave for you. He who has sown you in the darkness of your mother’s womb. He is your Shepherd!
The GOOD Shepherd, Christ Jesus, the GOOD Lord, the GOOD man who will not suffer you to want. You will remain in his house all the days of your life. Therefore, be assured and comforted. I neither sleep nor rest, declares the LORD. I will set a table before you against your enemies. So that you may be my own and be ever with me. And through me receive every kind of blessing and fruit. Endure to the end. Christ Jesus, the GOOD seed, your only Shepherd and Savior gives this to you.
Amen.
