Sexagesima
Dear friends in Christ. In the midst of this short season of the Church Year that we are in, Pre-Lent, we are being strengthened for the rigors of repentance and focus on our Lord’s suffering and death in the upcoming Lenten season. Last week our readings pointed us to our Lord’s grace—that all that we are and have as Christians is the result of God’s grace to us in Christ. The Lord’s grace strengthens us for Lent. Today our readings point to God’s word. By His holy Word the Lord strengthens us in the midst of our Lenten introspections as through the word He not only tells us about Jesus but gives us Jesus and His gifts; in and through the word Jesus comes to us offering us every heavenly gift and blessing.
But both our readings today have a warning: we can hear and receive God’s word in vain. In today’s Gospel, we meet Jesus at a time when He is seemingly popular among the people. But Jesus, being the all-knowing God knew that what on the surface was anything but true faith—merely curiosity or looking for something to improve one’s lot in life. Jesus then tells the parable of the sower, which tells the final fate of the word in the hearts of people. Some will try to explain this parable that on the basis of the soil: some produce a harvest, that is, they continue on in the faith because they are “better soil” than others. In other words, some are and remain Christians because there is something good/ better in them than in others. But this view is wrong! It makes us somehow/ some way responsible for our salvation and this contradicts “grace alone,” like Jesus taught us in last week’s parable. Instead, what this parable describes is the final fate of the word in people’s hearts. When all is said and done, some show a harvest; the rest don’t: some don’t let the Word in, some never let it root; some never let it grow up. But the seed of the Word is always good! Jesus here shows us the final fate of the word so that we may examine our hearts and lives now, before it is too late. As we use the word now in repentance and hold ourselves to that word, that very word will strengthen and keep us in the faith because it is a divine word through which Jesus comes and mightily works.
1. Our text today from Amos dovetails nicely with today’s Gospel reading showing us the final fate of the word in the heart. Like Jesus’ parable, it is a warning and call to examination and repentance because it tells us what happens when God’s word is rejected: "Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.”
Hearing our Lord’s threat/ warning in our text, telling us of the wretchedness when His word is not there because it has been rejected, it reminds us, on the flipside, of the great blessing when God’s word is here.
Notice the image God uses for when His word is not there: famine, a complete famine where there is neither food nor water—nothing to sustain life. Notice how the desperate spiritual condition is described: they shall wander, they shall run to and fro, like thirst crazed dying people. So if the condition of people without the word is like suffering people dying in a famine that means that God’s word is life-giving, that it is nourishing to the soul. That’s the blessing of the word of God. God’s word is certainly not just some dead words we read on a page or hear—like the words of a dime-store novel. Instead, as Jesus tells us [Jn 6.63]: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The word of God is a powerful, divine word; the Holy Spirit is mightily at work in and through that word to create faith and spiritual life and to preserve it. Just like food helps people grow into maturity, so the word of God nourishes us and causes us to grow to spiritual maturity. God’s word, and God’s word alone, gives life to nourish our soul all throughout our earthly lives. Without the word of God, there is famine and we spiritually malnourish and die.
But rejoice, dear Christian, we have God’s word richly and abundantly before us in our midst. We have His pure word; we have His holy sacrament. God is freely offering and giving us every heavenly and spiritual blessing in them: He is giving us a great spiritual feast. May we truly recognize the great blessing we have as God’s word is in our midst and may we partake of that great feast before us.
What makes God word such a spiritual feast for our souls is that it not only tells us about Jesus and His gifts, but it actually gives us Jesus and His gifts He won for us on the cross. Jesus tells us [John 6.35, 55]: I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst; and Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the Last Day. Through the word Jesus and His blessings and benefits He won for us by His holy life and innocent suffering and death are offered and given to us; through that word the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts in Christ, faith which then feeds on [His] flesh and drinks [His] blood, which receives Jesus and His saving work for us. Where there is Christ, the bread of life, there we are richly fed spiritually. What a glorious blessing where God’s word is; there our souls are richly fed! How the Blessed Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood drives this home to us and places it before our eyes so that we may never doubt.
As we see that when there is a famine of the word, they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it, people run around looking for what their hearts need and yearn for but cannot find it; they have no peace of mind and conscience; they look for hope and guidance but cannot find any. So what does this mean? It simply means that the word of God gives us the hope and guidance we need; it gives what our heart and soul need; it gives us true peace. And why? Because the word proclaims Christ to us! In the word, and in the word alone, do we truly find out that in Jesus, God is our dear loving heavenly Father. There alone do we come to know that we have a Savior from sin and no matter how much our conscience may bother us—and rightly so—our sin is forgiven us in Christ. And again, in the word, Christ and His gifts of forgiveness of sin, life and salvation are actually given to us.
Think also here of the great blessing we have in the visible word—the holy Sacraments. Here God’s word comes to simple water, bread and wine and makes them His instruments to give us the greatest gift and grace—the forgiveness of sin. The simple water and word of holy Baptism washes away our sin, creates faith in our heart to receive Christ and His gifts, brings us into Christ’s holy family and kingdom, the Church and connects us with Christ. Jesus joins His very body and blood, as the simple word comes to the bread and wine and as we receive His body and blood He gives us the forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
When God’s word is there in all its fullness—in the word and sacraments, the word made visible—what great blessing we enjoy! Is it any wonder, then that the devil attacks it and us, trying to lead us to neglect and ultimately to reject God’s Word? That’s why this graphic picture of rejecting the word in our text and Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel are a call to each of us to examine how we personally are treating the word that is so vital to us. Very often the devil’s ploy among Christians is gradually and imperceptibly to lead them to neglect the word of God and so lose faith, Christ, forgiveness, eternal life. That’s why we do well to ponder how we are treating God’s Word in our own hearts and lives. Here’s a call to look at our lives in light of the 3rd Commandment: am I gladly hearing and learning God’s word? Am I gladly receiving that word in the absolution and sacraments? As things continue on as they are, what will be the final fate of God’s word in my heart and life?
2. In our text the Lord holds before us wretchedness of our lives and what will be if we reject His word, if we grow slowly neglectful of it. The Lord does not take it lightly when His word is rejected and when His graces and gifts to us are spurned. "Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land—…of hearing the words of the LORD.
Often when we hear the Lord say in the prophets: Behold, the days are coming, those coming days are the days of the Messiah, the time when Jesus comes. If that’s the case here, what a powerful image as the Jews put to death the Bread of Life, Jesus! What happens? —A spiritual hunger that could not be satisfied comes upon them resulting in spiritual death.
What’s interesting is that the phrase changes. First the Lord says: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. Notice words of the LORD, plural; but then in the second part of the verse the Lord warns: They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.” Notice the singular: to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. Perhaps here we have a reference to Jesus, the Word of God, the Savior. Having rejected Jesus, the Word of God, they try to find another Savior another Messiah—but there is no other. Dear Christian, will we fare any better if we slowly drift away, if we neglect and in the end reject the word of God, Jesus? Hardly! That’s why the call of our text to examine our hearts now, before it’s too late. Not only will we be all the more/ better prepared for the rigors of the upcoming Lenten season of repentance as we are the certain of Christ’s work and blessings He won for us and now gives us, but we will rejoice in the Lord and His work and find in it our greatest comfort. And we will hold and treasure the word of God and the gifts He gives us in it—and as we hold on to it in faith, it will certainly not be taken away from us. In fact, just the opposite happens: the more we hold to in faith our Lord and His word and receive with our beggar’s hands of faith His gifts and blessings in word and sacrament, the more and the mightier He works by His Holy Spirit to strengthen and make our faith firm, making tighter our grasp on His gifts and blessings He is freely and fully giving us in it.
But if we neglect the word and working of our Lord in the word, the Lord will, in punishment, give us what we want and take His word from us. And when His word is gone, it is gone. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.” There’s no way we can find Christ; no way to find a Savior from sin; no way to find an open heaven and eternal life. Without the word of God, all that remains is the darkness of human reason. All that remains is desperation, trying anything, but in futility to find that peace of conscience and rest of soul. That’s what we see around us—people filling their lives with futile attempts at peace and happiness—some by seeking wealth and material things, some by busyness, others by drugs or alcohol, others by hopping in and out of “relationships”, and a thousand other ways of trying to quiet conscience, trying to find peace and rest of heart—things that only God can and does give us now in and through His Word and sacraments.
Dear Christian now is the time of grace. Now is the time to hear, believe and follow the word because we are living in the day/ time of God’s favor! He is gracious to us showering us with grace upon grace as He is abundantly feeding our faith and soul by His holy word and sacrament. He will not forsake us. His word stands firm. Run to it and cling to it. INJ Amen