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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This past week my mother was telling me a story about the birds at the feeders outside of her kitchen windows, and I was reminded how many birds come and go, seeking the suet and seeds that she hangs there for them. Seeds and also birds are part of our Lord’s parables we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, and this morning we consider that Gospel Reading under the theme, “The Kingdom of God grows as a seed for you!”
For today’s Gospel Reading, we have skipped forward in St. Mark’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account: from last week’s Gospel Reading in which Jesus spoke in parables to scribes who came down from Jerusalem (Mark 3:20-35), over Jesus’s teaching many things in parables to a very large crowd gathered about Him (Mark 4:1-25), to these two “seed” parables and a concluding statement about Jesus’s both publicly teaching the crowds in parables and privately explaining to His disciples the parables’ meanings. Jesus’s parables used everyday things and experiences to teach heavenly truths. And, in some cases, as is especially noticeable today given the appointed Old Testament Reading from Ezekiel, Jesus’s parables also drew on familiar Old Testament parables or figures of speech, such as that of the tender cedar sprig, that the Lord Himself would plant on the mountain height of Israel, in the branches of which birds of every sort would nest (Ezekiel 17:22-24).
Now, admittedly, sometimes Christ’s Church on earth can appear to us to be like the bird feeders outside my mother’s kitchen windows, to which feeders birds of every sort swoop in, flit around for a time, and from which feeders they take off to go somewhere else again. We certainly see all sorts of people come to our congregation and go away! We may not grant that Christ’s Church now is or ever will be comparatively larger, like the large black mustard tree that grows from one of the smallest seeds. We may not even grant that Christ’s Church grows at all, like the seed scattered on the ground, without our help or knowledge. Too often we sinfully doubt God’s Word, not only His promises about His Church but also other parts of His Word, for we are sinful by nature and commit countless actual sins. For such sins, we deserve both death here in time and torment for eternity in hell, apart from the Holy Spirit’s leading us to turn away from our sin and to trust God to forgive our sin.
To be sure, both parables in today’s Gospel Reading refer indirectly to that judgment that will come at our own deaths or, if we are still alive then, on the Last Day. And, even though Jesus only spoke the Word in parables to the crowds as they were able to hear it, by the Holy Spirit’s leading the crowds, like the disciples, could have gotten the message and repented. Like them, we should recognize that the Kingdom of God grows on its own, often in ways that we neither understand nor perceive. Like them, we should recognize that what may appear to be small at the beginning—and even at some stages along the way—is considerably larger at the end. Like them, before our judgment comes, we should turn away not only from our sins of doubting God’s promises about His Church but also from all of our sins. For, when we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives all of our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives all of our sin for Jesus’s sake.
For all sorts of reasons, Jesus arguably is the Old Testament Reading’s tender cedar sprig planted on the mountain height of Israel, in the branches of which birds of every sort nest (Wenthe CPR 28:3, 24-25). Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, incarnate in the flesh of the shoot or branch of Jesse and his son David. He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary for us and for our salvation. The birds of the air may represent us in second parable of today’s Gospel Reading, but, as Jesus says elsewhere, we are of more value than the birds of the air, such as the lowliest sparrows, about whom God still cares (Matthew 10:29-30; Luke 12:6-7). God loved even fallen humanity by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross in order to redeem the world, thereby giving each one of us infinite value in Him. Those with faith in Him the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6) seek out and receive the forgiveness of sins in the ways that He offers that forgiveness to them.
Birds are said to seek out the black mustard trees not only to find shade under their big leaves but also to eat their many seeds (Hunzinger, TDNT 7:289 n.17). Not surprisingly, other Old Testament passages about the so‑called “cosmic tree” (Marcus, ad loc Mark 4:30-32, 331) speak not only of its shade but also of its food (Daniel 4:12, 21). And, so also with the tree that is our Lord Jesus Christ and His Kingdom: we not only find shelter in Him, but we also eat of Him. We who with water and the Word are baptized into Him, who by our pastor’s touch and the Word are individually absolved by Him, in the Sacrament of the Altar, are fed on bread that is His Body and are given to drink wine that is His Blood, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Through the Word read and preached and administered in its Sacramental forms, God, as He has from the beginning, does now, and will continue to do, grows the Kingdom of God from its humblest of beginnings to its greatest of endings, all for you!
Especially in Texas heat, we all can appreciate the benefit of shade, but the shade referred to in today’s Gospel Reading is more than shelter from heat. In the Kingdom of God that is the Church on earth, we have food and the shade of protection, and so we make our “nests” or pitch our tents, make our homes here, as it were (confer Ezekiel 31:6), until we dwell with God on the new, restored earth under the new, restored skies for all eternity. In Holy Baptism, He has already delivered us “birds” from the snare of “the fowler”; the Most High God in Whom we trust is our shelter, our refuge, our fortress (Psalm 91:1-4; confer Marcus, ad loc Mark 4:32, 324-325). As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 5:1-17), He has recreated us in Christ, and, although right now we are burdened and groan in the tent of our earthly bodies, with the Holy Spirit as our guarantee, we know that we have a building from God yet to come, an if‑necessary‑resurrected but certainly‑glorified eternal body.
Whether the illustration of the birds coming to and going from the feeders outside of my mother’s kitchen windows or the parables in today’s Gospel Reading, any such likenesses ultimately break down. Yet, you can be certain that “The Kingdom of God grows as a seed for you!” Already at the time of the Gospel Reading, as to some extent now, the Kingdom of God was and is somewhat concealed and inconspicuous, but that should not cause us to fall from faith but guarantee our confidence. For, in the concealment lies the sure and certain promise of a more manifest exercise of His Kingdom. God has already made the beginning, He works for us even now, and He will carry through His cause to the end for us. (Confer Hunzinger, TDNT 7:290-291.)
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +