St. Luke 8:4-15

February 4, 2024

What, for you, is success? Form an idea in your mind. What achievement, what renown, what amount of money would make you feel successful?

In the church world, success is numbers—money and people. Ask someone how his church is doing, you’ll hear about attendance, and if things are going well, about a building program or staffing additions. Fidelity to the Word of God is an afterthought.

“How is your school doing?” is also a question of numbers: enrollment and budget. Perhaps, though, a lower enrollment would lead to better achievement of the mission. That’s a tough sell: Success is numbers, the bigger the better.

Today’s Gospel starts with a success story: “And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to [Jesus] from every city, He spoke by a parable….” A great multitude from every city! Jesus Christ Superstar. They throng to Him. They want to make Him king.

What should you do with a great multitude? Get their mobile numbers, text them updates, turn them into donors. A crowd draws a crowd. On to Jerusalem, and then perhaps, to Rome itself. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

That all starts with telling the crowd what they want to hear. But Jesus doesn’t do the smart thing. Not the way the world counts it.

He tells them a riddle. “And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to [Jesus] from every city, He spoke by a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed.’” The farmer flings seed hither and yon, among birds, on the rocks, among the weeds. Most of it comes to nothing.

What does it mean? No one gets it, not even the disciples; they have to ask for the interpretation.

And Jesus tells them that the big crowd is filled with people who won’t last. Some will hear the Word of God and the devil will snatch it from their hearts. Others will wither because their faith was superficial. Still others will end up choked by their love of money, or the anxieties of life.

In other words, success is going to be very different from how it usually appears. It’s not in big numbers or big crowds; big money got no soul.

Success is endurance, He says: those who hear the Word of God truly, “Keep it and bear fruit with patience.” Patience is clinging to Christ in the face of overwhelming opposition.

The opposition attacks on multiple fronts. In the language of the parable, your opposition comes from the birds of the air, which represent demons; from the dry, cracked ground lacking moisture, which represents temptation; and from from the thorns that choke – these are the cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Those are your true enemies: the devil, temptation, cares, riches, and pleasures of life.

What the world counts as success is the very stuff Jesus says is killing you: temptation to abandon God’s Word and let your neighbor have it; to indulge your fantasies; to pursue the big money; to give in to your fears instead of crying out to God to rescue you. The pursuit of success will be your ruin.

But that’s not who you are. You are a disciple of Jesus, not someone who turns back when things get tough. Leave the world’s idea of success behind and follow Jesus. Clinging to Christ’s promises for dear life.

God’s Word tells you who you are and what this life means.

In the parable, Jesus warns about the thorns. In the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, the whole world is depicted full of thorns and briers. That’s Genesis language. The earth once was once unmarred beauty, but now is fallen into the bondage of corruption. “Cursed is the ground for your sake,” said the LORD to our first father; “In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.... In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.” We live in that world of thorns and thistles, a still-beautiful creation nevertheless wild and hostile, reeking of decay and death.

The world is a graveyard. Success isn’t stepping over others to become king of the graveyard. Success is when the Word of God accomplishes the thing for which He sent it, and that thing is identified in the subsequent verses, where the thorns and thistles of the fallen creation undergo a metamorphosis, from thorn to cypress tree, from brier to myrtle tree.

The death of Jesus was the great success of God, for on the cross death is put to death. Crowned with thorns, our Lord becomes king of the curse.

The resurrection of Jesus is the sign of the great success yet to come, the renewal of all creation, the regenesis of the world. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.”

You are a Christian. Your success is not defined by your job, your brokerage account, or retirement plan. You succeed by clinging to God’s Word in time of temptation: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” You succeed by clinging to God’s Word when anxiety strikes: “Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” You succeed by clinging to God’s Word instead of this world’s empty riches: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” For “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” You succeed by clinging to God’s Word instead of the pleasures of this life. You rejoice in the true treasures: the love of God and the love of His creation and people.

Lent is coming in ten days. Let’s have a successful Lent – a time spent patiently hearing God’s Word. He calls us poor sinners forgiven. He calls us poor children of Adam redeemed. He will bring to this fallen world Genesis all over again. And on that Day we will say, “My Jesus has given me His success.”