Isaiah 55:10:13 and Matthew 13:18-23
July 12, 2026
What kind of person are you – an optimist or a pessimist? Are you a glass half-empty person or a glass half-full person? Do you complain that roses have thorns or are you happy thorns have roses? Do you view yard sales as places filled with trash or places to find treasures? There are many things in this life that can show us whether we are optimistic or pessimistic, but maybe one of the best things that reveals whether we are an optimist or a pessimist is something Jesus mentioned in our Gospel lesson for today and that is gardening.
The pessimist says, “Why plant anything? It’s never going to grow in this clay soil we have here or if it does it’s only going to get destroyed by bugs, weeds, deer, rabbits, a drought or a hurricane. Why bother?” But the optimist, despite the challenges, says, “Why not? I realize every seed may not grow and some of the things that grow may get destroyed, but I think it’s worth it because we will never know unless we try and whatever grows may be nice for a while.” This is the parable of the Sower in our Gospel lesson.
In the text from Matthew 13, Jesus compares sharing God’s Word with others to planting a field. He acknowledges that there are challenges and potential failures, but He still calls us to faith and to action. He promises and teaches us that “If you plant it, it will grow.” Our job is to plant that Word of God in others as we share it with people through our words and actions; it is God’s job to make it grow.
Our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 55 shows us the foundation and confidence we have in Jesus’ promise that, “If you plant it, it will grow.” God begins in verse 10 by explaining that “As the ran and the snow come down from heaven, they do not return to heaven without first watering the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” God’s point is that before the rain and snow stop coming down, they achieve the purpose for which they are sent – namely, they water the earth. God then goes on to say in verse 11, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I desire, and it shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Just like the rain and the snow come down to water the earth to give life, God’s Word will do the same.
God’s Word has tremendous power. His Word spoke creation into existence. God said, “Let there be” and it happened. This powerful Word can destroy as well as bring life. It strengthens, sustains, pardons, and guides us. In the New Testament, Jesus’ word brings people to faith, forgives sins, heals diseases, casts out demons, calms storms, and comforts people. It is a word that does what it says; it will accomplish what it is sent out to do. Plant the Word and it will grow.
But sometimes that is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to work. Have you ever had anyone tell you, “I don’t go to church, because I really don’t get anything out of it.” Or maybe you have come to worship or watched a service online in the past and at the end of the service you found yourself thinking, “I don’t feel like I got anything out of that worship service today.” I know people come to church or watch a worship service online with certain expectations that they want to be met for them to consider coming back. But if the worship service did not make me feel a certain way, then it must not be doing anything for me. Or if the church is not fixing my problems or changing my life for the better, then it’s just not worth my time or effort to come here or to watch. But instead of placing our expectations on the church or the worship service, maybe we should look at what God promises about the church – namely that this is the place where God’s Word is proclaimed and heard. And Isaiah 55 reminds us that the power and effectiveness of God’s Word does not depend on the person who hears it or how they feel after they have heard it. The power and effectiveness of God’s Word comes from the promise of God as He said, “My Word will not return to me empty, it will accomplish what I desire and will achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Paul wrote in the book of Romans that faith comes from hearing the Word of God, and that Word on the one hand comes with a powerful message of the law which points us to the source of every problem we have in our lives. It points us to sin and how it has affected the world we live in today. Our sins cause us heartache and guilt as we think about how we treat people. The Word of God shows us our sins in our use of our time and money, misplaced priorities, and selfish decisions. God’s Word declares that the wages of sin is death – eternal separation from God. On the other hand, that Word of God has an even more powerful message in the Good News of Jesus.
Jesus entered our sin-broken world and He lived a perfect life for us. But He died on a cross, suffering the death we deserved because of our sins. However, Jesus rose from the dead to show us that He did not come to take away our problems just for a little while, He came to take them away forever. Meanwhile, as we live our lives here on this earth, Jesus continues to help us through our problems, not always fixing them immediately, but promising to use them to be a blessing to us, giving us the strength and forgiveness to get through them, as we await the day that He will rescue us from them permanently when we will live with Him forever in heaven. That is the message every person needs to hear and to keep on hearing. So let us plant the seed of God’s Word in others; let us be the optimistic gardeners so that everyone may know Him.
Jesus makes it clear, though, that a lot of the seed will not grow. There are people who will hear the Word of God, but they won’t listen to it, so the seed will not take root. Others will hear and listen to the Word of God, but only for a short time. How many times have we or people we know cried out to Jesus for help in the midst of a bad or a scary situation, but as soon as things got better, the seed of God’s Word died out, because people didn’t need Jesus anymore.
There are also those who will hear and listen to the seed of God’s Word, and they will follow Jesus; but then the cares of the world will choke that seed and kill it. We see this in people around us today, who were once strong followers of Jesus, but the pandemic from several years ago, or politics, or postings from people on social media, have turned them away from Jesus.
With the challenges we are seeing today in our nation, it is enough to turn optimistic planters of God’s Word into pessimistic ones. “What’s the use? Things just seem to be getting worse. Nothing is changing.” But hold on. All is not lost. The Word of God will accomplish what it is sent out to do. A harvest will come. We are to plant the Word, because Jesus comes in that Word through Baptism and Communion to give us life. Jesus comes in that Word that is read and taught and shared with others so that all may know Him as their Savior. We may not see the Word of God grow in people right away, or anytime soon, or even during our lifetime, but it will take root in some people and it will grow. I know many of you are living examples of how the Word of God grew in you, because someone simply took the time to share that Word with you.
Over the past 25 years that I have been at this church, I have done many memorial services for our members who served Jesus faithfully throughout their lives; and often times I will get a person who will come up to me after the service and say, “Pastor Bill, you don’t know me, but the person we honored today was my Sunday School teacher many years ago when we lived in another state. I wasn’t always a very good student and many times I was goofing around in class and wasn’t paying attention, but he/she never raised their voice and was always patient with me, so I wanted to come today to honor him/her, because I learned about Jesus from him/her and it made an impact on my life.” We might fear that sharing the Word of God with others will go unnoticed. We might see the weeds, bugs, or thorns that disrupt our work and get discouraged, and wonder, “What’s the point?” But remember God’s promise: Plant the Word and leave the rest to God; it will grow, because God’s Word will never come back empty.
