“SEXAGESIMA 2024”
Saint Luke 8: 4-15
Sexagesima: 4 February Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Grace mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Is Christ’s parable preached for the “much people [who] were gathered together,” or, for the “12,” for The Lord’s Disciples? While we would like to simply say “yes” i.e., both/and; to be faithful to Holy Scripture we need to answer—It was for the disciples. Many, maybe most, of that crowd not only did not understand the parable, but were the ones trodden down, devoured by birds, withered away, and choked by thorns.
At its conclusion Christ cries out “he that ears to hear, let him hear,” but do they? Did they then? Do they now? Sadly—tragically—no. Only believers are hearers! The path is narrow. The remnant is called a remnant for a reason. As you heard in last Sunday’s parable “many are called, few are chosen.” The crowd technically heard, but they did not really “listen.” Did they believe? No.
Jesus used parables not because He liked to tell stories, or thought He was folksy and proverbially witty; some Galilean Aesop or Nazarene Confucious. He used these oft-times difficult similes and metaphors to fulfill Scripture. Well does Esaias prophesy says Jesus in a parallel situation recorded by Saint Matthew. But here, the Lord too is blunt: “unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” Harsh. But real. The faithful live by faith. Faith is the evidence of things NOT SEEN writes Paul to the Hebrews. The unbelieving crowds of all the millennias past, and to come, see only a suffering man dying like a worm on a cross. But those of The Kingdom see their God and their Lord—The Prince of Peace—The Redeemer King. Those of heterodox teaching, or atheistic mocking, see only water; see only cheap wine and wafer bread. But those of The Kingdom “see” a water of regenerating + rebirth—the washing of away of sin and death; see the true, real, veritable, bodily, Body and Blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and for life and salvation.
None of this can be seized, or grasped, or controlled by work, reason, intelligence, or willpower through observable and empirical study and deliberation. No. All gifts from Jesus come by Grace. All revelations are just that, a revealing—a mystery unwrapped only by Messiah. Grace.
Don’t you like Grace? Petulantly, we sometimes act like we do not.
God does not do things your way does He?
Not only have you lost dear ones, loved ones to death—sometime death after horrible diseases and sufferings (strokes, cancer, maybe worse)—but we have all lost (or seemingly lost) loved ones to pagan unbelief and dying in a state of rejecting Jesus; spurning grace. The Word of God is God’s Will, yes. But it is not his hidden and secret will any longer. His desire, His mind, His movement, His providential predestined will is in His Word. The Hebrew Scriptures, which were the only ones that existed when Christ told this story, and the Greek Scriptures wherein Saint Luke re-tells the events for you and for all disciples. It is what the “12” preached through all the world. They preached Christ—His person and work. God of God. The Second Perfect Adam. The Law-Keeper. The Sin Atoner. Jesus Himself is The Word. He is also The Sower. He sows Himself by His Words. Believe it and have comfort.
Stop doubting God. Stop trying to make God do things your way. The elect—the fruit that springs up on good ground and bares fruit an hundredfold, is what The Lord has made it be. It is you, all of you. Put out of your mind those who died in heathenish self-choice by letting the pigeons of hell steal the Word, the seed. Let go from your fingers those who were withered because they decided they did not need to be where the moisture of preaching and sacramental Grace is freely distributed every week. Fret not over those choked by thorns but rather look to Him who was crowned with thorns that you might wear the crowns of heavenly glory. You have an honest and good heart because Jesus has placed His pure and immaculate heart into your chest—the same breast which was marked by His Holy Cross at + your washing. Stay wet. Stay hydrated + Holy. You are baptized. Drink and eat the nutrients of eternity for you are His faith-filled fruit.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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