Today’s readings remind us of the surety with which God’s salvation will come. Te prophet Isaiah describes how God’s word powerfully accomplishes what God wants. Paul reminds the Romans that God’s Spirit is alive and at work in us. In the gospel, Jesus describes his ministry through the parable of the seeds and their various responses.
Issiah 15:10-13
Today’s reading comes from a triumphant hymn exulting in Israel’s ultimate restoration. With the cry of a street vendor, God calls to Israel and invites the people to a banquet that would foreshadow the final consummation (25:6). Isaiah declares that God’s grace cannot be purchased; it is both priceless and free. The Lord offers not only the bread and water of the wilderness but the wine and milk of the promised land.
For the Israelites, however, this stormy period of oppression by the Assyrian empire and threatening persecution from the rising Babylonian nation spoke of the decline of Israel and the cessation of the Davidic line (2 Sam. 7:4-17). Isaiah confirms their worst fears and foretells the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile (39:1-8). But Isaiah also boldly affirms Israel’s glorious redemption. As David’s success was a witness of God’s favor, so Israel’s salvation will cause the “nations,” that is, the Gentile world, to turn to God.
Confidence in this future is founded in the surety of God’s word. The Hebrew for word means also deed; as rain is effective in bringing about growth and sustenance, so God’s word is effective because it is filled with power. It is sent from God, like a messenger, endowed with the power to communicate God’s desire, effect new life and sustain spiritual growth (2 Tim. 3:16). God will lead Israel out of oppression and desolation in a new exodus (43:16-21) to a land like Eden (51:3).
Romans 8:1-11
Paul continues his discussion of the contrast between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. Paul uses the “Spirit of God,” the “Spirit of Christ,” and “Christ in you” almost interchangeably, emphasizing that the source of the Spirit is God, that the full manifestation of the Spirit is in Christ, and that Christians experience the Spirit communally in the Body of Christ, the Church.
The indwelling of Christ does not, however, exempt Christians from physical death, for their bodies are still mortal, subject to death (8:10); but it does give the Christian a new quality of life that will triumph over death. The resurrection of Christ marked the beginning of the “age to come”; at the culmination of that age death will be destroyed. Until then, through the Spirit, God brings that future into the present and Christians begin to live in their new life.
Thus Christians are “debtors,” under obligation to kill “the deeds of the body” (8:13). These include all acts directed only to the self. They are to live as God’s adopted children, who call upon God as “Abba! Father!” (Luke 11:2; Galatians 4:6) as did Jesus (Mark 14:36).
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Today’s reading begins this gospel’s third great discourse, called the discourse of the kingdom, or the parable discourse, because it is built up from seven parables. In its original setting, the parable of the sower was probably one of contrast, pointing to the superabundant yield for the kingdom in the last days despite the past and present frustrations and the apparent lack of success of God’s work in Israel’s history and in Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus has such failures in mind when he tells this parable. Never mind, he seems to say, about the seed on the side of the road, the birds, the weeds, the rocks and the poor soil. Never mind the frustrations and failures. The harvest comes, in rich abundance.
No doubt Jesus also had in mind the frustrations and failures of Israel when he told this story. Episodes of idolatry, the callousness of the rich toward the poor, the rejection of the prophets—the disciples had cause to wonder if these were not enough to prevent the coming of the kingdom.Jesus has such failures in mind when he tells this parable. Never mind, he seems to say, about the seed on the side of the road, the birds, the weeds, the rocks and the poor soil. Never mind the frustrations and failures. The harvest comes, in rich abundance.
Never mind, says Jesus. Never mind the sins. Never mind the frustrations and failures. Look—the seed is planted. God’s word, God’s unfailing word, is spoken. We, the Church, all of God’s people, all of God’s unknown family, turn in hesitant response.
Here a businessman leaves his career at the height of its prosperity to found tutoring centers for the children of poverty. Here two women step across the battle lines drawn in their countries and pray together for peace. Here a family member suddenly turns and smiles–was forgiveness always this near?
Here the kingdom comes, in rich abundance.