Jesus Loves His Dirty People

SEXAGESIMA

60 DAYS BEFORE THE RESURRECTION

February 4, 2018

ST. LUKE 18:10

Jesus Loves His Dirty People

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“You try to respond to your e-mails as soon as possible and cannot stand a messy inbox. You rarely do something just out of sheer curiosity. Winning a debate matters less to you than making sure no one gets upset.”

These are questions from a personality test called Briggs-Meyer. Maybe you've answered these or other questions during an exercise at school or work. Perhaps you took the test on your own. Personality tests highlight a common aspect of life: trying to understand what kind of person you are.

And what happens when you find out you are not the kind of person you thought you were? That’s when you tried to retake the test to get a more attractive result!

We want to understand who we are. And when we find out who we are, we might be tempted to ignore the findings. Now that's perfectly fine when it comes to personality tests (“You often find yourself lost in thought when you are walking in nature.” Huh?)

But when it comes to God's revelation about us, we ignore the findings to our peril.

In Jesus’ story about the sower and the seed, we discover don’t discover which dirt we are. Instead we discover that we are all four types of dirt.

If you read this parable and come away thinking, “Oh, good, I'm the last bit of good dirt,” then you missed the point.

St. Paul wrote:

1 CORINTHIANS 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! NIV 1984

In the parable of the sower, the Lord isn’t talking about groups of people that worship false gods or who have never heard the Word of God. He’s talking about people who received the Word, some of whom got sidetracked and fell away from the faith.

The sower scatters seed in the expectation that some of it will take root, grow, and bear a harvest. That is what farmers do. Along the way, some stuff goes wrong. Some is snatched by birds. Some is parched and dies. Some is choked by weeds. This is no surprise to us either in farming or in the Church. As surely as there are threats in this world that prevent every seed from growing, so also there are threats that prevent everyone who hears the Word of God from going to heaven. Some hear the Word of God and yet succumb to false belief, despair, indifference, and other great shame and vice.

This parable is a warning against unbelief.

But there is also great hope here. When the disciples asked the meaning of the parable, Jesus answered,

ST. LUKE 18:10 “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ NIV 1984

Unbelievers simply cannot get the point of anything Jesus says. They hear, but they don't get it.

On the other hand, believers get it or better still, get Him, because Jesus has given us understanding. When we hear the Word of God, we understand it because by faith we understand our sin that causes death and we understand Christ's death that causes life. We get that we are dirty people: we fall when we are tested and we fail when we are tempted by the pleasures of this world. Yet, for His mercy's sake, Christ loves and still has suffered and died for us.

This is mysterious, but it is true.

Today, the seeds of the Sower have been sprinkled on little Madlen. Every day of her life, she will die and rise to live with her Savior because He promised to take dirty people and make us clean. She is now one of His own disciples, to whom He said:

ST. LUKE 18:10A “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you” NIV 1984

The seed of God has taken root in Madlen, and by the grace of God, she will not be uprooted throughout all the trials and temptations of this life.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thanks be to God!