May Epistle: The Seed Sown for Harvest
The seasons are changing. The trees have been flowering and the tulips and other bulbs have beautified the yards for weeks. Robins are singing once again and the recent rain showers are reminding us that spring is here!
For many, this is the time when preparations are made for the planting of a vegetable garden. Perhaps compost is spread and then the garden area is tilled and leveled. And, after the last frost, seeds are buried in the darkness of the earth. After a few days, gardeners everywhere are examining the soil, waiting and watching for the first signs that seedlings are sprouting up through the ground.
In Ecclesiastes we read that “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted…” (Ecc 3:1-2). The imagery of seeds and harvest is used throughout Scripture. Jesus tells several parables that involve seeds and harvest. For example, He says in Matthew 13, “A sower went out to sow….” In this parable, some of the seed fell on rocky ground, some on the path, some among thorns. But some seed fell on good soil and produced a crop for harvest. This parable speaks of the harvest that will come from the spread of the Gospel, the seed being the Word of God. In that same chapter, Jesus tells a parable about an enemy who came and sowed thorn seeds among the wheat seeds in a field. At the harvest on Judgment Day, the wheat and the thorns will be separated, the wheat (children of God) will be brought into the barns (heaven), and the thorns will be burned in the fire (hell).
The coming of the Savior is first predicted in Genesis 3:15 as the Seed of woman who would crush the head of Satan. And, when the time was right, that Seed came, born of woman, to save us from our sins. There was a time appointed for His birth, and, a time appointed for Him to die. Jesus even speaks about His death in terms of a seed. In John 12:24 He says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This Jesus said in Jerusalem, as He looked toward Good Friday, His death on the cross and burial in the garden tomb.
His death for the sins of the world and His resurrection from the dead would bear a great harvest for God. He, the firstfruits of the resurrection, and then we, the Church, the body of Christ and the bride of Christ, to follow.
Gregory the Great (Bishop of Rome between 590 and 604 AD) combines this thought with Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed which is the smallest of seeds, but grows up into a great tree in which the birds build their nests. Gregory writes: “Christ Himself is the grain of mustard seed, who, planted in the garden of the sepulchre, grew up a great tree; He was a grain of seed when He died, and a tree when He rose again; a grain of seed in the humiliation of the flesh, a tree in the power of His majesty.”
Paul writes about our own resurrection from the dead in terms of a seed sown: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body…. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:35-38, 42-44).
Martin Luther is credited as saying, “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” When you see a plant springing up from the ground, give thanks to God who from the death of a seed brings forth new life and an abundant harvest. Man can plant the seed that God created into the ground, but he cannot make it grow. Only God can perform that miracle.
Every time we see a new plant poke its first leaves up out of the ground, we should be reminded that, though we die, yet shall we live. In the committal service in the graveyard, before the body is lowered into the earth, the pastor places his hand on the casket and says, “May God the Father, who created this body; may God the Son, who by His blood redeemed this body; may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be His temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh.”
Springtime is here, and we have the great promises of God that we are destined for new life. We have that life already by means of our baptism, but there is more to come. And we anticipate our resurrected life in heaven with great joy, just as we look forward to the trees leafing out in the spring, and the sown seeds bringing a wonderful harvest.
God’s peace,
Pastor