Proper 10, Year A, Track 2
Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14; Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
I.
I want to use the texts read to you this morning to correct an error that is certainly common in the progressive churches, but has a long history in the evangelical churches as well.
That error is this: Christ died for sinners; therefore all sinners can be saved. I place emphasis in two places, the words all, and can be.
You may hear it expressed like this from an evangelical: “Christ died for sinners. Hitler was a sinner. Therefore, Hitler could have been saved, if he had wanted to be.”
You may hear it expressed like this from a progressive: “Christ died (though He didn’t need to) for all sinners. Hitler was a sinner. Therefore, since God will one day ‘unite all things in him,’ even Hitler will find a place in heaven.”
This sort of thinking is unbiblical rubbish.
Paul quite clearly says in Romans 9 that God creates “vessels of wrath”—made so that God can destroy them—and Paul even says that Pharaoh was such a vessel.
Jesus says of Judas, who betrayed Him, “For the Son of man goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”
In other words, it was determined that Jesus should die, and it was determined that Judas should betray Him.
It was determined that God should ransom the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and it was determined that Pharaoh was the means by which God would show His power.
It is therefore unbiblical to say that things could have been different for Pharaoh or Judas. It is unbiblical to say that either man could have been or will be saved.
Pharaoh is explicitly drowned by baptism in the Red Sea. He is not saved by it. We will not see him in the Promised Land.
This is the point of Jesus’ parable today. Some of the soil is rocky. Some of the soil lacks depth. There are birds that ruin the harvest. But some of the soil is good, and in that soil the seed flourishes.
II.
Today’s readings are talking about God’s promise to the elect, to those people who are set apart for salvation.
The prophet Isaiah is speaking to the elect. Open your Bibles to Isaiah 55 and we will read from the verses that were omitted in the lectionary reading.
Isaiah 55:1 says, “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!”
If that sounds similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28, they should.
Jesus often quoted Isaiah; His words often sound like Isaiah’s.
In Matthew 11:28, He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Evangelicals like to use these passages as examples of an open invitation to come to Christ, but they are no such thing.
There is no open invitation to come to Christ. The invitation is always closed. It is for specific people and them alone.
To put it in terms of today’s parable, it is for the good soil, not the bad.
Or, as Jesus says in another parable, it is for those wearing the wedding garment, not those who come to the banquet underdressed (Matthew 22:12).
That is a great complication, the plot twist, the foil that frustrates progressive and evangelical Christians alike in today’s gospel reading.
The seed is widely sown, but only some of the soil is any good. That hardly seems fair.
The complication is resolved in what might seem an equally unfair way: when the seed falls on good soil, the result is abundance.
Things only get better and better for the good soil. It brings forth “…grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty,” while the rocks and the thorns bake under the scorching heat.
Hitler, Judas, and Pharaoh bake in hell’s scorching heat.
This parable is hard because it’s not the rock’s fault for being a rock. The thorn is just being a thorn. The sun is supposed to be hot. And didn’t I just say that some sinners—Pharaoh and Judas—are supposed to live and die in their sins?
The answer is: some are, and there are some who will remain in their sin, and die in their sin, and there are to be others who will be called out of their sin to newness of life.
All of this is to show God’s power. Isaiah says in this morning’s reading, “so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.”
That word is the seed in today’s parable, but we must not think that just because some of it falls on shallow dirt or is eaten by birds, God’s will is thwarted.
III.
If I were to end now by telling you, “try your best to be good soil and God will take care of the rest,” I would utterly fail you as your preacher and pastor.
“Try your best” is not the gospel, yet “try your best” is what both the evangelical and the progressive Christian are always telling people to do.
Jesus ends the parable saying “He who has ears, let him hear,” but this does not mean “Try harder to understand, you spiritual dunces.”
“Try your best” is what the Pharisees told people to do. Jesus says of them, “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.”
“Here, carry this burden—we know you can’t—but try your best” is on the lips of every liberal do-gooder. It is in the mission statement of every evangelical church that wants to “be a blessing” to their community.
But you cannot bless your way out of sin. Blessing a rock won’t turn it into a spring of water.
If the ground is cursed—and Genesis 3 tells us it is—then it is no surprise that man—who was formed of dust from the ground—no longer has ears to hear as he should.
Bless a deaf man and your word returns to you void. He cannot hear you. Neither can this sin-sick world hear the gospel.
Jesus warns against this very thing when He says, “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6).
Still, Jesus is quite clear in this parable: “Other seeds fell on good soil…”
It’s not the seed that’s different, it’s the soil.
The seed is the well-meant offer, the promise of “every one who thirsts, come to the waters” and “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Well, good soil doesn’t just happen. It takes work: work man originally refused to do, and has been forced to do ever since.
That is why “try your best” and “be a blessing” ring hollow.
It’s just another way of saying “Do what you were supposed to do in the Garden of Eden but didn’t, and have tried to avoid doing ever since.”
“He who has ears, let him hear,” doesn’t mean try to be better soil, make yourself a better garden. We don’t need a better garden. We need a better Gardener.
IV.
I said before that there is no open invitation to come to Christ, and I need to make my reason for saying that clear.
Isaiah says, “every one who thirsts, come to the waters.” There is a qualifier. You must be thirsty.
The invitation is to those who are thirsty. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
A rock may get wet, but it never drinks. It has no thirst to satisfy. Neither does a corpse, which is what Paul says we are apart from Christ.
He writes in today’s reading, “You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit… although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.”
Here is the sure sign, here is certain proof that the invitation is for you:
Are you thirsty? Is your mouth dry and parched under the scorching sun of sin? Are you fed up with it? Have you had enough?
Then you are thirsty, and it is only for the thirsty that Jesus speaks these strange words in John’s Gospel, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37).
It is a free offer, to be sure, but just because it is free does not mean it is for everyone.
That said, the mere fact that you can say, “I thirst”—words Christ Himself said on the cross—means you are united to Him.
Jesus alone took human flesh from His unstained virgin mother, conceived by the Spirit proceeding from His Father, so He alone escaped the curse of the ground from which all mankind comes.
He alone was born with ears to hear. He alone was born with eyes to see. He alone was born with a soul that thirsts for righteousness.
So it is by union with Christ alone that we hear, see, and thirst.
It is by union with Christ alone that we become good ground in which the seed brings forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
It is to Christ alone the invitation is given, and it is for our sake that He accepts it. He is the better Gardener, which is why Mary Magdalene mistook Him for one on Easter morning.
V.
Now, how do you know that you are in Christ and that He has accepted this invitation on your behalf?
I have already answered that in part. Are you thirsty? Do you hate sin and love righteousness?
Not the self-righteousness of the virtue-signaling left and not the works-righteousness of the evangelical or the Roman Catholic, but the righteousness of Christ.
So often, such people are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, only to fall away under the burdens imposed by the church.
You will never truly come to hate your sin while doing penance for it.
That’s simply managing your sin. It will never cancel it or free you from its power.
Such people mistake the church for the root, but Jesus says the root is to be found within us, when He comes to dwell in us.
You are in Christ if you love Him for who He is, which is all you are not. When you accept that, you’ve begun to hate sin.
Because He is all you are not, He can see for you, hear for you, thirst for you, live for you, and die for you.
Because He has done all this and now intercedes for you in heaven, you will start to see and hear again. You will start to hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will start to live again and you need never fear death again.
This is what Paul means when he writes, “You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit.”
Yes, you still live in the flesh, but not according to it. You have started to hate it, even if you still succumb to it.
This is proof, a sign, and evidence of your union with Christ. This is all you need, to be one with Christ. To be found in Him (Philippians 3:9).
You were never asked to be good soil. Jesus Christ is the good soil, and you are the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold increase that He alone can bring forth.
Preached on July 12, 2026, by the Rev. Jake Dell at First Congregational Church of Woodbury, Connecticut.
