The Last Sunday After the Epiphany
Psalm 99; Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a), 44-45
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“The Holy Seed” picks up where “Operation Reconquista” left off. That series ended with two lingering questions: Who is the “holy seed,” the stump of Isaiah 6:13 that God promises to replant? And what about the “dead branches,” the unfruitful wood destined for the fire of judgment? This series will look for answers in Scripture, week by week, starting today with a hard look at ministries that fail.
I.
Today, I want to look at why ministries fail.
When I say “ministries” we can take that to mean individual ministers as well as entire churches.
I am also beginning a new sermon series today that will take us through most of Lent. This series is called “The holy seed.”
This series is picking up where my “Operation Reconquista” series ended.
You will recall that the series ended with two questions: Who is the holy seed, that “stump” referred to in Isaiah 6:13?
It’s clearly meant to mean the remnant of Old Israel, which God will replant in the Messianic age.
Twice so far in this Epiphany season we’ve read these words from Luke 4:21, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus uses the occasion of His preaching in His hometown synagogue of Nazareth to announce that the Messianic age has begun, that, in fact He is the one to begin it, because He is none other than the Messiah, the Christ.
But we still must answer the question, and so we’ll be doing that in each sermon in this series, answering the question: where in the readings do we find the holy seed and what can we learn about it?
The second question is: What about all the dead branches? What about all that dead wood that both Isaiah and Jesus say is good for nothing except to be burned in the fire of God’s judgment?
Scripture makes it clear that the Old Testament church had become so corrupt that it was irredeemable, but that even in its unreformed and unreformable condition, there was still some hope.
But, as I said last week, it’s the kind of hope that could leave you a bit unsettled.
Yes, it is a very hopeful thing for God to burn away all the deadwood so that the stump can grow back.
Yes, it is a very hopeful thing that God is pruning His church — and in the case of First Church Woodbury, already has pruned His church — so that the church can grow back.
What’s unsettling is that the dead wood isn’t just dead wood. Any one of us could be a dead branch, and certainly it could be members of our own families, our friends, and even former church members.
I said I would take up the question of whether the last word had been preached on the “dead wood” in future sermons, and so we will also be looking at biblical texts in this series to see what we can learn about the fate of the church’s dead branches, and whether or not anything can be done for them.
In this first sermon, I want to face head on the problem of failure in the church. What happens when ministers and ministries fail?
The reason I want to focus on that is because we see an example of a failed ministry in today’s gospel reading from Luke. The disciples (or, at least, some of them) are unable to heal a boy possessed by an unclean spirit.
Now, in the past three sermons, I spoke a lot about church failure, particularly the failure of the mainline Protestant denominations.
But today’s readings aren’t talking about theological liberalism and institutional apostasy.
What we see in today’s readings are examples of spiritual immaturity, and, in the case of the disciples, who fail to exorcise an unclean spirit from a possessed boy, the tendency to get ahead of ourselves, by getting ahead of Jesus.
So, today we’re not going to focus on institutional failure. Instead, the focus will be on why individuals in those institutions fail.
II.
I want to try to solve the problem of why ministries fail.
Let me say at the outset that the primary motive of Christian ministry is the impulse to try to do something for the dead branches.
For instance, I have to believe that was why the disciples tried to heal the boy, but I think it also explains why they couldn’t help the boy.
They want to help the boy, but they need help themselves.
It seems to me that the disciples have fallen into a pit, but let’s try to figure out why.
Earlier, when speaking to His disciples, in Luke 6:39-40, Jesus says to his disciples — and I need to emphasize that — that this is said to His disciples:
“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.”
These two verses help to explain why later, in the passage we’re looking at today, the disciples fail to heal the boy.
Jesus is calling the disciples blind, in part because they are still just learning, they are not yet fully taught, and, in part, because they are dead wood.
Now, why do I say that they are dead wood?
I am basing that conclusion on something Jesus says a few verses later, in Luke 6:46:
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
In describing the corrupt priesthood of old Israel, the prophet Malachi has these words to say:
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. [Yet] You say, ‘How have we despised thy name?’”
Malachi is describing a priesthood — the ministers and pastors of Old Israel — who have thoroughly departed from true religion, and yet they are blind to their apostasy.
They don’t even realize they’re apostates. They say, “Lord, Lord” but do not do what the Lord says. Again, this is a point I really drove home in the last sermon series, and it still describes many churches today.
What’s surprising is that Jesus speaks words similar to Malachi’s words about the corrupt priests to His own disciples.
His own disciples are disobedient!
Or, to put it another way, they are not ready for ministry.
“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” The answer is yes. Yes, they will fall into the pit.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.” Clearly, the disciples are not yet “fully taught.”
III.
Now, we have enough context to understand why the disciples could not help the boy.
A man comes to Jesus and begs Him to “look upon” his son, his only child, saying, “...behold, a spirit seizes him… and I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
A few verses later, Luke describes the spirit as unclean: “Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.”
Now, earlier, I quoted to you Jesus’ words in Luke 6:39, “Can a blind man lead a blind man?”
In this case, it’s a question of can the unclean “make clean” the unclean?
And the answer is no. They cannot. The father tells Jesus, “I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
Blind and unclean — and remember we heard Isaiah the prophet say, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” — these are two ways of describing the dead branches.
The disciples are blind and unclean. The father is blind and unclean. The boy himself is possessed by an unclean spirit.
While I believe these are all true stories and that the gospels are a reliable account of events that took place in Jesus’ life, the gospel writers, in this case Luke, also use these episodes to tell us something more, to paint a bigger picture.
The picture they paint is that Jesus has come to do something about these dead branches.
Some of these branches He calls disciples. Others, He calls apostles. Three of them, Peter, James, and John have the unique experience of seeing Jesus in transfigured glory.
Many of these dead branches He heals, as He healed the boy in today’s reading.
IV.
Last week, we heard Isaiah ask God, “How long?” How long would Isaiah have to preach to the unclean church of his day?
Remember, Isaiah’s commission was not to preach the restoration of sight to the blind or of hearing to the deaf:
“‘Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive…’ lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Isaiah’s ministry was not one of healing and restoration but of judgment.
Isaiah’s job was to wander through Judah, marking out the dead branches, so they could be gathered and burned.
This week, we hear Jesus ask the same question, “How long?”
“O faithless and perverse generation,” He says, “how long am I to be with you and bear with you?”
It’s a strange question. It made sense for Isaiah to ask it. After all, he was probably hoping that God would allow his ministry to bear fruit, fruit like the fruit we see that Jesus’ ministry is bearing.
Back when Jesus announced the beginning of His ministry in His hometown synagogue of Nazareth, He quoted from Isaiah. He said:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.”
Jesus is fulfilling all the hopes Isaiah had for his own ministry, so why does Jesus seem impatient?
Isaiah had to preach for 60 years to no effect.
Jesus has been preaching for only a few months, to great effect.
So, why is Jesus asking for how long He must put up with a “faithless and perverse generation”?
Luke doesn’t pause to give us an answer. Instead, Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit, heals the boy, and gives him back to his father.
The “faithless and perverse generation” to which Jesus refers has to include His own disciples. It’s all He’s got to work with.
Coming on the heels of their failure to heal the boy, it’s clear Jesus doesn’t think they're ready for ministry yet.
The disciples are spiritually immature. They are not much better than the blind leading the blind. They are still being taught. But they are something else as well. They are disobedient.
I touched on this earlier when Jesus asked them, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
But there is a specific way in which they’ve been disobedient, and it explains why their ministry failed. Now, remember, the problem we’re trying to solve in this sermon is why ministries fail.
Let’s look closely at what went wrong here. When the desperate father comes to Jesus, he says, “I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
I want to emphasize that word, disciples.
The disciples are a large group, followers of Jesus who are not always the most committed.
The fact that Jesus is already having some trouble with them is evident when He says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
He then calls them blind and not yet fully taught. He is calling them spiritually immature.
The disciples are different from the apostles, who are a smaller group, hand-picked by Jesus for special attention.
Luke 6:13 recounts the moment when Jesus picked the apostles:
“And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.”
An even smaller group is taken from among these twelve, Peter, James, and John, up the mountain to witness His transfiguration. They get to see Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah. They get to hear the voice say, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
But even they are not fully instructed, not yet spiritually mature. Luke tells us that “they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen” — probably because they had no way to understand what they had just experienced.
But these apostles have received a special commission from Jesus to exorcise demons and to heal. Luke 9:1-2 tells us that Jesus “called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal.”
My point is this: the disciples who failed to minister to the boy effectively were not apostles.
Apostle comes from the Greek word, apostolos, which means messenger or one who is sent out.
This is where we get the English word, post. Think of when you mail a letter, you post it, you send it out.
So, we can say that these particular disciples failed because they had not yet been sent out by Jesus to cast out demons and to heal.
It’s really that simple. Ministers and ministries fail when they are not sent out by Jesus.
Or another way of saying it, churches fail when they cease to be apostolic, when they forfeit their commission from Jesus.
V.
Where does that leave us? Does it leave us wondering if we’ve been sent out? Are we an apostolic congregation? Are we spiritually mature? Are we fully taught? Are we like our teacher, Jesus?
I would say it’s early days still in our replanting effort at First Church Woodbury.
I would say there are signs of new growth. We have seven signed up for our new member’s class in Lent. I think that number could go to ten or more.
I am comforted by something Jesus said in last week’s gospel lesson.
After hauling in his miraculous catch of fish, Jesus says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
But Jesus didn’t leave. He stayed put and gave Peter a commission, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.”
Aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t listen to Peter? Aren’t you glad He stayed by Peter’s side? I think Jesus is standing by our side too, here at First Church.
We’ve seen who the dead branches in today’s reading are.
They are the spiritually immature: the disobedient disciples, the possessed boy, the father, and even the fortunate three, Peter, James, and John, who see Jesus for who He really is, but are not ready to speak publicly about it.
But who, or what, or where is the holy seed? I think it’s clear that Jesus fits the bill in today’s gospel. Two things stand out about Jesus, the holy seed.
First, when Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus they talk to Him, and together they speak of “his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
That’s a bit cryptic, but Luke spells it out for us in verse 44, “Let these words sink into your ears,” Jesus tells His disciples, “for the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men.”
The holy seed will be betrayed and put to death in Jerusalem. And so we begin the season of Lent with those words ringing — or, as Jesus says — sinking into our ears.
Second, the disciples, including the three who just saw Jesus transfigured, Peter, James, and John, cannot comprehend what Jesus means by this.
Luke tells us in verse 45, “But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it.”
Now, if you’ve been following along, you will recognize where these words come from: “it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it.”
They come from Isaiah. Go back to the beginning of Isaiah’s ministry. What words did God speak to him?
“Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive…’ lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Surely, this is a prediction that Jesus’ ministry will fail too, just as Isaiah’s did.
I use that word, fail, advisedly, because how can the holy seed fail? After all, it will grow to become the Tree of Life spoken of in Revelation 22:2.
Yet, for the moment, Moses and Elijah speak to Jesus of “his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem” and Jesus Himself, says to His disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men.”
We can say this about the holy seed: its failure was not the end. It was only the beginning.
None of us would be here now if it had been.
At some point, Peter, James, and John found they could speak about what they saw on the mountaintop.
At some point, in fact in the very next chapter of Luke, the disciples find that even the demons obey them in Jesus’ name.
At some point, Jesus makes all of us apostles. He sends us out to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
What we know about the holy seed is the very thing Jesus tells us in John 12:24, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
There is hope then for the dead branches. Amen.
Preached on March 2, 2025 at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Reflection Questions:
Where might I be rushing ahead of Jesus in my own life or service?
How does Jesus’ role as the holy seed change how I see failure?
What “new growth” do I see around me that points to Jesus’ presence?
For more practical applications from the sermon, download the sermon handout here.
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