In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“If anyone desires to come after Me,” says the Lord,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Luke 9:23
For as Christ was crucified so are we to be co-crucified with Him—crucifying our egos, our desires, our sins—that as Christ is risen so are we to be co-risen with Him. Christ’s actions have a universal significance, but to be a follower of Him we need to follow, we need to act as He acts.
So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you?
John 13:12–17
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’
For indeed, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) We are called to emulate Christ, to serve as Christ. “Peace to you!” He tells us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (John 20:21)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
And this ‘beholding of His glory,’ is expressed to us in a different way in today’s Gospel, “A Sower went out to sow his Seed.” And as Christ is the High Priest and the Sacrifice, the One Who offers and the One Who is offered, so He is both the Sower and the Seed. And if we are followers of Him, if we are Christians—which is to say ‘little christs’—then we must sow the Seed too. And we sow the Seed through our prayer, and we sow the Seed through our service and love towards our neighbours, and we sow the Seed through becoming the Body of Christ by gathering together to offer the Eucharist.
But I become despondent, I become faithless, I become angry at God, because I scatter the Seed and it falls on the path, and is trodden under foot, and the devil comes and consumes it. And I persist and I throw the Seed and it falls on rocky ground and no roots form and despite early signs of hope it withers away. And, losing hope, I try one last time and growth is choked out among the thorns. And I blame God, and I curse God, and I walk away from God.
But I have misunderstood the Gospel. The field on which I sow the Seed is not other people, I am to sow the Seed on my own heart. And I sow the Seed and I allow it to be sown within me where the Devil may consume it up, stop it forming roots and choke it among other cares—and rather than till the soil of my heart, dig out the rocks of sin and tear out the thorns of temptation, I am content to claim the name Christian but to live a life of this world, a life of sin which leads to death.
And the Church offers to me a hoe and I refuse it, she offers me a plough and I am offended: “Why would I need such tools?” I protest. But I must repent, I must till the soil, because to me it has “been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” The secrets of the Kingdom have been revealed and, unlike others, I have no excuse.
But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting Life.
Romans 6:22–23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, all has been revealed to us, “we have beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” But we must prepare ourselves, we must prepare the soil of our hearts, that the Seed may yield within us a hundredfold. And the Apostle explains what it is we may yield.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Galatians 5:22–26
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Let us, then, dear brothers and sisters, work together to till the soil of our hearts that we may be found to prepared for the Seed of the Word to be planted within us, to bear Him aloft: let us repent! For the result is great, eternal Life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His Resurrection,
Romans 6:5–11
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That we may offer true praise, glory and worship to our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who ever sows the Seed in our hearts, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
Titus, my son, the saying is sure. I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned. When I send Artemas or Tychicos to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not to be unfruitful. All who are with me send greeting to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.
— Titus 3:8–15
The Lord said this parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold.” And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.” As he said these things, he cried out “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
— Luke 8:5–15