A sapling in the barren soil

We are created, dependent, and limited beings. None of us has life within ourselves. Life was given to us and will be taken away. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has existed since eternity, without beginning and without end. He has always been with the Father, from eternity onward. That is why the Apostle Paul writes: “He [Jesus], who was in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant, being born in human likeness.” (Phil 2,6-7)The prophet Isaiah, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, describes the savior promised by God: “He grew before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to him, and we saw him but were not pleased with his appearance.” (Jes 53,2).

In a special way, Jesus' life, his Passion, and his work of redemption are described here. He translated this verse as: "He grew up before him like a shoot." This is the origin of the Christmas carol: "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." This doesn't refer to a rose, but to a shoot, a young sprout, a thin twig, or even the sprout of a plant, and is a symbol for Jesus, the Messiah or Christ.

meaning of the picture

The prophet Isaiah portrays Jesus as a weak sapling that broke up out of arid and barren ground! A root that shoots up in a rich and fertile field owes its growth to good soil. Any farmer who places a plant knows that it depends on an ideal soil. That is why he plows, fertilizes, mucks and works his field so that it is good, nutrient-rich soil. When we see a plant growing luxuriantly on a hard, dry surface, or even in the sand of the desert, we are quite astonished and cry: how can anything still thrive here? That's how Isaiah sees it. The word arid expresses being dry and barren, a condition incapable of producing life. This is a picture of humanity separated from God. She is stuck in her sinful lifestyle, with no way to free herself from the grip of sin on her own. She is fundamentally destroyed by the nature of sin, separated from God.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is like the root of a shoot that takes nothing from the ground as it grows, but brings everything into the barren soil, which is nothing, has nothing, and is worthless. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: although he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2. Kor 8,9).

Can you understand the meaning of this parable? Jesus did not live by what the world gave him, but the world lives by what Jesus gives it. Unlike Jesus, the world feeds on itself like a young shoot, taking everything from the rich soil and giving little in return. That is the great difference between the kingdom of God and our corrupt and evil world.

Historical Significance

Jesus Christ owes nothing to his human lineage. Jesus' earthly family can truly be compared to dry ground. Maria was a poor, simple country girl and Joseph was an equally poor carpenter. There was nothing that Jesus could have benefited from. If he had been born into a noble family, if he had been the son of a great man, then one could say: Jesus owes a lot to his family. The law prescribed that Jesus' parents present their firstborn to the Lord after thirty-three days and offer a sacrifice for Mary's cleansing: “Every male that first breaks through the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice as it is said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Lk 2,23-24)The fact that Mary and Joseph did not offer a lamb as a sacrifice is a sign of the poverty into which Jesus was born.

Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem, but grew up in Nazareth. This place was generally despised by the Jews: “Philip saw Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and who was also foretold in the Prophets! It is Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’ Nathanael replied. ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’” (Joh 1,45-46)This was the soil in which Jesus grew up. A precious little plant, a rosebud, a tender root sprung from dry earth.

When Jesus came to earth to his own, he encountered rejection not only from Herod. The religious leaders of the time—the Sadducees, Pharisees, and scribes—clinged to traditions based on human reasoning (the Talmud) and placed them above the word of God. “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” (Joh 1,10-11)The majority of the people of Israel did not accept Jesus, so he was like a root sprouting from dry ground in his own possession!

His disciples were like barren soil. From a worldly perspective, he could have called upon a few influential men from politics and business, and, just to be on the safe side, some from the Sanhedrin as well, who could have spoken for him and taken up the mantle: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1. Kor 1,27)Jesus went to the fishing boats on the Sea of ​​Galilee and chose simple men with little education.

Paul experienced this too: “For I have come to realize that compared to the incomparable gain of being Lord Jesus Christ, everything else is worthless. For his sake I have left all these things behind; they are nothing to me, for I have Christ alone.” (Phil 3,8)This is the conversion of Paul. He considered the advantage he had as a scribe and Pharisee to be worthless.

experience with this truth 

We should never forget where we came from and what we were when we lived in this world without Jesus. Dear reader, what was it like at your own conversion? Jesus explained: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” (Joh 6,44)When Jesus Christ came to save you, did He find fertile ground for the growth of His grace in your heart? The ground was hard, parched, and dead. We humans can bring God nothing but drought, dryness, sin, and failure. The Bible describes this as the corruption of our flesh, of human nature. In Romans, Paul speaks as a converted Christian, looking back to the time when he was still like the first Adam, living as a slave to sin and separated from God: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Röm 7,18)The earth must be enlivened by something else: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words that I have spoken to you—they are spirit and they are life.” (Joh 6,63).

Human soil, the flesh, is good for nothing. What does this teach us? Should a flower grow on our sinfulness and hard-heartedness? The lily of repentance, perhaps? More likely, a withered flower of war, hatred, and destruction. Where would it come from? From parched earth? That is impossible. No one can repent, generate repentance or faith on their own! Why? Because we were spiritually dead. For that, a miracle is necessary. God planted a shoot from heaven into the desert of our parched hearts—that is spiritual rebirth: “But if Christ is in you, then although your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” (Röm 8,10)In the barrenness of our lives, where no spiritual growth is possible, God has planted his Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ. This is a plant that can never be trampled.

God does not choose because people decide to do so or because they deserve it, but because he does it out of grace and love. Salvation comes entirely from God's hand, from beginning to end. Ultimately, even the basis for our decision for or against the Christian faith does not originate from ourselves: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast." (Eph 2,8-9).

If someone could be saved through faith in Christ and his own good works, then we would have the absurd situation that there are two Saviors, Jesus and the sinner. Our entire conversion does not result from the fact that God found such good conditions in us, but it pleased him to plant his spirit where nothing can grow without it. But the miracle of miracles is: The plant of grace changes the soil of our hearts! From formerly barren soil grows repentance, repentance, faith, love, obedience, sanctification, and hope. Only the grace of God can do that! Do you understand? What God plants is not dependent on our soil, but vice versa.

Through the seedling, Jesus Christ, who dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, we recognize our barrenness and gratefully accept his gift of grace. The parched earth, the infertile soil, receives new life through Jesus Christ. This is the power of God's grace! Jesus explained this principle to Andrew and Philip: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (Joh 12,24).

The Christ within us, the dead grain of wheat, is the mystery of our life and our spiritual growth: “You demand proof that Christ speaks in me, who is not weak in relation to you but powerful among you. For although he was crucified in weakness, he lives by the power of God. And though we are weak in him, we will nevertheless live with him by the power of God for you. Examine yourselves to see whether you stand in the faith; test yourselves. Or do you not realize in yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2. Kor 13,3-5)If you don't derive your worth from God, but from the barren soil, from anything other than God, then you will die and remain dead. You live successfully because Jesus' power works mightily within you!

words of encouragement 

The parable offers words of encouragement to all who, after conversion, discover their own barrenness and sinfulness. You see the deficits of your following Christ. You feel like the barren desert, the total aridity, with a parched soul of self-recrimination, guilt, self-reproach and failure, fruitlessness and aridity.  

Why doesn't Jesus expect the sinner's cooperation in order to save him? "For it pleased God to have all his fullness dwell in him through Jesus." (Kol 1,19).

If all fullness dwells in Jesus, then He needs no contribution from us, nor does He expect it. Christ is everything! Does this give you courage? “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” (2. Kor 4,7).

Instead, it is Jesus' joy to enter empty hearts and fill them with his love. It delights him to work on frozen hearts and rekindle their flames through his spiritual love. It is his specialty to breathe life into dead hearts. Are you living in a crisis of faith, full of temptations and sin? Is everything hard, dry, and barren for you? No joy, no faith, no fruit, no love, no fire? Everything withered? There is a wonderful promise: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice." (Jes 42,3).

A smoldering wick is about to go out completely. It no longer carries a flame because the wax is smothering it. This situation is exactly what God needs. He wants to enter your parched soil, your weeping heart, and plant his divine root, his offspring, Jesus Christ. Dear reader, there is a wonderful hope! “The Lord will always guide you; he will satisfy your needs in a dry land and strengthen your bones. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” (Jes 58,11)God acts in this way so that He alone receives the glory. That is why the newborn Jesus grew up like a seedling in dry soil and not in fertile ground.

by Pablo Nauer

The basis for this article is the sermon given by Charles Haddon Spurgeon on October 13, 1872.