A sapling in the barren soil

We are created, dependent and limited beings. None of us have life within themselves. Life has been given to us and is taken from us. The triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit exists from eternity, without beginning and without end. He was always with the Father, from eternity. That is why the apostle Paul writes: “He [Jesus], who was in divine form, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself and took the form of a servant, was made equal to men and recognized in appearance as man » (Philippians 2,6-7). 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah describes the Savior promised by God: “He grew up before him like a sapling, like a sprout from a dry ground. He had no form and no splendour; we saw him, but the sight did not please us" (Isaiah 53,2 Butcher Bible).

Jesus' life, suffering and his act of redemption are described here in a special way. Luther translated this verse: "He shot up before him like a branch". Hence the Christmas carol: "A rose has sprung". This does not mean a rose, but a rice, which is a young shoot, thin twig or 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 sprout, taking nothing out of the ground as it grows, but bringing everything into the barren ground, which is nothing, has nothing, and is good for nothing. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty you might become rich" (2. Corinthians 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 called holy 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 doves" (Luke 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: «Philippus saw Nathanael and said to him: We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law and who is also announced to the prophets! It is Jesus, the son of Joseph; he comes from Nazareth. From Nazareth?” Nathanael replied. "What good can come out of Nazareth?" (John 1,45-46). This was the soil in which Jesus grew up. A precious little plant, a little rose, a rose, a root tenderly sprung from the dry earth.

When Jesus came to earth in his possession, he felt rejection not only from Herod. The religious leaders of the time—the Sadducees, Pharisees, and scribes—held traditions based on human reasoning (Talmud) and placed them above the Word of God. «He was in the world and the world came into being through him, but the world did not recognize him. He came into his own, and his own did not receive him" (John 1,10-11 Butcher Bible). The majority of the people of Israel did not accept Jesus, so in their possession he was a root out of dry ground!

His disciples were also dry ground. From a worldly perspective, he could have appointed a few influential men from politics and business and, to be on the safe side, also some from the High Council, who could have spoken for him and taken the floor: "But what is foolish in the world, God has chosen , to shame the wise; and what is weak in the world God chose to shame what is strong" (1. Corinthians 1,27). Jesus went to the fishing boats on the Sea of ​​Galilee and chose simple men with little education.

"God the Father did not want Jesus to become something through his disciples, but that his followers should receive everything as a gift through Jesus!"

Paul also experienced this: «For it became clear to me: compared to the incomparable gain that Jesus Christ is my Lord, everything else has lost its value. I put all that behind me for his sake; it's just dirt for me if I only have Christ" (Philippians 3,8 Hope for all). This is Paul's conversion. He considered his advantage as a scribe and Pharisee to be dirt.

experience with this truth 

We should never forget where we came from and what we were while living in this world without Jesus. Dear reader, how was your own conversion? Jesus declared, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6,44 Butcher Bible). When Jesus Christ came to save you, did he find fertile ground for his grace to grow in your heart? The ground was hard, parched and dead. We humans can bring nothing to God but drought, dryness, sin and failure. The Bible describes this in terms of the depravity of our flesh, human nature. In Romans, Paul speaks as a converted Christian, looking back to the time when he was still in the manner of the first Adam, living as a slave to sin and separated from God: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells. I have a will, but I cannot do good" (Romans 7,18). The earth must be enlivened by something else: «It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6,63).

The 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 penance perhaps? More like a dried flower of war, hatred and destruction. Where should she come from? From dry soil? That's impossible. No man can of himself repent, bring forth repentance or faith! Why? Because we were spiritually dead. It takes a miracle to do that. In the wilderness of our dry hearts, God planted a shoot from heaven—that is spiritual regeneration: “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead in sin, but the spirit is alive in righteousness” ( Romans 8,10). In the wasteland of our lives, where no spiritual growth is possible, God planted his Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ. This is a plant that can never be trampled on.

God does not choose because people choose to do so or deserve to do so, but because he does so out of grace and love. Salvation comes entirely from God's hand from beginning to end. Ultimately, not even the basis for our decision for or against the Christian faith comes from ourselves: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 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, indwelt in us by the Holy Spirit, we recognize our sterility and gratefully accept His gift of grace. The dry earth, the barren soil, receives new life through Jesus Christ. That is the grace of God! Jesus explained this principle to Andrew and Philip: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but when it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12,24).

The Christ in us, the dead grain of wheat, is the secret of our life and our spiritual growth: «You ask for proof that Christ speaks in me, who is not weak towards you, but is mighty among you. For though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. And though we are weak in him, yet we will live with him by the power of God for you. Examine yourselves whether you stand in faith; check yourself! Or do you not recognize in yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?" (2. Corinthians 13,3-5). If you don't get your worth from God, but from the barren ground, anything other than God, you will die and stay dead. You live successfully because Jesus' power works mightily in 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 does Jesus not expect the sinner's help in order to save him? "For it pleased God to cause all the fullness in him to dwell in Jesus" (Colossians 1,19).

When all fullness dwells in Jesus, he needs no contribution from us, nor does he expect it. Christ is everything! Does this give you good cheer? "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding power may be from God and not from us" (2. Corinthians 4,7).

Instead, it is Jesus' joy to come into empty hearts and fill them with his love. He delights in working on frozen hearts and making them burn again through his spiritual love. It is his specialty to give life to dead hearts. Are you living in a crisis of faith, full of trials and sin? Is everything hard, dry and arid with you? No joy, no faith, no fruit, no love, no fire? Everything dried up? There is a wonderful promise: "He will not break the bruised reed, nor snuff out the smoldering wick. In faithfulness he carries out the judgment" (Isaiah 42,3).

A smoldering wick is about to go out completely. He no longer carries a flame because the wax is suffocating him. This situation is right for God. To get into your dry ground, into your weeping heart, he would like to plant his divine root, his offspring, Jesus Christ. Dear reader, there is a wonderful hope! "And always the Lord will lead you, and in a dry land he will fill you, and he will make your bones strong. And you will be like a garden that is watered, and like a spring of water whose waters will not deceive” (Isaiah 58,11). God acts in such a way that he alone gets the glory. That is why the newborn Jesus grew up like a shoot in dry soil and not in rich soil.

by Pablo Nauer

 The basis for this article is Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon, which he delivered on 13. October 1872 had held.