Sexagesima
Sunday, February 23 (Commemoration of St. Polycarp of Smyrna)
Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?
Arise, cast us not off forever.
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face,
And forgettest our affliction?
For our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise, for our help, and redeem us.
We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us.
—Psalm 44:23–24a, 25b–26a. 1a
A writing for the Holy Gospel, Luke 8:4–15:
“Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
Luke 8:14-15
St. Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism concerning the Third Commandment that we must “fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching or God’s Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” In the corresponding article in the Large Catechism, Dr. Luther wrote that “we Christians ought always to keep such a holy day, and be occupied with nothing but holy things, i.e., daily be engaged upon God’s Word, and carry it in our hearts and upon our lips.”
For Luther, Christ’s parable of the sower must have been foundational in his postulation of the meaning of the Third Commandment. Christ teaches in this parable that while the Word of God is present in many places, its roots do not always form. The seed of the Word is sowed along the ground, yet it only takes root in rich soil. The seed withers on the rock, suffocates in the thorns, and yields to the birds. Yet the soil sown on good ground springs up and yields a hundredfold.
On Sexagesima Sunday, the Church considers the practical and theological implications of this parable. How are the seeds of the Gospel sown among us? How can we proclaim the Word so that its roots form and take shape in others? Indeed, it is noble that we ponder how the Gospel might increase among us, and how the seed might be sown in our midst.
Yet it might do the Church well to consider that we, though imitators of Christ, are not sowers of the seed. Certainly we share the Gospel with our neighbors, proclaim Christ crucified to the world, and live as faithful missionaries for our Lord on this earth. Yet our Lord alone sows the seed of His Gospel. Our Lord alone turns the hearts and minds of men. Our Lord alone causes His Word to spring forth to faith.
Paul reminds us that “I [Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7). We are the Lord’s vessels, yet our work must be His work done in us. The growth of the Gospel is not our work to prosper, but the Spirit’s. The sower of the seed is Christ. The seed that He plants is the Word; the ground on which the Word is sown is the hearts and minds of men. The work is not ours, but Christ’s alone. This our Lord makes clear in His uncharacteristic explanation of the parable:
“Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
Luke 8:14-15
St. Jerome exhorts the Church concerning this parable: “Note that this is the first parable that has been given with its interpretation, and we must beware where the Lord expounds His own teachings, that we do not presume to understand any thing either more or less, or any way otherwise than as so expounded by Him.”1 Indeed, we dare not presume that our interpretation of Christ’s parable in any way exceeds His own. We likewise dare not presume that we ourselves sow the seeds of the Gospel—or that our evangelistic work is efficacious in itself.
It is the work of our Lord alone that brings forth the fruits of faith. His life-giving work of redemption brings salvation; His soul-feeding grace nourishes faith and increases His fold. For our Lord’s innocent feet trod upon the rocky soil, and His sacred head was pierced by the unforgiving thorns. By His life-giving and miracle-working work alone is the fold increased—and thanks be to God! We are His vessels, yet it is His Word and His work alone that brings life and salvation.
Martin Luther on Luke 8:4-15:
“We need to be on guard against the weaknesses and infirmities in our nature, against succumbing to false security, but petitioning God for his Holy Spirit (we have the clear, comforting assurance of Luke 11:13: "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"), to remove such obstacles, to sweep out those thorns and thistles from our hearts, so that we can continue to hear and retain God's Word, and bring forth the good fruit, by faith in Christ, through which faith we not only live in obedience to God but also become God's children and heirs. The main reason this seed is sown, that is, that the gospel is proclaimed in all the world, is to create and work fruit in us which endures into eternity.
“Now, then, this parable also tells us not to be surprised if we see that the Word does not bring forth fruit in every case. For we learn that it is the Lord himself who sets up four divisions of which only one, the smallest group, is truly upright. The other three classes are actually worthless; we must let them go and not become disturbed when we see that there are more who despise than accept the Word. It is in the nature of the gospel that wherever it is preached, there three types of unworthy hearers appear, while the fourth is good and upright. And yet the fault lies not with the Word nor with the one who preaches, as the blind papists charge, like the ranting crazies that they are. They think they can defame us and make our gospel all the more offensive by charging us with the offenses the devil has stirred up ever since the gospel first was proclaimed.”
—St. Martin Luther, Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday, Luke 8:4-15, 1534, taken from The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 5, pgs. 290-291.
Hymn of the Day for Sexagesima (LSB 823):
1 May God bestow on us His grace,
With blessings rich provide us;
And may the brightness of His face
To life eternal guide us,
That we His saving health may know,
His gracious will and pleasure,
And also to the nations show
Christ's riches without measure
And unto God convert them.
2 Thine over all shall be the praise
And thanks of ev'ry nation;
And all the world with joy shall raise
The voice of exultation.
For Thou shalt judge the earth, O Lord,
Nor suffer sin to flourish;
Thy people's pasture is Thy Word
Their souls to feed and nourish,
In righteous paths to keep them.
3 O let the people praise Thy worth,
In all good works increasing;
The land shall plenteous fruit bring forth,
Thy Word is rich in blessing.
May God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit bless us!
Let all the world praise Him alone,
Let solemn awe possess us.
Now let our hearts say, “Amen!”
Collect of the Day for Sexagesima:
O God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do, mercifully grant that by Thy power we may defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Commemoration of St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr:
On February 23, the Church commemorates St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Bishop and Martyr. He was a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist, who ordained Polycarp as bishop of Smyrna in the late first century. His theological influence was foundational in the establishment and growth of the early Christian Church. Polycarp formed a natural link between the apostolic and patristic ages.
Almost all of his works have been lost. The only extant work of Polycarp is the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. The Martyrdom of Polycarp, a manuscript written in the early second century, is one of the earliest genuine accounts of Christian martyrdom, apart from the Acts of the Apostles. Tradition holds that Polycarp was bound and burned at the stake, and was then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his body.
Eusebius (260/265 A.D.—339 A.D.), the great Christian historian and polemicist, dates Polycarp’s death during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, c. 166-167A.D., though later additions to the Martyrdom of Polycarp record February 23, c. 155 or 156 A.D. as the date of his martyrdom. It is presumed that Polycarp was 86 years old, as he is traditionally quoted as saying the following upon his martyrdom: “For eighty and six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. And how can I now blaspheme my king who saved me?”2
Polycarp, alongside Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, are venerated as the three chief apostolic fathers of the early Church. His student, the beloved Irenaeus of Lyons, wrote that Polycarp “always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the church has handed down.”3 Polycarp is remembered for his steadfastness to orthodox doctrine and preservation of apostolic teaching, to which the Church continues to hold today.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, tr. John Henry Newman (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841): 482.
Timothy George, “Marytria: The Life and Death of Polycarp,” Samford University Beeson Divinity School, February 29, 2019, accessed February 23, 2025: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/blog/2019/martyria-polycarp#:~:text=So%20the%20proconsul%20said%20to,killed%20by%20fire%20and%20sword.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter IV.
Thanks for adding some liturgy to my day!