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The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

This Sunday’s Gospel is well known as “The Parable of the Sower” (Matthew 13:1-23), and when we’ve heard it for the tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth time, we may think that we know all there is to know about this one particular parable. Yet, the Gospels contain a depth that we often miss because of our own ignorance, and when that depth is uncovered, a fresh new reading of the Gospel blows our preconceived notions away.

In the middle of telling this parable, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, and that simple quotation is Jesus’ way of saying, “Hey guys! This parable I’m telling… Well, it has to do with what Isaiah prophesies about.” Jesus, Paul, and other New Testament figures quote the Old Testament with strategic purpose.

Isaiah prophesied about the end of Israel’s exile and the coming of the Messiah who would put an end to that exile by re-gathering Israel under his rule. Chapter 6 of Isaiah has the Prophet envisioning Israel being cut down like a tree due to divine judgment, punishment due to Israel for its repeated idolatry. That tree stump is then burnt! Yet, the stump acts as a kind of “holy seed” (verse 13), from which a shoot sprouts: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1).

This shoot is none other than the awaited Messiah who comes from Jesse’s loins. Matthew has already given Jesus’ genealogy back at the beginning of his Gospel, to show how Jesus descends from King David, the son of Jesse (see Matthew 1:5-6).

Our first reading is taken from the Prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Go back and read these verses in their original context. This is a poetic description of Israel’s return from exile! The image of sowing and reaping is also found in the Book of Psalms at the very point where it celebrates the return of Israel from exile (e.g. Psalm 126).

So, today’s Gospel is much more than a comment on how many hear the Word of God and fail to respond to it appropriately. It’s about the very person and mission of Jesus Christ himself. He is the long-awaited one, which Isaiah foresaw and spoke of centuries past. He is Israel’s hope, the Messiah who redeems his people by his salvific suffering (see Isaiah 53) and gathers the redeemed into the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic family we know of today as the Church. Jesus is the incarnate Word of God who fulfills the divine will.