The Parable of the Sower: Rocky Soil
One thing Jesus consistently promises in addition to all the wonderful benefits of participating in the kingdom of God—peace with God, forgiveness, a mutually supportive community that acts as a family, loving acceptance—is trouble1, especially in the form of persecution2. Despite his warnings, however, many who receive his message about God’s kingdom hear only what they want to hear. They hear the good news but ignore the bad news. Jesus never promises a trouble-free life. What he promises is a life worth living despite the suffering it entails3. He himself is our example. Despite being God’s unique son, he laid aside every privilege his position entitled him to and became an ordinary human4. He was born and raised in obscurity.
He had no wealth or worldly status even in his own culture. He was just another itinerant teacher subsisting on the donations of his pupils. His teaching got so much pushback, that the Jewish authorities eventually decided that he must die5 to keep the Romans from suppressing what they took to be a message of insurrection. His death was not mere murder, but the most ignominious and torturous execution known at that time: crucifixion. All the gospel accounts suggest that he accepted his fate willingly and could have escaped it if he had wished.
If Jesus was so clear about trouble and persecution coming for those who follow him, why do so many expect to avoid suffering? I think it’s actually a common human experience to expect trouble to happen to other people but not to oneself. Nearly all our vices promise immediate gratification and delayed, possibly even avoidable, harm. We’ve all heard stories of the 98-year-old grandmother who smokes cigars and has a shot of whiskey every evening after dinner, and we want to believe that we can be that grandmother rather than the far more likely alcoholic coughing out her lungs in a homeless encampment.
So it is with some who hear the good news of God’s kingdom. It really is good news, and they rejoice in it, ready to reap all the benefits of a supportive community of people who have dedicated themselves to loving one another, being patient and merciful, kind and generous, building one another up instead of tearing one another down. Then they find themselves facing hardship because of their alignment with the kingdom of God. It could be ridicule for believing some of the crazy things Christians believe. It could be arrest for passing out water to protesters. It could be an injunction forbidding feeding the homeless in their city. Whatever form it takes, it is opposition that they did not want nor expect.
When Jesus explains this parable6, many modern translations have him saying that trouble or persecution causes these people to “fall away.” That makes it sound as if they leave the faith, becoming apostates. The parable, however, is not about who is or is not included in God’s kingdom; it is about the kinds of reception the message about the kingdom gets from different people. The Greek word translated “fall away” is σκανδαλίζεται (skandalizetai)7, and in other contexts it often refers to someone stumbling8 or being tripped up. Metaphorically, it means that they are offended9. Despite the joy with which they received the message about God’s kingdom, these believers still have a transactional view of relationship with God. They imagine that their commitment to God entitles them to protection and a life of ease. So when trouble comes because of their acceptance of God’s word, they are offended. They imagine that God has not lived up to his side of the bargain when, in fact, God never promised them an easy life.
When you enter God’s kingdom, you enter a community of faith that offers a lot of support, but the goal of the kingdom is transformation10. You don’t get what you want, you become what God wants11. So God is always at work forming your character and molding you into a little Christ—a Christian. He takes your envy, jealousy, greed, and pride and replaces them with kindness, love, generosity, and service. Even as Jesus learned obedience through suffering12, so those who follow him learn obedience too through overcoming the trouble and suffering that comes their way, not by resisting, but by yielding. That’s why Jesus talks about13 “turning the other cheek” and “going the extra mile.” His goal is a people who choose how they respond to trouble instead of simply reacting with indignation.
Now this does not mean that Christians just roll over whenever someone tries to bully or coerce them. It means that they keep in view the human worth of their oppressor and act in ways that honor that worth even when they themselves are being dishonored. This is not easy to do. We want to demonize those that mistreat us, but in doing so, we give free rein to the violence in our own hearts and end up without any moral authority. This is why Paul insists that our struggle is not against flesh and blood14. We do nothing to harm those who would harm us. Instead we suffer harm and bear it to demonstrate how citizens of God’s kingdom behave: with love even toward our enemies.
- See John 16:33. ↩︎
- See John 15:20. ↩︎
- When Peter tried to get brownie points for what the disciples had sacrificed to follow Jesus, his reply made it clear that the disciples were getting a bargain. ↩︎
- Philippians 2:5-8. ↩︎
- John 11:48-50. ↩︎
- Matthew 13:18-23. ↩︎
- This verb, from which we get our modern English scandal, comes from a noun that referred to the trigger for a snare or trap. It was the mechanism that caused the creature who tripped it to be caught. In recent years, we have seen the meaning of trigger evolve in a similar way. It became popular as a way of referring to events or situations that might cause a trauma response in someone who had experienced trauma. It has since come to mean anything that gives offense. So now our media routinely includes trigger warnings for people who might take offense at the content. ↩︎
- See Matthew 11:6. ↩︎
- See Matthew 15:12. ↩︎
- Romans 12:2. ↩︎
- Ephesians 2:10. ↩︎
- Hebrews 5:7-9. ↩︎
- Matthew 5:38-42. ↩︎
- Ephesians 6:12. ↩︎