Tuesday, Sept. 24

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Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.  - Matthew 13:5-6

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.    
- Matthew 13:20-21

In the parable of the sower, Jesus shows us how we receive, or resist the message of the Gospel.  One of the most fascinating things about this parable is the fact that if we are willing to read it with honesty and humility, we will recognize ourselves somewhere in the four soils that Jesus describes.

I want to draw our attention to the second soil type in this parable - the rocky soil.  When Jesus explains the meaning of the parable, He says that this soil has no depth, and no root, this is why we are calling this soil type “the shallow heart”.  The key characteristic of the shallow heart is that although there is some initial growth, it is short-lived, it doesn’t last.  In other words, these are people who initially look like genuine Christians, but eventually they fall away from faith in Christ.

I must admit that in my role as a pastor, and especially when I was a youth pastor, I have seen this kind of soil in the hearts of many people.  I remember one young man who came on a fall retreat with our ministry.  He was not not a Christian, and I could tell that he was really only coming on the retreat because was interested in a particular young woman in our ministry.  On the last night of the retreat, our guest speaker clearly presented the message of the gospel (sowing seeds) and to the surprise of many of us, this young man stood up and confessed his desire to trust in Christ!

At first I was a bit skeptical of the sincerity of his commitment, but over the next few weeks, he started coming to church on a regular basis and got involved in a student Bible study.  He was excited about his new faith and he was very involved, in other words, he looked and acted just like the rest of the Christian kids.  But over time a couple of things happened.  First, the young lady from our ministry that he was so interested in, turned out to be significantly less interested in him.  Second, he went to spend a month with his father in California over that summer.  His parents had divorced when he was younger, and his father was an avowed atheist.  His dad spent that summer ridiculing his son and tearing down his new found faith.  When the young man returned home, it was clear that something had changed in him.  He stopped coming to church and to Bible study, and he stopped responding to his Christian friends who were reaching out to him.

Eventually we lost touch with this young man, and I don’t know what became of him.  I have often wondered about the authenticity of his initial profession of faith in Christ, but only God knows if he ever truly placed his trust in Jesus.  However, when I think about what Jesus is saying here about the rocky soil and the shallow heart, I can see where the lack of depth caused him to wither away when the pain and pressure came into his life.

It is very interesting that Jesus compares the trouble and persecution of life, to the heat of the sun.  Sunlight and warmth are not bad things, in fact they are necessary for plants to grow.  The point is that it is not the heat, or the trouble, that is the problem, it is the lack of depth in the soil.  The reality is that pain, and difficulty comes to all of us at one time or another.  The shallow heart quite literally “can’t take the heat”, but the genuine heart, the one who has received the seed of the gospel, can echo what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans...

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  - Romans 5:3-5

Jeff Frazier