The second part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower is found in Matthew 13:20-21. This is what He says.
“As for what was sown on rocky soil, this is he who hears the Word and immediately accepts it with joy. But since he has no root, he endures for only a short time. And when he experiences tribulation or persecution because of the Word, he’s repelled by the difficulty and, eventually, he falls away.”
Here Jesus illustrates typical revolving door religion. There are those who receive the Word gladly. Yet they endure for only a short time because they have no root. And here I have to refer to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He explains this idea of having no root so well. This is Ephesians 3:17-19.
“May Christ actually make His home in your hearts through your real experiences with Him (faith), so you can be firmly established (rooted) with a secure foundation (grounded) in His love, so you can have the ability that all of God’s people have to grasp (comprehend) the breadth and length and height and depth of it, and so you can really come to understand in a practical way through your own experiences (to know) the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience (passeth knowledge), so that, finally, you may become filled and complete in God.”
This passage is another example of why words and their specific meanings are important. To save time I put some of the key words from the KJV in parentheses, instead of explaining them. Now, let me point out two things in this passage that are appropriate for this discussion. First, Paul tells us we’re rooted or established in God and in the reality of His love through our personal experiences with Him. Then he says that knowing God in a practical way through experience is well beyond any capacity we could have to know Him through mere knowledge alone without that experience.
This goes to the very heart of religious deception. Religion offers traditions, rituals, systematic teaching, rules, programs, activities, empty promises, entertainment and, I’m sure, other things I can’t think of right now. The purpose of these things is two-fold. The first, and most important, is to gain people’s loyalty and participation in order to perpetuate the religious institution. The second is to dispense some knowledge about God. Individual experience with a personal God is almost never mentioned. Group activity and common thought is the order of the day. In fact, religion has convinced most of its followers that mere knowledge is the only possibility; real, personal experience with God is out of the question. These people have no root, no practical experiences with God, no reality of God in their lives. So, when trouble comes, either from circumstances (tribulation) or from other people (persecution), they move on.
This is the revolving door I mentioned earlier. These people have no root. They’re not secure in God. They have no foundation based on real experience. They never learned the difference between religious pretense and spiritual reality. And they lack the spiritual strength they need in their lives to face the opposition and difficulties that are sure to come to test the reality of their faith (Luke 17:1, I Corinthians 11:19). So, when something happens they don’t like, they move on.
And it is precisely here that I must make an important distinction. In the parable Jesus says that these “wither away” and later in His explanation they “fall away”. To really understand what Jesus is saying here, one must have the proper perspective. What do they wither and fall away from? It’s certainly not religion! For 35 years I watched weak, insecure, immature “Christians” drift from one religious institution to the next. Any time things didn’t go their way, when something was said they didn’t like, if a decision was made they didn’t agree with, whoosh, they were gone – not to seek God on their own, but to another church.
This is the third part of Jesus’ explanation found in Matthew 13:22.
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, then the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches begin to push the Word aside and so, it bears no fruit.”
Yep, you guessed it. I’m going to blame religion for this one too. Remember, Jesus is not talking about the world in general, but about those who hear the Word. In the first part they fail to consider the message and quickly fall prey to Satan’s devices; they’re herded into a religious institution where the truth is systematically taken away from them. In the second part they fail to develop any security or stability in God because religion is all about head knowledge and talks them out of the possibility of experiencing Him in any real way. Now, in the third part they never progress far enough with God to recognize that they’re not to be citizens of this world; they’re to strive for the next. So, instead, they struggle to gain what this world has to offer. And they do it with the encouragement, support and blessing of religion.
Jesus is absolutely clear on this issue. He says we have to deny ourselves – let go of our worldly plans, desires and interests (Mark 8:34). He tells us that those who strive to pursue the life they want will lose the life God has for them in eternity and those who are willing to reject what the world has to offer now will have what God desires for them later (Matthew 10:39, John 12:25). Paul then tells us that our submission to God and His purpose makes us citizens not of this world, but of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19) and that we’re to be strangers in this world looking for a better, that is, a heavenly existence (Hebrews 11:13, 16). And, finally, John is very pointed in saying that we’re not to love the world or what the world has to offer, and if we do, the love of the Father isn’t in us (I John 2:15).
Religion on the other hand promotes the world by appealing to the flesh. Remember, it started in the garden with Satan telling Eve to use her intellect to justify her fleshly desires. She thought it over and decided it would be OK to ignore God’s instruction. So, what else is new? Most of the things people do today in the name of religion have little or nothing to do with what God has said. It has more to do with what they think and what they want. As I’ve said before, most people involved in religion think it’s up to them to decide what they want and when they want it, and then it’s up to God to snap to attention and give it to them. They don’t come to God with a heavenly perspective and a hope for eternity; they come to religion with their fleshly desires and to a god of their own making, hoping to gain what they want in this life. And religion teaches them to assume that provision for the next life is automatic, no problem.
And they choose to believe they can have everything the world has to offer and heaven too. Forget the fact that Jesus says they can’t. Religion says they can. So, whom do they trust? Jesus tells us we can’t serve two masters, God and the things of the world (Matthew 6:24); religion says we can. In fact, religion says that’s what God wants us to do.
So, what happens to the seed sown among thorns? What happens when the message of truth tries to coexist with the things of the world? Jesus tells us in this parable the truth gets pushed aside by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. In the text, “care” is merimna, a word used to describe a distraction, especially one that causes anxiety. In other words, merimna is used to illustrate the things people commonly worry about. Never mind that Jesus says we’re not supposed to worry about what we have or don’t have; but, instead, we’re to learn to be content, trust Him and keep our priorities straight (Matthew 6:25-34).
The “deceitfulness of riches” is apate, to give a false impression, used with ploutos, material possessions. This combination of words tells us that material possessions create a false sense of security. Again, Jesus is crystal clear in warning us not to trust in riches (Mark 10:24-25, read also the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21). The rich, young ruler was grieved because Jesus essentially told him he had to make a choice between eternal life and his extensive possessions (Matthew 19:16-24).
And yet, even though this account is in the record, clear and obvious in its meaning, most people embrace the false promises of religion and make the same choice the rich, young ruler made. This is Jesus’ point in the third part of the parable of the sower. If you try to take the truth into the world and coexist with it, the truth will get pushed aside and the things of the world will take over. If you don’t make a continuous effort to keep the truth separated from the world, to see yourself as a citizen of another, better place, then the truth will be lost to you and the world will win your loyalty and affection. In this circumstance Jesus says at the end of His explanation that there is “no fruit”. The meaning of fruit is fully explained in the next section.
In the next lesson we’ll finish this parable.