Bible Studies

FOOTPATHS AND ROCKS

by Luella Campbell
06/20/15
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FOOTPATHS AND ROCKS

Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (Mark 4: 13-17).

Parables are stories about everyday things that bring understanding of deeper things. Have you ever asked the question, ‘Why do people respond to the gospel differently? Why do some receive it and believe while others remain untouched by the same message?’

Is Jesus saying that understanding this parable is basic to understanding all parables? Is all mankind divided into four groups – according to their response to God’s word? What if they never hear the word?

Is seems that this story, if it does not answer our question fully, at least acknowledges that people are different and their response to the word is different. The problem does not lie with the seed. God’s word is a seed. Like any good-quality seed, the power to grow and reproduce lies within the seed itself. The environment in which it is placed influences its capacity to reproduce. It needs good soil, sunshine and water to kick start the growth process. People’s attitudes affect the productivity of the seed.

Today we look at two kinds of soil. The first is the “footpath” ground – hard and impenetrable. Any seed dropped on this ground lies exposed. It cannot penetrate the soil because the ground where it fell has been tramped hard by many pairs of feet. The ever-vigilant opportunist, Satan, will snatch away the seed as soon as it lands on the footpath so that it will never have an opportunity to send out a root and anchor itself in the ground.

What makes people so hardened to God’s word that they don’t even hear it? I suppose there are many reasons, one of them being the religious ones. Jesus met some of them on His travels through Israel – self-righteous people who refused to acknowledge any need. They thought they were right and defended their right to be right at the expense of the truth. Anything He said to them bounced off their self-righteousness and made their hearts even harder until they eventually murdered Him to silence His voice.

Then there were the ones who were hardened by greed. Judas Iscariot may be a good example. We don’t really know the motive behind his betrayal of Jesus but money certainly came into it until he had a light-bulb moment when the money no longer mattered. What about the rich young ruler? He also heard the message but his money held his heart so tightly that he forfeited the opportunity to follow Jesus for the love of his possessions.

Others are so hardened by responding to life’s troubles in the same way over and over again so that they are no longer able to think differently. They see themselves as victims; God is often the reason for their hardness. He gets the blame for “allowing” these things to “happen” and any other explanation just rolls off them.

Sin is a common reason for hardness of heart. “The pleasures of sin” the Bible calls it. Sin either captivates people’s hearts or there are held captive by it. When people are enslaved by sin, they are ensnared by hopelessness and despair. They are deaf to whatever God’s word has to say about their situation. It might work for others, they think, but not for me.

What about the rocky ground? There may be a bit of soil in between the stones but not enough to sustain the growth of the seed. It germinates readily enough but the heat of the sun soon causes the seedling to wither and die. Life happens – the good and the bad, and we cannot escape it. Some people’s lives are filled with the “rocks” of wrong thinking – belief systems that do not give way to the truth which the seed brings. “Trouble or persecution,” Jesus said, “because of the word, causes the seed to be choked and the seedling dies.”

How does this happen? Bad experiences in childhood, for example, give rise to false notions about ourselves and God. Anything that triggers those memories and the wrong thinking that comes out of them causes us to doubt or blame God. The result – we become offended with God and walk away.

The solution to “rocky” thinking is to renew our minds with the truth. God loves us with a furious, crazy, unconditional love. What happens is not His fault but He is always with us and will turn bad to good if we trust Him. If we don’t believe that through thick and thin, His word in us will never take root and anchor us in times of trouble.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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