Rocks and thorns
Is 55:10-11; Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23
If you followed the World Cup, then you know that the U.S. team’s path to the knockout stage entailed wins against Paraguay and Australia, followed by a loss to Turkey. That loss didn’t much concern seasoned fans because they knew that the U.S. team — already guaranteed a place in the next round — rested its starters and gave its backups playing experience to better prepare the team for the single-elimination games ahead.
It’s a common strategy in sports. Sometimes it is wisest to withhold maximum effort, even if risking a loss, during a game or race to maximize the chances of winning the overall tournament or championship.
There’s a good reason why sports analogies are frequently employed when discussing the spiritual life. Paul was fond of them, comparing himself to such athletes as racers (e.g., 1 Cor 9:24, Phil 3:14) and boxers (1 Cor 9:26). The concept of holding back maximum effort in service of a greater victory is particularly fitting.
It’s not that God is asking us not to strive our best to grow in deeper relationship with him. Rather, the lesson here is to appreciate that the immediate satisfaction of our wants and desires is not always in line with the healthy, mature love that Jesus is calling us to.
We can delude ourselves into thinking that receiving the love of God must always feel affectively joyful, without any challenge, and like a sweet embrace. However, to love with the self-sacrificial love that Jesus directs toward us sometimes requires the pain of heartbreak, disappointment, betrayal and feelings of loneliness or isolation.
Think, for example, of the difficult challenge of making an intervention in the life of a family member or close friend who refuses to admit that they have a self-destructive addiction. If you’ve ever been involved in such an encounter, you know it is one of the most difficult ways to express deep and abiding love toward another. It often brings no immediate return other than hateful accusations of betrayal and abandonment from the very person you are trying to help.
Why would anyone choose to take on such emotional distress and risk shattering precious relationships unless they had the hope of achieving true healing and a lasting joy, even if that outcome might be delayed for months or years?
In this Sunday’s familiar parable of the sower, Jesus is challenging us to think along these lines. Our desire, of course, is that every seed would land on good soil and grow abundantly. Jesus tells the disciples that such is the lot for all who hear the word of God and understand it (and presumably act on it).
It sounds so easy; why wouldn’t we understand and follow the word of God when it is placed before us?
Jesus explicitly names the obstacles to receiving what God so generously offers, the “rocks” and “thorns” of the parable: tribulations, persecutions, worldly anxiety and the lure of riches.
These are not just a random list of evils, they represent fear for our security (persecution), the erosion of hope (anxiety) and the temptation to resist admitting our vulnerabilities and weaknesses (lure of riches).
If we want to receive God’s word fully, then we must accept that such reception sometimes comes with potential risk to our well-being (emotional or physical) or with a fragile sense of hope that we are powerless to bolster or with the acceptance that we will never achieve total self-sufficiency.
If we extract the parable from the context of the entire Gospel, then we might conclude that the lesson is to aim straight for the good soil and avoid the rocks and thorns at all costs.
But the Gospel’s complete lesson on the love of Christ insists that the rocks and the thorns cannot be avoided. The question is whether we can see the broader landscape and understand that those difficulties are part of the entire journey.
By the time you read this, it should be evident whether the U.S. team’s strategy paid off. Regardless, we should copy a page from Paul’s playbook and acknowledge that sometimes your best spiritual guide just might be a soccer coach.