Ex 20:1-17, Ps 19:8-11, Mt 13:18-23
This Gospel has always made me nervous. It makes me I feel like I’m going to loose whatever faith I have to some difficulties or desires for wealth and good times. It scares me because it emphasizes the obstacles to faith. It paints a picture of vague pitfalls that lurk in the shadows of life. I have to somehow protect and guard against this onslaught. I worry that maybe I’m rocky or thorny soil. I tend to ask myself, who am I in the parable?
That’s how I feel when I read this passage. However, it’s not what I hear from Jesus or my understanding of what the New Testament is trying to tell me in general. My sense of the Jesus’ message is God loves us so much that God showers us with an abundance of what we need and seeks us out trying over and over to cajole us into a relationship that will give us a freedom and peace that will raise us to new life both here and in the world to come.
Therefore, this passage sets up a conflict I have to resolve between what I am feeling as a result of this reading and what I know to be the broader message I have absorbed through scripture. This is a good way to begin prayerful reflection. I have an emotional reaction to Scripture but it doesn’t match something else I already believe.
In this case I started by looking at a biblical commentary. I learned that this section was probably a reflection of the early Christian community on what they saw going on around them. When they preached the word, some people didn’t get it, some people were all excited to begin with but were frightened away when they were challenged by other Jews or perhaps Romans and then some people simply enjoyed the kind of life they were used to and went back to it. The reading is an outline of what early believers had to be aware of as obstacles to persevering in the faith. Of course, the outline still works today.
As I thought about this for me personally, I realized that the reason the story bothered me was because I saw each of the challenges as black and white situations. Either I was faithful and had faith or I lost it completely. I think a better way to look at it, is that I’m not black and white in who I am. We are all complicated and sometimes contradictory in our attitudes, emotions and actions. It is more likely that some part of me is having trouble with the demands of faith than the possibility that I would simply walk away from God completely. That’s where I think this explanation of the parable can be helpful. What parts of me or in what situations do I not honor the faith I say I believe. What parts of me are gravel, in what situations are there thorns? That is probably a useful reflection and consistent with what our Gospel is about.
But let us also remember our other reading from Exodus, the Ten Commandments. Here is the original advice on how to preserve faith. This is one of those “big name” gifts of God, a set of rules to follow. If I was anxious because of general warnings about what might be the challenges to faith or the temptations of riches, this is a list that can give me comfort. It sets out the rules of what God expects. Keep these commandments and you’re safe.
Now we all know the Ten Commandments aren’t the whole answer, they were never meant to define the fullness of faith. But in thinking about the ambiguities of faith, isn’t it reassuring that God started hundreds of years before Jesus to give us something clear and specific. A set of rules we could use not just as a basis of good conduct but a measure against which we could determine limits and therefore a way of knowing if we remained faithful.
So, for me, it seems that in these two passages from the Word of God, we are being given two forms of guidance, two models of how to come closer to God. One, the 10 Commandments, is pretty basic, but it is clear and specific. The other in Matthew is suggestive of what we might face in living out a fuller expression of our faith. In both cases the Scripture is a gift from a loving God to strengthen our wellbeing. There’s no contradiction in that.
