A Root out of Dry Ground
A Root out of Dry Ground
Scripture: Isaiah 53:1–6, especially verse 2: “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground....”
Introduction: One of the amazing facts related to Christmas is that Jesus survived the efforts of Herod to kill him. More amazing yet is the impact of his life, death, and Resurrection. Isaiah spoke prophetically of this with these words: “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.” The “dry ground” of which Isaiah spoke consisted of the humble circumstances of his birth, his growth and development, his nationality, the politics of his day, and the disciples whom he trained. Yet, the “root” sprang up and continues to spring up and thrive in the hardest and driest of soil. Reflect on the “hard soil” in which Jesus takes root and thrives.
1. The Human Heart. The Lord Jesus never finds the human heart to be fertile soil. It is characterized by darkness, greed, envy, and pride. In the human heart he finds not sickness, but death. This has been illustrated through the ages by the dramatic conversion of people such as Augustine, whose heart was consumed with hedonism and hardened indifference to the faith of his praying mother. Or think of Saul of Tarsus, the great persecutor of the early church whose hard and callous heart became the seedbed of the gospel. What an encouragement to someone who feels his heart is too deeply stained for God to accept him! And what an encouragement to someone whose current place in life might be characterized as dry and barren!
2. Our Culture. Evidence surrounds us that our culture is barren and dry. One only needs to survey the world of entertainment. Examine the ugly side of the Internet or the content of much of our culture’s music. Whether it be television or the curriculum of a typical secular university, you find much barren and dry soil. The living Christ, however, takes root and thrives in the dry soil of an ungodly culture. This has always been true. Against the backdrop of the barren Middle Ages, the Reformation was born. As the Reformers planted the rediscovered gospel of grace, the living Christ sprang up as a vibrant plant. Or think of David Wilkerson proclaiming the gospel in the barren territory of New York City gangs—only to see lives changed by the living Christ who sprang up in the most unlikely places. So we should not lose heart. The seed is planted and watered even in the hardest and driest of soils. Then, in his own time, Christ springs up and grows, changing lives and cultures.
3. Your Place of Ministry and Service. There are certain areas of the world where the soil is unusually hard and dry. The resistance to the gospel is strong and sometimes met with hostility. There are places where the messenger is in grave danger as he seeks to plant the seed. But, in God’s time, the seed sprouts. Think of China enslaved for decades by oppressive Marxism during the twentieth century. Yet as doors began to open late in the century, it became obvious that the living Christ had taken root and flourished there. Or think of the drift of the modern church in some parts of the world toward ministries devoid of the historic gospel message. Those who remain faithful are inclined to develop an Elijah complex, assuming that all hope is lost. Yet the history of the church is replete with stories of the living Christ springing up in the midst of the sleepy, drifting church. Or think of families that appear hopeless: the husband totally consumed in patterns destructive to his marriage and family; marriages that are in disarray and on the verge of dissolution; children in rebellion. Only the eyes of faith could see the living Christ taking root in places such as these. Yet testimonies abound of the gospel doing what trained counselors could never do as the living Christ is embraced.
This story has been told in a variety of ways, but this is the researched version that appeared in newspapers nationwide on December 25, 1994 from the Associated Press.
Eighty years ago, on the first Christmas Day of World War I, British and German troops put down their guns and celebrated peacefully together in the no-man’s land between the trenches.
The war, briefly, came to a halt.
In some places, festivities began when German troops lit candles on Christmas trees on their parapets so the British sentries a few hundred yards away could see them.
Elsewhere, the British acted first, starting bonfires and letting off rockets. Pvt. Oswald Tilley of the London Rifle Brigade wrote to his parents: “Just you think that while you were eating your turkey etc. I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!! It was astounding.”
Both armies had received lots of comforts from home and felt generous and well disposed toward their enemies in the first winter of the war, before the vast battles of attrition began in 1915, eventually claiming 10 million lives.
All along the line that Christmas Day, soldiers found their enemies were much like them and began asking why they should be trying to kill each other.
The generals were shocked. High Command diaries and statements express anxiety that if that sort of thing spread it could sap the troops’ will to fight.
The soldiers in khaki and gray sang carols to each other, exchanged gifts of tobacco, jam, sausage, chocolate and liquor, traded names and addresses and played soccer between the shell holes and barbed wire. They even paid mutual trench visits.
This day is called “the most famous truce in military history” by the British television producer.
Conclusion: This is the message of Christmas: no circumstance, no matter how hopeless, is beyond the reach of the One who takes root in the most barren and driest places imaginable. Offer Him the soil of your barren, broken, and hopeless circumstances. Expect him to do what he has done through the ages—grow up as a tender plant and overshadow your life and circumstance with His grace.