Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy — the rocky-ground people's initial response is positive: they receive the word with joy (meta charas, with great gladness). The reception with joy is not fake — it is genuine but shallow. The joy without root is the parable's diagnosis of a particular failure mode: emotional responsiveness to the word without the deep engagement that produces sustained commitment. The at once receive it mirrors the at once removal of the path-seed: both are immediate, but one is immediately rejected and one is immediately, joyfully but shallowly received.

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