Matthew 13:9

“He who has ears, let him hear.”

Having told a story with a familiar ring Jesus then challenged His listeners to consider well how they interpreted His words. If God was enabling them to hear, or if they wanted to hear and sought a solution, then they would hear. Otherwise they would not gain the understanding that they should. (For no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him - Matthew 11:27).

It is quite apparent from what we have said that if the listener looked at this parable, even without its known interpretation, it would be seen as having has more than one point to it. And once it is recognised that it seems to have a varied in depth meaning, which Jesus had seemingly intended, it reveals at a minimum that different people would make different responses, and also something about what those responses might be at different levels and under different circumstances. For it leaves room for considerable thought. And it finally stresses the blessing for those who receive the seed properly, the blessing that can be their under the Kingly Rule of Heaven. To limit it to one thought is therefore to be pedantic, and indeed obviously incorrect. Some might have done so, but others would have taken it in more breadth. We might say that it would reveal those who had the ear to hear, from those who had not.