He Who Has Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear

The Parable of the Sower

Luke 8:4-15

February 8th, 2026

In the Parable of the Sower the seed that is sown is God’s Word. The sower is Jesus. All of humanity is the field where the Seed is sown. The Seed of God’s Word must enter the heart, take root and grow. This is faith. It’s end is eternal life. This faith produces the fruit of faith seen in the life of the believer. If the Seed, God’s Word, doesn’t take root and grow and produce fruit, in its place will grow the weeds of sin and unbelief. It’s end is the flame of eternal destruction.

If we could see into the hearts of all men as God can see, we would see that we are mostly surrounded by the weeds of unbelief. There are very few in which the Word of God penetrates the heart, takes root and grows and produces fruit leading to salvation.

^{13 b} “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13–14).

“He who has ears to hear let him hear.”

Let the parable be a exhortation to listen to the Word of God when it’s sown in the preaching and teaching. Pay attention. Listen carefully. Mediate on it. Ponder it deeply. Work to understand it.

Then apply the Word to your life that it might produce sorrow over your sins and a desire to change leading to true repentance and faith. Then believe your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ alone. Then see the new life you’ve been given to live. And then live it. In this way you will endure in true faith unto life eternal.

Listen to the warnings Jesus gives regarding the different soils. The first soil is the hardened path where the Word is trampled and the birds devour it. A seed must penetrate the soil in order to germinate and grow. If a seed doesn’t go into the soil it becomes food for the birds. The sowing is fruitless.

The Word of God is like a seed in that it needs to penetrate the heart of a sinner to begin it’s work. Sitting there and being preached to isn’t enough. You have to listen carefully to what is being preached. You can’t shut your ears or harden your heart. God’s Word is sown in order to enter your hearts and make a change within. Let the Seed of the Word enter your heart and seriously consider what God is speaking to you.

This means you must grow in knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. In doing this you will learn to understand your sinfulness along with the great danger and threat that sin poses in your life. Your sins must cause you regret along with a sincere desire to change and not return to the sin. Let God’s Word repent you and turn you back to Him. Don’t resist it.

Then through the work of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel enlightening your heart you will find solace and comfort in Christ crucified and risen for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. Rejoicing in the free gift of forgiveness and salvation in Christ move forward with joy believing that the Gospel has changed you.

You are now children of God set free from sin. You are filled with the Spirit. So walk in the Spirit. You now bear fruit for God leading to sanctification and its end is eternal life. Go into the world and bear fruit. Walk as Christians in thought, word and deed. This is God’s will and desire for you. In this way you will endure with faith until the end.

The second warning is the rocky soil. The Seed of God’s Word goes into the heart and initially brings great joy and faith. But it doesn’t last. Jesus makes it clear that faith can be lost. Just because you came to faith through hearing God’s Word at one time doesn’t mean there is no danger of losing faith. One who has come to faith must endure in faith until the end. Faith can be lost.¹

Jesus said this happens through a time of testing. Testing could also be translated as temptation. This testing or temptation attacks the flesh in many ways. Often old, pet sins rise up and conquer the heart pushing out the Seed of the Word and extinguishing faith. There is no longer a desire to turn from the sin but only a wicked and evil intention to indulge and feed the flesh with the sin. The desires of the flesh are allowed to grow without restraint. And the sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Faith is lost. All that is left is a hole in which the weeds for eternal destruction take root and grow producing fruit that leads to eternal death.

Or maybe the testing is one of persecution or ridicule for the faith. The ridicule and persecution for the faith in Jesus is more than the person is willing to endure. They didn’t realize that faith in Christ actually demands something of you. It demands your life which includes a right confession of Jesus that the world hates. The cost is too high, so they rip out the Seed. Without the Word faith dies.

How does this happen? How does a person raised in the church, baptized as an infant, taught the faith from a young age and then confirmed, promising to never depart from the faith even at the risk of death. How do they fall? They knelt at the altar and received the body and blood of Jesus. And then one day the faith is dead and gone? The Seed of God’s Word rejected. How does this happen?

It can only be one thing. The Word of God was continually resisted. The ears were shut and the heart hardened. The Word wasn’t seriously contemplated and meditated upon. Hearing the Gospel and receiving the Sacraments become loathsome and boring. They didn’t want to listen, learn, and conform and shape their lives to God’s Word. They no longer desired to receive the never ending grace and mercy of Jesus.

They began feeding less and less on the Word and the Sacrament. They shut their ears when the Word was preached. They didn’t believe in the body and blood to forgive their sins and strengthen their faith. Faith was weakened. Their sins began to cause little concern. They listened to and trusted their inner voice over the voice of God in His Word. God was demanding their life so He could shape it, form it and save it. The cost was too high. The weeds of sin and unbelief overtook their heart. Faith was extinguished.

The final warning. The Seed that grows but is choked by the thorns. The Seed made it into the heart. The Seed took root and began to grow. The roots went deep. A solid foundation was laid. For a time it held on and showed signs of growth and potential. There was some sign of fruit. But the fruit never matured. The thorns, the cares and riches, and pleasures of life were too strong. The desire to sow to the flesh and not the Spirit was overwhelming. Faith didn’t endure. It gave way to the world and the desires of the flesh.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. He who has ears to hear let him hear (Galatians 6:8).”

The seed of the Word of God that is sown is not something to take lightly. The greatest and most experienced Christians among us if not careful and attentive to the Word of God can fall. This happens through complacency, inattentiveness, callousness, and just pure laziness. When our focus and attention is centered on the cares and riches and pleasures of the world that our flesh loves, it doesn’t take long for the weeds of sin and unbelief to overrun and choke out the Good Seed of the Word. Faith weakens.

Sin is no longer a serious matter. The need for weekly repentance and reception of Jesus in the Divine Service is of little importance. The Divine Service becomes an unnecessary inconvenience if you don’t understand the seriousness of your sin and the need to feed on Jesus often in His Word and Sacrament.

Work, play, sports, family, sleep or whatever else is desired over coming to church to feed and nourish the seed of faith planted in the heart becomes a god. Faith is starved, choked and eventually it dies. You don’t even feel it happening. That’s why it’s so dangerous. You can’t trust your feelings in matters of faith. Only the Word that sown in its truth and purity through the preaching and teaching can be trusted. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

That leaves the good soil. How do we know if we are those of the good soil? First we must know we can’t create or make the soil good through our own work or preparation. We have nothing inherently good within our hearts. That is the work of Jesus the Sower alone. He makes the soil good with the seed of His Word that is sown along with the work of the Holy Spirit. Let Jesus sow His Word in your heart. Hear it all. Both Law and Gospel. And then remember it’s not enough to simply hear the Word of God.

You must continuously be cultivated and sustained with the Word of God.² This involves abiding in the Word often along with a deep and serious contemplation on the Word that is sown.

The Word must open up your heart and expose the sin that lies hidden deep inside. All the things that cause you shame and grief. Let Jesus bring it all out into the light of His Word so He can wash it all away in the blood of His Cross. And when He has lifted you up once again from your place of shame and disgrace, forgiven and saved, live as one who is truly redeemed and set free from the bondage of sin. Don’t turn and go back to yesterday and all that stuff of the flesh that wants to rip out the seed of the Word and faith.

Keep pushing forward into Jesus and His never ending grace and mercy. Live as one redeemed and set free from sin and death. Seek only Jesus. In this way your heart will be united to the Word and truly transformed. The fruit of faith will blossom and grow from an honest and good heart. You will have new desires and impulses. Your trust and confidence in Christ crucified and risen will increase. The fear of death will diminish. The sinful desires of the flesh will be beaten down with pure Gospel of Jesus. You will be rooted firmly in the good soil of Jesus and you will bear the fruit of righteousness with patience for life eternal.

You will long to come to this place where the Word of God is sown every week in the Divine Service. In this place you will find eternal comfort and peace in the holy rhythm of the Word and Sacrament received as we gather together. Before you know it when you walk through those doors your heart filled with the good soil of faith nourished with the Word and the Spirit will cry out with Jacob and all the saints:

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:7).”

In this place the Word of God is sown in its truth and purity and the Sacraments are administered rightly for faith today and for endurance to push forward into the life of the world to come.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.