LUKE 10:21-24 BLESSED EYES

BLESSED EYES

Luke 10:21-24

See also Matthew 11:25-27, 13:16-17

Luke 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Susie: In our last lesson, Jesus had just explained to the seventy disciples returning from preaching the Kingdom that they should rejoice more in the fact that their names were written in Heaven than being excited about being able to cast out demons and heal the sick.

Susan: Jesus then broke into His own jubilant celebration over the fact that God’s Messenger and God’s message was hidden from the religious elite but was revealed to ordinary people such as fishermen, tax collectors, and extraordinarily even women.

Susie: God chose to reveal Himself to those who were childlike and humble:

Matthew 18:3-4 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Susan: Most children have complete trust in their parents’ ability to care for them.

Susie: I would jump (sometimes without any warning other than yelling “Daddy”) off the edge of the pool with complete confidence that my father would catch me. The disciples were exhibiting this kind of faith by following Jesus wherever He led them.

Susan: It was God’s sovereign choice to reveal Himself to simple people rather than the sophisticated religious professionals (Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, and scribes).

Susie: Those religious elite who did follow Jesus, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, humbled themselves in order to trust in a carpenter from Nazareth as their Messiah, their King.

Luke 10:22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

Luke 10:22 (CJB) My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

Susie: I like the Complete Jewish Bible translation of this verse because only God the Father can completely understand how Jesus can be One with Him, yet distinctly functioning as His Son. Only God can comprehend how Jesus could be fully man and fully divine at the same time. I believe it because God’s word says it, but my mind is unable to process it.

Susan: In other words, thinking about it make’s Susie’s brain go tilt.

Susie: The main purpose of the incarnation, of Jesus becoming a man, was that He would live in perfect obedience to God in order to be our perfect Passover Lamb. He literally was born to die. But another aspect of His time on earth was to enable man to better understand God. We can only trust in Jesus when He chooses to reveal Himself and the Father to us.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Susan: Jesus posed a question to the Twelve Apostles asking who they understood Him to be. Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The following verse is Jesus’s response to Peter’s declaration:

Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Susie: The Apostle Paul had been “an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5b). Yet He realized that his intellectual prowess and intense knowledge of the Scripture was not what enabled him to know Jesus as Savior. He acknowledged the fact that God was pleased to reveal Jesus in him.

Galatians 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood

Luke 10:23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:

Susie: Two questions. 1) Is this to see with the eyes or to understand? 2) What “things” had they seen?

Susan: It is both to see physically and to understand intellectually, spiritually, layer by layer.

Susie: True. The disciples often understood Jesus’s teachings on a surface level until further direct instruction from the Lord. Jesus gradually peeled back layers enabling them to digest truths. Many things they would not fully understand until after His resurrection.

Susan: The disciples who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry saw Him with their own eyes and even traveled with Him for over three years. They witnessed His miracles and were taught personally by Jesus in depth.

Susie: God opened the eyes of their hearts to see that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God.

Susan: And as the Apostle John wrote in His gospel they “beheld his glory:”

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth

Susie: When many people saw only a scruffy, homeless man traveling the countryside teaching about a coming Kingdom of God, His disciples saw through spiritual eyes that Jesus was the Son of God.

Luke 10:24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Susie: The Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah, but they did not know when He would come or exactly who He would be. By faith, they trusted that what the Holy Spirit had revealed to them would eventually come to pass. However, they never had the opportunity to see and hear Christ on this earth. They were never given the full revelation of Him.

Susan: The disciples, the students who walked with Him, were privileged to encounter and experience face to face Him whom the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, and princes had longed for.

Ponder this and Apply it:

Jesus told his disciples that those who were able to walk and talk with Him during His first coming to earth, were blessed to have seen. He rejoiced that God chose to reveal Himself to ordinary people. Later, He would say these words to Thomas who had doubted His resurrection:

John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, you are in that category of never having seen Him with your physical eyes and yet believing Him through the spiritual sight the Lord has given you. Take a moment to praise the Lord for opening your spiritual eyes that you would see the truth of the Gospel message. If you do not yet know Jesus as Lord and Savior, pray that the Father would open your eyes to understand and respond to him.

Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.