Luke 10:22-24 (NIV) “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
The seventy-two had returned to Jesus with great rejoicing and reports of their successes in healing diseases and casting out demons. Jesus rejoiced along with them, praising the Father that these “little children” (v21) had “gotten it,” while the truth about who Jesus was and what He had been sent to do continued to elude the wise and learned religious leaders of the day.
But Jesus also realized that who he really was was in fact known only to the Father. Those followers, even His closest disciples, had only seen the faintest outline of His true nature, because, even though He existed in a human body at that time, His true identity was the eternally existent Son of God (John 1:1-5). Jesus’ followers knew that He was the Messiah, and they had started to see traces of what that meant. But more than that they could not even begin to imagine.
They also had a growing understanding of who the Father was, because Jesus had been revealing Him from His earliest days with them. God, the God of Israel, was barely known by the people of Israel. They had know Him by reputation; they had heard of all of His amazing acts in the days of their forefathers. But none of the religious leaders, none of the priests, not even any of the high priests, had a real relationship with the God that they served so diligently. Their knowledge of Him was limited to what He had revealed of Himself in the Old Covenant, and they refused to receive the messenger of the New Covenant. So Jesus refused to reveal more of God to them than what they already believed.
Jesus also pointed out that the things that the people of the Old Testament times never go to see the things that they longed to see, and they never got to witness the fulfillment of the promises God had made to them, because those things were not for their times, but for the future. But the disciples were living in the days of the fulfillment of all of those prophecies and promises, as was evidenced by the abilities that Jesus had, and that they had through association with Him. They needed to realize that fully, and to praise the Father who Had enabled them to be a part of all that He was doing in the world right then.
Father, that last part really hits me right in the heart. As a Christian, it is easy for me to take my salvation for granted, and to wish that I had lived in the “glory days” when Jesu walked the earth. But I need to be reminded that for me to know You at all is an amazing miracle, an act of grace on Your part, and I need to thank You for that frequently. (Thank You!) I also need to be reminded that with me living actively in Your kingdom, with Jesus in my heart and the Holy Spirit directing my steps and empowering my life, these can be the “glory days” as well, where You will continue to show me things that people in other ages could only wish to see, and to hear You speaking things to my heart that they could only wish to hear. O Lord, make it so! Amen.