Luke 10:21 (NIV) At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”
The seventy-two disciples Jesus had sent out had been successful in their mission. God’s power and authority had flowed through them freely, and disease and evil spirits had fled. To Jesus, this felt like a ray of bright light after many discouraging episodes, and it caused Him to break into spontaneous prayers of praise.
The wise and learned that Jesus referred to in His prayer were the high priests, the leaders of the people, and the teachers of the law. All of these were admired at the time as people of great wisdom and insight, whose lives were dedicated to following every one of God’s commands in excruciating detail. But in all of their wisdom, in all of their studying, in all of their supposed spiritual maturity, they had no relationship with God, demonstrated by their complete lack of power and spiritual authority. None of them was able to cast out a demon, heal a disease, or do any other miracle, large or small.
Jesus’ disciples, on the other hand, considered spiritually immature by these same elders and leaders, had great spiritual power and spiritual authority, given to them by Jesus Himself. That power and authority, and the miracles that they were able to do, were a clear sign that these men were in relationship with God, albeit a relationship moderated by Jesus at that stage of the game.
God longed to have that same kind of relationship with all of His people, the elders and leaders included, to be able to instill in all of them the same spiritual power and authority that the disciples of Jesus showed. But the elders and leaders were so confident of their standing with God by virtue of their position and their knowledge of the Scriptures, that they were completely unwilling to receive God’s Messiah, Jesus, when he came to them. Rather than see His power and miraculous abilities as a sign of His superior spiritual maturity and of His strong relationship with God, they wrote Him off as an uneducated rube, and His miraculous abilities as signs that He was in league with the devil!
So the simple truths that Jesus was teaching, truths about the here-and-now reality of the kingdom of God, and about the ability of ALL of God’s people to have a new kind of relationship with God through the work of Jesus was hidden from them, and revealed freely to those who simply accepted Jesus and His teachings at face value.
Father, thank You for not putting either the truths of Your kingdom or access to your power and authority on a top shelf somewhere, out of the reach of all but scholars and theologians. Thank You for revealing them clearly to simple, regular people, to spiritual children, like me. Amen.