Seeing What Kings Longed to See
A Day in the Life of Jesus
As I sit with today’s scripture, Luke 10:21–24, I can’t help but be drawn into the joy that radiates from Jesus Himself. This moment is striking: Jesus, filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, praises the Father. It’s a scene of spiritual delight, an expression of thanks for a divine paradox—that the most essential truths of God are hidden from the proud and revealed to the humble, those who trust like little children.
Jesus had just received the seventy messengers who returned from their mission, full of stories about how even demons submitted to them in His name. But instead of dwelling on their exploits, Jesus’ heart turned upward in thanksgiving. He praised the Father for His divine wisdom in revealing the secrets of the Kingdom not to the learned or the self-sufficient but to the childlike. It reminds me that God’s Kingdom doesn’t function by human standards. We tend to reward intelligence, wealth, beauty, and power. Yet the Father delights to reveal Himself to those who come with open hands and humble hearts.
I often reflect on how easy it is to complicate faith. We stack up our credentials, measure our worth by achievements, and convince ourselves that knowing more must mean we are closer to God. But here, Jesus flips the narrative. His gratitude is not for the clever or the capable but for those willing to believe, to trust beyond what they can fully understand. As the apostle Paul later wrote, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). It’s a gentle warning: without humility, even our learning can become a barrier.
Jesus then turns to His disciples and lowers His voice, offering them a personal, almost tender reminder: “How privileged you are to see what you have seen. Many prophets and kings longed for these days!” Think of David penning psalms of a coming Messiah or Isaiah speaking of a suffering servant. They glimpsed in shadows what the disciples were seeing in full light. Peter echoed this awe when he later wrote that the prophets of old inquired and searched carefully about the grace that was to come (1 Peter 1:10-13). What kings and prophets yearned for, fishermen and tax collectors now witnessed firsthand.
There’s something insightful here about God’s timing and grace. The disciples didn’t earn this privilege; it was given. They were ordinary men, yet they stood in the presence of the Son of God, watching history and prophecy unfold before their eyes. And so do we. Through the Gospels, we too have access to the life, teachings, and love of Jesus. What the ancients longed to see, we can open in our Bibles each morning.
Another thought that captures me in this passage is Jesus’ role as the exclusive Agent of the Father: “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” This is both a sobering and a joyful truth. It is sobering because it means our knowledge of God is not something we can manufacture. It is joyful because it means that if we know the Father, it is because the Son has graciously revealed Him to us. The initiative is divine; the response is ours.
I remember a conversation with a young man in my church who was struggling with doubt. He had read books, listened to podcasts, and still found himself restless. What he lacked, he confessed, was a sense of knowing God personally, not just intellectually. We sat together and prayed, asking Jesus to reveal the Father to him. In the weeks that followed, as he read the Gospels with fresh eyes, he began to experience God not as an abstract concept but as a loving presence. This is the heart of discipleship: not gathering facts, but growing in relationship.
Jesus made spiritual truth equally available. That truth is for the mechanic, the stay-at-home parent, the CEO, and the student alike. It’s not about credentials but about the condition of the heart. As scholar N.T. Wright noted, “God’s Kingdom is full of surprises, not least that it welcomes the unimportant and the overlooked.” In a society that esteems prestige, God extends His Kingdom to the meek, the humble, and the childlike.
So how do we live this out? We start by approaching God with childlike trust, remembering that our access to the Father comes not by merit but by grace. Jesus made the Father known, not just in word but in every action, principle, and attitude. Every parable He told, every healing He performed, and every word He spoke was a window into the Father’s heart. If we want to know God, we look at Jesus. And when we see Him, we see love in motion, wisdom made accessible, and grace extended to all.
Today, I encourage you to pause and thank the Father for making His Kingdom available to all who trust. Consider that the truths hidden from the proud are revealed to the humble. Reflect on the privilege you have to know Jesus, to hear His words, and to live in the light that prophets only dreamed about.
Blessing:
May the Lord bless you with the heart of a child—open, trusting, and joyful. May you walk today with the awareness that Jesus has chosen to reveal the Father to you. As you follow Him, may you see the world through the lens of grace and truth, delighting in the surprises of God’s Kingdom.
For further reflection, I invite you to explore this thoughtful article on childlike faith from Crosswalk: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-does-it-mean-to-have-childlike-faith.html
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