Blessed Are the Eyes
Dr. Larry Thorson
Luke 10:21-24
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
We’ve come to the final sermon in a seven week
series that has looked at how Jesus prepared his team of 72 sales reps to go
into their world and promote him. My
intention has been to train you to go into your world and be Jesus’ sales reps
here with our sure fire sales pitch: “Would you like to come to church with me
this Sunday?” That’s it. No giving them free coupons for a lunch at Millie’s. No giving them free tickets to a classical
music concert. No offering to wash their
car for them if they come to church. No
waiting until the right moment presents itself after you’ve talked to them
seven times. Just “Would you like to
come to church with me this Sunday?” Many
of you found the question fairly easy to ask and even experienced some success with
it. I’d like to hear your stories of how
it went.
Last week we read how excited the 72 were when
they got back from their trip. When they
went out they probably asked a simple question similar to ours: “would you like
to meet Jesus the Christ and be healed?”
With that multitudes of people met Jesus and were healed. But that wasn’t what got the 72 the most
excited. What got them the most excited was the power Jesus had given them to
cast out demons at their command. I mean
that really energized them.
Today we’re going to read what energized Jesus
starting in Luke 10:21-24…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.
22
"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."
23 Then he turned to his
disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
24 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."
You may be surprised to know that this is the only
place in all four gospels where we read that Jesus was full of joy. Think about it. There may have been other times when he was
full of joy but none of the writers mention it.
They mention his being angry at the money changers. They mention him weeping over the spiritual
condition of
There’s a lie that says we have to be filled with
joy all the time as if something is terribly wrong with us if we’re not. Life is hard and no matter how much
medication you take there’s just no way to squeeze out joy in difficult
situations. Being joyful is not one of
the Ten Commandments.
But in this passage we get to see what brought joy
to Jesus. That’s the value test. What brings joy to us reveals what we care
about. I know that a big, sloppy plate
of brisket smoked for at least ten hours served with a generous helping of slaw
and potato salad brings great joy to me.
That reveals what I care about.
For some of you boarding a cruise ship brings
great joy. For others 400 horses under
the sole of your shoe brings joy. For others just being able to get out of bed and
go anywhere but to a doctor’s office brings you great joy. What brings you joy reveals what you care
about.
Strangely, what brought joy to Jesus was seeing
how God revealed himself to children rather than to the “wise and learned”. In this he was referring
to the response that the 72 had when they invited people to meet Jesus. The wise and learned must have rejected them
but people of humble means who are sometimes referred to as children received
them.
I would have thought that being rejected by the
wise and learned would have depressed him.
That would be like going into
Don’t miss this in v.21: Jesus in his prayer to
his Father was acknowledging that his Father God had actually hidden spiritual
things from the wise and learned and instead revealed Himself to children. He wasn’t saying anything negative against
the “wise and learned” except that human wisdom and education will do many
things for us but it won’t reveal God to us.
No matter how many books you read, degrees you
receive or people you interview, none of that will enable you to find God. God is only revealed to those whom God
chooses to reveal himself to. By
insisting that you can find God with your mind actually hinders God’s
revelation to us. That’s what Jesus was
acknowledging.
If God wanted to he could have revealed himself to
those whom we consider wise and learned.
But he knew they would have rejected him because they were trying to
find him with their mind, not their heart.
Instead he chose to reveal himself to people of humble means. Today if you believe in Jesus Christ as your
Savior it wasn’t because you had figured it all out, removing all doubt and
coming up with an intellectual answer.
You believe because God revealed enough of himself to you to believe.
Let’s get back to what brought joy to Jesus. Not a plate of brisket. Not a cruise on the
That’s a lot of power. Jesus had the power to decide who God would
be revealed to and who wouldn’t. I
believe a man’s drive for power comes straight from the original source, God
Almighty of whom we are made, male and female in His image. Jesus clearly reflected
that.
Power and the desire for power is
not evil in itself. Having power is
important to our well being. When that’s stripped from us due to health, aging,
a belligerent power stealing spouse, or even a collapsing economy we look for
power in other places. We always
do. We will take what power we can get
and sometimes not in very healthy ways.
Let me give you some examples. Before you retired you had employees working
under you. They listened to you or acted
like they did. Your power needs were met
by managing those employees. When you
retired you had to find another source of power and may have been over your
wife or over your children or the community.
Before the economic downturn you had discretionary
money to do fun things. You had power to
control what you were going to do. Now
you have to find something else to control.
Before you lost your job you had power to pay your
mortgage and your car payments and to order things online. Now you’re at the mercy of the bank. Those
power needs are going unmet.
I wish that I could convince you that every
breathing human being alive today, male and female, from the poorest of the
poor to the wealthiest mogul has power needs that have to be met. I wish that I could convince you that that
power need is not a sin but merely a reflection that we are made in the image
of God.
That power need becomes a liability when it’s not
met correctly. What we want to do as followers of Christ is not de-power people but empower them
to become all that God created them to be. You can empower others only when
you’ve been empowered yourself so your own power needs are met.
When Jesus gave his pep talk instructions to the
72 sales rep he empowered them to be able to overcome
demons and health disorders. He could
only empower them when he himself had been empowered by his father at
baptism. If he had not been empowered he
would have attempted to keep all the power to himself and not shared it with
the 72.
The role of the church then is to empower Christ’s
followers so that their power needs are met and ministry is multiplied. The darkest period of church history was when
church power was ensconced in the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy. Even the Bible was hand copied in Latin which
only the clergy could read.
The Reformation with Martin Luther and John Calvin
changed some of that but not all of it.
They kept the professional clergy idea that was not a part of the early
church. They also kept women from
exercising their God given power. Power resided in the male professional clergy
whose education could often better argue the Bible than lay people.
But the role of the church in the Scriptures has
always been to empower the people to do ministry. That’s why today instead of just having our
Annual Meeting of the Congregation we’re having a ministry fair. It was Bob Browning’s concept and Don Silva
who prepared some attractive ministry displays.
Our objective with the Ministry Fair is to empower
more people to do the ministry together instead of holding the power in a small
group of volunteers and paid staff. It’s
healthier for the church and it’s healthier for us as individual followers of
Christ as well. You need to be
empowered.
That’s how God intended the church to be, a place
where we’re all empowered to do ministry.
In verses 23-24 Jesus “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."
I say the same to you. Blessed
are your eyes because you have the potential to see the power of God come upon
those you encounter. When you say to
someone “would
you like to go to church with me this Sunday?” you help empower them to find a
welcoming place in the
We all as humans have power needs including God
incarnate, Jesus. That’s what makes this
statement from Philippians 2 even more remarkable in describing Jesus “Who
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be
used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very
nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human
being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a
cross!”
That’s how much Jesus loved us. We know how much power brought joy to him, but
He gave it all up and died in the fashion of a criminal, on a cross for us. That was not casual love,
that was passionate love. That’s
the kind of love our world needs right now All we have
to do is admit that we’re a sinner in need of a savior and invite Him to take
over control of our lives. Have you done
that? If you have don’t you want other
people to have the same opportunity? You
are empowered to say “Would you like to come to church with me this
Sunday?”