NOTES for Luk 10:22-24
Addressing the disciples with words that they see something that many prophets and kings of antiquity dreamed of, but which they could not see, Jesus, of course, has in mind that Kingdom which He brought into the world. It was indeed dreamed of and anticipated by many righteous men and prophets of all times.
But what is this Kingdom? What is its essence? The Savior Himself expresses it in one short phrase: “The Father has given everything to Me, and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” At first glance, this phrase seems somewhat mysterious, especially against the background of the tradition existing in Judaism at that time to call God the Heavenly Father. But Jesus, obviously, uses these words both in that sense, and at the same time not in that sense, in which the believing Jews of the Gospel era used them.
First of all, a certain not immediately understandable exclusivity catches the eye: for Jesus says that, besides Him, no one else knows the Father. One could explain this by the fact that only He carries in Himself the entire fullness of God: for an ordinary person, no matter how deeply believing he may be, such a thing is impossible by definition. But the matter, apparently, is not only in this: after all, Jesus also speaks of those to whom He can reveal the Father, and here, undoubtedly, we are talking about the most ordinary, sinful people. Apparently, the Savior is speaking here not so much about His divinity as precisely about the Kingdom: indeed, the inhabitants of the Kingdom have a completely special relationship with God, and, strictly speaking, only they can consider themselves children of God in the full sense of the word.
And the foundation of the Kingdom is made up of those relationships of Jesus with His Father, of which He says: “The Father has given everything to Me.” And the point here, of course, is not that Jesus became some kind of vicar of God on earth, but that the fullness of God, which He brought into the world, has become the foundation of the Kingdom: having become incarnate in the Son, the Father has handed over the Kingdom and everything connected with it, to Him. And everything happening in the Kingdom is accomplished in the context of these relationships, and in a certain sense it can be said that the Kingdom itself exists within them, being a part of them. In an untransfigured world, of course, there is and can be nothing like it. It is not surprising that the great prophets and kings of antiquity would have been happy to see the Kingdom: for it is precisely here that the fullness of communion with God, which they sought and could not find in a world corrupted by the fall, became a reality.