Hidden Corners and Disciples

This is the greatest liability of Yeshua-faith: that God does his work quietly and in hidden corners while the world is looking for noise and spectacle.

Luke 10:21-24 is material not found in Mark. It is found in Matthew, but Matthew has it separated into two separate sayings on two occasions: 11:25-27 and 13:16-17. Messianic fulfillment comes in unexpected ways and Yeshua's identity peeks through the veil.

On that same occasion Yeshua rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been given to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him."

Then Yeshua 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 longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

Yeshua rejoiced in the Holy Spirit
As was said of Mary in 1:47. For Luke, this is a mode of worship commended for disciples: seeing signs of God's work in the world and rejoicing.

you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent
Yeshua did not come to the Temple leadership or the scribal circles.

revealed them to little children
But he chose disciples from the common people, those who had no power or dominance.

for this was your gracious will
A margin note in the NET translation says this could be rendered, "for [to do] thus was well pleasing before you." Yeshua understands an aspect of God's pleasure: to avoid the channels of ego and power and work through the forgotten and ignored.

All things have been given to me by my Father
The idea that Yeshua was the Radiance of the Being of God is not something that waited for John's gospel. It is an idea already known to Matthew and Luke. Behind such a saying is a Jewish mystical concept: the Being of God does not directly enter the world, but his Word, Image, Spirit, Glory, Presence does. Yeshua has been given all things because he is the Word, Image, Spirit, Glory, and Presence of the direct Being of God (the Father). Philo and the Targums contain this sort of notion of the difference between God's transcendent Being and immanent Word or Spirit in the world.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father
"Knows" here is a word easily misunderstood. Knowledge includes more than the intellectual. Knowledge is also experiential, emotional, and intuitive. Mystical ways of looking at knowledge even emphasize the experiential. To know God in his Direct Being is not simply to read scripture and deduce theology. To know the Son (Yeshua, Jesus) is not simply to deduce things about his life from the history or from scriptures about messianic figures. True knowledge comes from union with the Ein Sof (the Unending One, the Father, God in his Direct Being).

who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him
It is a catch-22 that we cannot know the Being of God except through his Emanation (Son, Yeshua, Jesus) while at the same time we cannot know Yeshua (Jesus, Son) except through the Being of God (Father). This conundrum means that something supernatural must happen, a divinely given intuition. John calls it being born from above. It is an experience that disciples require.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see
For Luke it is very important that the Yeshua-community understand its blessings. In a time of hardship in the larger Greco-Roman world, the marginalized Yeshua-followers need to understand the glory of knowing the Father and Son.

many prophets and kings longed to see what you see
Such as David the psalmist and Isaiah the seer.

Both Matthew and Luke include these sayings, though in slightly different contexts. The realization of Yeshua's identity as the mediated Presence of God in the world (the Divine Man) is not something invented by the Fourth Gospel. There is much here for disciples of Yeshua to ponder about God's preference for channels that circumvent power and domination, about worship as rejoicing at seeing God in the world, about a sense of blessing at knowing Father and Son, about messianic happenings being fulfilled in unexpectedly hidden corners of the world, and about disciples seeking the inner meaning of it all.