BLESSED ARE YOUR EYES
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” Matthew 13:16, 17
Jesus was teaching the disciples how truly blessed they were to see and hear the things they personally experienced. They were so very blessed to hear the voice of the Savior and the lessons that He taught. Imagine the opportunity to see Jesus heal the sick and even raise the dead, to hear Him confront the Pharisees, or to see Him walk on water. They were privileged to hear the Lord pray in earnest to His Father, to see the spiritually oppressed set free, and to hear Him order the raging sea to be still. They were especially blessed to hear and understand the great news of the Gospel, and to see the fulfillment of the many prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, our Savior. Many who preceded them desired “to see those things” and “hear those things,” but were not able to. It is understandable that Jesus would say, “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”
No group of people would ever hear and see the things they were witnesses to, but we can sincerely say that we are a blessed people. It has been our privilege to hear the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and know the blessed truth that our Lord bled and died for our sins and raised on the third day. In our world, the majority of the population will die without ever knowing the story of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrificial death. We have in our possession, the complete written revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures. At any moment, we can turn to the Word of God, read and study God’s Truth, and hear the voice of Christ through the Words of Scripture.
Hundreds of language groups in the world do not have a single copy of the Bible in their language. Millions of people have lived their entire lives without ever reading a sentence of God’s Word. We are privileged to be members of a sound New Testament church where the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice; Jesus is the only Head; and to whom the work of evangelism, missions, and Bible training is committed. Because we have been so mightily blessed, let us be grateful to God for the things we have seen and heard.