1. Matthew 11:27 (ESV)
  2. Eksposisi

Does the Son choose to restrict his revelation to a limited number of people?

Matthew 11:27 (ESV)

27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Secara singkat

No, although Matthew 11:27 does not yet reveal Christ’s worldwide willingness to make the Father known. The passage stresses that the whole world can only gain this knowledge through Jesus, but also says that there is but one way to know the Father: by recognizing the Son as his unique representative with authority over heaven and earth. It is those who unthinkingly bypass Jesus whom he seeks to awaken by showing how unique and exalted is the way of knowledge that God graciously now opens through Jesus.

No, the Son’s will to reveal the mystery is not restricted to a small group of people. Matthew 11:27 does not yet reveal Christ’s worldwide willingness to make the Father known, however. This passage first emphasizes that the whole world can only gain this knowledge through Jesus, but at the same time highlights that there is but one way to know the Father: by recognizing the Son as his unique representative with authority over heaven and earth. In Israel, people readily bypass Jesus, for many other teachers of wisdom were accessible at the time. It is these people who bypass him without thought that Jesus seeks to awaken. To them he speaks a lofty doxology, showing how unique and exalted the way of knowledge is that God, in his benevolence, now opens through Jesus Christ.1