Luke 10:24

For I tell you that many prophets and kings 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.

The disciples were not conscious of their great privilege, nor did they value it as highly as they should have. Jesus, therefore, addresses Himself to them alone and impresses upon them the glories of their station and of their calling as disciples and believers. Happy were their eyes since they were privileged to see Jesus, the Savior of the world, in the flesh. Many prophets and kings of the Old Testament had looked forward to the appearance of the Messiah with great longing, Genesis 49:18; 2 Samuel 7:12. There had been many a Simeon and many an Anna that were longing to see the Savior with their own eyes. All this had fallen to the lot of the disciples without their seeking. They saw the eternal Word who was made flesh; they saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; they heard from His own mouth the Word of eternal life. We Christians of the New Testament do not share the disadvantages of the believers of old. For though we are not able to see Jesus in the flesh, we have Him with us always, until the end of the world, Matthew 28:20. And He is with us in His Word, in and through which we have communion with the Son and with the Father. "As though He would say: Now is a blessed time, a pleasant year, a time of mercy; the thing which now is present is so precious that the eyes which see it are fittingly called blessed. For till now the Gospel had not been preached so openly and clearly before everybody; the Holy Ghost had not been given openly, but was still hidden, and had little success. But Christ began the work of the Holy Ghost, and the apostles afterward carried it on with all earnestness; therefore He here in general calls those blessed that see and hear such grace."