"The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and they are life" (Jhn. 6:63).Such is the case in Mt. 23:39 with His use of the word "see." Almost everybody reads into this verse that the Jewish leaders will not physically "see" Christ again until His physical second coming. But this is not what Jesus is saying. And it would not be the first time that He uses this word "see" in an unnatural way. For example, in Mt. 13:13-15 Jesus says to His disciples regarding the people,
"Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand....You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving...they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes."They were not physically closing their eyes so that they might not see; though if the Pharisees had heard this they would have interpreted it as such.
Additionally, in John 9:39-41, upon the heals of physically healing a blind man Jesus told the Pharisees that He had come "so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Upon hearing this they said, "What, are we blind too?" They just didn't get it! But His answer proves that He had more than physical blindness on His mind. Jesus often, and abruptly, said things like this, and often never explaining to His hearers exactly what He meant. He ofttimes left them dumbfounded, leaving them to reason among themselves that He must have been talking to them about physical ideas and concepts. Such was often the case with them, and such would be the case in the following discourse He has with them.
Matthew 23:39
In Mat. 29:39, Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees that they would not “see” Him again until they said, “Blessed is He who comes [or lit., is 'the Coming One'; Gk. O Erkomenos] in the name of the Lord.” This is to be understood as referring to any or all who would receive Jesus as their promised Messiah, "the Coming One," via His and His disciples' message. By receiving His and His disciples' message about Him being the Messiah, "the Coming One," they would then “see” Jesus in a way that they had never seen Him before. Their "eyes" that were "closed" would be opened.
Similarly, in the gospel of John, Jesus had told Nicodemus that no one can “see” His kingdom “unless he is born again” (Jhn. 3:3). Of course, Nicodemus thought Jesus was talking about being physically reborn and a kingdom that could be physically seen (as stated earlier, we see this misunderstanding of Christ's words occurring repeatedly in John's gospel). But Jesus was not talking about physically seeing the kingdom of God in John's gospel, nor is He talking about physically "seeing" Him here in Matthew 23:39, although it does eventually include this idea, as we will all literally see Him on the day of the resurrection. But these Pharisees here would from that time forward only truly “see” Jesus and His kingdom, a kingdom that was not to come with any physical observation (Lke. 17:20), only when they bowed their knee to the message of Christ and His disciples that He was indeed "The Coming One," as foretold by the prophets.
This thought above of not “seeing” Jesus physically is alluded to when after His triumphal entry in Lke. 19:38, and the people cried, “Blessed is the King who comes [or lit., 'the King, the Coming One'] in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”, Jesus immediately afterwards tells “some of the Pharisees in the crowd” (v. 39) who had asked Him to rebuke His disciples, “I tell you...if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out" (v. 40). And upon His approach to Jerusalem (and with these Pharisees in the back of His mind), Christ says of the city and all those such as these Pharisees, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace [the acclamation earlier of the crowds]---but now it is hidden from your eyes.…because you did not recognize the time of God’s [My] coming to you.” (vv. 41-44).” Clearly, Christ was referring to spiritually being able to see something that only an enlightened child of God could “recognize” or “see.” This is what is to be understood when Peter made the great confession: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," and with Jesus saying, "Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven" (Mat. 16:17); for no sooner had Jesus said His words to the city, and the people of that city (such as the unbelieving Pharisees), that they would indeed physically "see" Him again when they would accuse Him and crucify Him on the cross. No, Jesus did not have eyes that physically see Him in mind here in Mat. 23:39. He was speaking, as was His custom, using words that "are Spirit and are life," in other words, "spiritual" words. Jesus' words in Mat. 23:39 were not predictive but prescriptive of how anyone was to truly "see" Him and His kingdom, just as all those people who had cried, "Hosannah!", and even as Peter who had similarly made the great confession. And it is only upon such a "confession" that the eyes of one's understanding may be enlightened to "see."
Now further proof that Jesus was referring to something that they were to presently see and understand (and not in the future), is in the fact that the Greek language in Mat. 23:39 denotes something that was to occur from that moment on, if they would only choose to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Coming One. The Greek adverb "hartee" used in this verse describes something that is to happen "now," or "from this time forward" and not necessarily at a "later" time, and is better translated “from henceforth,” "from hereafter," or “from this moment on,” as some translations aptly reveal (such as KJV, NKJV, ERS, ASV, WNT, YLT). Jesus had said in Luke that it was “now” (at that moment) "hidden" from their eyes because they did not choose to acknowledge Him with this salutation as the crowds had done. Here though, in Matthew, they would “now” or “henceforth” begin to truly “see” Him as the promised "coming one," like Peter and the crowds, if only they would acknowledge Him with that exact same salutation. But "flesh and blood" was not going to reveal this to them.
This same idea can be visualized in Lke. 22:69, along with its parallel texts in Mt. 26:64 and Mk. 14:62. Combined they read:
"But FROM NOW ON the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Mighty God.....In the future you will SEE the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.... And you will SEE the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."So Luke, Matthew and Mark, combined, read: "From now on...in the future...you will see."
Jesus had been arrested and was now standing before the Sanhedrin to be condemned to death when He spoke these words. Within three days He would rise from the dead and ascend upon the throne of David, in heaven. For Peter said concerning David's throne,
"But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay...Exalted to the right hand of God,...For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ [Messiah]" (Acts 2:30-36).This was the exact fulfillment of Dan. 2:44-45; 7:13-14; Psm. 110 and many more passages. Dan. 7:13 even says, "He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence." And Mark recounts for us that, "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God" (16:19).
Now what is telling in Lke. 22:69 above is that from henceforth or "from now on" they would very soon start to somehow "see" Christ giving evidence to the fact that He was indeed who He said He was, the Ruler of all the kings of the earth; and that He was the promised Messiah that would be seated on David's throne at the right hand of God with power. They wouldn't see Him physically, but there were to be signs all around that He was indeed present. One being first and foremost, the sign of Jonah and the empty tomb in three days. They also saw Him in the curtain being torn from top to bottom. They saw Him in the darkening of the sun between the sixth and ninth hours. Many had also caught a glimpse of the kingdom when He gave up His spirit and gasped His last breath of air on the cross (Lke. 23:44-48), with them saying, "Surely this was a righteous man." And "when all the people had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away." They were to also "see" His presence and His kingdom in the saints who resurrected from out of their graves and went preaching into the city (Mt. 27:52-53). His disciples would "see" it when His kingdom came with power on the Day of Pentecost, empowering them as never before. And some of them were told they would not "taste" death before seeing the Son of Man coming in His kingdom with such power (Mt. 16:28; Mk. 9:1; Lke. 9:37), which some, such as James, did in fact "taste" (Acts 12:2) before Christ's coming in power to destroy Jerusalem with the Roman armies in 70 AD. And lastly, all the natural signs and disasters mentioned in Matthew 24 leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD would give witness to the fact that indeed "the Messiah, the Ruler" that Daniel had prophesied about (Dan. 9:25-27) had come with power and was seated in His glory. And this King would in fact be seen by the fact that He would "send His army and destroy those murderers, and burn their city" (Mt. 22:7). And it was at that moment in time that,
"the SIGN [1] of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the land will mourn. They will SEE the Son of Man coming on the clouds [2] of heaven, with power and great glory. And He will send His messengers with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heavens to the other" (Mt. 24:30-31).The footnotes noted above and written below tell the whole story. This evidence of the Messiah's kingdom, rule and reign eventually encompassing the four corners of the earth was witnessed first in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). And by Paul's day the gospel call had gone out as a "loud trumpet," being "heard and...proclaimed to every creature under heaven" in the then known world (cf. Col. 1:23).
Paul has also said,
"That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church....For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet." (Eph. 1:19-22; I Cor. 15:25).So when Jesus told Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen [Me physically], but still believe," seeing (physically) was not really believing. But seeing through the eyes of faith is what really counts---what really matters. When Jesus said His kingdom would not come "with [physical] observation," He really meant it. It is not to come with literal observance. Again, in John 3:3 one must be born-again in order to "see" it.
In a similar manner, Jesus had told His disciples that the time would be coming when “you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it” (Lke. 17:22). Jesus could not have been referring to His second coming, because they would all see that day. Jesus was here saying that they would not “see” it physically speaking, as they were expecting, just as He had informed them not to expect it as such in context. But, nevertheless, His presence was going to be made known, albeit without any physical observation.
May the Lord grant us "to see" all these such wonders of His kingdom, and to look beyond the physical and temporal and unto the true reality that is found in Christ---unto that which is spiritual and eternal. We must admit "we are aliens and strangers in this earth." This physical world is not our home. And "people who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one" (Heb. 11:13-16). Our future lies not in earthly buildings, homes, or on natural terra firma.
God grant us all the vision to see beyond the physical and temporal, and on into the eternal heavens wherein dwells righteousness. And "I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened that you may know the hope to which He has called you, and the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 2:18). Amen and amen! To all who look for Him, He will appear physically a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to all who are waiting for Him, and the day of the resurrection of the just and the unjust (Acts 1:11; Heb. 9:28; Jhn. 11:24; 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; I Ths. 4:15-18). Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!
Footnotes:
[1]: This "sign" was not to be the visible, physical appearing of Jesus. "Signs" in the Scriptures, as well as in everyday life, point to something other than themselves. That is what "signs" do. The "sign" Jesus was referring to was the destruction upon Jerusalem that was to take place, and which was to give evidence to the fact that He (the Son of Man) was indeed "in heaven" ruling and reigning on His throne with power. The destruction in Jerusalem gave evidence to all the parables and scathing testimonies that Christ gave to these apostate Jews that the King (God) would "send His army and destroy those murderers and burn their city" and "bring those wretches to a wretched end" (Mt. 22:7; 21:41). As stated above, it was His promise to them earlier before the Sanhedrin that "from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God" (Lk. 22:69), and according to Mt. 26:64 and Mk. 14:62 they would "see" this manifestation of His presence and power using also the metaphor of coming on "the clouds of heaven." (see note below on "clouds")
Some have argued that the Greek word "parousia" ("coming" in English) implies a physical presence of someone, and so the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by God cannot be a “parousia.” But make no argument about it, God was indeed present there! He was present in that destruction, but people just couldn’t physically see Him. But He was actually, and literally, there. Consider this, that when God says through Isaiah the prophet that “the Lord’s chosen ally [the Medes] will carry out His purpose against the Babylonians” (Isa. 48:14), He says in verse 16, “I am there.” And if one pays real close attention to the narrative, the one who is actually saying “I am there” is the Messiah—Jesus—the second person of the Trinity, as even the rest of the verse declares. As King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus Himself is “there” when all these events occur in life. He is sovereignly in control of all the affairs of mankind. He is the great Overseer of all.
Now in Mat. 21:40 and 22:7, Jesus, in essence, predicts the future judgment upon the Jews to come in 70 AD. In 21:40-41, he says, “Therefore, when the Owner of the vineyard comes (Grk. elthn), what will he do to those tenants?” His disciples reply, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end…and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time” (and the chief priests and Pharisees “knew He was talking about them,” v. 45). Then upon the heels of this parable, in 22:7, Jesus likewise says of these Jews, “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” This all goes along with what God said through Isaiah, that He “is there” when such judgments occur. All this argumentation around the term “parousia” is a moot point, because in Mat. 21:40 the Greek “elthn” is the same Greek word used in Mat. 24:46 (Grk. elthwn), and in the context of a “parousia” which is not about Christ’s second coming but about His coming in judgment upon Israel in 70 AD. In fact, many of the Greek verbs used for “coming” are found in the context of Mat. 24. And one of them notably, similar to the one in Mat. 21:40, is the one in Mat. 24:39, where Jesus likens His “parousia” in the latter half of verse 39 with the flood which “came” (Grk. elthev) and took all the ungodly away in Noah’s day in the beginning of that verse. The parallels are striking and to the point. The “coming” (elthn) of the Owner of the Vineyard and the King with His armies in Mat. 21 and 22, is the same “coming” (or parousia) in Mat. 24 which is likened unto the flood which “elthn” (came) and took them all away. They are both descriptive terms for one and the selfsame events or “comings” of the Lord through the natural events in this life.
Another example of the Greek “elthn” (as already seen in Mat. 21:40 and 24:39), is also used in Lke. 9:26 where Jesus states, “The Son of Man…when He comes [elthn] in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels…” Now notice also how Jesus says in verse 27 that some of His disciples will not die until they see this coming of His in His glory. Jesus is not speaking about His physical appearance at His Second Coming, they would all be dead by that time, and not just “some” of them. On the contrary, He is talking about His ascent to the Davidic throne at the right hand of power with the Father (with Him in His glory) to rule over all things in both heaven and on earth, until the last enemy (death) is put under His feet (see also the parallel verses in Mat. 16:28; Mk 8:38-9:1).
Again, this idea of someone not coming “physically,” but “coming” nevertheless, is seen below being used with some of the same Greek words listed above. In Mat. 3:19, “then cometh [Gk. erketai] the wicked one”; in Mat. 17:12, “Elijah is come [Gk. elthev] already”; in Mat. 25:36, “I was in prison and you came [Gk. elthate] unto Me,” for which the people replied, “When saw we thee in prison and came [elthomev] unto thee?”; in Jhn. 3:21, “he that does truth comes [erketai] to the light” (Jesus is the light here, but we are not here physically appearing before him); in Jhn. 6:35 the Greek erkomenos is used, in verse 37 it is erkomevov, in verse 44 eltheiv, in verse 45 erketai, and in verse 65 it is eltheiv, which all speak of the one who comes to Him, or to Christ (again, Jesus is not speaking about us physically coming to Him); in Jhn. 14:18 it is erkomai, in verse 23 elehoosometha, and in verse 28 it is erkomai, which are all translated as: “I will come to you…we will come unto Him…and come again to you”; in Jhn. 15:26, “when the Comforter is come [elthn]”; in Jhn. 16:8 elthwv is used and in verse 13 it is elthn, which are translated: “when He [the Comforter] is come…when He, the Spirit of Truth is come”; and finally in Acts 3:19, “the times of refreshing [from the H.S.] shall come [Gk. elthwsiv]”
In I Ki. 22:29, when king Ahab disguised himself when going into battle, many did not “see” him present, but as we all know he was still there nevertheless. This is not a perfect analogy by any means, but it serves to illustrate the point that someone, though not seen, can still be present, even if they are there hiding on the sidelines. And for God to be spiritually present is more real than if He were even there physically. Remember what Elisha asked God to reveal to his servant Gehazi? “‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (II Ki. 6:17).
Consider also Jer. 4:26, where God says to Israel, “I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before His fierce anger” (ASV). Or, again to Israel in Micah 1:3, “For behold, the LORD is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth [i.e., the land]” (NAS). And again, to the nations the Lord also says, "The Lord will...make them see His arm coming down" in judgement (Isa. 30:30a). Again, to Israel, in Ezk. 20:33-35 the Lord says, “As I live, declares the Lord, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be King over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgement with you face to face" (NASB). In none of these instances did God “physically” come down, at least not with what the physical eyes could visually see; but God said He “came down” nonetheless, even “face to face” with His mighty power and hand as the Lord and King over them in judgment.
Again, in Gen. 11:5 God said “He came down to see the city,” and in Ex. 3:8, “I am come down to deliver thee.” Once again, in none of these instance are we to believe that the Lord “visibly” or "physically" came down, but He “came down” nonetheless. And in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Christ “came down” to destroy the city; and it was to be the “sign” of all signs that He was indeed to be seen as the King of kings and Lord of lords ruling and reigning over all the earth. So, a person must be very careful not to read into a word or text of Scripture their own theology or presuppositions, such as in the case with the Greek word “parousia” mentioned above. For if the Scriptures are truly stating something otherwise, or something not so plainly evident to the natural sight and mind, then we will miss out on what God truly wants to say to us in His Word.
[2]: "Clouds," though often depicted as real, physical clouds in the Scriptures, are also often used as a metaphor for the stormy clouds of doom and destruction or of blessing. And if we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, we will see just such usages of highly apocalyptic language in the OT. For instance, in Isaiah 19:1 Isaiah prophesied an oracle against Egypt: "See [there's that word "see" again] the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt." No one can seriously believe that the Egyptians saw the Lord physically riding on a literal cloud coming to Egypt. The idea here is that, instead of blessing the Egyptians, the Lord was going to come down upon them like a storm cloud to wreak havoc and devastation upon them via the armies of king Nebuchadnezzar (see Jer. 4:13 which also says of Nebuchadnezzar "he advances like clouds"; and the Lord uses the same language of Himself coming as a destructive power and force via these armies in Joel 2:1-2; Zeph. 1:14-15; Jer. 11:16; 23:19; 25:32; Ezk. 30:3, 16, 18; 32:7-8; and Pr. 1:26-27).
And finally, the Lord uses this same language in Ezekiel with regards to using Gog and his armies to overthrow Israel: "You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land...You will advance against My people Israel like a cloud that covers the land." (Ezk. 38:9, 16). As the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus, via the Roman armies, would likewise advance "like a cloud" over the land of Israel, manifesting His natural brute force. It was to be a demonstration of His exerting power and influence over lands, animals and man.
In like manner, the darkening of the sun, moon and stars in Mat. 24:29 was the dimming of Israel's light and glory in the land by the Lord. Those who were once the exalted luminaries in the land, would now become abased, or darkened, no more being a light to the people. These "powers" of the heavens would be "shaken" to the core, and the Lord would "snuff out" their light as He says also of Pharaoh and the people of Egypt in Ezk. 32:7 using the same figurative language (for the same idea of the light of the wicked being snuffed out, see also Pro. 13:9; 20:20; 24:20; Job 18:5-6 and Isa. 43:17, contrasted against David and all righteous leaders in 2Sam. 21:17 and 1Kin. 11:36). Again, these same metaphors were also used by the prophets when prophesying of the impending doom of foreign nations with their leaders (the sun and the moon) and the people (the stars), such as with the Babylonians (Isa. 13:9-10), with the Edomites (Isa. 34:4-5), and with the Egyptians (Ezk. 32:7-8).
For more verses where the sun, moon and stars are descriptive terms for the people and their leaders, first see Gen. 37:9 concerning Joseph's father (the sun), his mother (the moon) and their eleven sons underneath them (as the stars). Secondly, in Dan. 8:24 Antiochus Epiphanes is said to "destroy the mighty men and the holy people" of Israel, and is said in verse 10 "to reach the host of the heavens" and "threw some of the starry host to the earth, and trampled upon them." No one doubts that this is figurative language being used by God for the people of Israel here. A third example is seen in Isaiah 24:23, where the Lord speaks of the moon becoming "abashed" (or disgraced) and the sun becoming "ashamed," and when understood of the leaders of the people it is easy to understand how these emotions could be evoked of these people, and not of the literal sun and moon. In the same manner, in Rev. 6:12, the sun is said to become black "like sackcloth made of goat hair," and with the moon becoming as blood, and with the stars of the heavens falling to earth. And we can see how those who are earlier said to become "abashed" and "ashamed" can now be understood as the same ones who would mourn and put on sackcloth. The stars falling from the heavens to earth are to be understood in the same manner that we understood all of this in Daniel 8:10 of the people of Israel being thrown to the ground and humiliated in the bloody wars of the Maccabees. And this humiliation is plainly articulated for us in Isaiah 23:9 where the Lord says He will "bring low the pride of all GLORY and to humble all who are renowned in the earth." Once again, in Isaiah 50:3, we see the Lord speaking to Israel in a retributive manner as clothing the heavens with "darkness" and making "sackcloth" its covering, which again takes us back to these other previous verses noted above of what the Lord means by what He says with regards to bringing people to their knees in utter humiliation in sackcloth and ashes.
In Jeremiah 15:9, the Lord in speaking of making widows out of Israel's women, says of one of these women: "Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be DISGRACED and HUMILIATED." Again, clearly, the Lord is not talking about the literal sun setting---for it is still day! Her "sun" setting is a metaphor for her light waning and her "glory" fading and being removed. But just the opposite is said of all of us who are righteous and upright in the land: "Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane [or become dark] no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of SORROW will end." And just before this verse, the Lord has also said of us: "The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God YOUR GLORY." No more do we look upon the leaders of this world as our light and glory but upon the Lord our God who is alone our light and our salvation. He alone is our Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. And, finally, of Israel's false prophets the Lord has also said: "Therefore, night will come over you, without visions; and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them" (Micah 3:6). The overwhelming testimony of the Scriptures interpreting Scripture for us lets us SEE clearly now what God is talking about when He speaks in the manner in which He does, for "attaining wisdom and understanding words of insight; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young---let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance---for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of [such] knowledge, but fools despise [it]" (Pro. 1:1-7). For some further study on all of this, please also read my article: The Coming of the Son of Man. I would also highly recommend reading the late John Bray's book, Matthew 24 Fulfilled. Many of the older commentators are also helpful, such as: Adam Clarke, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, John Gill, Albert Barnes, John Calvin and the like.
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