Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, February 16, 2013 Read – Luke 10:21-24 Luke now dips back into the source he shares with Matthew (Matthew 11:25-27). In his source, “Q”, he found a saying about Jesus rejoicing that God has revealed himself to the lowly and hidden himself from the wise of this world. The connection with the rejoicing of the seventy following their successful mission is obvious – only this rejoicing of Jesus is pictured more as an aside, as something that is private between Jesus and his Father. At best Luke pictures this as the disciples overhearing Jesus in prayer. In many ways these words connect more with the style of writing found in the gospel of John – especially John 3:35, 6:65, 10:15, 13:3, 14:7-13, and 17:25 – and almost sound “out of place” in Luke’s gospel. They are hugely theological in nature – reflecting Luke’s pondering of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Later on the church would develop the theory of the Trinity to help explain how Christians are to understand God – and passages like this one were helpful in that process. Our most diligent conversations and ponderings cannot finally explain God – God is bigger than our minds! Luke’s point is simply to remind his readers that being on the “inside” and “knowing the truth about God” is certainly not a human achievement – it is a gift from God! As we have seen Luke has a far more positive view of the followers of Jesus than Mark did – actually Mark’s view may reflect more his attempt to focus the identity of Jesus on the cross as the crucified Messiah at the expense of the disciples than his actual opinion of them. Here, Luke is reminding those followers that they are blessed because of what God has done for them – not because they are so great. We would do well to remember that too.