My Father's Business

We are going to continue to look at the story of the trip to Jerusalem by Mary, Joseph and Jesus as found in Luke 2:41-52. Last time we looked at verses 41 - 47, lets look at the rest of the story.

Luke 2:48 So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”
49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.

51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

This story which is only found in the Gospel of Luke, has four distinct features.

1. The only inspired story of the youthful years of Christ. Luke must have thought this very important.
   
2. The first recorded words of Jesus.
   
3. The last time Joseph is mentioned. Its possible that he died before Jesus public ministry.
4. The actions of Jesus in the minds of His parents, Mary and Joseph appear to be wrong.

What is open to interpretation is the number of days that Jesus parents looked for Him. As I simply read this story it would appear they traveled a day, returned to Jerusalem (another day) and then searched for 3 days in Jerusalem for a total of 5 days. Jesus was trustworthy and without sin, their were miracles surrounding His birth and extraordinary proclamations at His dedication. However after 5 days of searching we can easily imagine all these things being forgotten as Mary and Joseph are overwhelmed by anxiety and frustration. Gently Jesus is rebuked by Mary and Joseph for what He has done.

But Jesus does not acknowledge the rebuke with repentance. He in turn gently rebukes them in kind for not remembering who He is. He is the Son of God and the temple is his Father's house and He is about His Father's business. Even with this reminder and all the incidents that Mary has stored in her heart it would appear there is no real resolution to this story since verse 50 states "they did not understand". Despite that Mary did remember this incident in her heart and was able to recall for the benefit of including in the Gospel.

Here are the possible options for this passage.

1. Just an anecdote. Just an incident in Jesus early childhood. Not acceptable given all the other incidents that could have been recorded about His life.
2. Jesus was wrong to stay without permission. This can't be right since Jesus is without sin.
3. Absent minded Messiah. Somehow Jesus got into a discussion at the temple and lost track of time. Doesn't seem to fit with the versus that Jesus had increased in wisdom.
4. Jesus parents were negligent in leaving without Him. This doesn't fit since it would appear that they made this trip each year without incident and had come to rely on Jesus responsibility.
5. Jesus was right and His Parent's were wrong in rebuking Him.

Jesus had a unique priviledge as the Son of God. This text is not to be taken as a example of when children should disobey their parents. Jesus needed to stay behind to:

• Learn of God
• Learn from the teachers of the temple those things His parents could not teach Him
• Probably would not be allowed to stay if He asked permission.
• He did not ask because He is God

Mary and Joseph were wrong because they forgot that as mere humans their authority was vastly outranked by the 12 year-old child God had temporarily placed in their custody. And though there was just this one incident reported in the childhood of our Lord when the authority and identity of Jesus were asserted (the text tells us that He returned with His parents and lived in submission to them after this, v. 51), He was fully God and thus could sovereignly act independently, if He chose to do so and if it were in accord with the Father’s will. Jesus reminded His parents that He was, first and foremost, the Son of God, in obedience to Him, and called to carry out “His Father’s business.” The time would come when Mary would probably not have permitted this “son” of hers to go to the cross, but this He must do, in obedience to His true Father.

So what are we to learn. We are to be obedient to those in authority over us (parents, government, church leaders) . But if God is our Father we are ultimately to be obedient to Him, when their is a conflict in that authority. We need to remember though that being obedient to Him is to respect and obey the authority of our parents, government and church leaders. We need to be careful that we don't manufacture conflict based on our own desires.