My Fathers Business

“Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 NKJV)

These are the earliest recorded words of Jesus (post incarnation) and I want to look at how they lay out the pattern for His entire life. I was a little confused when I jumped in, because I was meditating on the verse as I had memorized it many years ago in the KJV much as it appears above, but then I looked it up in my “BlueLetterBible” ap in the NASB it shows up like this: “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”

I am thinking – which is it? So I looked up this word that can be business or house, and found that it is a pretty vague word. It is basically a pronoun that is translated based on context as: which, who, those, this, mother of, son of, and dozens of other things. I think if I, the great Greek scholar that I am (just kidding) were to translate this today, I would probably go with “Didn’t you know I’d be doin’ My Father’s stuff?” (Clearly not an English major either – sorry Eva.)

Let me get serious for a couple minutes. This is probably one of the most significant defining points in my theology. Jesus says it over and over again. He came to do the will of the Father, and has called us to do the same.

Consider these other statements of Jesus:

“BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO THY WILL.” (Heb 10:9) 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) 

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 5:30) 

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (John 14:10) 

“For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.” (John 12:49)

This is not exhaustive either. It is critical for us to understand that Jesus is a demonstration of the will of God. In fact in Hebrews 1:3 the writer makes the point that Jesus is the best picture we will ever see of the will of God this side of heaven. The writer says that Jesus is “the exact representation of God.” The writer also says that Jesus is a better representation of God than God earlier revelations of Him through the prophets, so don’t let something you read in the prophets trump what you see in the life of Jesus. Jesus is the plumb line by which all scripture and all interpretation of scripture must be measured. That’s right, Isaiah does not trump Jesus, nor does Paul. Moses and Elijah came to learn from Jesus, not the other way around!

I want to make 2 simple points here.

    1)    If you want to know the will of God, look at Jesus. This may sound obvious, but we often argue against this with our nearly fatalistic theology. Everything that happens to you is not necessarily the will of God for your life! If you can not find Jesus doing something, do not assume it is something God does. Jesus never put sickness on anyone, yet often we blame God for our diseases. Jesus calmed storms, yet we call them acts of God. Jesus fed multitudes, but we blame God for famines. Be careful of the accusation you make against God.
      2)    Jesus said over and over in the verses above, that He did not do these things by His own power. In other words He did not heal the sick because He was God, but because He was connected to the will of God, and walking in what He was seeing the Father do. This is why He could tell us to do the same thing. It is still the will of God to save, deliver, heal, set free, feed the multitude and raise the dead. We just need to submit to His will to the same extent Jesus did.

I desire to walk this out. Do you? I am convinced that as we meditate on His words, and press into His will we will see more and more the Fathers “stuff” show up in our lives.

Thanks for reading. Come back again soon!

Ben