About My Father's Business: a Meditation on Luke 2, for the 2nd Sunday after Christmas

And when they saw him, they were amazed: 

and his mother said unto him, 

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? 

behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? 

wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

The story recounted near the end of Luke's second chapter reveals an odd bit of anxiety between Jesus and His earthly parents.  Collating the Scripture's full witness regarding Jesus, we know Him to be the Alpha and the Omega, the Word by which the Father worked in creation, and the One who will come again to judge both the living and the dead at the Last Day.  It seems strange to read a story of Jesus wandering away from Mary and Joseph, their stress over having lost track of the Son of God, finding Him dialoguing with the scholars in the Temple, and eventually submitting to return with His parents-- all at the age of 12.  Of course, this age corresponds to the normal age of young men's acceptance into the life and rhythm of Temple worship, but that hardly explains why this interlude is recorded by St. Luke... Or why the Church tends to read this text in the season of Christmas.

Like Mary and Joseph, people tend to seek Jesus where they expect Him to be, often according to their own plans or desires.  If I am wounded, stressed out, depressed, or anxious, I expect Him to be right there relieving my every suffering-- and when I cannot find Him in that pain, I am quick to panic while wondering where He could be.  When I desire new work or a new home, new clothes or toys or tools, I expect to find Him near me to provide for my aspirations and dreams.  When I am gluttonous, prideful, and dwelling upon the wicked desires of my fallen heart, I expect Him to be far from me with His eyes averted the other way.  In my fallen nature and my fallen mind, I expect to find Jesus being about the work of my own imagination-- either helping me to get what I want, or turning a blind eye to the evils I enjoy.

While there is a sense in which Jesus as the omniscient, omni-present, and omnipotent God is present everywhere and every time, He reminds us through the words of St. Luke that fulfilling men's fallen desires is not the work He is pursuing.  His work is not in fulfilling my every greedy, prideful, or narcissistic desire, nor is it to turn a blind eye to my sin.  His great and abiding work is to be about His Father's business... And we should not be surprised to find Him there, doing this work.

Much of the anxiety we have regarding God, is that we look for Him in all the wrong places, and expect Him to be doing all the wrong things.  Like Mary and Joseph, we expect Him to be in and around us in the mundane things of life, taking care of our temporal needs and desires, and worried about all the things we worry about.  In a way, He's there in all these things, but satisfying the desires and fears of fallen man is not His primary business.  Rather, His business is the desire of His Father, and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit:  to seek, to save, to redeem, to enliven, to forgive, to transform all mankind back into His image which was lost during the Fall of our first parents.  His work is the saving of the world from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, by offering to us the forgiveness, life, and salvation He won for us upon His Holy Cross.

Does Jesus care about your struggles in your family, your job, your neighborhood, and your church?  Most certainly He does.  Does He care about your health, your livelihood, your rest and your recreation?  Yes, He does.  You will find Him in the mundane things of life, giving to you your daily bread, preserving you on your commute to work, and enjoying a cold beer in the shade.  But these are not the focus of His work.  Your comfort in this world is nothing compared to the greatest of needs that you have:  the forgiveness of your sins, and eternal life that transcends death.  In the fleeting years of this mortal life, you may have greater or lesser adversity, more or less abundance; but whether they be lived in luxury or poverty, pleasure or pain, what is the relative nature of these perhaps 80 or so years in this world, when compared to the first ten thousand years of eternity?  Jesus knows that we are created to be eternal beings, each with an eternal destiny.  While in our fallen state we may focus far too much on the temporal aspects of this world, Jesus remains focused on the real and abiding work that saves us forever.

Do you feel anxious this Christmas season, that you have sought Jesus in all the places of your earthly desires, yet seemingly not found Him there?  Do you fear He has left you in your suffering, or abandoned you in your affluence?  Like Mary and Joseph who sought desperately for Jesus for days, looking for Him among their kinsfolk, along the highway, and throughout the city, return to the Temple where you will find Him always at work for you.  There, in the place where His people gather to receive His Word rightly preached and believed, where His Sacraments are administered according to His institution, there you will find Him about His Father's business.  There you will find Him offering His forgiveness of your sins, won for you by His suffering and death.  There you will find Him exchanging your short earthly life of suffering and toil, of passing glories and riches, for the eternal life which knows no sorrow and of glories which never fade away.  There you will find the promise of Christmas renewed each day, as Jesus continues to be God with Us, not simply in our current times of struggle or success, but every day at work to bring us closer to Himself.  There you will find Him working by the power of his Holy Spirit to seek and to save you forever, offering His enduring gifts of grace freely to all who will receive Him by faith.

Jesus is indeed by your side though every moment of your life, sharing in your successes and your struggles.  But His work for you is found most clearly in His labors to seek and to save you for all eternity, where He delivers His gifts of grace to you through His Word.  When your anxieties rise, your worries multiply, or your vision seems compromised by the glitter of passing riches, turn once again to where you know Jesus your Savior is at work for you, and where He has promised always to be found.  There you will find His rest and peace which passes all understanding, and His abiding presence which knows no end.  Amen.