Big
Business
In Luke 2:42-52, scripture
records the story of twelve-year old Jesus attending Passover
in Jerusalem with his parents, then being left behind as they returned
to Nazareth. There are several important lessons we can learn from this
text.
First, they went “a day’s journey”
(2:44) before they discovered him missing. Upon returning to Jerusalem,
they spent “three days” (2:46) searching before finding him in the
temple. These time markers teach us that as we travel through life as a
believer, a SINGLE day without the company (fellowship) of Jesus may
take us THREE TIMES LONGER to recover.
Secondly, in 2:48, Mary and Joseph
essentially told Jesus he made them nervous wrecks over his absence,
and accused him of ‘dealing with them’ in a manner unbecoming to a son.
The problem was they ASSUMED his presence rather than ASCERTAINING it
by personal contact. We sometimes make the same mistake. Jesus was in
no way deceptive or disobedient. He was simply preoccupied with “his
Father’s business,” which is exactly why they were in Jerusalem in the
first place.
Thirdly, Jesus, who had been asking
questions of “the doctors [scholars]” (2:46), directed a few questions
toward his parents: “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I
must be about my Father's business?” (2:49). The first question was
focused on their METHOD, not the fact that they searched. Joseph and
Mary were well within their rights and responsibility to ascertain his
whereabouts.
After twelve years of exposure to his
personal growth, aptitude for things spiritual, the FIRST thought that
should have crossed their minds was Jerusalem’s center for things
spiritual—the temple. Instead of making a beeline for the temple upon
arriving back in town, it seems they looked everywhere BUT the temple,
finding him there as almost a last resort.
So when Jesus asked them about the
HOW of their search, he was asking how it was the temple was
so far down on their checklist of places to look. It should have been
their first stop, a no-brainer.
Consider for a moment the magnitude
of the occasion and who it was was in the Temple interacting with
doctors of the Law--the Lawgiver himself! Twenty-one years later, on a
mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus was "transfigured" before
them, unveiling the same Shekinah glory he embodied
as a twelve-year old boy. Can you imagine the reaction from the doctors
if he had been transfigured before them?
The question for us: “When we realize
we’ve lost touch with Jesus, for whatever reason, where is the FIRST
place we should look to reestablish contact?” Answer: The scriptures!
The number one place to find fellowship with the LIVING Word is in the
WRITTEN Word.
The twelve-year old Jesus who was
about his Father’s business INSIDE the temple kept about his Father’s
business for the next twenty-one years and finally FINISHED that
business OUTSIDE the city gates on an old rugged cross. It was there
Jesus became sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21) That, my friend, was
the big business Jesus transacted on our behalf!
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