I must be about My Father's business

So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him.

Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 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." And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.

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. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

- Luke 2:39-52

In this passage, we get a glimpse of Jesus as a youth, while he is growing up. A note in my study bible points out that Jesus experiences normal human physical, emotional and intellectual growth. But he is also under the "special overshadowing grace of God which fills him with wisdom and strength." That is a nice way to put it, this intermingling in this boy of the beauty of God, the wisdom that will shape his independence and his own spirit, and the normal growth and experiences of a boy growing up.

My study bible also points out that pilgrimages to Jerusalem on three great feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, were customary for everyone except for people who lived at great distances. It says that entire clans and villages would travel together. So, what Jesus is experiencing in this trip to Jerusalem at Passover is not extraordinary, but a normal part of a boy's life in his time and milieu.

But of course, what is extraordinary is Jesus himself, as a young boy, who is already following the spirit and will that the Father is teaching him. Wisdom and its pursuit is already showing in this boy who is just maturing into adulthood at twelve years old. His parents cannot find him, as they are returning to Nazareth. He's not among their kinfolk and the others traveling with him; after a day of searching for him among the company they must return to Jerusalem. And there he is, speaking with the teachers in the temple, and astonishing everyone with his wisdom, his "understanding and answers." And we note that he's also asking questions. We can wonder for just a moment if his questions are those he will use so cleverly during his ministry to also teach and make his points. But the wisdom showing in this boy is, I think, the important thing. Most notably to my mind, it makes him independent. He has acted on his own, staying behind in the temple, absorbed in what is there: wisdom and spiritual understanding.

His mother says to him: "Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously." And Jesus' reply is: "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" These are quite memorable words, juxtaposing an earthly father - to whom Jesus is ordinarily obedient and submissive, a man we know to be an excellent man as an earthly father, and full of compassion and righteousness - with My Father in Heaven to whom he will later teach us to pray. Jesus is, at this age of the beginning of maturity, about His Father's business. This must have been quite a shock to his parents, who can't understand what he is talking about.

But, we are told, he returns home with them, and is subject to his parents, showing obedience to his mother and father. Again, the emphasis is on a normal boyhood - but one clearly shadowed by Wisdom, the Spirit, the Will of the Father. If we understand wisdom to be synonymous with the Holy Spirit, then we again can see the foreshadowing of Trinity in this passage, as Jesus is acting as Son.

I'm going to repeat a note from my study bible regarding the last paragraph of our passage: "Jesus increases in wisdom, stature and favor with God and men, bringing into plain view the wisdom and grace inherent in Him. In His Incarnation Jesus makes humanity completely His own, including progress in wisdom and grace. He experiences and sanctifies every stage of human life. Since He is at once both God and man, He increases humanly in the grace and wisdom which are already fully His in His divine nature. Indeed, that growth of His humanity prefigures our own growth in union with Him." I think the last sentence makes a very important point. This is an example for us, and how we are expected to walk hand in hand with wisdom in our own lives through union or communion with Him. We also are expected to transform and change in the light of the Spirit - our own natures ask for that transfiguring light through faith and relationship with God that will work through our lives and hopefully show growth and progress through our lives of faith. I think, indeed, that this is the whole purpose of Christianity, and the bestowal of His Spirit in each of us. In baptism, we die to ourselves through the spiritual symbolism of immersion in water; as Christians, we seek to do as He did, to emulate this Child who is growing up in the shadow of the Spirit with God's hand upon him and who is "about His Father's business." We don't just blindly follow the world, but rather as individuals we are taught to find this relationship for ourselves with God, and to be about "Our Father's business" in life.

The picture of the Child who fulfills a normal child's life and duties and obedience in the care of his parents, along with this foreshadowing of the future teachings in the temple is a beautiful one, juxtaposing the elements of life of Spirit and man in harmony and in its growth. I think it's important to remember the words in the note in my study bible: "Indeed, that growth of His humanity prefigures our own growth in union with Him." This is the purpose of prayer and relationship. We don't grow as copies of anything, but as the individuals we are created to be, we seek the will of the Father as He did for how we too can be "about our Father's business" and how our own natures can be shaped to the "image" (or "icon") the Divine would teach us is our own. Bishop Kallistos Ware has written in his book, "The Orthodox Way," a wonderful passage about a priest listening to confessions - he was bored, as it was always the same old sins! But holiness, Bishop Kallistos points out, is something with a different nature, it is creative: God is always bringing grace into the world with new forms of holiness. As uniquely as we are created, as our experiences of life may make us and shape us, in the light of Spirit and the relationship to God, we too can be shaped into the image God asks us to be. The independence Jesus shows in this passage is similar to that "image" we are asked in our own relationship to God to grow into in our lives. It is for all of us to "be about Our Father's business." This is what we should pray for every day, the wisdom to carry it out and to know what that is for each of us. We too must seek the balance of life in the world with the overshadowing of God as the great Example of our faith teaches us. Jesus already knows He has a job to do, and obedience of another sort that He must follow. I believe that, in faith, so do we all, and this is what His life would teach to all of us.