Daily Devotion for July 17, 2006

Getting Down to Business

 

And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?  Luke 2:49

 

It used to be said that a pessimist is a man who wears bracers as well as a belt.

 

What is your basic outlook on life? Do you always expect the worst to happen or are you always hopefully confident?

 

There are some people for whom everything they do is a bit of a game. They manage a bounce when others are feeling a bit gloomy. They don’t face the serious matters of life in a heavy, stodgy manner. They always manage to focus on the positive, the possibilities. Instead of listing all the reasons why “it can’t be done”, they are already planning “how it can be done”.

 

It is every parent’s nightmare - the moment your back is turned, the child has disappeared. As they get older, it may not be so much the question of “where are they?” but, “what are they up to?”

 

Jesus was twelve. The whole family had gone up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. Setting off to return home to Nazareth, Joseph and Mary assumed him to be among their relatives and friends. But he wasn’t!

 

Anxiously, they returned to Jerusalem and searched for three days until they found him “in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46).

 

Joseph and Mary were “astonished”. Perhaps we could find a few other expressions for their emotions too - “put out”, annoyed, “hopping mad”... I suspect that’s how we would have felt about the situation.

 

“Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (v. 48).

 

They knew, of course, that Joseph wasn’t his natural father at all, that he had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and was uniquely the Son of God. Yet for all practical purposes - and as far as the Nazareth community was concerned - Joseph was the father.
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (v. 49).

 

The King James Bible has, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” The original misses out the final noun. Literally, it is, “about (or among) my Father’s things”.
Jesus was indicating to them that he knew his mission in life - they should have known it too!

 

The church has a mission, and we need to get down to business! Jesus’ final words put it this way, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

 

Twenty years later we see Jesus entering the Temple again and driving out the traders who were operating there under the aegis of corrupt religious leaders. “It is written”, he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’.” (Luke 19:46)

 

Cleanse the Temple that it may again be a house of prayer and a witness to the living God.

 

God is calling us! Let’s get down to business!

 

Prayer
Heavenly Father – help me to keep the MAIN THING the MAIN THING and get down to doing your Business.  Nothing else matters.  Amen

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