It was the Lord Jesus who addressed these words to His mother, Mary: “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” The words were spoken at the age of 12 years when the Saviour went up to Jerusalem at the feast time with His mother and Joseph. Unknown to them he had remained behind in Jerusalem and when they discovered that he was not with them they sought him for three days sorrowing. They found him at length in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors both hearing them, and asking them questions. To the question — “Why hast thou thus dealt with us?” — Jesus gave the reply — “How is it that ye have sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business.”
What lessons there are for us in this incident and what a lustre and glory it sheds on the character of the Lord Jesus in the days of His humiliation!
We see how-quickly the Lord Jesus corrects the remark of Mary when she refers to Joseph as his father. He immediately speaks of His Father which is in heaven. He has one Father, even God. He was the Son of the Father in truth and love. He never divested Himself of this relationship throughout His life in this world. He never ceased to be what He was from eternity — the only begotten Son of God. It is true that in the midst of His sufferings on Calvary, we do find Him, as it were, laying aside the use of the term “My Father” when He cried out in His agony, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” But this was not because in that extremity the Father had ceased to bear this relationship to Him, but rather because of His consciousness at that time of God the Father dealing with Him as the sin-bearer. Consequently, the Father was revealing Himself to Him as a sin-avenging God. Nor did the Father cease to own the eternal relationship that subsisted between Himself and the Son, not even in the very midst of His sufferings. Even when the Father as a righteous God called for the sword of divine justice to awake it was against “My Shepherd” and “the Man that is My Fellow.”
It was His Father’s business that the Lord Jesus was engaged in when Mary and Joseph found Him in the temple. The spirit with which He was actuated is expressed in these words: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” He had ever before Him the fulfilling of the Father’s will. No master ever had such a devoted servant as the Father had in the Son in His sending Him into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. He came as the Servant of the Father to accomplish the work of redemption. He was about His Father’s business. All other matters were subservient to this. He was to glorify the Father in finishing His work. The interests of the Father were His concern. No earthly lord ever committed the affairs of his house into the hands of a more faithful steward than the Father did when He committed into Christ’s hands the affairs of His kingdom. The constancy of Christ in the task deputed to Him was not to waver even when the service required of Him was the shedding of His own precious blood on Calvary. Was this not evident as He went before His disciples on His way up to Jerusalem for the last time? It was as though He was pressing forward to render the greatest and costliest service that was ever to be rendered. “I have a baptism to be baptised with” he said, “and how am I straitened until it be accomplished.” Should we not stand in awe and gaze in wonder on the spectacle of the Son of God in our nature suffering on the accursed tree. If in beholding Him there we begin to question, why should these things be? — the answer that comes to us from Calvary is: “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”
He who was so occupied with His Father’s business here, is now occupied with it in glory. The concerns of the Father’s house in everlasting glory are His concerns, as well as the concerns of the Father’s kingdom in this world. With regard to glory itself, what is His intercession within the veil bound up with but His Father’s business? What is His preparing a place for His people in glory, but a matter affecting the eternal blessedness of His people? And what is this but His Father’s business?
In connection with Mary and Joseph going three days before being aware that Jesus was not with them and their subsequent searching for Him, does this not remind us of our need to enquire if the Saviour is with us? The Lord is with His people. This distinguishes them from others. But sometimes the Lord hides His face from them. It is then that a felt sense of His absence will make them seek Him. But may they not go three days — and more — before they are aware that the One whom they thought was with them is now absent. With what sorrowful hearts they must seek Him till they find Him. Then will they be found saying with the Church: “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?” And when they enquire the reason for His absence, have they not oftentimes to confess that it was because they had not been about their Father’s business as they ought? Let us remember then that in this as in all else Christ has left us an example that we should follow in His steps. May we be enabled by divine grace to do so and serve the Lord fully and faithfully in this world. If we are enabled to do this we will hear in the end of the day what was in effect said in a pre-eminent way of Christ as He entered into glory: “Well done, good and faithful Servant.”