It sounded like a setdown. A rebuke from a 12-year-old for whom they had just spent days searching. Intentional or not, the words stung like the verbal backhand they were and it was easy to feel affronted in light of all they had been through. An entire day had passed before they realized He had opted out of joining the caravan headed home from their annual temple visit. Not finding her Son among the other boys His age, His mother had become frantic. Racing from family to family, camp to camp, asking if anyone had seen Him, hope incrementally dying with every shake of another head.
Finding Joseph, her panic-stricken face crumpled in grief, rivulets of tears flowing from the watery pools of her eyes, Mary begged him to do something. Anything. Everything. Whatever it took. He had to find Jesus. Even though she knew it was inevitable, she was unprepared for this day. The day when her Son, God’s Son, would leave her home and go out to do God’s work. Surely today couldn’t be that day! No. It couldn’t be this soon. Joseph had to find their Son.
Adrenaline and fear fueling their search, Mary and Joseph set out to retrace their recent steps. A day of travel back to Jerusalem. A visit to the inn where they had stayed. Questioning of local shopkeepers. Speaking with friends. Begging information from strangers. Had anyone caught even a glimpse of a 12-year-old boy busy with business that had nothing to do with earth?
By day three, out of options and destitute of hope, the heavy-hearted parents sought the solace of the temple. As they entered in reverent silence, they heard a voice that sounded particularly familiar. A voice they were uncertain they would hear again. One that caused their hearts to leap, their downturned mouths to lift with joy, and Mary’s tears to start again. Happy ones, this time. Jesus was in the temple.
Odd. He didn’t seem impressed, relieved, or excited they had come back for Him. He didn’t jump up and hug their necks. He didn’t seem to begrudge the time He’d had to spend in the temple. In fact, He almost seemed hesitant to leave. And when He spoke to them, it didn’t feel full of love. Even if spoken with the kindest tone, it was a harsh reminder. One Mary had been trying to squelch since the day she knew she was carrying Him under her heart. Jesus had business to do on earth that had nothing to do with them. He was on God’s mission. And the mission had already begun. (Luke 2:41-52)
This must have been a turning point for Mary, an affirmation of all the truths her mind refused to consider. She had borne God’s Son. He would leave her home to go and do the will of His Father. He wouldn’t stay and become a carpenter like Joseph. He wouldn’t marry a girl from the neighboring farm and settle down nearby. There would be no grandchildren to dandle on her knees. At least not from her firstborn. No. His life would be different. His work would be greater. His calling that of Heaven. His business straight from God.
It would be the only business in which Jesus would engage. Ever. Never once would He do something to please Himself, increase His own fame, encourage an entourage. His goals were not so peasant. No matter how often someone or something called Him to be drawn aside. He wouldn’t be. His eyes were fixed on the endgame. The ugly, horrific finality of the cross. The beatific, glorious infinity of the resurrection. Eternal life for dying humanity. This moment in the temple as a pre-teen would not be the last time Jesus would be discovered in an unexpected place, speaking unexpected words, bestowing unexpected grace.
His disciples learned this firsthand. Finding Jesus in a forbidden conversation with a woman at the well in Samaria, the gobsmacked disciples decided to overlook His indiscretion and offer Him food. Perhaps His inordinate hunger had caused this gross oversight. As they urged their earthly bread on their Heavenly Leader, He waved it away. He wasn’t hungry. He’d already eaten. Soul food. The kind of food that feeds the soul who is busy doing the will of God. Because man survives physically on the bread from the ovens of earth, but the soul thrives only on constant communion with and obedience to the Father in Heaven. (John 4:1-34)
Enamored with the multiplication of fish and chips but unable to locate last night’s Cook, the crowd crammed themselves into small boats, vigorously rowing across the sea to Capernaum. Their stomachs were grumbling. Their mouths were watering. They wanted more food. Exhausting a significant amount of energy in the chase, they finally found Him, hopes set on a continental breakfast. Jesus called them on it. Called them out on relentlessly seeking perishable things instead of imperishable ones. But He didn’t send them away hungry. He offered them real food. Soul food. Not the stuff meant to satisfy empty bellies. The one thing, the only thing that satisfies empty souls. Himself. Bread. Water. Life. Feeding their souls as well as His own, because the sustenance for Jesus’ own soul came from doing the one thing He was sent here to do–God’s business. (John 6:1-40)
Over and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus reminds us, “I’m not here to do my own will. I’m simply on business for my Father.” The words are always spoken in moments when He so easily could point out His own excellence and gather glory for Himself. Times He could strike out on His own in pursuit of personal dreams and ambitions. Incidents after which He could use miracles to entice followers, His skilled oration to build the first megachurch of all time, His heavenly abilities to accrue all earthly comforts, fame, accolades, honor. He didn’t. It wasn’t why He came. He was here to do one thing alone. His Father’s will. (John 6:38,57,63; 8:29; 14:10,31)
Hear it in His declaration, “I came from Heaven, not to do my own will, but only the will of my Father.” See it resonate in His words to the Jews at the Feast of Booths, “My teaching, my words, are not Mine, but My Father’s.” Feel the pathos of His Gethsemane cries, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” As I contemplate these Scriptures, these quotations, I find myself disgusted with humanity. All of us. Such a selfish, forgetful lot. Plodding around the planet claiming it and all its fruits as our own. Scurrying and working to lay up treasures in savings accounts and hedge funds. Preposterously calling people and plans and property our own. What elevated, deluded opinions we have of ourselves! If Jesus was put on earth to do only the business of God alone, who do we think we are to assume, presume, we were placed here for some other reason?! (John 6:38, 7:16; Luke 22:42; Psalm 127:2; Psalm 39:6)
Pompous, presumptuous, preposterous people living for time instead of eternity! Wake up, already! You were not placed on this earth, given life beyond the womb, for personal, proprietary reasons. You were not gifted life so you could get up early and stay up late feverishly working overtime and double time in an effort to gain a more prominent title, a higher position, a larger paycheck. It is unlikely God placed you here with the singular task of owning a beach house, a cabin, a yacht, and three luxury cars. He did not put you on earth to follow your own dreams and ambitions, doggedly chasing the things of this world. Absolutely, unequivocally, resoundingly, no! God granted you life and charged you with one goal alone. Increase the family business. Work for the Father. Do only God’s will. (John 12:25-26; Proverbs 11:30; John 9:4; Ezekiel 3:18-20; Mark 16:15; II Corinthians 5:11)
In the prayer Jesus taught us to pray lies the phrase, “Your will be done.” We’ve heard it a thousand times, said it even more. The words roll glibly off our tongues, a final benediction so we can rush out of church and go about our lives. Rarely, if ever, do we stop to think if the thing so pressing as to have us power walking out the door as soon as the last “Amen” is uttered, falls within the parameters of God’s will. Perhaps it is because we completely ignore the three little words that precede them. “Your kingdom come.” They are two inseparable things. Whether you believe those words are speaking of the final heavenly kingdom of God or the surrendering of your heart and life to be God’s kingdom on earth now, one inevitable truth remains. God’s kingdom is where His will, and only His will, is done. Always. (Matthew 6:10)
At a time when it is so easy, so accepted, so encouraged to be caught up in earthly, worldly pursuits and let spiritual things slip, may you pray the words above and mean them. May your surrender to God be complete, without caveat. May you find absolute, unspeakable joy in servitude to the Father and enacting His will alone. May His heavenly kingdom increase because His kingdom on earth went stalwartly about the Father’s business. His will, His way. Always. (Hebrews 2:1; James 1:6-8; Matthew 16:24; Philippians 2:13; Romans 12:2; Proverbs 3:5-6)