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My Father's Business
Entering the New
Year with 12-year-old Jesus
by
Phil Laeger
It’s the week between Christmas and the
New Year. As it normally does, the Church has been reading the
story of Jesus’ birth all Advent season, which I love.
However, there’s one story from the
gospel of Luke that has fascinated me for years. It’s the
story of Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy in the Temple,
confounding the teachers and upsetting His earthly parents. We
don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this particular story
in the Church. Advent passes and we’re gearing up for Good
Friday and Easter, which are just down the road.
But let’s stop for a second and think
about pre-teen Jesus and how His words and actions shape
everything to come. I think we will see an encouraging and
fruitful example for us as we head into this new season.
When we think of Jesus referring to God
as His Father, our minds usually turn to the book of John.
John’s Gospel is replete with accounts of Jesus dialoguing
with religious leaders of His day. It is clear in these
accounts that His understanding of His mission and purpose in
life is very different from their understanding of theirs. Not
only does John’s gospel begin with a reference to God being
Jesus’ Father (1:18), but throughout the book, Jesus
repeatedly refers to His relationship to His heavenly Father
(see John 2:16, 3:16, 5:16-47, 6:32ff, 8:19-54, 10:15-38,
11:41, 12:26-50, and pretty much the entire chapters of
14-17).
Jesus’ identity is rooted in His
relationship with the Father - that is, God, His
Father, the God of Israel. He repeatedly affirms to both
His disciples and the Jewish leaders that everything they see
Him doing springs from obedience to what He has seen and heard
His Father saying and doing, and what His Father
has commanded Him to do.
The religious leaders are, on the other
hand, by and large bound in adherence to rules and tradition.
They have searched the Scriptures diligently looking for life
(John 5:39) but would not come to Jesus for true life.
Now, I think that it is too simplistic
of a dichotomy to say that Jesus was about relationship and
the Pharisees were about rules. We have accounts of some
amazing religious leaders (yes, even Pharisees) in Jesus’ day.
But for most of them, in their pursuit of God, they had
centered their own performance instead of God’s goodness.
Obedience, yes, but an obedience that
often seemed devoid of a dynamic relationship with the Maker
and Savior of Israel (see Jesus’ prodigal son parable for
analogy). These leaders may have operated out of a desire for
faithfulness to Torah and tradition, but Jesus knew that the
Torah was meant to be a reflection of relationship with and
obedience to a Person. That Person, He claimed, was His
Father.
This was how Jesus understood His mission
and purpose on earth: a directive for living and existing that
flowed directly out of that singular relationship.
My eldest son exactly a millennium ago (used
by permission and with his consent!)
But it isn’t just in John’s gospel that
we see this Abba-centered perspective/narrative. All four
gospels include accounts of Jesus’ reference to God as His
Father (Matthew 10:32, 11:27, 12:50, 15:13; Mark 14:36; Luke
10:21-22, 22:29, 22:42, 23:46).
Luke records that Jesus was aware of
His identity (and therefore His purpose and mission) from a
very early age. In fact, the very first words we hear Jesus
speak are as a 12-year old boy, when He had gone missing from
His parents. Finding Him after what must have been an
emotionally taxing 3-day search by her and Joseph, Mary asks
why Jesus has done this to them. His reply,
Why did you
seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My
Father’s business?
(Luke 2:49, NKJV)
To His earthly parents, it must have
seemed a selfish (or at least careless) act. At the very
least, His obedience greatly inconvenienced them.
Indeed, obedience is costly. Not just
for us, but for those around us. And yet, it is worth us
counting the cost as we look back on the year we’ve just lived
and look forward to the year ahead.
What would it mean for you and I to be
100% completely about our Father’s business going into 2026?
To answer this question for myself (and perhaps you, since
you’re reading this), I think it may be helpful to break down
the thought experiment into its component parts:
1. God is our Father.
2. Our Father is a good Father.
3. Our Father’s business is a good
business.
4. Our Father’s business is
relational.
1. God is our Father
Having put our faith in Jesus as Lord
and Savior of our lives, we hear His words to us as to Mary on
Resurrection morning, the risen Jesus reassuring her and
commissioning her, “Go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I
am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.’” (John 20:17, NLT). Let us not lose sight of His
Fathership of us in this coming year.
2. Our Father is a good Father
Knowing that God is our good Father
means that we can trust that whatever He is calling us to
is in our own interests, even when it is hard to see that.
Jesus’ Father is our Father. He is our heavenly older Brother.
He knows God better than we do. So we can trust Him that our
Father is not going to give us a stone or serpent when we’ve
asked for bread and fish. (Matthew 7:9-11)
3. Our Father’s business is a good business
The business of the kingdom of heaven
is a good one. Jesus has come to give us life and life
abundantly (John 10:10). So anything He commissions us to do
is going to help many people! Even sacrificial service is
going to serve both us and everyone else in the end - we just
have to keep our eyes on Jesus, “For the sake of the joy that
lay before Him, He endured the cross, despising its shame, and
has taken His seat at the right of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:2, NASB)
4. Our Father’s business is relational
Most importantly
(and I have to confess this is sometimes the hardest one for
me): God is a God of relationships - of heavenly and eternal
relationships. From creation, from the very first laws of
Torah, through the prophets and kings of old, to Jesus and His
Church, the fundamental principle is and has always been one
of relational priority.
Relational priority is foundational
because it springs from the very essence of who God is:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect community as
demonstrated time and again throughout Scripture. Triune from
everlasting to everlasting. Spirit hovering, Father speaking
through the Word/Son in creation and from that point forward.
Every patriarch chosen, every prophet called, every judge
raised up, every king anointed - all relational. Not
transactional but relational.
Going back again to Jesus’ parable of
the prodigal son, we see that Jesus is aiming at those of us
in our Father’s house who have become transactional in our
approach to Him and His riches. We have become like embittered
hired servants instead of thankful children. How He longs for
that partnership and for His children to bask in the enjoyment
of all of the blessings of His house.
But we must again make communion and
community with Him the cornerstone of all we do. Jesus knew
this from a very early age and never strayed from it. He
called us to it again and again. When the disciples tried to
prevent the little children from coming to Him, He rebuked
them, knowing that this Father-child relationship was the very
basis of the kingdom of heaven, of everything He had set about
to do on earth as a result of His Father’s command and
example.
So, this year, let us truly be about
our Father’s business. Which will mean spending time in our
Father’s presence. Which will mean thriving and flourishing
for our souls and our communities and those we serve in Jesus’
name. Make it so, Lord. Help us to be about our Father’s
business in the year ahead.
I’ll leave you with the lyrics from a
song I just finished production on, releasing early next year.
It’s all about being about our Father’s business…
Until He Comes
They’re watching the markets
They’re building their barns
They don’t know that tomorrow
Their time will be done
There will be an accounting
The bill will come due
And have we been faithful
With the work left to do?
The harvest is great, but the workers are
late
The harvest is great
But the workers have got other things to do
Other things to do
Lord, I look around me
This world has lost its appeal
I’m living for glory
Oh, I want what is real
I wanna tell everybody
About the love that I’ve found
Your Church should be getting ready
But when I look around
The harvest is great, but the workers are
late
The harvest is great
But the workers have got other things to do
Other things to do
So let the dead bury their own
My eyes are on a heavenly home
Let the dead bury their own
My eyes are on a heavenly home
A pure Bride, a true Church
You’re worth it all, You’re worth it all,
Lord
Your promise is not in vain
Your word remains the same
So, let’s stop playing games
I wanna be about my Father’s business
I wanna be about my Father’s business
I wanna be about my Father’s business
Until He comes, until He comes
I wanna be about my Father’s business
I wanna be about my Father’s business
I wanna be about my Father’s business
Until He comes, until He comes
Oh, until He comes
Until You come
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