“THE FATHER'S BUSINESS”
Saint Luke 2. 41-52
The First Sunday after the Epiphany: 8 January Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
The God-Boy Jesus, a dozen years in the flesh, goes to the Temple as a "fore-taste" of the feast to come. That is the Father's business.
The Evangelist informs you that Christ's parents went "every" year to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover. He Who is God enfleshed was nevertheless true Man, born of the Virgin Mary. He was at one time, in His physical maturation, a boy, a young man on the cusp of adulthood in First Century Galilee. His parents cared for Him, even while He, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end...was caring for them.
The Lord did not just have "any old" set of parents; merely performing the functions of shelter, food and clothing. Jesus had devout God-fearing parents who were pious and scripturally informed. They believed in the Word of the Lord. Even while they "theologically" pondered all the "things" they had witnessed during the Incarnation, they also lived lives of activities and devotion. They traveled south from their home in Nazareth to the City of David; the city which Jesus the Man-God had first entered when they carried Him there as a 40-day old baby twelve years earlier. It would be the City of His death in a short 21 years. No doubt both Mary and the Guardian of our Lord had been pondering the prophecies of Simeon and Anna many times during the first decade of their unusual Son's life. How fitting that the Holiest Day of the Jews, which this small "Holy Family" of Three observed, was the Passover: the penultimate Old Testament Feast of God's Covenant People.
The Passover miracle which the Lord had given by Grace to Moses and the Israelites was the greatest act of salvation, deliverance and redemption in the entire Old Testament. The Passover was also the supreme prophecy pointing to Jesus and the Final Passover which would occur on Calvary. That is the Father's business. The business of God is not commercial, political, militaristic or even cultural...it is familial, social, personal. The business of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is to create, redeem and sanctify His beloved children. The Mission of the Father is to send the Son. The Mission of the Son is to be the final Paschal Lamb; the Ultimate Passover victim. Jerusalem was a city of blood even as the nation of Egypt had been a place of blood centuries earlier. Before the Hebrews were liberated from their bondage, before they were ushered across the Jordan into the Land of Promise by Joshua/Yeshua: the "first" Iesus, they had been "Passed Over" in blood, the blood of innocent lambs. The sheep, perfect and without blemish, had been slaughtered without uttering cries, without protest or struggle. Their blood was painted with hyssop brushes on the door posts and lintels of the homes of the Israelites. That "trident of blood," that Old-Testament icon of Christ's Crucifix, was the sign which when the Avenger, the Angel of the Lord saw, caused Him to pass by, "pass over." All those souls who had dwelt inside such a house of God's Grace, Mercy and Protection, were spared. All others abodes had their eldest, their firstborn male slain. Even the tragedy of the Egyptian non-believers pointed to the Cross, for Jesus was "The" First born of Mary, the First Born of all those who die "in Him" to die no more again. Jesus the "only-begotten" of the Father is always about the Father's Business; that business is salvation, love and communion with His beloved children; all of you.
When you first encounter the Lord in the Flesh, as you did two Sundays ago in the Feast of the Incarnation, He is a babe. When you experience His recorded Scriptural ministry He steps into the Jordan River at approximately 30 years of age. The only time you glimpse your Savior in the flesh, at a different age, is in this morning's Gospel account; Jesus in the Temple at the age of Twelve.
Twelve is another perfect number in God's way of counting. It is twice the number of the days of creation; one time for the Old Covenant and one time for the New Testament in the Messiah's Body and Blood; one time for Creation (and the resultant fall into sin) and one time for the "re-creation" in Christ Jesus' work and atonement. This doubling of the six days is also played out in the twelve sons of Jacob---the original twelve tribes of Israel pointing forward to the promise of the Savior. Pointing back to the Christ are the twelve Apostles themselves who symbolize the New Israel, the one, holy, catholic and Apostolic Church. In the middle stands the Nazarene, Jesus, Who Himself is the true Israel; Immanuel, God for you and with you. Through His word He now stands in your very presence, in the midst of you, the same way two-thousand years ago He really stood in the presence of the Temple teachers.
The Lord's Guardian and Our Lady found the Christ on the Third Day. You all find, and more importantly, are found by the Christ, on the Third Day as well. The Third Day is the Day of Resurrection, i.e. every Sunday when He again steps into your midst with the same Body that He gave for your trespasses on Calvary, with the same Blood which He shed for your forgiveness on the Cross. That is the Father's business.
Where should Joseph and Mary have first looked for their Son, God's Son; in the Temple; well of course. The Temple, like the Tabernacle before it, was the place of blood sacrifice; the place where the innocent lamb lost its life, gave its blood, and then its very flesh, for the sins of the people; a foretaste of the Vicarious Satisfaction that we call Good Friday.
Where should you look for the Savior, your Savior, God's Son; here of course, in the new Testament Temple of The Sacrament of The Altar. Here at this Church, this altar you have the same Christ. Not sacrificed here for your sins, no, that was on the Cross, but here delivered for your forgiveness and fortification; there given and shed, here eaten and drunk. This is the Father's business. This is God's business. Jesus is your God; in the flesh. Your forgiveness and life eternal are His business.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost