“What does your Father do?” I don’t know whether little children are asked that question as much as in the past.
What I remember, though, is that when it was asked of me or my young classmates, the childish response or awkward silence that followed could be either a proud moment or a painful one. Some could say things like, “My daddy builds houses, drives a police car, or works in a big building down town.” But for a child whose father was absent, unknown, incarcerated, or in some other way disabled or limited, the question could be painful.
It continues, however, to be one of the most important questions we ever have to ask or think about… especially when it comes to what our spiritual Father does.
No one knew this more than Jesus.
The last time we see his human father present in the Gospel accounts is when Joseph, along with Mary, were looking for their 12 year old who had been missing for 3 days (Luke 2:42-52).
When Joseph and Mary finally find Jesus in the Temple having a conversation with the Teachers of the law, Mary asks her son why he has given his father and her such reason for concern and worry. Father’s Day cards usually don’t quote anything like Jesus’ response: “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know I’d be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).
Joseph and Mary didn’t understand what Jesus meant. Yet according to Luke, Jesus went home with them, and subjected himself to them, “growing in wisdom and in stature (age and size), and in favor with God and man” (2:52). Mary continued to reflect on what Jesus had said (2:51).
When her son went public 18 years later, we find him leaving his home in Nazareth, submitting to the baptism of John in the Jordan Valley, and then, as he came up out of the water, hearing the words from heaven, “You are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22
Almost 2000 years later, we all know that Jesus went on to finish the work that he was given to do. We also know that he passed what remained of “the Father’s business” along to his followers.
If his father is now our father, and if the family business is now in our hands, I’ve been trying to think how we would answer the question, “What does your Father do?”
Let’s see how we would answer that together….
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