In Business Together
It is profoundly fitting that we have recorded these few words from Jesus when he was but twelve years old, some eighteen years before his official ministry began. To his parents who were looking for him and finally found him in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, he said:
“Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”[NASB margin= “affairs, or, in the things of my Father”] (Luke 2:49).
It may be hard for us to understand in these “modern” times, but for societies in a more ancient past, the father’s business was also the family business, especially for the sons. It would not be unusual at all for the firstborn son to carry on the father’s business directly, upon the latter’s old age or death. This is very significant because there is probably no more effective environment within which a son can come to know, understand, and then emulate his father than when engaged in a business partnership with him. Whether the business is farming, market place retail, construction, medicine, ministry or any other profession there is, the father passes along to the son his thinking about products, customers, competitors, ethics, and more. From this central place, the thoughts, attitudes, opinions, and ideas of the father are shared on topics covering the full range of life experiences even beyond the realm of their business specifically. And this was the thrust of Jesus’ first message to his parents and to the world…he was in business with the Father. It was through this sphere of activity that Jesus grew in wisdom and understanding of his Father’s heart and mind…a heart and mind he admired, loved, and therefore emulated.
And just what was this business in which they worked together? It was (and still is) the business of the Kingdom of God. You might call it the Kingdom of God project, something that was extraordinarily Good News (Gospel) for humanity. Aspects of the business have included advertising, establishing principles of operation, educating and training managers to administer the end product, and more.
Notice these words of the Son Jesus:
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work (John 4:34).
“My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.” (John 5:17)
“For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. 50 I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me” (John 12:49-50).
“I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4;43).
Not only is Jesus in business with the Father by marketing and preparing the Kingdom of God product, but the Father has called others to work for and with Jesus in the family business, as well. Jesus said:
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does His works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:10-15, 23).
According to Jesus in the above referenced scripture, we are to join him in his work of preaching the word of the Kingdom. In fact, if we believe and trust in our boss and mentor, he will ensure that our work is able to be even more productive than his was when he was laying the groundwork for the business originally. But we must follow him closely because apart from him we can’t do anything (John 15:5). In fact, Jesus commands his fellow workers to stay engaged in the business right up until the end of the age:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20).
We are to advertise the coming Kingdom of God to the remotest parts of the earth:
To these [apostles] he also presented himself alive after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 Gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,”he said, “you heard of from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:3-8).
Many people began right away to respond positively to the apostles’ message:
But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. (Acts 8:12)
Perhaps no scripture captures the essence of our calling into the business of Jesus and his Father as well as the parable Jesus told in Luke 19:11-26:
While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. 12 So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. 13 And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’ 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ 15 When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. 16 The first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’ 18 The second came, saying, ‘your mina, master, has made five minas.’ 19 And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 Another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 He *said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’ 24 Then he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’ 26 I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.”
The point is, God has provided a way for you to know and understand Him so that you will admire and want to emulate Him…by being in business with Him and His Son, Jesus the Messiah. That’s what Jesus has done, and he said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. That business is the business of the coming Kingdom of God. In fact, it is quite possible that you can’t really understand Him at all in the ways He wants to be understood, without immersing yourself in the Kingdom business of the Father and His Son. Start out by understanding what the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is about, how we can inherit it, and what its foundational principles are. Read about the Kingdom of God and the New Covenant in other articles on this website.
