The Business Man

Luke 2:49 says, “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

One day waiting in my car, in an industrial area of Yakima, Washington, I saw a businessman walk up the cement steps to the office of a warehouse. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and carried a leather briefcase. I took him to be a salesman. He was clean and his hair well-combed. He had a positive look on his face as he ascended the stairs. The thing that impressed me the most was that he had no legs below the knees. He had leather caps on the end of his stubs. This made him very short, his briefcase almost touching the ground. I will tell you one thing—this man meant business. I have a feeling he made a sale.

Jesus was only 12 years old when He stood before the doctors of the temple and astonished them with His understanding. From that point, He continued to increase, “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). 

Jesus early realized the importance of His Father’s business. His public ministry would only be the last few years of His life. While He spent most of His life in manual labor, He increased in wisdom. There was no time to waste. He had to learn the Scriptures well for He would need to fulfill so many of them.

Not only was wisdom important, but obedience to His Heavenly Father was His heart’s desire. He lived out His life in the Father’s favor. He was always in contact with His Father. He also worked side-by-side with his earthly father. This brings us to His increase in stature.

By twelve years of age, He had reached most of His height. He may have grown 10 or 12 more inches after that, but the greatest increase to His stature was strength. His last three years required a powerful body. Like many people of His time, walking was His mode of transportation. From Jericho to Jerusalem was a steep 18-mile climb. 

Jesus exhibited His powerful strength the last week of His life. He prayed all night, was taken and judged, was beaten, carried His heavy cross until He fell beneath it, and never was sleep mentioned. Already with much loss of blood, they hung Him on the cross. With nails in His hands and feet, a crown of thorns on His head (causing blood to run down His face into His eyes and mouth), He was still able to speak rationally. 

It was not a coincidence that He died at exactly the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.), the time of the evening sacrifice of the Passover lamb. He had to have the strength to last that long. Pushing up with His feet and legs kept Him from suffocating. In John 19:28 He said, “I thirst.” That time they gave Him vinegar to drink. Vinegar relieves muscle cramps. Jesus did not want to die of muscle cramps that caused His legs to give out. He wanted to die intentionally.

It was then that He was able to speak His last words, “It is finished.” What did He mean by that? He meant that the Father’s business was finished. All that the world could throw at Him could not stop Him from doing the business at hand.

l ask myself, and you, how serious do we take this business of the Christian life? As I see my own weakness, frailty, and inconsistency, I call out to the Holy Spirit, “Help! I’m no good at business. What good thing can come of my life? Help me to walk closer. Make me a business man!”