Keep What He Was Bound to Do

Introduction: Was Jesus Lost? The Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem had ended. Thousands of pilgrims were making their way back to their home towns. Joseph and Mary were among them — most likely travelling with kinsmen and acquaintances. So when the boy Jesus was nowhere to be seen, they assumed He was somewhere in the company. They walked a full day's journey. When the group halted for the evening, they realized He was not with them. They turned back the next morning toward Jerusalem. On the third day, they found Him in the temple. "And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." (v. 46) Every Passover, the temple courts hosted open rabbinic discussions. The subject fitting the season: the meaning of the Exodus, what the blood of the Passover lamb pointed to, the identity of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, when the Messiah would come. Into the midst of that discussion the twelve-year-old Jesus had seated Himself. He listened. He asked. He answered. "And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." (v. 47) The Greek is ἐξίστημι — to be beside oneself, to be utterly overwhelmed. Men who had wrestled with these texts for decades were struck speechless before a twelve-year-old boy. The One who had given the Law was now explaining it. Mary's Rebuke and Jesus's Correction It was at that moment that Mary arrived. "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." Three days of searching — the terror, the relief, and the frustration all pouring out at once. Jesus's reply was not merely an explanation. It was a correction of her perception. "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (v. 49) I was not lost. I was exactly where I was meant to be. And "must" — the Greek δεῖ — is not a preference. It is the very reason for His existence in this world. Not Joseph's business. His Father's — the Father who is God. This is the first recorded word of Jesus in Scripture. And within that first word, the entire purpose of His coming is already contained. Yet verse 50 tells us: "And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." (vv. 50–51) Both Joseph and Mary failed to understand. Yet Mary did not let it go. She kept it. This is the question this passage puts to us today. Are you keeping what He was bound to do? Point 1: What He Must Be About — His Father's Business What are "all these sayings" that Mary kept? What was the thing Jesus must do? The phrase translated "my Father's business" is in Greek ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου. The word τοῖς is a neuter plural definite article — the noun it governs has been left unstated. Is it the house? The affairs? The will? Translators differ because no single word is sufficient. The point is not a location or a task. It is that the whole of Jesus's existence — every breath, every thought, every movement — was within the sovereign purpose of His Father. For Him, there was no separation between "the Father's" and "my own." Luke carries the word δεῖ — "must" — through the entire Gospel. It unfolds in three directions. ① Mission — Why He Came "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent." (Luke 4:43) Jesus knew why He had come. To seek and to save the lost. To proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. ② Suffering — How He Would Go "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day." (Luke 9:22) Not once. The same word appears again in chapters 13, 17, 22, and 24. This was no accident. It was the appointed road from the beginning. The must of the twelve-year-old in the temple carries straight through Gethsemane and on to Golgotha. ③ Completion — How Far He Would Go "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26) The risen Jesus speaks these words to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The Greek shifts from δεῖ to the past tense ἔδει — looking back from the far side of the cross. "It was necessary. And it has been accomplished." The resurrection and the glory are the completion of that must. From the beginning, that single word held all three within it: why He came (mission), how He would go (suffering and the cross), how far He would go (resurrection and glory). And at the end of all those musts, there is us. His love for us was not an impulse. From the age of twelve it was already must. From before the foundation of the world it was already planned. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." (Ephesians 1:4) The One who said "must" in the temple at twelve years old had in fact been on that road for us before the world began. Point 2: She Kept All These Sayings in Her Heart Mary did not know. She did not know where that must was heading. She did not know what "my Father's business" meant. She did not know that the first words of her twelve-year-old son were already pointing toward the cross. "But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." (v. 51) Kept — διετήρει. The word is built from two parts: διά, meaning "through to the end, completely, all the way," and τηρέω, meaning "to guard, to preserve, to keep watch over." Together: "to guard completely all the way through." The tense is the imperfect — not a single act. Not a one-time decision. She kept on keeping. Day after day, again and again, actively and continuously. She Did Not Understand — and Yet She Kept Mary did not understand. But she did not let it go. She did not wait until she understood before she held on. She held on without understanding. This is faith. Not following because everything has been made clear, but refusing to lose what He has said — even when it remains beyond our grasp. Not a single resolve, but a daily, active, repeated keeping. Where the Keeping Carried Her Where did that keeping take her? "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." (John 19:25) Mary was standing at the cross. She witnessed the must of her twelve-year-old son reaching its completion. It must have been the moment of understanding: "This was it. This is where that must was always going." "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." (Acts 1:14) The woman who had not understood the saying of the twelve-year-old in the temple is now in the upper room. Praying. Waiting for the Holy Spirit. The keeping had carried Mary to the foot of the cross, and then all the way to the upper room. Application: Returning to Remember the Cross Why do we forget, even after receiving such grace? Mary did too. Life was demanding. The days were hard. As time passed, the message she had first received grew faint. We are no different. In the busyness of daily life, we lose hold of the gospel for a time. Pressed down by the weight of circumstances, we find ourselves drifting with the current of the world. This is true even for those who have believed for many years. It is simply our condition. The Word of Jesus Woke Mary "Wist ye not?" The Greek is ᾔδειτε — the past perfect. Not "do you not know now?" but "you have heard all those words of prophecy — is none of that living in you at this moment?" Mary must have been jolted awake in that instant. And she kept again. More deeply. More firmly. We forget too. But before this word, we can wake again. Like Mary, we can keep again. This Is Why We Have Worship The Passover was the feast of remembered redemption. Mary went up to Jerusalem every year — with the community, according to the appointed times, repeatedly. It was within that repetition that she was able to keep the word. For us, that Passover is worship. We come to the service having let go of the gospel somewhere in the week's busyness. And then we hear it again. We keep it again. We go back into the week, and drift again. We return. It is proclaimed again. We keep it again. διετήρει — imperfect. Repeated. Continuous. This is one of the reasons worship exists. But Remember This Above All The centre of this sermon is not our faithfulness. It is His. Even when Mary forgot, Jesus did not forget. The must that began at twelve years old — He kept it all the way to the end, through every moment we failed to understand, through every moment we let it slip. All the way to the cross. All the way to the resurrection. "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13) Even when we forget, He does not. And that faithfulness is the only ground on which we can take hold again. Conclusion Mary did not understand. But she kept. διετήρει — day after day, again and again. And she followed all the way to the end. At the foot of the cross. After the resurrection. Into the upper room. We do not fully understand either. We cannot fathom the full depth of the cross. That is all right. Mary could not either. Every time the busyness and weariness of life causes you to lose hold of the gospel, come back to the place of worship. And hear again the word of the Lord: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Even when we forget, He did not forget. The must that began at twelve years old was accomplished all the way to the cross. At the end of the keeping, the Holy Spirit came. Our keeping is moving toward the same end. Therefore keep. Take hold again, every day, of what He was bound to do.