The Father's Business
The Father’s Business
Even as a boy he was willingly following his Father’s will.
There's a phrase that people try to find in scripture, but it's not there. It goes, "God helps those that help themselves." But this is not the Father's mission. God helps those that can't help themselves.
Welcome to The Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican Church is located in Georgetown Texas at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org.
Our sermon sound bite today comes from Luke chapter two. The famous story of the boy Jesus becoming lost and his parents finding him after looking for him for three days in the temple, and frustrated with him Mary says, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress."
And then Jesus says in verse 49, "And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" We pair that with Jeremiah 31 verse 11 where the prophet Jeremiah tells us what the Father's business is, what Jesus is all about.
"For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands to strong for him.” The Father's business is to ransom Jacob, God's people, from hands too strong for him.
Verse 11, "For the Lord, Yahweh has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him." His first order of business is to ransom his people. If you put something into a pawn shop you ransom it when you come back and you pay for it and you get it back. So, there's this idea in ransom that you're getting back that which is yours by right.
But God's people have been enslaved. Enslaved by sin. Now, we're in the beginning of a new year and what do people do in the new year? They make new year’s resolutions, and how often do we keep those resolutions? Let's face it, more often than not we've already broken those by month two.
And there's a phrase that people try to find in scripture, but it's not there. It goes, "God helps those that help themselves." And this is kind of, an American Christianity. God helps those that pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, but this is not the Father's mission.
God helps those that can't help themselves. He helps those that have been enslaved into sin. You see, we don't understand how deep of an issue we have, that even our best intentions and best works are tinged with that snake of selfishness.
Thankfully God doesn't reveal that to us all at once when we first come to know God and follow Jesus. He just shows us sort of, the big things, but then as we walk with Jesus, he shows us how big of an issue we have, that we can't get ourselves out of this, that we need a savior. We need a Passover lamb, as the children of Israel needed. He was in Jerusalem for Passover. The little boy Jesus will be the Passover lamb, the Passover sacrifice. He will die and rise, remember, three days they found him. Three days later.
And he will ransom us, save us from fear of death. He will save us from the power of sin by giving us forgiveness. Giving us the Holy Spirit so that he can begin to change us, not from us just trying hard, pulling ourselves up by our boot straps, because that doesn't work. But the Holy Spirit that changes us bit, by bit, by bit from the inside out.
His Father's business that this boy Jesus is all about, is to ransom Jacob, his people from hands too strong for him. Thank you for listening to The Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. You can find the Collect for the Second Sunday of Christmas on page 601.
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
