Jesus about His Father's Business

To Jerusalem, year by year, the parents went To observe their nation's solemn Festival; Nor knew they took the Paschal Lamb that year— White, without blemish, set apart to be Sin-offering before God for all the world!

When he was twelve years old, now, went He up With all the joyous company, praising God. There, in the temple, the boy took on Him, As custom was, His part in Israel's life— A son of Judah, called for praise of God. As dim previsions come to our dull minds, Did He, conditioned as a child of man, Hear, while He shared the sacrificial Feast, The echo of a Word—The Lamb that was slain Ere the foundations of the world were laid? Did he foresee, scarce knowing what He saw, The Last sad Supper, when the Lamb of God Gave of his flesh and blood at dying feast?

The days of the Feast went by; quick-rising thoughts Surged in the heart of the young Son of Man : Think what it were, if, all at once, the sun, Faces of men, service of prayer and praise, The immanence of God, grew real to thought, Each with its full significance! The wonder of't Would send us dazed and faltering on our way : A child sees somewhat—this Child saw the whole, All, full of pristine meanings, awful claims;— Things grow not stale to the Eternal Mind.

Now when His parents returned, the Boy Jesus Tarried behind them in Jerusalem, His home, the court of His own Father's house! The folk returned in two gay companies, The men and the women, while the children ran From one to the other as their humour was: Thus it befell that they had gone a day Or ever his parents knew the Child astray. Inquiring among kinsfolk and acquaintance, they hurried, anxious, up and down the camp Couched round the evening fires; This mother wept, Blaming herself for holy trust betrayed; And every word she treasured in her heart Revealing the Child's state, returned in chiding.

Back to Jerusalem turned they, seeking Him; And, for three fevered days of much distress, The Child they searched for in each likely place; But not in that where, had they understood, They first had sought, unanxious and assured. After three days they found Him in the temple; here was the Boy, sitting among the doctors, Fulfilling all the part of Jewish child As Moses had conceived it:—"What mean ye By the lamb, the bitter herbs, loins girt, and sandals Strapped for journey?" what joy in this young scholar, So apt to learn, so strenuous to attend And quick in apprehension! All the tale Of Israel's great deliverance they told To the Boy who knew, and fain would know much more The past was plain, but the great Feast looked on: His teachers found their settled thought perplexed, Their knowledge failing, as the Boy's replies Opened new, simpler meanings; while, unconscious, He brought fresh thought to bear on time-worn themes, And showed how their stale words of letter-lore Looked, quickened by the Spirit. Day of grace Came to these pedant doctors as they asked, Aside, questioning each other, "What think ye Of th' Boy? New wine into old bottles pours He, And Brings Messias to our very door!"— They, too, were in the Light. After three days The parents came upon the group—the doctors with fervent young Disciple in their midst. Alas, for Mary! Days of fretful search Wrought weariness of flesh, soreness of heart: Blind to His part, she thought but her own (this once) : and His mother said to Him, "Son, Why dealt thou thus with us? Thy father and I Have sought thee sorrowing!" even while she spake, His mother knew her fault, knew she had failed In love's nice comprehension; she should have known: "Why is it that ye sought Me?" said her Son, Wistful and troubled with that life-long grief— No one would understand! Not one would know!— But, patient, sweet always, He told her how, "My Father's business I must be about— Wist ye not that?" Nor yet they understood. "My Father"—was the word blissful surprise To Him who spake—possession realised?

We, knowing beyond their knowledge, dimly see that His Vocation this day reached the Boy : He heard His Father's call, gave meet reply; Sate, pupil, in His Father's house and learned, As meek disciple, at the doctors' feet: What things are lovely, meet, of good report In any boy, became the Son of Man ; These, and no other. No subtlety of mind, No wondrous act miraculous, should mark The Boy, release Him from the discipline proper for growing youths: no "great one" He! He went down with the two to Nazareth; lived there in sweet subjection all the years 'Twixt youth and man's full prime—nor grudged the days. And wherefore grudge? Is not a single day With god, His Father, as a thousand years? Well might He wait until His day should come, Crowded with all the Life of all the years Since God made man; of all the purpose, full, Which God towards man conceived and brought to pass!