And he said unto them, how is it that ye sought
me?
&c.] That is, with so much uneasiness and distress of mind,
not trusting in the power and providence of God, to take care of
him; and in other places, besides the temple, where they had been
inquiring for him:
wist ye not that I must be about my Father's
business?
or "in my Father's house", as the Syriac and Persic versions
render it; where, as soon as you missed me, you might, at once,
have concluded I was, and not have put yourselves to so much
trouble and pains in seeking for me. Christ seems to tax them
with ignorance, or, at least, forgetfulness of his having a
Father in heaven, whose business he came to do on earth; and
which they should have thought in their own minds he was now
about, and so have made themselves easy. The business that Christ
came about was to preach the Gospel, and which he afterwards
performed with great clearness and fulness, with much power,
majesty, and authority, with great constancy and diligence, with
much concern for the souls of men, arid with great awfulness; and
in which he took great delight, though he went through many
dangers and risks of life; as also to work miracles in proof of
his deity and Messiahship, and for the good of the bodies of men,
and in which he was very assiduous, going about every where doing
good this way: but the main, and principal part of his business
was, to work out salvation for his people, by fulfilling the law,
making reconciliation and atonement for their sins, and obtaining
eternal redemption: this was a business which neither angels nor
men could do; was very toilsome and laborious, and yet he
delighted in it; nor did he desist from it until it was
accomplished: and this is called his Father's business, because
he contrived and assigned it to him; he called him to it, and
sent him to perform; he enjoined it to him as man and mediator,
and the glory of his perfections was concerned in it, and secured
by it: and it was a business that Christ must be about, be
concerned in, and perform, because he engaged to do it from all
eternity; and because it was the will of his Father, which must
be done, and was necessary in order to show himself dutiful and
obedient; and because it was foretold in prophecy again and again
and promised that it should be done; and because it could not be
done by another. Now our Lord's conversing with the doctors, and
which was a branch of his prophetic office, and was, no doubt,
with a view to the good of the souls of men, and nothing less
than miraculous, was a show, a prelude of, and a sort of an
entrance upon the business he came about.