Sept 30 - Luke 3:49

He said to them,

"Why were you searching for me?

Did you not know that I must be

in my Father's house?"

Luke 3:49

According to the Gospel of Luke, do you know what Jesus' first words were?

As any mother can tell you, it wasn't mama. It was daddy.

I'm certainly sure that Jesus spoke before he was twelve, but according to the Gospel of Luke, the first words we're privileged to hear Jesus speak include the word, "Papa" -- "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house."

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to "my Father's house" four times.

1. The first is in today's Gospel lesson, when he talks about the Temple in Jerusalem.
   
2. The second time is in John 2:16 when Jesus upsets the moneychangers and points to the temple -- the house of prayer in Jerusalem -- saying, "Don't turn my Father's house into a marketplace!" 
   
3. The fourth time is in John 14:2 when Jesus points to heaven as our eternal home, saying, "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you."
   
4. The final time is when the prodigal son says, "How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger!" (Luke 15:17).

The story of the prodigal is a little different. While Jesus is telling the story, it's not Jesus (directly) who's talking about his Father's house; it's the prodigal. It's essentially you and me. Through the parable, Jesus invites all of us prodigals to return to the house of the one, true, and forgiving Father.

God loves you, forgives you, and prays that you will always, constantly, and more frequently say, "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

In Christ's Love,

a guy whose three favorite places

are home (home), home (church)

and home (heaven)