He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?"
These are the first words that Luke recorded Jesus saying in his Gospel, and they set the tone for what follows. All of Jesus’ words and works testified to the priority He gave to the will of His heavenly Father. "Had to" (Gr. dei) reflects a key theme in Luke’s Gospel that highlights divine design. The Greek word occurs 99 times in the New Testament and 40 times in Luke-Acts. [Note: See Bock, "A Theology . . .," pp. 94-95, for further discussion of it.] 