Who's That Knocking?
We’ve all read, and perhaps struggled with, the assurance Jesus gives us: “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10) If we struggle, it’s generally because Jesus’s seemingly ironclad guarantee doesn’t seem to match our experience. We ask and don’t seem to receive, we knock and nothing appears to open.
Jesus goes on to describe how a loving father wouldn’t give a snake when his child asks for a fish. But what if the child is asking for a venomous snake? Will a loving father grant that request? James also cautions us that we will not receive if we ask wrongly, selfishly. (James 4:3, and you might want to read on, and ponder how much of the rest of the chapter is still on this subject.)
There’s another situation, in which Jesus teaches we can knock and find the door doesn’t open.
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ “ (Luke 13:24-27)
There comes a time when the opportunity to enter is lost, if we have fooled ourselves into thinking we’re on the Lord’s side, but all along it’s just been superficial.
Definitely more could be said about our asking and knocking. Maybe some other time.
Today, it’s occurring to me that the knocking can be on the other side of the door.
“Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes… If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!” (Luke 12:36-38)
Isn’t this an interesting figure? It seems to clearly be about the Lord’s return. But in what sense does his return involve his knocking with a request that we open? I can’t think he’s saying we have the decision whether he comes or not. It’s his house! He comes in when he wants to. But it seems quite plausible that we could have grown sleepy and unprepared. The Lord is saying there will be no time to straighten things up when he comes. He will arrive, will enter, will know if we’ve been asleep and unprepared.
There’s another time Jesus speaks of knocking on our door; likely you’ve already thought of it. In his letter to Laodicea in Revelation 3:20, he says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Jesus knocks on the door of our personal lives, wants to be part of it, wants to share in our everyday life. He knocks on the door of our family lives, wants to be part of it. He knocks on the door of our church lives—which is the specific thing he’s addressing. He wants to be part of it.
This isn’t future. Jesus says he’s standing there knocking, right now. Are we paying attention? Are we going to let him in? He will keep right on knocking until the end, and then, as he teaches us in Luke, there will be no refusing him entry.
“To the one who knocks, it will be opened.” An invitation to us on our side of the door—and also his own confidence on his side. Whatever we are doing, the right reaction on our side is, “Hang on a minute. There’s someone at the door.”
Love, Paul