“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20 (RSV)
Although Jesus calls everyone equally, everyone may not respond to Him in the same time frame, or with the same magnitude of faith.
Responses matter to Jesus, because He wants to be invited into every part of our life. He is too gentle and polite to barge in and take over. It’s in the most desperate times, that we can hear Him calling our name, or knocking on the door of our hearts, until we respond and invite Him in.
Jesus talked about the ten lepers that He healed, asking why only one leper returned to thank Him. He expects us to hear His voice and follow Him, because His sheep hear His voice, and they follow Him. Jesus wants responses, and there are so many scriptural examples, making it clear that He appreciates our response to Him, when He calls our name, before or after He heals us, or while He is politely knocking on our door.
I’m going to share two stories on the topic of responding to Jesus. The first one is a trip down memory lane for me. Although there is an actual street about a mile north of my home, called Memory Lane, I’m sharing this from the memory lane in my heart.
I used to write letters to Ted, my oldest brother who was an instructor Air Force pilot, who was stationed in various countries over the years. For some odd reason, ever since he joined the Air Force, I had an obsession of concern for his safety, and earnestly prayed for him. Even twelve years later, while he was in South Korea, at the height of his Air Force career, I felt an urge to send him a letter with this sentence in it,
“If you’re ever in a time of danger, call on Jesus.” It’s not very profound, and I don’t know why I felt such intense concern, since it was 1982, long after the Viet Nam era and our country was at peace.
Not very long after that letter, his F-16 jet crashed during a routine mission, and after a ten day search, the crash site revealed that he had died on impact. The cause of the crash was later found to be an electrical wire malfunction in F-16 planes. It took a few more years to prove, but after further investigation, the accident report was changed to read that the cause was electrical wire chafing, and not pilot error.
I believe that my overwhelming sense of urgency to pray for him and write to him, was a response to the Holy Spirit. I trust that the same Holy Spirit stirred my brother’s heart at an important time in his life, leading him to respond and call upon Jesus, finding peace in his final seconds of life.
Yesterday, I was visiting patients in the hospital as part of the volunteer ministry I do every Sunday. I visited one patient, who was in his mid seventies, and asked if I could pray for him. He said “Don’t bother, it won’t do any good anyway.”
He said it with a look in his eyes, which I read as meaning he was facing a terminal diagnosis. Rather than asking any questions, I told him God can do anything, but the most important thing is that we have the peace of knowing it is well with our soul. So I asked again if I could pray that God’s presence would give him peace from this day forward, and he responded yes. Half way through the prayer, he started crying, but I knew that they were tears of comfort and peace.
In the next few minutes, we agreed together that God’s presence was in the room, and that He will never leave him, and he agreed that eternal life is his greatest gift.
His very first response to me may have been a negative one, but after praying, he found hope and peace. Jesus was obviously knocking on his door, he heard His voice, and he responded by opening the door of his heart to Him. As I walked out of that room, I felt a sense of awe, that something beautiful, but from another world, just took place in there. A part of heaven is in every hospital room, calling, knocking and whispering to every heart.
We are all carrying a cross, and though we don’t understand it, there is meaning and purpose in our loved one’s suffering, as well as in our own. We don’t need to fully understand things here and now, but the grace of God will always lift us out of our despair and give us peace. As we respond to the One who suffered for us, He changes our hearts, before changing our situations.
The Holy Spirit is drawing us closer to Jesus each day, and we are all called to respond to Him in some way. The same Spirit leads us to others who are ripe to respond to His voice or a polite knock on their door. The Good Shepherd is a “gatherer.” He is in a continuous phase of gathering His sheep closer and closer to Himself, but it needs to start with each one’s response.
Lord, you call us all closer, knocking on the door of our hearts daily, and you lift us out of our despair and give us your peace. Send your Spirit to lead us and others to continually respond to you. Amen