Knock. Knock. Who's There?

What does knocking have to do with following Jesus?

I looked up the Greek word for "knock" as used in Matthew 7:7. Thankfully, in a blog, I don't have to be able to pronounce it. The word is "krouo." It means literally "to knock at the door."

Hmmm.... Surely it is a metaphor, don't you think? It has to mean something more deeply spiritual than that, doesn't it? Could it really be as simple as knocking at the door?

Well, I can't bend the definition. What good would that do in helping us follow Christ? So where else can I find knocking in the Bible. Oh look, here's knocking in Luke 11:5-8. Here a man needs bread for his guests and he goes to his neighbor at midnight and knocks on the door. Hmmm... But the neighbor tells the man to go away. "It's late, for Heaven's sake, and my children and I are in bed." Paraphrase.

But the man needs bread, so he keeps in knocking. "Oh, please get up. My guests will starve over night if I don't have bread." Paraphrase again. The man knocks and knocks and knocks until the neighbor finally gets up. Why did he get up? New American Standard, Verse 8: "because of his persistence."

The man knocked and knocked and knocked and the neighbor answered, not because of the man's need, but because he persisted.

Persistence. That is a character trait of a follower of Christ.

How badly this man needed bread to keep on knocking like he did. He drove home his point to the neighbor and the neighbor heard his persistent knock. In fact, the man's persistence was so important that it warranted an illustration in the Scriptures.

My friend Lynn and I were mentioning that neither one of us finds knocking to be our strong suit. It's not that we take the easy way out, but we don't want to intrude upon God, or upon the neighbor. We need the door to be opened immediately. Shouldn't the neighbor have gotten right up and given the man some bread? Shouldn't we get the first job we interview for? Shouldn't our children respond to our first call? Have you ever mentioned Jesus to your neighbor only to have him mock your Savior (and you)? So you stop mentioning Jesus. Have you ever been rejected for showing Jesus' love? So you stop showing love.

How is your persistence? Do you ever want to give up on following Christ? Look at the man's reward: He got as much bread as he needed (Luke 11:8). It's interesting that the man needed bread. There is something about a piece of bread. It is very satifying. It fills a need for nourishment that we barely know is there. The bread of persistence as a follower of Christ will satiate you, will satify your deepest longing.

Knock. Knock. Knock and knock. Who's there? It's Jesus. The bread of life (John 6:35).