Sunday, May 3, 2015

MATTHEW 7: 7-14

This passage is so familiar to me. I have heard it and learned it from bible studies, sermons and songs. But it is deceptively simple. Like so many of Jesus’ teachings it has a deeper meaning. This time, the meaning lies in the logic of the command.

“Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds
And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

In order to be in a position to ask, I have to know I am in need. In order to know something is missing that needs to be sought after, I have to understand that I am not complete. And in order to come up to a door and knock on it, or to ask or seek help, I have to be humble enough to beg for help. And in begging for help, I have to be at a point in my life where I have stopped trying to do it all myself. I have to stop using the resources of the world to solve my problems or ease my pain. In short, I have to be broken and know I am broken. I have to feel it and realized it. Then, when I ask, seek and knock, the Lord will truly listen to me and answer me.

We live in a time when the secular world offers us many solutions to our problems. The main streets of the city are filled with nightclubs and bars that offer to serve us an evening of music, food and various kinds of alcohol. For those celebrating from time to time, these places are a wonderful diversion. For some, such places are a regular haunt. As the T.V. show “Cheers” declared in the theme song. “You want to go where everybody knows your name.” For the regulars, sometimes and too often, they are trying to rid themselves of the demon of loneliness. But at some point, these folks must put a key in a lock and walk back into a home or apartment where their troubles rush back tenfold.

During the day, the malls are filled with shoppers, spending money on things they often do not need, all for the fleeting feeling of owning something new. My generation is spending a lifetime of savings to travel the world, seeking diversion in different locations. My grandmother used to say: “No matter where you go, your troubles travel with you.” She was right. I’ve listened to many friends’ stories, when they return, and most of those stories are details of complaints. Unhappy people are unhappy whether they are at home or in Cuba or Hawaii.

Jesus uses ironic, exaggerated examples to prove his point. A good father would not give a son a stone instead of bread, or a scorpion instead of a fish. In such a way, our Father in Heaven does not give bad gifts to his children. He gives them what they ask for. Then comes the key to Jesus’ idea:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
For this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

If I treat others the way I wish to be treated, then I am already in a state of humility and grace. I am not expecting any ‘just desserts’ or ‘rewards’ for my actions or my position in the world. If I ever did wander off the path to where I used the world’s remedies for my troubles, then returning to The Golden Rule brings me back again. It ‘breaks me’ in a sense of my bad habits of mind and deed.

Jesus reminds me to enter the “narrow gate”, not the wide one that will lead to my destruction. He cautions me that only a few find the true path. In this he is telling me that the temptations to follow the crowd and choose the solutions to problems that everyone else chooses leads to disaster. Shopping leads only to more shopping. Drinking leads only to more drinking. Eating leads to obesity.

Recently I read that the greatest fear in the world is the fear of the unknown. This would include the future and that includes death. The world offers me a wall of noise and colour to divert me from this fear. It tells me to insulate myself with more and more money to protect me from troubles. But every story Jesus told dismantles the false, worldly attempts to stave off fear. In the end, I could die tomorrow and because life goes on, within a week less than a handful of people would still be speaking about me. Their stories would not be about the money I acquired or the way I spent myself in worldly pursuits. God willing, their stories would tell how I treated others the way I wanted them treat me.

Ask, Seek, Knock. Have I done enough spiritual Spring Cleaning to allow me to do these things?

Peter Mansell May 3, 2015