Midnight knocking

[AI translation] A very blatant example of boldness, of violence, of intrusiveness, is told here by Jesus in this story. We are reluctant to do the same, even if we are forced to call the doctor or the pharmacist in the middle of the night because of some unexpected accident. This man in the story comes and wakes up his neighbour at midnight to ask for bread. - How would we react if someone came to our house at midnight, saying that he had run out of bread and had an unexpected visitor? It is indeed presumptuous to ask someone for a piece of bread in the middle of the night! And the way this man in the story does it is doubly unpleasant. Nor does he relent when his friend says to him, "Hurt me not: now the door is shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give you" (v. 7), but continues to ask forcibly, while the other is forced by his importunity to rise and give him what he wants!And behold, that which is the height of importunity with men, God has allowed on our part with Himself. With this story, Jesus wants to show us how mysterious, how incomprehensibly great is God's paternal love for us!
Basically, all our prayers are to some extent such intrusive presumption on our part towards God! How not easy it is to come before an earthly greatness and talk to him about something! Is it not then presumptuous to think of the Most High as the One before Whom we can appear at any time, to Whom we can speak at any time, convenient or inconvenient? Is it not presumptuous to believe that the holy God will receive me, no one, when I come to Him? It is as if the boldness and inconvenience inherent in the act of prayer were felt by the pray-ers of the Bible, especially the writers of the Psalms, because before they present their petitions to God, they beg that God will hear them at all, take any notice of them at all, take notice of them, that here they are before His holy face! Again and again, such humble cries come up, "O God... hear me" (Psalm 69:14), or, "Hide not thy face from me... incline thine ear unto me; when I cry, hear me quickly!" (Psalm 102:3), etc. These pray-ers are aware that prayer is not so obvious, not so natural, and that a man like us is allowed to pray at all. There would be reason enough for God not to hear us and ignore our cries! These psalmists are very humbly sensible that it is actually a great audacity on man's part to knock, to knock, to ring, to bother God with all sorts of fiddly things! As much as Jesus told this parable to encourage us to knock, let us remain very humble, because with all our prayers we are as inept intruders as the midnight knocker in the parable. Let us always pray as this man knocked: knowing that the other has every reason not to open the door, and even to be indignant at the intrusion, so it is a great audacity to do what he does, and yet to do it in spite of everything! With humble boldness or bold humility he asks, seeks and knocks! That is prayer!
But beyond that, our prayer is always intrusive and very bold because, just as in the parable, we always pray again, at truly inopportune times. We are always catching ourselves in the fact that there are periods of our lives - sometimes quite long periods - when we care little for God, are indifferent to him, almost dispensable to us. Then, when the unexpected happens, we run and we bang, we get impatient, we beg and we plead. Such is the wickedness in us that we only ever turn to God and cry out to Him when we need Him, when we feel that we are in dire need of help from above! Some people are ashamed to come before God at such times. They think that if I didn't turn to Him in the good days, it would be a great impertinence to turn to Him now when I am in trouble. Or if one has not prayed heartily, deeply, truly, with all one's soul for a whole lifetime, and now it is getting dark, one is coming to the twilight of one's life, or one is getting towards the midnight of one's life, and then it suddenly occurs to one that perhaps one should try to pray. He begins to knock at the last seconds: is it still permissible to knock so late? Isn't such a midnight prayer unheard of audacity and impertinence? Can God not rightly say: 'Is this the time to ask? Why did you not come sooner, in the daytime of your life? How dare you disturb me so late?
Jesus knows very well all our human wickedness. It was with this in mind that he told this parable of the man who at a most inconvenient time, at midnight, was almost insolently intruding. What a great grace that such midnight rattling exists with God! For there is another midnight knock in Scripture, in the parable of the ten virgins, when the five bridesmaids trapped outside knock in vain at the door of the closed bridal house. The belated knocking is of no use, the door remains closed. It is as if on the verge of this belated knocking, Jesus is encouraging us with this parable and is now crying out to us. Ask, seek, and knock, even if it is already midnight!
There is so much encouragement and exhortation in this parable that we would not dare to take it seriously if Jesus had not said it. Such a tremendous promise can only be made by one who has authority from God. And behold, the second person of the God of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, speaks to us of the possibility of late-night prayer. With this parable, he comes between the holy God and the late man, and the more it is getting dark, the more impertinent it would be to break the door, the more we are afraid, the more we dare not take it, the more urgently he encourages us to go ahead, ask, seek and cry out, do it in my name! Say that I have encouraged you, claim my promise! Or is someone waiting for you, so that you will not be ashamed and blushing and have to stand before God? Does anyone think that he can do without this mediation of Jesus in prayer? Then he could wait until the Day of Judgement! Well, it is precisely those who are afraid or timid to come before God in prayer for whatever reason that Jesus is encouraging with this parable! Those who are condemned by their own conscience, who think that they cannot now, so sinfully or so late, it would be really impertinent to try to knock! Yes, to them he says: come, it is not too late, come, God accepts you without merit! Thou shalt not plead merit before God; Christ alone has merit there! For Jesus, in respect of His merits, you must come, ask, knock, even if it is midnight!
What is particularly significant in this story is that the man who rings his neighbour's doorbell at such an inconvenient hour is not doing it for himself, but on behalf of someone who has come to him from the street at midnight. He too got out of bed, dressed himself, and knocked on his neighbour's door. For someone else, he took on the impertinence, overcoming his fear. For someone else, she took the risk of being scolded by her neighbour for disturbing her at night. This parable is also about how we should and can take up and carry someone else's case before God in prayer. This world in which we live is almost teeming with people who would be very dependent on prayerful people to constantly nag them. This would be one of the greatest and most blessed ministries of the church of Christ to this wretched world. In praying for others, Jesus especially encourages bold, intrusive, insolent, inappropriate and inopportune times of knocking at heaven's door.
Modesty can be a very beautiful virtue, but not here! Here it is allowed to be very immodest! And we Christians today wish we could once again realize the immense importance of praying for others! It is also said that if the elephant knew how great the power in its trunk was, it would no longer be such a harmless and adaptable animal! Well, if the Christian church once knew the tremendous potential of prayer, it would no longer be such a harmless and harmless company as it is! It could become a great power - not a social, economic or party political power, of course, but a power of prayer! For those who pray are free to stand before the throne of the Lord to Whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. Worshippers can knock where the fate of heaven and earth is being settled, where angels are available to carry out every will!
Of the great worshippers of the Bible we read that they prayed for the destiny of whole cities and countries, they implored God's power over fire, over water, over weather, to be brought down to earth. Surely the writer of Hebrews is not exaggerating when he writes of the faithful worshippers, "By faith they conquered countries, they did justice, they obtained promises, they shut the mouths of lions. They have quenched the power of fire, they have escaped the edge of the sword, they have recovered from sickness, they have become strong in war, they have subdued the camps of foreigners... They have been put to the rack, Others have endured mockings and scourgings, and even shackles and imprisonment; They have been stoned, they have suffered trials, they have been sawn asunder, they have been put to the sword, they have hidden in the skins of sheep and goats, destitute, oppressed, tormented" (Hebrews 11:33-37)! To intercede with prayer to the supreme Mediator is to ask and to knock at the door of the place where the supreme decisions concerning the fate of individuals and of whole peoples and nations are made! And this truly dizzying opportunity is being left unused by Christianity today!
Jesus says: "If ye therefore, being evil, can give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him" (Luke 11:13)! Yes, the Holy Spirit is the secret of true, powerful, mighty prayer! The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of our prayer. The Holy Spirit can also make us a praying church that can benefit this sick world! The church, the church of Christ, is the sleeping man who has someone come in off the street at midnight. The sleeping man in the parable woke up to the banging, got out of bed and went to his neighbour's house to get bread! Does the church of Christ wake up when the street calls to it for help? Can it rise from its cramped comfort when the confused problems of a bankrupt world knock on its walls? Can it knock on God's door persistently, boldly, insistently, if belatedly, but still not too late? Would that God the Holy Spirit would so trouble us that we would not then give him rest with our bold, importunate requests, our importunate knocking! After all, besides the great encouragement, we have the great promise from Jesus that "he who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Luke 11:10)!
Amen.
Date: 18 April 1948.