“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
20 …. Keys
“I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder”. (Isaiah22:22)
Yes, historians tell us that in fact there existed keys, large enough to carry on one’s shoulder. They were usually made of wood. Now the placing of the lock was different from the way we know it. The key had to be put from inside the room or yard. To manage, they used to cut a hole large enough to thrust your hand and arm with the key and then you manoeuvre to put the key from inside and open the lock. So only the owner could have opened it.
Well, one could argue, why not put the lock on the outside and the owner would have opened it just the same? It was not just the same, because that means that once inside they used to lock the door from inside. I don’t think they had, as yet invented sophisticated locks like the ones we have, to open from outside and lock from inside.
A lovely quotation from the “Song of Solomon” or “Song of Songs”5:4, where we find these words: “When my beloved slipped his hand through the latch-hole …..” She saw him thrust his hand in the door hole so as to unlock the door and go inside, near his bride.
We have to remark, here, that in the case of Jesus, He does not unlock our door, no, He knocks at our door, but He waits for us to open for Him. He never enters unless He is invited and feels welcome. We have to open for Him.
We find this portrayed in the famous work by Holman Hunt. The devil, acts differently, he forces himself upom us, especially when he see that we are weak.
On entering one would meet with the porter or one of the servants. This is called the ‘porch’, and if we remember well it was here, in the porch that Peter’s denial took place. Let’s go to Matthew 26, 71 or Mark 14, 68: “And when he was gone out into the porch, another girl saw him, and said to those around, This man was also with Jesus of Nazareth.”
It is the ‘porter’s’ duty to answer the knocking at the door, of any visitor desiring admission. Now, here we have something very interesting. It was not the custom, as we know it in the West, that when someone answers the door and asks: “Who is it?” the one desiring admission used to answer simply: “It is I”.
Well, we usually answer: “Hello, it’s Tony” or some other name. They never gave their name. It was the porter’s duty, business to recognize whose voice it is…and then open. Their culture demanded, that from childhood, children get used to recognizing people from their voice.
This seems to be reflected in Christ’s words: “My sheep know my voice”. This no coincidence, but Jesus being a Jew, like His countrymen, wante to follow the culture and customs of His land. Yes, He had a very important message to pass on, and he did transmit it according to their frequency, He had to use the same wave-length.
Going back to the voice behind the door, the porter will not open until she / he recognizes the voice. We find reference of this in the Acts of the Apostles,12,13: “She (Rhoda) recognized Peter’s voice and was so overjoyed that instead of opening the door, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing outside.” Poor Rhoda she was called crazy for not opening promptly the door.
In Revelations, 3,20, we find a similar example: “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come unto him.”
We all remember Christ walking on the water, to the frightened apostles He did not say: Fear not, it is Jesus, but rather He said: (Matt.14,27) “It is I, be not afraid.”
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