Luke 11:5 He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend; and you go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine who has been traveling has just arrived at my house, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 Now the one inside may answer, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already shut, my children are with me in bed — I can’t get up to give you anything!’ 8 But I tell you, even if he won’t get up because the man is his friend, yet because of the man’s hutzpah (persistence) he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “Moreover, I myself say to you: keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened.”
A lot of people are familiar with the last half of this story:
“...keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened.”
Out of context, this sounds like a formula for getting what you want:
“If I just keep on asking, He’ll finally hear me and grant me my wish. I just need persistence and strength to keep on asking. Besides, that will prove my faith in Him, right? He will clearly see me as a fantastic child of God! I am proudly one of those that knocks and knocks and knocks.”
But have you really considered what came before?
This person knocking in the parable is not just someone wanting what they want for themselves. Let’s unpack this and see if we can find out why this is actually an embarrassing approach to getting the “stuff” you want.
We have a situation here where one person is desperate enough to test the friendship with a request at an inconvenient time. There are a few things to note with this parable:
You were not prepared when someone unexpectedly came by to visit.
You have this friend that was traveling and they caught you at a time when the pantry was empty. Maybe you just got busy and forgot to go to the store or maybe you’ve just been lazy. Either way, busy and lazy produce the same outcome.
You apparently had enough provision for yourself.
While you don’t have extra, it does seem that you were content with your own meal earlier in the evening. Maybe you had enough for yourself (and perhaps your family) but you don’t have enough for even one other person? Sounds like you are living paycheck to paycheck and you got caught in an embarrassing situation.
You had to humble yourself and go ask your friend for help.
How embarrassing it must have been to have your traveling friend show up and you be unprepared to receive him. Your back was against the wall and you knew you had to go ask another friend for something that you should have yourself. But because you were not a good steward, you now had to humble yourself and ask for help.
No one likes to be disturbed when they’ve settled in for the night.
Think about how you feel once you get settled into bed and have just dozed off for a pleasant night’s rest. Then you hear a sudden rapping at the door. It startles you and that state of relaxation is instantly gone. You may have trouble falling back asleep anytime soon so that sets off the rest of your night and could even affect your whole next day.
They have their kids with them.
Do you know how hard it is to get most kids into bed? It’s not always easy and here we have them in a position to get woken up also. Depending on the age of the children, it could also startle them and introduce fear. Have you tried settling down a child that has been charged with a jolt of fear? We have the potential for a very long night.
Your friend that was in bed is reluctant to help you for a seemingly small favor.
Most people are probably going to think the same thing in this situation: “Come back in the morning and I’ll give you whatever you need. I mean, it’s not like your house is on fire. Calm down, buddy.” In fact, your friend is probably annoyed that you don’t have food in your own house anyway. Because if you had been well prepared, there would be no need for you to disturb him at this hour. While this is a very serious issue for you, your friend realizes this isn’t as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.
Due to persistence, your friend gets up to help.
But your friend realizes you’re in a pinch and has decided that the only way to get rid of you at this hour is to give you what you came for. It’s not that your friend hates you or anything, they just want to get back to where they were before you came.
And he gives you all you want.
While he’s up, he figures he should give as much as you want so you won’t come back later that night asking for more.
What have we learned here about ourselves?
So now you see this story is not providing a formula for you to get what you want. The urgency of the persistent knocking and subsequent request for provision is based on you not being prepared. This is a humbling (or embarrassing) thing for you to do. It is also critical to know that the purpose behind your asking is for someone else!
This is not for you.
This is an admission of poor stewardship and an eager pursuit to alleviate the pain of having been unprepared to receive the Greatest Man that will ever cast a shadow on your door.
When He comes to your home, please be in such a state as to receive Him in full.
Otherwise, you will have to leave Him behind and start banging on all the doors in town.