Take a second and think, right now, of this star in your life. Some actor, musician, author, inspiring person, saint, etc.
Got it?
To avoid the nuisance of saying he/she and his/her repeatedly, let's say this person is a man.
Okay, so imagine he actually did knock on your door tomorrow. You would probably give him star treatment, correct? Well imagine that you shut the door in his face. In fact, you SLAMMED it. Or you let him in but then proceeded to mock him, beat him, and kill him.
Harsh, right? Why on earth would you do this?
Well the problem is that we ARE on earth. Earth is sinful, full of humans with more freedom than we know what to do with. Enough freedom to make us to horrible things. Enough freedom to make us blind to the greatest Gift ever.
I hope you see where I'm going with this. Jesus is that celebrity. When He arrived on this earth, we should have welcomed Him like the King He is. We should have opened our front doors wide without hesitation and offered Him the most comfortable bed in the house.
Instead, when He arrived on this earth, we closed every inn door on Him. We made Him, our humble yet Almighty King, sleep in a manger.
I say we because it was us. We closed the door. We closed our hearts. We, united as one through our humanity, mocked Him. We spat on Him, beat Him, and drove three nails through His body. And then we hung Him up to die.
Can you believe how blind we were? We had the priceless opportunity to see our God, our Creator, humble Himself and join us through human suffering. Our King took the same form as us. He became human for us. He walked the same earth, ate as we eat, and died as we die.
How humble of the Lord to take this abuse. He went from angels and thrones in heaven to verbal and physical abuse on earth.
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed (Matthew 16:1-28).
Ask us who is dominating the box offices and we can tell you. Ask us who the most popular celebrity is and we know. But ask us to point to our much-anticipated Savior right before our very eyes and we wouldn't have a clue.
We know the signs that indicate a storm is near. But we are completely oblivious to the signs that indicate Christ's presence right before us, both in the flesh when He walked this earth and now in Spirit, as He dwells within all we meet.
God's knocking on our doors each day. Next time we hear Him, let us not shut the door in His face. This time, let's give Him the King's welcome He deserves.
