Opening Doors Fearlessly

I’m not a big fan of scary movies, but this week the stores were filled with Halloween stuff, so maybe that’s why I’m thinking about them. And even if you’re not a fan of scary movies, I’ll bet you’ve seen the scene that’s been written into many of them. It starts with a shot of someone sitting at home alone on a dark and stormy night. Then, all of a sudden this person hears a “bump” from upstairs…the same upstairs that’s supposed to be empty. So they get up from their chair, and head to the foot of the stairs. Then, at that point the camera angle switches so that you and I see what they see as they tiptoe up the stairs and creep toward the door to the room where that bump in the night came from When they get there, we see their shaking, trembling hand slowly reach out to open the door… I think that’s the moment when the person in the row in front of you at the movie theater yells out “Don’t go in there!” and you jump out of your seat and spill your popcorn all over your lap. You know that scene, don’t you?

We’re familiar with this kind of thing…the tension…the feelings of trepidation that fill us as we follow the character up the stairs…the fear that we can feel as they reach out with that trembling hand to open the door…we know this well…but I’m not sure that Jesus does.
I’ll bet that when Jesus arrived at the temple in Matthew 21:23-32 that there wasn’t an ounce of fear in him. Picture him, walking across town, down the street to the temple, up the front steps, and making his way to the entrance. How did he open the door when he got there? Do you picture him tiptoeing up the stairs? Do you envision him creeping toward the door? Do you see his hand trembling, shaking in fear as he reaches out to open it and enter? I don’t. In fact, when I read this story, I can’t picture Jesus approaching anything that way.

If you skip back to verse 12, you’ll find, I think, a very different picture of Jesus’ entrance that day:

“Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:12-13)

Turning tables, driving people out, making bold proclamations? This doesn’t sound like someone who opened the door to the temple that day with fear and trepidation. Instead, I think Jesus opened the door that day with purpose, with confidence…when it comes down to it…I think he opened it…FEARLESSLY.

In fact, if you read Jesus’ story, I think you’ll find that he opens most doors without fear. He opened the door to a fishermen’s heart and asked him to follow…without fear of rejection. He opened the door to the room where that same fisherman’s mother-in-law suffered with a terrible fever…without fear of catching what she had. He opened the door to his friend Lazarus’ tomb…without fear of the smell of death that was inside it. Jesus opens lots of doors, and he opens them all fearlessly.

He invites you to do the same thing…with doors that lead to new possibilities…with doors that have been bolted shut for too long…with doors that prevent you from living life in all of the abundance that God intended...Jesus invites you to do it with every door you face.
We’re invited to open doors fearlessly because that’s what Jesus himself does. I think he must get that from his Father.

God isn’t afraid of opening new doors. God isn’t afraid to open the door that leads from heaven to earth and send his only Son down to live with us. God isn’t afraid to open the door of the tomb that holds His Son’s lifeless body. God certainly isn’t afraid to open the door to your heart, and invite you to follow His way.

How did Jesus open the door to the temple that day? Timidly? Fearfully? With uncertainty? I’ll bet not! He opened it fearlessly and walked right in. Even though he knew there were challenges waiting for him on the other side of it.

The people Jesus meets in the temple that day aren’t very good at opening doors…fearlessly or otherwise. In fact, maybe because of their fear they prefer to close doors and keep them shut. We might not be all that different. When you see a door in front of you that may hold a new, but scary opportunity behind it…what do you do? When you pass by the doors that have been slammed on relationships, and hold nothing but old wounds and grudges behind them…what do you do? When you stand before the door that leads to new life…how do you stand? Do you tiptoe past them? Do you creep by them? Do you stand and tremble with fear…debating whether or not to open them?

I think Jesus is always inviting us, but never forcing us, to open these doors in our lives and know that because he’s with us that we can open them FEARLESSLY!

God opened the door from heaven to earth and Jesus walked through it…on the other side he saw some pretty scary things…he saw people using God’s name to get rich…he saw people struggling to eat with no one to help them…he saw people dying alone because people were afraid to reach out and touch them…in the end he saw possibly the scariest thing of all…a wooden cross with his name on it! He saw it all, and yet he never crept, he never trembled, he never gave in to any fear he may have had. In the end, I think Jesus goes to the cross because his love for us is so strong that it far outweighs any fear he feels.

There is one exception to this, though. On the evening when Jesus was raised from the dead, we’re told that his disciples were gathered in a house and they had locked the doors because they were afraid. These may be the only doors that Jesus doesn’t open. Mysteriously, he simply appears in the house. The doors remain locked as he stands among his disciples, shows them the marks of the nails in his hands and offers them his peace. He doesn’t open the door when he comes to show his disciples that he’s alive and well…He appears, and then he leaves that last part up to them…to let go of everything that scares them, and fearlessly open the door to step into the life that God has in store for them. We know they did it because we wouldn ‘t be here otherwise. Will you do the same?