Answering God’s Call

Answering God’s call

Luke 11:5 – 8

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 11:5 And He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to

him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 because a friend

of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’; 7 and

from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been

shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8

“I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his

friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as

he needs.

I found it interesting in my first class at seminary years ago that the instructor started a

conversation where we had a talk about our calling and why we were at the seminary.

Let me first say that for me, learning about salvation through discipleship to Jesus came

to me at the age of 35. I was genuinely interested in learning all I could about Christianity

at that time. Actually, I still am interested in learning, and that’s why I do biblical

research even in my retirement. Two years after being baptized, I had two visions where

Jesus asked me to go into ordained ministry and learn the original meaning of the Bible

and pass that knowledge on. Therefore, since 1997 I’ve been trying to learn the original

meaning of the Scripture. This is taking me on a very fascinating journey, and if I had

the time, I would take you with me. A part of the journey is discovering the original

meaning from Luke chapter 11, verses 5 to 8, and there is a specific message that is

hidden inside the parable.

Parables were a way that rabbis taught in Jesus’ day and even today. I would say that

Jesus was the best at constructing the parables. Parables are based on the culture of the

day, and what you need to find is the twist where Jesus is being countercultural. In

addition to that, we have to look at location, numbers, and names. There are several

items in this very short passage that are not of the norm. For example, it is believed that

women would make bread for the family in the morning and that by the end of the day

that bread would’ve been consumed. The woman of the house baked one small loaf

that would be used for hospitality. Therefore, the person knocking at the door wanting

three loaves of bread is already a cultural signal that there’s something special going on.

Therefore, we look at the number of loaves, which is three. The number three in the

Bible is generally associated with divine actions. Therefore, the listener already knows

they are going to learn something about how to interact with God.

It is believed that people would wake up around midnight to study the Scriptures.

Midnight was considered the cool of the day and a perfect time to read God’s word.

Therefore, the person knocking at the door would not be waking up the family. Of

course, young children would probably sleep through the time of study, and you would

not want to wake them up for that. However, they would be used to having some noise

in the room because the adults would be talking. We also have to remember that in

Jesus’ time the typical house was one huge room. Therefore, answering the door would

not be that big a deal. However, why would someone be knocking at your door when

they should be at home reading the Scripture? Furthermore, why would someone want

to be having a snack at midnight, and if they didn’t have one in their house, would they

go to their neighborhood looking for one? Therefore, the entire parable is compliant

with the culture, and that’s what we look at to get the full breadth of it.

Let me go back to my seminary experience for a moment. When I was called by Jesus

to learn and discuss the original meaning of the Bible, I never questioned it. Jesus

knocked at the door leading into my soul. I opened the door immediately and went with

him on this journey. I had no idea where I was going to end up, but that didn’t matter

because I had faith in God that I was being led down the correct path.

In this first seminary class, we were asked to say something about our calling. The 11

other people in the class each said that they had felt a calling from God to go into

ministry for years and that they eventually decided to answer that call. A big question