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
was, why did you have to wait? Did you not trust God? The typical answer was a fear
that God might want them to go to a place in the world that they didn’t want to be in.
That would raise the concern that God would be asking these people to do something
that may have been difficult or near impossible. Therefore, their answer to not
answering God’s call immediately was fear. Eventually God caught up with them, as he
did with Jonah, who tried to get away from God by going into a ship leading toward
Spain, and God brought Jonah back and cured him of his fear.
So, the question for us today is, is God calling you to do some service for him? If God
is calling you to do something for him, why are you not ready to do it? Do you have a
fear that God may be asking you to do something that either you have never done
before or wants you to go to a place that you don’t want to be in?
Let me give you an interesting example from the first church I was appointed to. When
I got to that church, the outreach committee wanted to create a thrift store for clothing
to help the poor people in the community. I thought that was a wonderful idea, and I
still do. However, the people of the church did not want to put the store in the
neighborhood where the poor people lived. They elected to rent a storefront that was
near the church in an affluent section of the turnaround.
Has God asked you to do something for him that scares you or gives you some fear? If
so, you need to figure out how to get over that fear. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how
to do it. But the first step I can tell you is to identify that you have a fear about whatever
this opportunity is that God or Jesus wants you to do. Talk to someone about it,
especially an empathetic pastor who also has taken that giant leap into ministry not
knowing what they were getting into but did it because Jesus told them to do it. There
are plenty of us out there that can talk to you about what that leap of faith felt like and
how to overcome that fear. Remember, if God is calling you to do something for him,
I believe it’s foolish to say no.
