How should we greet Jesus when He knocks at the door? Embroidery icon Jesus knocks on my door.

Having believed in the Lord, all the brothers and sisters love to sing the song “The Beloved is Knocking on the Door”: “The Beloved is knocking on the door. The handles of the castle are covered with night dew. Get up, open the door for Him; don’t let your loved one leave..."

Every time we sing this song, it touches us all and has a great impact. We all want to hold our beloved and be among the first to hear His voice and greet Him when He knocks at our door. All believers in the Lord desire this. But what does it mean when the Lord knocks on the door? And how should we greet Him when He knocks at our door?

During the Age of Grace, when Jesus Christ came to perform atonement, the news of His works and His teachings spread throughout Judea, His name also became famous among a whole generation. For the people of that time, Jesus Christ was knocking on their door as He preached everywhere Gospel with His disciples. The Lord Jesus said: " From that time Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(Matthew 4:17). The Lord wanted people to repent and confess to Him in order to forgive their sins and redeem them from the condemnation and curse of the Law. At that time, many Jews saw the miracles performed by Jesus Christ, as well as the authority and power of His words; they saw the feeding of five thousand with five loaves and two fish after words of thanksgiving, the pacification of the storm and the sea with one word, the raising of Lazarus with one word, etc. As the Lord Jesus said, everything was accomplished and fulfilled. His words are similar to the words spoken by the Creator when He created the heavens and the earth; they are also filled with power and authority. Moreover, such words that the Lord Jesus spoke and with which He taught the people and rebuked the Pharisees cannot be spoken by people. His words reveal God's entire character and essence, and they reveal the power and authority of God. In fact, everything that the Lord said or did could not but concern human soul. We can say that the Jewish people of that time had already heard the Lord's knock on the door.

However, the Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees did not recognize that Jesus Christ was the coming Messiah due to prejudice and their own ideas. They adhered to the letter of the prophecies from the Bible and believed that the one who came should be called Emmanuel or Messiah and, in addition, should be born of a virgin. When they saw that Mary had a husband, they simply denied that the Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin; they slandered Jesus Christ, saying that He was the son of a carpenter, thereby rejecting and condemning Him; and, besides, they also blasphemed, saying that the Lord Jesus casts out demons through Beelzebub, the chief of the demons. Having come into contact with the deeds and words of the Lord, the rumors and slander of the Pharisees, most Jews listened more to the words of the Pharisees instead of God's Gospel. They closed their hearts to the Lord while He knocked. The Lord Jesus said about this, “... and the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled over them, which says: You will hear with your ears and will not understand, and with your eyes you will look and will not see, for the hearts of these people are hardened and their ears are hard to hear, and they have closed their eyes, Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and lest they be converted, that I might heal them” (Matthew 13:14-15). The Lord hoped that people would be able to hear His voice, know His works, and understand His will. When people open their hearts to God to answer His knock, He guides them to recognize His voice and see His form. The Jewish people of that time, because they believed the rumors of the Pharisees, closed their hearts to the Lord, refused to hear His voice to accept His atonement, and missed the chance to follow Jesus Christ. As a result, they suffered losses among their people for many generations and for almost two thousand years due to their resistance to God. On the contrary, those disciples who followed Jesus Christ, such as Peter, John, James, etc., heard the words of the Lord, knew His works and recognized Jesus Christ as the coming Messiah. As a result, they followed in the footsteps of the Lord and achieved His salvation.

Exactly the same in Lately, we need to be even more alert and prepared because the Lord will come and knock on our door again at any time. Jesus Christ said: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them; and they follow me"(John 10:27). From these scriptures we learn that Jesus Christ will speak and do all things new again at His return, which means the Lord will knock on our door. All those who are wise virgins will actively seek and listen carefully to His sayings, knowing whether it is the voice of the Lord. When they recognize the voice of the Lord, they will accept His return. Our Lord is faithful. He will surely enable those who thirst and seek Him to hear His voice when He speaks. Perhaps He will tell us of His return through the mouths of others, just as the Lord Jesus warned us: “ But at midnight a cry was heard: behold, the groom is coming, go out to meet him"(Matthew 25:6). Perhaps we will hear His voice in person, or we will hear His word through churches preaching the Gospel of the Lord's return, or through the Internet, radio or Facebook. But in any case, the Lord hopes that we can become wise virgins so that we can observe and listen to His voice at any time. We do not need to approach His knock according to our ideas and prejudices, as the Jews did, and even more so we should not blindly listen to lies or rumors about religious antichrists, thereby refusing God's call, thus losing the opportunity of meeting the returning Jesus and rapture in Kingdom of heaven. Instead, we should open the door to the Lord and welcome Him by hearing His voice. This is the only way we can stand before God's throne at the Feast of the Lamb.

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“Behold, I’m standing at the door and knocking...”

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

I’m standing at the door and it’s no use.- Not violent, says My presence: for I there's no use in the door of the heart and I rejoice with those who open them for their salvation. - I consider this salvation food and supper and I feed on what they feed on and drive away the smoothness of hearing the word of God.

Interpretation of the Apocalypse.

St. Tikhon Zadonsky

God Himself wants to come to us and present Himself to us for knowledge! He stands at everyone’s door, and wants to be known to everyone, but few people hear Him knocking on the door, since everyone’s hearing is drowned out by the lusts of sin and the love of the world. And so, having knocked on the door and having found nothing, he leaves the person with nothing. Calm and quiet your mind and heart from carnal lusts and the noise of worldly desires. Turn away from all this and listen to Him alone. Then you will truly know that He stands near you and knocks on the doors of your heart, and you will hear His sweet voice, and you will open the doors to Him. Then he will come into your house and dine with you, and you with Him. Then you will taste and see "how good is the Lord"(Ps. 33:9) . Then you too will cry with love and joy: “The Lord is generous and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in mercy, and true.”(Ex. 34:6) . And further: “I will love You, O Lord, my strength”, and further. And further: “What’s in heaven for me? And without You, what do I want on earth?” and further. Seek everywhere for Him who is everywhere, and, leaving everything, seek Him alone. And then you will certainly find it.

A spiritual treasure collected from the world.

St. Macarius the Great

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

So, let us accept God and the Lord, the true physician. Who, having come and worked hard for us, alone can heal our souls. For He continually strikes the doors of our hearts, so that we would open to Him, and He would ascend and rest in our souls, and we washed and anointed His feet, and He would make an abode with us. And there the Lord rebukes him who did not wash His feet (Luke 7:44); and in another place he says: “ Behold, I stand at the door: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him" For this reason, He deigned to suffer a lot, giving His body to death, and redeeming us from slavery, so that, having come to our soul, he would create an abode in it. Therefore, those who will be placed on the left side at His judgment, and whom He will send with the devil to Gehenna. The Lord will say: “ he was strange, and did not know Me; you are hungry, and you will not let me eat; you got thirsty and didn’t give me a drink"(Matthew 25:42-43); for food, and drink, and clothing, and cover, and His rest are in our souls. Therefore, he constantly knocks on the door, wanting to come in to us. Let us accept Him and bring Him inside ourselves; because for us He is food, life, drink, and eternal life. And every soul that has not received Him into itself and has not rested Him within itself now, or better to say, has not itself rested in Him, has no inheritance with the saints in the kingdom of heaven, and cannot enter the heavenly city.

Collection of manuscripts type II. Conversation 30.

Let's not be like bad and unfaithful wives who, when their hard-working husband comes home to rest, go away from the yard to wander somewhere on the side. How he longs to rest in His home, in our bodies and souls, the kind and only husband Christ, who worked hard for us and redeemed us with His own blood (Heb. 9:12)! He always knocks on the doors of our hearts, so that we would open to Him and He, entering, would rest in our souls and create an abode with us (John 14:23), so that we will not be reproached, as the Lord reproaches one who has not washed and not wiped His feet and who did not comfort Him. And in another place the Lord says: “ Here I am standing at the door and knocking; If anyone opens to me, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me." But we move away from Him without truly seeking Him. And He Himself is always close to our souls, knocking and striving to enter and calm down within us. For this reason, He endured great suffering, giving His Body to death and redeeming us from the slavery of darkness, so that, having entered into every soul, He would create an abode for Himself in it (John 14:23) and rest in it after the great labors endured for its sake. . This was the desire of His good will, that while we are still in this age, He would dwell and dwell in us, according to His promise (2 Cor. 6:16).

Collection of manuscripts type III. Lesson 16.

Blzh. Hieronymus of Stridonsky

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

However, God allows us to be kings of the earth, so that we reign over the earth and rule over our own flesh. As the apostle says: let sin not reign in your mortal body(Rom. 6:12) - and elsewhere it is written: The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord(Prov. 21:1) . Was the heart of Julian the persecutor in the hand of God? Is Saul's heart in the hand of God? Is Ahab's heart in the hand of God? Are the hearts of all the wicked kings of Judah in the hand of God? You see that there can be no talk of a literal understanding here. So the kings here are the saints, their heart is in the hand of the Lord. And let us pray to God that we may be kings and rule over our flesh, so that it will obey us. As the apostle says: But I subdue and enslave my body, so that, while preaching to others, I myself would not remain unworthy(1 Cor. 9:27) . Let our soul command, and let our body obey, and immediately Christ will enter and live in us.

Treatise on the Psalms.

Caesar of Arles

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

It’s true, if an earthly king or some head of a family invited you to his birthday, what kind of clothes would you try to decorate yourself with, if not new and exquisite, if not shining, so that neither their dilapidation, nor cheapness, nor ugliness would hurt your eyes? who invited? Therefore, with as much zeal as you can, with the help of Christ, direct all your efforts so that your soul, composed of the various ornaments of virtues, is adorned precious stones simplicity and flowers of moderation, came to the feast of the Eternal King, that is, the birthday of the Lord Savior, with a calm conscience, shining purity, sparkling love and sincere sacrifice.

Sermons.

Ecumenius

I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

The Lord reveals Himself to be gentle and peaceful. For the devil, according to the word of the prophet, with an ax and a reed (Ps. 73:6) crushes the doors of those who do not accept him. And the Lord, both now and in the Song of Songs, says to the bride: open to me, my sister, my beloved(Song. 5:2) . And if someone opens for him, he will come in. A meal with the Lord means receiving the Holy Sacraments [Body and Blood].

In 1854, the English artist William Holman Hunt presented the painting “Lamp of the World” to the public.

You are probably familiar with its plot from numerous imitative variations, which tend to become sweeter and sweeter from year to year. Popular imitations are usually called “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20). Actually, the picture was written on this topic, although it is named differently. It shows Christ knocking on some doors at night. He is a traveler. He has nowhere to “lay his head,” just as in the days of his earthly life. On His head is a crown of thorns, on His feet are sandals, and in His hands is a lamp. Night means that mental darkness in which we habitually live. This is “the darkness of this age.” The doors on which the Savior knocks have not been opened for a long time. A long time ago. Evidence of this is the thick weeds growing at the threshold.

Christ stands at the door of a certain house and knocks on these doors.

Viewers in the year the picture was presented to the public perceived the painting with hostility and did not understand its meaning. They - Protestants or agnostics - seemed to see an obsessive style of Catholicism in the picture. And it was necessary, as often happens, to tell someone sighted and attentive about the meaning of the canvas, decipher it, read it like a book. The critic and poet John Ruskin turned out to be such a smart interpreter. He explained that the painting was allegorical; that Christ still receives the same attention as the beggars knocking on doors; and what is most important in the picture is that the house is our heart, and the doors lead to the depths where our innermost “I” lives. It is at these doors—the doors of the heart—that Christ knocks. He does not break into them as the Master of the world, does not shout: “Come on, open it!” And He knocks not with his fist, but with the phalanges of his fingers, carefully. Let us remind you that it is night all around... And we are in no hurry to open... And on the head of Christ is a crown of thorns.

Let us now pause for a moment to say a few words about the numerous imitations and variations on the theme. The ones you've undoubtedly seen. They differ from the original in that, firstly, they remove the night. In them, Christ knocks on the doors of a house (guess it’s a heart) during the day. Behind His back is an eastern landscape or cloudy sky. The picture is pleasing to the eye. Due to the uselessness of the lamp, the staff of the Good Shepherd appears in the Savior’s hand. The crown of thorns disappears from the head (!). The doors on which the Lord knocks are already devoid of those eloquent thickets of weeds, which means they are opened regularly. The milkman or postman apparently knocks on them every day. And in general, houses tend to become clean and well-groomed - sort of bourgeois from the canon “ American dream" In some images, Christ simply smiles, as if he had come to a friend who is waiting for Him, or even He wants to play a trick on the owners: he will knock and hide around the corner. As often happens in fakes and stylizations, the tragic and deep semantic content imperceptibly gives way to a sentimental play, in fact, a mockery of the original theme. But the mockery is swallowed, and the substitution is not noticed.

Now to the meaning. If Christ knocks on the door of our house, then we do not open it for two reasons: either we simply do not hear the knock, or we hear it and deliberately do not open it. We will not consider the second option. It is beyond our competence, which means let it exist until Last Judgment. As for the first option, there are many explanations for deafness. For example, the owner is drunk. You can’t wake him up with a gun, much less with the careful knock of an unexpected Guest. Or – the TV is playing loudly inside the house. It doesn’t matter that the doors are overgrown with weeds, that is, they haven’t been opened for a long time. The cable was pulled through the window, and now a football championship or a social show thunders from the screen at full blast, making the owner deaf to other sounds. It’s true, each of us has such sounds, hearing which we deafen everything else. This is a very possible and realistic option - if not for 1854 (the year the picture was painted), then for our 2000s. Another option: the owner simply died. He is not here. Or rather, it is there, but it won’t open. Could this be the case? Maybe. Our inner self, the true owner of the mysterious hut, may be in deep lethargy or in the arms of real death. By the way, listen now: is anyone knocking on the door of your house? If you say that you have a bell on your door and it works, which means they are calling you and not knocking, then this will only expose your lack of understanding. Is no one knocking on the door of your heart? Right now? Listen.

Well, the last one for today. The doors on which Christ knocks have no outside handle. Everyone noticed this during the first inspection of the painting and pointed it out to the artist. But it turned out that the lack of a door handle was not a mistake, but a deliberate move. Heart doors do not have an outside handle or an outside lock. The handle is only on the inside, and the door can only be opened from the inside. When K.S. Lewis said that hell was locked from the inside, he probably started from the idea embedded in Hunt's picture. If a person is locked in hell, then he is locked there voluntarily, like a suicide in a burning house, like an old alcoholic bachelor in a bedlam of empty bottles, cobwebs and cigarette butts. And going outside, to the knocking, to the voice of Christ is possible only as an internal act of will as a response to God's call.