Hello,

The other day I was going into a store as several people were coming out. The last person to exit was a young man who, when he went through the doorway, held the door open for me to enter. “Thank you,” I said.

The young man surprised me by his response, “Of course.”

“Of course.” I had never heard that reply to thanking someone for holding the door. “You’re welcome,” or no reply at all is what I normally hear, but this young man said, “Of course.” Why “of course”? Was it because he considered me to be an old feeble man who he could tell did not have the strength to open the door? Was it because he was trying to soften my impatience for having to wait for his group to pass through the doorway? Or was it that it was in his nature to offer small acts of kindness as he went through his day?

My suspicion is that it is the last of these three. Of course he held the door, because that is the thing that he would naturally do. “Of course.”

It got me to thinking of the many doors that Jesus has opened for me.

Jesus, when he died on the cross, opened the door the cell room of my sin. There I was, locked behind all the things that I have done that have brought pain to my heart, the heart of God and to the world, and locked behind the bars of the things that I have not done when my ears have heard the cries that that pain has wrought. Not only were my sins like iron bars imprisoning me, they also were like shackles locked around my wrists and ankles that kept me from moving. Others have walked by me while I sat in my prison of sin, and they snickered and sneered at me saying, “You’re only getting what you deserve,” and “loser”. But not Jesus. Jesus with the power of God Almighty, pulled open the door and walked over to me, and with nail scarred hands tore the shackles off me as if they were made out of paper, lifted me to my feet, walked me over to the door of that prison, opened it again and gestured me to leave. I said, “Thank you.”

Jesus, when walked out of the Easter tomb, opened for me the doors of another prison in which I sat, the prison of fear. There I was, locked behind thick walls of fear: afraid of the lurking giant powers of the world seeking to smash me like an ant, afraid of the traps that my enemies have set for me, afraid of the ridicule and cruel laughter that awaits me when the bullies see how weak I am, afraid of the hungry jowls of death that drool with anticipatory delight. But when Jesus stepped out of that Easter tomb, all those things scurried like cockroaches running for their lives when he opened the door and the brilliance of his light fell upon them. And with all those fear mongering menaces dispersed from my path, even the biggest monger, death, Jesus held the door of that suffocating room open, and with the swaying motion of his hand bid me to leave that room behind. I said, “Thank you.”

And what did Jesus say as I walked through those now open doorways?

“Of course.”

Have a great week.

God’s Grace and Peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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