Jesus holds open the door. (Part 8)

Jesus holds open the door

Part 8: Do not be afraid; this cannot be taken from us.

That is Jesus, but what about us? Yes, Jesus has played his part, but we acknowledged that we are too weak to take advantage of it. The door may be open, but we will not go through it. Not left to ourselves anyway. And this is the final act of grace. Those who would otherwise have stepped aside at the last moment, knowing, rightly, that they have no right to go through, gaze at Jesus in love, and he invites us through. We pass beneath his arm and are redeemed. As we do, we can see the effort he is exerting to keep the door open. All the weight of human hate and fear and greed is pressing on him, but he is able to bear the pain of suffering and loss to maintain the way clear and free for us to pass through. That is what makes him God. We will fail. We will collapse. We will surrender. But Jesus, filled with God’s love, rejoices in the act of stretching out his arms. His pain and suffering is even greater than ours, we must not doubt that; this is not easy for him. But it is his choice, because the grace of God has filled him and he is intent that we should know grace. Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm, a drop of his blood falls into our souls, and this, to us, is pure grace. So, in him, all our failures are turned to victory. Without him, we could not pass through; we would not pass through. But through him we accept the gift and enter. Those who have learnt to love Jesus know at least this one thing, that you come where he calls you; you forget what you want and live to please him. So, in joy, forgetting our failure, we pass through. The door is open. And it remains open, because Jesus is holding it open.

But, a clever after-thought of evil: you have passed through, but you did so possessing your human nature. Surely you will recreate hell even in heaven, let alone here on planet earth? And, again and again, we see that that has happened, for there is nothing so good in itself that it is not capable of being corrupted, and many who call on God inflict torture on others. Such people have not, in fact, passed through the door, for passing through is painful, like dying in order to be reborn. So, instead, they passed through an idol of the door, a theme park version to pass through casually, with a selfie to prove it. But we renew the cycle of Christ’s open door and declare that there is nothing so corrupt that it cannot be redeemed Those who have truly passed through beneath Christ’s arms, receive the gift that changes us. Human nature will always have the capacity for good and evil, that cannot be changed. But it bears repeating, for this is the very heart of the matter: passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm we receive a drop of his blood into our souls, and to us, this is the pure grace of God. Those who do not qualify, who have not passed the test, who failed and will fail again discover that this grace pleads for them, against all accusations, including their own, and it is this grace that prevails. And, perhaps, agonizingly, Christ’s blood in our souls tips the balance a little more towards the good. Yet we do not agonize that the issue is still in doubt. We have passed through the door and are saved. The door is open. And it remains open, because Jesus is holding it open.