Jesus, The Open Door

Behold, I have set before you an open door,which no one is able to shut (Rev. 3:8).

Authors and movie directors have long understood the symbolic power of doors to better enable them to tell their story. An open door suggests opportunity and promise. A closed door speaks of hopelessness and despair. Because doors provide a passageway from one place to another, they can serve as metaphors of change and transformation.

Whether we are talking about the wardrobe door in The Chronicles of Narnia, the song Love Is an Open Door in the movie Frozen, or the movie Titanic, where Rose is saved from drowning in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic by clinging to a floating door, we are captured by the symbolic power of doors to speak deeply to our innermost souls!

My favorite illustration of the metaphorical use of doors comes from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1). Early in the story, having just been released from prison, Jean Valjean trudges into a village hoping to find food and shelter. Because of his status as an ex-prisoner, no one will receive him. The inn, the tavern, a farmhouse, and even the local kennel all slam their doors in his face. As night falls, he curls up on a stone bench in the town square hoping to sleep.

A woman coming out of church asks him why he is sleeping in the park. Angrily, he explains that no one has invited him in.

“You have knocked at every door?” she asks.“Yes,” he replies.“Have you knocked at that one there?” she says, pointing to the house where the priest lives next to the church. “Knock there.”

Everything begins to change for Jean Valjean when he knocks on the right door.

The priest welcomes him inside and graciously offers a hot meal and a bed for the night. From this point onward in the story, Jean’s hard heart begins to soften, and he becomes one of the greatest illustrations of character transformation in all of classical literature! And it all began when he found the right door – and knocked!

It comes as no great surprise that the Bible has a lot to say about doors. Consider, for example, how the gate to the Garden of Eden is shut tight when Adam and Eve sin, making it impossible for them to have access to God and the tree of life (see Gen. 3:24). Notice how the story of Noah emphasizes that the ark, designed by God himself, has only one door. Those who enter by it are saved from the raging waters of the flood. Those on the outside perish (see Gen. 7:16).

The Tower of Babel, a ziggurat with stairs on one side, is more than an impressive feat of engineering. The builders are trying to reach the doorway of heaven (see Gen. 11:1-9). They fail in their endeavor, of course, and are remembered today only for their arrogant folly.

Perhaps the most famous biblical story about a door is Jacob’s vision of a ladder stretching between heaven and earth (see Gen. 28:10-19). Jacob explains the meaning of the vision this way: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17).

We could say that the entire message of the Bible begins to come into focus when we compare Babel’s tower and Jacob’s stairway. Both structures are intended to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, between God and man. Both intend to reach the very doorway of heaven. But here the similarities end.

The Tower of Babel is a human endeavor to find God. Jacob’s ladder is a divine initiative to find man! One works and the other doesn’t!

Now we can understand why Jesus, when he seeks to explain his identity and mission, describes himself in terms of Jacob’s ladder (see John 1:51). He wants us to understand that he alone can bridge the gap that exists between God and man.

But he does so much more than point to the door. Jesus is the door. Through him, and through him alone, it is possible to know God and have access to the resources of heaven.

“I am the door,” Jesus said. “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

Dear friend, today you will pass through many doors. May each one be a symbolic reminder of the access to God that is made possible for you through Jesus Christ. Let the symbol enable you to experience the reality!

1. Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables. Translated by Charles E. Wilbour. Abridged. New York: Fawcett, 1961. Pp. 10-11.2. The word ‘Babel’ is derived from a Sumerian phrase meaning ‘gate of god’.