Ask, Seek, Knock

The following meditation was written by Dr. Doug Hood’s son, Rev. Nathanael Hood, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Junction City, Kansa.

“Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened. Who among you will give your children a stone when they ask for bread? Or give them a snake when they ask for fish? If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:7-11 (Common English Bible)

There’s a famous scene in Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991) where the former Peter Pan—now all grown up and played by Robin Williams—sits down for a meal in Neverland with the Lost Boys he abandoned decades ago. The Boys’ new leader, the fiery, charismatic Rufio (Dante Basco) takes his seat at their long table and unexpectedly holds his hands together in prayer. Everyone, Williams included, does the same, bowing their heads and closing their eyes in reverence.

“Everybody say grace,” Rufio sternly commands.

“Bless this, Oh Lord…” Robin begins before he’s suddenly cut off by the sound of everyone at the table loudly shouting “GRACE!” then maniacally grabbing at the food in front of them.

It’s a wonderful moment, but one can’t help but wonder if this portrayal of prayer isn’t somehow an accurate one for many Christians. How many among us view prayer as just magic words or mystic incantations one says out of habit, not devotion?

Jesus addresses such performative piety in his Sermon on the Mount, specifically in a brief aside during a length list of moral commandments. “Ask, and you will receive,” Jesus commands in verse seven, “Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”There are three operative words in this verse, three words which break down exactly how the act of prayer should be done: “Ask,” “Search” or the more common translation “Seek,” and “Knock.”

Ask, Seek, Knock.

“Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

But what exactly does it mean to ask, seek, and knock? First, to ask is to admit to ourselves that we have problems in the first place! It’s to admit that there’s something out of the ordinary in our lives that needs help we cannot provide ourselves. For some of us, that’s impossible. Many are overburdened with pride. For example, while working in an inner city hospital early in my career, I learned that some poor people refuse monetary aid or handouts because they report that accepting them makes them feel like they’re admitting to personal failure in their lives. Likewise, many of us are yoked with the terrible weight of vanity which balks at the suggestion that one might have any needs or weaknesses in the first place. The obituary pages are full of such people who let their vanity get the best of them. If only they had the courage to ask for help!

Second, what does it mean to seek and knock? Both are verbs that denote continued actions. If you lose something valuable you don’t give up the search after a few seconds. Likewise, when you knock on someone’s door you don’t just knock once and hope whoever is inside hears you. You bang on the door until someone responds! Therefore, to seek and to knock are to have perseverance when we pray. Even though we believe that God answers prayers, Jesus expects us to pray for things repeatedly, even the same things we’ve prayed countless times for. I think of Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 of the Persistent Widow who petitions a corrupt judge for justice over and over and over again until he finally relents. If an evil man will eventually do what’s right when asked enough times, how much more powerfully will our perfectly loving, perfectly just, perfectly righteous God respond to us if we are persistent in prayer? Only by being persistent can we truly establish a relationship with our God, and in that relationship we will find something greater than just an answer to our prayers. We will find in God a companion, a friend, a Father. Amen.

Joy,