Someone at the Door

The Light of the World by Holman Hunt

He was despised and rejected of men. ~Isaiah 53:3

The saddest thing about the life of Christ was the unwelcome he met among those he had come to bless. He came with a great love in his heart. He wanted to do them good, to draw them away from their sins, to make them love God, to lead them to heaven. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." He went to their doors and knocked, and they kept their doors shut upon him; and he had to go away with his gifts and blessings unbestowed, leaving "his own" in their sin and sorrow.

It is the same yet. Christ comes with treasures of life and glory, which he offers to all; but men and women pay no heed to his knocking and his calls, and he has to pass on. "He is despised and rejected." He never forces his blessings on any. He knocks, but we must open the door. He will never open it himself.

In Holman Hunt's picture, "The Light of the World," the door has no knob on the outside; it can be opened only from within. You can keep the omnipotent Christ outside your heart if you will; you do keep him out by simply not rising to open to him. It does need dishonoring sins, nor any violent rejection of the Saviour, to make one a lost sinner; the mildest and gentlest indifference to his knocking and call will do it just as effectually.

                                                                              ~Dr. J. R. Miller, Dr. Miller's Year Book, 1895