Knockin' On Heaven's Door

The Feast of the Lord's Baptism is an invitation to dare to go through the opened door Christ has made possible for us all!

In 1973, Bob Dylan wrote a song for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. I don’t remember the movie, but I loved his song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Many other people did, too, since Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 190th among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.

It’s a song about a lawman in the old frontier West facing his death. He’s “knockin’ on heaven’s door” and praying it will open for him.

Humans share this typical emotional response to an “opening” of doors. It seems opening a door invites us to hope, to the anticipation of possibilities, to cross the threshold into a new space. Opened doors are a pathway to “another place.” Let’s face it: Our lives are filled with opened and closed doors, crossing thresholds, and moving on or standing still.

But what is introduced to us when God Himself opens a “door?” What does it mean that “the heaven was opened?”

Look at our lesson in Luke 3:19-22:

At that time, Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by John for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

As usual, this scene isn’t just a narrow peek into the reality of life but a full-throated embrace of the whole spectrum of human existence.

Present here is Herod’s evil AND Christ’s baptism. The scriptures repeatedly juxtapose “light” and “darkness” so humans can finally see the contrast between our choices and the reality of what is at stake in our lives and our purpose.

Whether or not we are aware of it, every moment of our lives invites us to choose which aspect of reality we will support or deny! Contrary to other philosophies that insist both light and darkness exist eternally and need some “balance,” this scene shows us that Christ’s Light overcomes and overwhelms all darkness.

St. John is baptizing the people with the “baptism of repentance,” which marks a moment when the choices of one’s past are “washed away,” and a new life begins with new and different choices.

And Christ Himself submits to baptism, not because He needed to repent, but so that a “door” could be opened for all creation to experience and live out what would happen next!

Heaven was OPENED, and the Father’s voice was again heard in His Creation. Just as Adam heard God’s Voice in the Garden calling out to him, “Adam, where are you?” now these people surrounding the Son of God heard, once again, the loving Voice of the Father identifying Him Who opened the door of heaven for us all! And this Voice affirms that God is still happy with His creation. He is “well pleased” with the New Adam standing there just as He declared His creation is “very good” in Genesis!

And standing at this open door is all the hope, all the joy, all the strength we will ever need to stand up to the darkness of Herod’s evil and the mistreatment of the prophets of God.

St. Gregory of Nyssa is one of the major theologian saints of our Church. He is the brother of another great theologian saint, St. Basil the Great. Born in 331, he, like his brother, was encouraged to seek the life of the Church by his pious mother and sister. These great women spurred Basil and Gregory to use their gifts to serve the Faith. Gregory was made bishop of Nyssa in 372 but was exiled by Emperor Valens in 374 when the Emperor fell under the heresy of Arianism plaguing the Church at the time. A new Orthodox Emperor named Gratian called Gregory back to his city in 378, and Gregory served there until he died in 398. The ministry of this great saint was more than just his intellectual genius; his theology was lived out in how he served the Church under his care. Mere intellectual pursuits can never produce the theology that transforms lives. The 7th Ecumenical Council named St. Gregory the “Father of Fathers.”

Today, what darkness do you face in your life? Do you realize that heaven’s door has now been opened for you by Him, Who pleased the Father on your behalf? What will it take to wake you up to this cosmic invitation to love, joy, and peace? What needs to happen in your life to move you across the threshold of this opened door into a Purposeful Practice of this timeless faith? The door to heaven is opened. Christ has enabled us to live in His Kingdom of the Church. It’s time to live a Normal Orthodox life!

P.S. Rejoicing with the Angels and taking delight in the Divine Light, Gregory of Nyssa, the vigilant mind, the God inspired hierarch of the Church, and wisdom's revered hymnographer, interceds unceasingly for us all.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV