If you knock on my door at midnight…. (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight)

If you knock on my door at midnight…. (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight)
I do not know if you have ever had it happen, but it is an unsettling event to have someone knock on your door in the middle of the night expectantly. It catches you off guard, it startles you, and it makes you think the worst of what their intentions may be. As we begin to look at the parable of the friend at midnight, we must have some perspective and understand that our culture is way different than the culture that Jesus spoke this parable in. In that culture friends and family did not have GPS systems and cell phones to tell them their exact arrive time and could not accurately predict when they would show up to a destination. In addition, the hot dry climate of the region would mean that traveling at night was much more comfortable since horse and buggy or foot travel was how everyone had to travel in those days. It was probably a lot more common to have someone show up unexpectant at night knowing this context so when the neighbor comes over and knocks on the door to say they had some guests show up that they need to care for, the crowd Jesus was speaking to would understand. It was also part of that culture to minister to someone after a journey by offering them a meal and helping them feel comfortable. Now that we have some context what is Jesus trying to tell us with this parable of a midnight visitor?
If you knock on our door in the middle of the night our hospitality may be replaced with skepticism, defensiveness, and cautiousness. Because we are caught off guard, we are likely to answer like the individual first does in the parable, “everyone is in bed, what you are doing here now, and can you just not come back in the day light, and we take care of this.” This parable is set up to show us that God’s Kingdom works differently than this world. We are caught off guard by midnight visitors that inconvenience us, but God expects us to come knocking at His door when the chips are down, and we are in our darkest moments. He is not caught off guard by our knocking (prayers) at midnight, in fact He wants us to come to Him has already prepared exactly what we need to recover from our journey. The parable continues by comparing the love of the Heavenly Father to that of an earthly farther. The earthly father wants to provide for their children with what they ask for and need, the Heavenly Father is no different. If our evil hearts wish to show love and compassion on those, we love how much more will the righteous Heavenly Father be willing to allow His Holy Spirit to minister to His creations that humbles themselves before Him in prayer.