God’s Secret Stairway

 

(To gain a further understanding of the meditation that follows, a reading of the indicated scriptures will be most helpful)

Genesis 28 : 10 – 22 (1)
Matthew 9: 9 (2)

 

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at a tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” He told him. And Matthew got up and followed Him.

It is most likely that in the retelling of the story of another person’s life, or even one’s own story, that some critical elements fall into the silence.  There are private pictures captured by the soul; that words can never convey; there are feelings that run too deep for tears and remain best left for their expression, to tears alone. Some mysteries of life, found in physical objects, gain an almost sacred status to a person.
William Wordsworth’s pastoral poem “Michael,”
presents just such a truth. The poem tells the story of an aging shepherd, Michael, and his only child, Luke. When Luke reached the age of eighteen, Michael decides to send him away from home. Some years previously, a debt incurred by Michael now threatened the future of their farm. The plan was for Luke to move from home and live with a merchant to prepare him in financial matters, and thereby help assure the future stability of the home situation. Before his departure, Michael had Luke lay the cornerstone for the sheepfold they were planning to build together. Away from home, Luke falls in with unfavourable companions. Consequently, in time it became necessary for him to flee to another country. It is the unfinished sheepfold that silently proclaims the old man’s heartbreak.

“’Tis’ not forgotten yet
The pity which was then in every heart
For the old Man—and ’tis believed by all
That many and many a day he thither went,
And never lifted up a single stone.
There, by the Sheepfold, sometimes was he seen
Sitting alone, or with his faithful Dog,
Then old, beside him, lying at his feet.
The length of full seven years, from time to time,
He at the building of this sheepfold wrought,
And left the work unfinished when he died.” (3)

Every human attempt to produce a complete image of “Michael’s” life, must prepare for a glaring deficit if words are the only permitted vehicle of expression.

Similarly any attempt to write the biography of
Matthew, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, must have consideration for such phases that go beyond the ability of mere words to express.
Almost for certain the tax- collector’s booth in Capernaum remains a catalyst for touching memories to the end of Matthew’s life. It is here that a life-changing event has its beginning. It is at this tax-collector’s booth that the search for ‘Missing Matthew’ starts. It is here, in another more important way, that Matthew is found.
The Roman authorities are at the scene in an instant. There is an immediate consensus among them that this is the another light-fingered employee. But the mystery of the missing man named Matthew only deepens.
Scrutiny of the ledgers provides an accurate accounting for every penny and every debtor. What now? Ask the public for help? Had anybody noticed any suspicious behavior taking place in, or around that vicinity of late? No revealing evidence is forthcoming. Then, in a casual conversation, someone chances to mention catching sight of ‘The Nazarene’ in town. The government ledgers yield no information about any interaction with any Nazarene.
The most important business transaction of the hour was not to be found in any written ledger anywhere on earth but indelibly written on one man’s heart and in Heaven’s records. That man is Matthew.
Matthew will never forget what he saw, and what he felt inside himself the day he stood facing the young man Jesus, on the other side of the wicket gate. One look into Jesus’ eyes set him free from the cramped quarters of the tax collector’s booth. In those eyes, Matthew saw freedom,
peace, and serenity, like quiet mountain streams, deep and clean. The look on Jesus’ face reflects something about humanity that Matthew has almost forgotten; pity, mercy, and love.

The intensity of the moment dawns upon Matthew when he recalls the experience of his forefather
Jacob. One evening while fleeing in absolute fear from his brother, Esau, Jacob lay down to sleep, with a stone for his pillow. In the darkness, Jacob had a dream, in which he saw a ladder stretching between Heaven and earth. Heaven’s comfort and assurance continues throughout the night. Jacob takes his pillow of stone in the morning and sets it apart from all others, saying,” Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not.” In reverential silence Matthew whispers. “Surely the Lord Is in this place……Who will ever believe it? The Lord’s secret stairway into my life is a tax collector’s booth.”

We never decidedly choose where, or in what way we will become aware of God’s Secret Stairway into our lives. It wouldn’t be a secret if we knew, now would it? But there is a stairway God reserves for Himself, and I pray that you, one day soon, will rejoice to see it!

“We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For Him, no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

The healing of the seamless robe
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

O Lord and Master of us all,
Whate’er our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call,
We test our lives by Thine!” (4)

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, thank You for opening Heaven’s door to me and for coming down Your secret stairway. Sometimes I am too busy, or too afraid, or too preoccupied to even think about You. Your secret stairway permits me now to expect You to come, and perhaps sit at my table any day, or to join in the company of my family or friends at any time.

In the Garden, where His friends entombed the body of Jesus following His Crucifixion, Mary went to mourn and to weep. It was there, at the site of her expected devastating grief, she discovered Your secret stairway into her life.

Father, thank You for leaving Heaven’s Door ajar for me, so that I may always have easy access to You. You have decreed that the traffic on Your secret stairway can go in two directions.
Give us the faith, and the courage to believe.
In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

Hymn: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
https://youtu.be/H0Evv-LaUeQ

 

Editorial Notes
1 & 2. Here and throughout the text that follows all
quotations from THE HOLY BIBLE are from THE
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)
3. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. In “MICHAEL.”
English Poetry 11: From Collins to Fitzgerald
The Harvard Classics 1909-14 372 .Michael
4. JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. In “WE MAY NOT CLIMB THE HEAVENLY STEEPS.”https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/we-may-not-climb-the-heavenly-steeps/

Photo: The Chapel Of The Holy Cross, Sedona, Arizona.  taken  November,2016.

 

 

 

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