A door worth opening in the New Year

God reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. — 2 Corinthians 5:18

 “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.” 

So go the opening words of a long poem entitled “In 1492.” To tell the truth, that may be about the only thing most of us could remember about 1492, now some 534 years removed.

But to our recollection of 1492, let’s add one more item.  

In 1492, a battle was brewing between two Irish families, the Butlers of Ormonde and the Fitgeralds of Kildare. It was a power struggle. Both families wanted one of their own to hold the position of Lord Deputy, who served as representative of the King.

As often happens, tensions escalated from words, to physical blows, and then into warfare between the two families. At one point in the fighting, the Butler family took refuge in a wing of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, as the Fitzgeralds surrounded them.

In this particular case, the moment of stalemate in the battle caused the Fitzgerald family to come to their senses. With the fighting momentarily stopped, and even though they had the upper hand, they invited the Butlers to come out of the cathedral and make peace.

The Butler family, on the other hand, smelled a rat. They surmised that if they left the protection of the cathedral, they would be slaughtered.  They refused to come out.

So one of the leaders of the Fitzgerald family did the unique. He ordered that a hole be cut in the door with an ax. Gerald Fitzgerald then put his arm through the door and offered his hand in peace to the Butler family on the other side.

Gerald Fitzgerald risked losing his arm that day, but the Butlers accepted that hand through the door as a serious desire for a ceasefire.  They opened the door and the two families were reconciled.

To this day, you can go to Dublin and see the door with the hole cut into it, known as the “Door of Reconciliation” in a museum at the cathedral. One man’s action stopped a war and brought peace. The event was momentous enough, that the door with the hole in it, sits on display in lasting testament.

There’s that door from 1492. Then there’s that cross. 

Why do we see crosses in so many places? They serve as reminders that God thrust His arms through the door of the world that He Himself had created, and which had rebelled against Him. God did it to reconcile Himself with sinners. 

We humans have trouble grasping it, but God can’t just overlook or excuse sin like we are often prone to do. Sin, every sin, even sins of evil thoughts, must be punished. God’s holiness and justice demands it.

God’s plan? Even though God had the upper hand and could have taken out the punishment on us, Jesus’ arms and hands were thrust into this world. His hands were nailed to a cross.  Yet, in this act, Jesus brought us reconciliation with God by living the perfect life we should have lived, and then dying the death we deserved to die.

How should we then live? The Apostle Paul tells us. “God reconciled us to Himself.” Now you have been called to a ministry, to a way of life: “Reconciliation with others.” We’re called to be the people who initiate acts of reconciliation and forgiveness with others.

As we turn a calendar page to a new year, what could motivate us to want to be reconciled with our adversary? The door of reconciliation in Dublin might be one. An even greater reason – that the God of the universe took action to reconcile you to Himself through Christ Jesus.