The Conversion of a Hard Man
And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke 14:23)
Resistance, percentage wise, is the normal response to the Gospel. But, all Christians continue to be compelled to 'make disciples of all nations'.
It is not necessarily easy to become a Christian, or witness to an unbeliever. Too many times I have heard the excuse that 'the church roof will cave in' to avoid conversion. Unwitting, they fear judgement.
C.S. Lewis wrote on his conversion:
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.
That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me.
In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.
I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?
The words 'compel them to come in', have been so abused ... but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation."
Jesus the Christ entered human affairs a long time ago, yet He still stands 'amidst the misunderstandings of men'. (J.H. Jowett)