John 10: 9
I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
When I begin to shape an interior space, it is important that I understand how the owners will habitually use it. One of the first things I ask: “ Are you a door open or a door shut family?” For us today, the answer to that question often implies a comment about privacy or personal vs. public space, but that is a very recent implication. You have probably noticed when you travel, that in most continental European countries interior doors are generally closed. The kitchen even has a door. I can’t tell you how many European hostesses were shocked into silence when I cheerfully bounded into their cooking space! Isn’t that what every good American does, hang out in the kitchen at every party?
Closed doors had a very practical purpose over more than just privacy (an idea that didn’t come into practice until the mid 18th century, when technology began to impact living patterns.) In medieval times, the family bed was located in the main and only room, just off the front door, where most household activities were performed, including the cooking. Beds of large proportions (the Great Bed of Ware, circa 1590, measures 10ft by 11ft) often sat in the middle of the room and could be enclosed by curtains. Since the entire family usually slept there, the curtains were not for privacy, but for warmth. The same held true for doors. When large fireplaces heated rooms individually, doors to each room were kept shut in order to hold in the heat.
If you have visited Versailles you may have noticed that the doors seem to open in the “wrong” direction. Instead of opening so that the door resides against the wall and the interior of the room becomes visible, the door opens so all that is seen is the wall. This allowed the door to remain open for the servants to hear their master’s call, but still remain closed enough to keep the heat within the room.
An inviting entrance has traditionally been the glory of the American home. Even owners on a tight budget would spend thousands of dollars for a fine, heavy door with good hardware. Two things have impacted immensely this ideal. First, since WWII there has been an increase of high-rise city living where the home’s individual entrance is one in a row of many doors looking the same. No more of the quaint brownstone town house, with individual access to the street. Second, with the mass exodus from inner cities to the suburbs, the emphasis on automobile transportation increased. This shifted the primary entrance from the front to the garage, and for many homes we have lost that long loved sequence of inviting porch to nice solid door to spacious entrance hall. How many people (including yourself) do you know who say: “I never use my front door.”
Doors are not only pervasive, but retain a significant importance in daily life; and whereas their purpose and use have changed significantly over the millennia, their symbolic meaning still holds true for us today. For the Judeo/Christian, the entrance to a place of worship holds deep significance and reverence. The Bible states that in building the first temple, Solomon “erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north, the one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz” (II Chron. 3:17). In Hidden Power, Judge Thomas Troward, proposed Jakin stood for Unity. Boaz stood for the redeeming power of Love. Hence those who passed through the door became one with God and enjoyed his redeeming grace.
In the Middle Ages, Romanesque architecture continued to celebrate the church entrance. Doors were ornate, large and surrounded by intricate sculptures that pictorially recounted the Bible stories to the mostly illiterate worshippers. It was also a common practice, throughout the Middle Ages, to carry out secular and ecclesiastical legal business by the church portals.” Church portals were places where one could swear an oath, demand asylum, sign a contract, or perform an act of repentance. The practice continues in Spain to this day.
Why was the door to a church so important for both judgment and sanctity?
William Durand, a Catholic priest writing in the mid 13th century, defined in great detail the sacred history symbolically brought to life every time one entered a church and contemplated its physical structure and artwork. He said: “the door is obedience, about which the Lord said: If you wish to enter into eternal life, obey the commandments. The door is Christ. The passage or hall signifies the faithful laity who clings to Christ and the Church, just as Christ was faithful and completed his journey to the Father, redeeming us from our brokenness. The atrium signifies Christ, through whom the entrance to the celestial Jerusalem is opened.
I think it a little sad, that modern church architecture does not celebrate the entrance as much as in times past, but that does not need to hinder us as worshippers from remembering the significance of our entrance to our church and passage to the sanctuary. That is where the worship service truly begins. Entering your home should be a series of filters as you remember the sacrifice of Jesus. Organize your home’s primary entrance so that as you come in, you can dispense with all the everyday things that clutter your life, make the entrance a cleansing experience that helps to smooth the transition from world to God’s haven. When you walk the passage from door to sanctuary, take a moment, in between greeting your church community, to remember the gift of Christ’s suffering as he passed from this life to the next; that he is the door to God’s abiding grace.