Ask, Seek, Knock

Asking, Seeking, Knocking (11:9-10)

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (11:9-10)

Jesus gives us three word pairs that have to do with prayer. The first is the action, the second is the result. The first word in each pair is in the Greek present tense that can carry the idea of "action in progress in present time," the "Progressive Present."[6] Jesus command here has the effect of saying, "Do this (and keep on doing it)." The second word in each pair is in the future tense, the expectation, the promise.

The Greek words used in Jesus' command are common. Greek aiteo means "ask, ask for, demand."[7] In the case of a superior speaking to an inferior it can carry the idea "demand," as in an accounting. But here the idea is ask for, petition. The promise is Greek didomi, the common word for "give." "Ask and it will be given to you."

Greek zeteo means " 'seek, look for' in order to find." It can be used literally, as the woman seeking for a lost coin (Luke 15:8), or figuratively "try to obtain, desire to possess something ... strive for, aim (at), desire, wish."[8] The corresponding result is expressed by Greek eurisko (from which Californian's get their state Motto, "Eureka! -- I have found it"). It means literally "find, discover, come upon," and can also refer figuratively to "intellectual discovery based upon reflection, observation, examination, or investigation."[9] "Seek and you will find."

The third pair of words express the figure of seeking by knocking on a door until it is opened, just like Jesus' parable of The Friend at Midnight. "Knock and the door will be opened to you."

Are these three word pairs each designed to express something different? Should we seek the distinctions between them? They seem to me to be a good example of Hebrew synonymous parallelism. Each reinforces the other in the ways we are encouraged to think of our seeking from God -- of petitions, of finding what eludes us, and of obtaining an audience with the person inside. We are to pray -- for each of these three are ways of talking about prayer -- without ceasing. We are to pray "shamelessly," if you will. In season and out of season, not flagging in our prayers until we receive the promise, or until God answers or directs us to pray differently.

Jesus teaches a similar lesson in the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8), where the parable is told "to show [his disciples] that they should always pray and not give up." I don't know about you, but I need this lesson of persistent, faithful, unstopping petition until the answer is received.