Text: Luke 18:1-8a
Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged (verse 1).
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Text: Luke 18:1-8a Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged (verse 1). |
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A magazine cartoon has a little fellow kneeling beside his bed for his bedtime prayer and saying with some measure of disgust, "Dear God, Uncle Jim still doesn't have a job; Sis still doesn't have a date for the social; Grandma is still feeling sick - and I'm tired of praying for this family and not getting results."
Praying was a problem for this little fellow and he isn't alone.
Prayer is a problem for many modern people.
If it isn't a problem, then why are
there so few people who take prayer seriously?
If it isn't a problem then
why do we find it so hard to set time aside everyday to spend with God in
prayer? If we took prayer seriously then we wouldn't hesitate to be persistent
and consistent in the time we spend in conversation with God.
If you think that this is a particularly modern problem, think
again.
Why would Jesus have told this parable and quite a number of others about
prayer to his disciples?
Why would he have given us the Lord's Prayer as a model
prayer, if everybody back then believed in prayer?
In fact, throughout Luke and
Acts there is great deal of talk about prayer.
All of this suggests that prayer
is not simply a modern problem - it is a problem for anyone who believes in God.
If we really believe in the power of prayer, if we really believe that prayer can effect world peace, if we are truly convinced that prayer changes things, changes us, heals broken lives and restores severed relationships, then we would be praying constantly. You couldn't keep us from praying. But isn't the problem with prayer the one that Jesus addresses here? We simply lose heart.
So Jesus tells a parable about a truly disgusting judge. There were those judges in Jesus' day who were notorious for accepting bribes, for being corrupt and perverting the course of justice. We hear of a widow who has a case to bring to the judge, but since she is a widow she has nothing to offer as a bribe. Neither does she have anyone to speak on her behalf. She is a picture of helplessness.
But she does have one thing. She has the ability to pester the judge. Leaving messages on his answering machine, constantly appearing in his office, writing him letter after letter, sending faxes. She gives him no peace - she is persistent. She wanted justice and she wanted it now!
Finally this judge says to himself, "Even though I don't care about God and I can't stand this woman, I will give this woman what she wants just to get her out of my hair.
Jesus tells us the purpose of this parable in his opening sentence. He wanted his disciples to "always pray and not to give up". In the previous chapter Jesus has been looking ahead to the suffering his disciples will undergo because of their faith. Jesus is encouraging us to keep on praying in these last days when there will be dangers and trials and testing of our faith from every angle. In fact, this parable applies to all of our praying. We should persist and not lose heart.
There are two points that come out of Jesus parable. Firstly, the widow was in a helpless situation she could have easily lost heart and given up. As someone who was a nobody in her community, too poor to resort to bribery and lacking in influential friends, the chance of her having any success was nil. And what is more she couldn't count on the religious principles of the judge because he had none. She is a picture of helplessness and who wouldn't blame her for losing heart.
We don't pray because we lose heart. As I said, if we really believed that God hears and answers our prayers, if we were convinced that prayer changes things, heals broken lives, and restores severed relationships then we, like the woman, would be hammering on God's door constantly, asking, seeking and knocking, and waiting, our trust sometimes fainting, sometimes growing angry. In the face of every difficulty we would not lose heart, but consistently and persistently keep on going to God even though we have become discouraged.
The Bible records some of the prayers of people who have gone to God with their seemingly hopeless situations. Some of the bitterest complaints about God and his ways are to be found in the Bible. In the Psalms and the Book of Job the cries of bitter and angry people are recorded for us today. Rather than lose heart and give upon God they persistently called out to him, "How long, O Lord?" "My God, why?" "Though I cry..." "I call for help" (from Psalms).
We hear of Jesus praying on the night of his arrest, "In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat as like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44). Even though Jesus was in a hopeless situation, he didn't lose heart. He prayed even more fervently.
If we really believe that God answers our prayers, then we, like Jesus, will not give up because the situation seems too hopeless or we are too worn out by the circumstances to take it to God in prayer.
That is just what Jesus is getting at. "Keep on praying", he says. Your life might seem to be utter chaos and a total mess, it might seem that God isn't even listening, or it may appear to you that you have everything totally under control, but nevertheless "Keep on praying".
It would have been easy for that widow to give up because the odds were against her ever moving the corrupt judge to do anything in her favour. In spite of how things might look to you and how overpowering the trouble is in your life, and even though the situation appears hopeless, Jesus urges us not to lose faith but to "keep on praying."
I said there are two points that I'd like to make. Firstly, that
if we believe that prayer is important nothing should keep us from praying.
The
second point is that this parable about the character of God. If that sleazy and
corrupt judge who had no real interest in the widow at his door, will open his
hand and answer the requests of the widow, then how much more will our heavenly
Father. It is our heavenly Father who has a deep and intimate concern with
everything that happens in our lives, and has promised to answer our prayers and
petitions.
This parable is about the trustworthiness and generosity of God. If a crooked judge can give what is asked for, how much more will God who is gracious and kind give us what we pray for. Jesus said something similar to this after the parable about the man who persistently knocked his neighbour's door at midnight. He said, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread will give you him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though, you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give good gifts to those who asks him" (Matthew 7:10,11). You see, if sinful parents give good things to our children because they love them, then it follows that our heavenly Father who promised to love us as his own at our baptism and to make us members of his family, will never ignore our prayers, and will always answer them in the most loving way.
Our text today reassures us that God does hear our prayers, just as the judge heard the widow and her pleadings. We can take comfort in the knowledge that God is far more gracious than the dishonest judge is. He answers out of his goodness and kindness and grace. If his answers depended on us, on how well we pray, on how well we have lived as God's people, then we could never expect to have our prayers answered. I'm sure every one of us here this morning admits that prayer doesn't have the place in our lives that it should. Even as we confess our slackness when it comes to praying, he answers that prayer out of love and reminds us that we belong to him and the blood of his Son has saved us. His answers are always good. His answers are never vengeful or vindictive. As God's child you can count on that.
This parable of Jesus about the widow and the dishonest judge encourages us to pray. "Don't give up praying," Jesus is saying, "just because the times are hard."
"Keep on praying!" Why? Because of the relationship that we have with the Father through baptism. Keep on praying because he is gracious and kind. Keep on praying even if the whole situation looks hopeless in our eyes. Keep on praying because he loves us and is waiting to answer our prayers in a way that will be for our benefit. If a crooked judge is able to grant the widow's request, how much will a loving and gracious God give us what we ask. Keep on praying because we have a God who is willing and waiting to hear from us, and who wants to apply his loving answer to every request we bring to him.
Sometimes we may doubt, we may be angry, we may be upset, we may question "why?" but he is always ready to listen when we ask, seek and knock.
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
St
Luke's Lutheran Church, Nambour - 21st October, 2001
E-mail: gerhardy65@hotmail.com
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, revised Australian edition 1994.
