Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

TEXT: Luke 18:1-8

Oct 21, 2007

Pray Continually and Never Give Up!

Every once in a while you hear about it in the news.  Someone is arrested and convicted of crime he didn’t commit.  Then years later some new piece of evidence comes to light, such as DNA, and a judge exonerates him after he’s served years behind bars.  (Remember the popular TV program, AThe Fugitive?@  A doctor by the name of Richard Kimble is convicted of murdering his wife.  He escapes and episodes revolve around those chasing him and Kimble looking for a one armed man.)

When we hear of stories like this, we often think of how the system has failed.  Just look at how many years that person spent behind bars and all along he was innocent!

But what if you had to look to a judge like the judge in today’s parable?  Unlike the hypothetical person who eventually gets exonerated, the judge in the parable does nothing!

Jesus uses today’s parable to teach us about prayer.  His story involves an unjust judge and a persistent widow.  This widow comes to the unjust judge with requests until he does the right thing and listens to her.  This text makes it clear that he does the right thin in the end.  However, he does the right thing not because he’s had a change of heart, but simple to get rid of her.  God in this parable is not analogous to the unjust judge.  Rather, the argument in the parable is from the lesser to the greater.

Widows in biblical times had no power or economic clout.  They were among the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.  For this reason, Old Testament law stipulated that the worshiping community care for them.  It is recorded in Deuteronomy 14:28-29:

28  "At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because  he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that  the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

God’s people were repeatedly warned not to take advantage of the orphans and widows in their midst.

We are not told why this widow goes to the judge.  It doesn’t matter.  That’s not the point of the parable.  What we do know is that this woman went to someone who should have helped her in her quest for justice.

This widow in our text is a lot like our children when they want something.  You know the drill.  ACome on Mom, Please!  Please let me go!  What will my friends think if I’m not at the party?  And they keep it up.  That’s the intensity Jesus is talking about in this text.  ADon’t give up.  Keep at it!@

Now there is a danger here.  You can almost get the sense from the text that prayer is reduced to an act of pestering God until God cries, AEnough!@  But the argument Jesus makes here is like the one he makes in the Gospel of Matthew, where he says,

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for  bread, will give him  a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then,  who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will  your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!   (Matt. 7:9-11)

The judge, who neither feared God nor cared about his fellow man, finally does the right thing, like evil parents who can somehow manage to feed their own children.  The theological principle is in the how much more.  How much more will God do what is right?  When it comes to God, we’re assured that God listens and will surely grant justice to the ones who cry out to him day and night. 

Beyond persistence, this parable calls us to pray, to have courage, and to act on our faith.  Picture Jacob, in our Old Testament Reading, wrestling with God through the night.  It took courage to refuse to let go until he received a blessing.  It took courage for that widow, who had nothing, to be persistent in her request.

As we read this text, many of us like to identify with the persistent widow. 

But how many of us identify with the Judge?  Our natural state is not to gear God and not to care about anyone other than ourselves.  Theologians throughout the centuries have often defined sin as being turned in on one’s self.  How many of us, when we see someone in need, turn the other way? AOh, it’s not my problem.  I don’t want to get involved.@  How many of us are oftentimes like this judge and relent only when we see it to be in our best interests?

This woman was persistent even in the face of injustice.  She could have given up, but she didn’t.  Jesus is teaching us to be persistent and to trust God, even when it appears to be futile.

But Jesus often uses parables to teach us more about who He is, and so it is here with this parable. 

Where do we see Jesus in this parable?

We see him in the persistent widow.  In the Gospel, when Jesus relates this parable, he is still outside of Jerusalem.  He is still some distance from his Passion.  Soon, however, he would arrive and experience injustice at the hands of Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and the crowds of people who would shout, ACrucify him, crucify him!@  Still, even then, Jesus lives the kind of trust he speaks of in this parable.  Jesus keeps faith with the One from whom he expects vindication at the end.  He keeps faith all the way to Calvary and his death on the cross. 

AFather, into your hands I commit my spirit@ (Luke 23:46)

In this parable, Jesus teaches us to pray continually and never to lose heart!

Why?

Because his promise is that he will grant vindication and justice for his chosen ones and will do so quickly.  However, the vindication and justice he grants is not necessarily what we would have expected.  He would quickly bring about justice, but it would not be by the power of his almighty hand, but by the power of his love and grace.  Jesus shows us that God’s justice is not rightly understood until you first understand God’s suffering love, a suffering love that has as its aim to make the sinner whole and the ungodly just.  This suffering love is for people like the unjust judge, and it is for you and me as well.

Luther, when he teaches about prayer in his Small Catechism, says that we are t o be confident when we pray.  We Aask Him as dear children ask their dear father.@  That’s the language of relationship.  We are God’s children, and he desperately longs for us to approach him, describing to him the needs of our lives and the longings of our hearts. 

Do we do ti once?

Do we do it twice?

No!

We pray continually.

We never give up!

Jesus ends this parable with a question:

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?@ v. 8

Will He find faith?  Will He find faith that is persistent and loyal.  And the answer implied in the question is Yes, He will!  He will find people like those mentioned just following our text.  He will find faith in people like the tax collector, who humbled himself and beat his chest imploring God for mercy.  He will find faith in people who, like the little children, look to Christ and trust him implicitly.  He will find faith in people like the blind beggar, who cried out to Christ for healing and mercy.  He will find faith in people like you.  For you too are a people who stand before God imploring Christ for mercy and leaning on him for everlasting hope.

So, can we pray and not lost heart?

Yes!

Can we pray and not give up?

Absolutely!

For we know to whom we belong.  Peter the apostle has said:

Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7)

He cares for you and, unlike the judge in today’s parable, God wants to hear from you.  You are his beloved.

So take heart

Pray Continually and Do Not Lose Heart!

AMEN.