Don't Give Up! Series

Winston Churchill speech - never give up

There are so many areas of life in which people can feel discouraged:

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activities

Luke 18:1–8 ESV

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Let’s consider some of the background to this parable.

Background

Remember, last week, we discussed Jesus’ response to the Pharisees question about the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus then went on to tell his disciples about some realities about how to recognize the kingdom, but also a bit of how to live in light of the Kingdom.

Jesus’ seems to know that the coming of the Kingdom will be a ways off. It will require patience and perseverance on the part of His followers. They will face trials and challenges along the way.

As Luke is gathering this material for Theophilus (and us), he helps us to understand why Jesus told this parable:

with a command - to keep praying

and an outcome - not lose heart - or not grow weary.

On one hand the parable is not difficult to understand, and yet I think it has some depth to it.

It’s a hyperbolic parable. It’s filled with exaggerations to the extreme.

unnamed town - we don’t know where this is. Frankly the town could be anywhere

unnamed Widow - recognizing great need - in their culture, a widow would have had little and would have been reliant on the generosity of family or friends around them. There was not necessarily a social safety net. Life insurance was not a factor.

unnamed request/offense - Jesus doesn’t go into details about the nature of her concern - He simply states that she sought justice against her adversary repeatedly.

unnamed Judge -

On top of being unnamed, Jesus notes that this judge is…

unjust (contrary) - a judge should be just -

The woman receives justice through persistence

There are several contrasts that Jesus seems to bring up - things that we need to pay attention to.

Where the judge is unnamed, God is named. Jesus is not referring to some “higher power” or “spiritual force” but rather THE God of the universe - who invites people to pray, to plead, to commune with Him.

Where the judge is unrighteous - God is perfectly righteous

where the widow is unnamed and uncared about by the judge - God’s people are elect, chosen and deeply cared for.

where the widow may have been destitute - we are not without help - from God and from each other

So, Jesus shares this parable for the purpose of encouraging His disciples and by extension us. But even in that, we have to recognize that if we need encouragement it’s because discouragement abounds.

Discouragement abounds

There are so many things in life that can cause us to be discouraged. But in the context here, we could find discouragement in…

The delay of Jesus return

Scripture suggests that we should long for Jesus’ return (2 Tim. 4:8). As people who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, there is a natural and good desire to be with Jesus - in His presence, communing face to face with him.

He promises that He will return - even noting in John 14 that he is going to prepare a place for us, promising that he will come again to bring us to himself, to be with Him.

Even as we saw last week, there is a promise of judgment. That promise of judgment and of justice is sensed in the cry of the martyrs - Rev. 6:9-10

Revelation 6:9–10 ESV

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”