“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
PURPOSE OF THE PARABLE
Let’s just jump right in here and observe that we do not have to speculate as to why Jesus told this parable. Luke tells us, so there is no need to ask. Jesus told His disciples a parable to encourage them to pray and to pray with confidence and thankfulness. That is what is meant by the words ‘to pray and not to lose heart’.
Now I chose these two words, ‘confidence’ and ‘thankfulness’ deliberately. They are not found in the text, but they are consistent with other Scriptural admonition pertaining to prayer and faith. Here are examples:
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb 4:16
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6-7
Now you may at this point be wondering how I got these words out of the flow of our text. That is the very thing we need to talk about today.
Some would take this parable of the persistent widow and the unrighteous judge and teach from it that the point Jesus is making is that we should pray persistently until God gives us an answer.
I believe they are mistaken in teaching in this manner. Neither this parable nor any other passage of Scripture teaches us that God is anything like the unrighteous judge in the parable. It was the intent of Jesus to demonstrate, not a similarity, but a contrast.
In no place does the Bible teach that God is reluctant or even slow to respond to prayer.
So the purpose of the parable is to teach the disciples and every Christ-follower two simple points.
Point one: Pray. Pray! Luke says Jesus told them a parable to show them that at all times they ought to pray.
What does that mean? What is meant by the phrase, ‘at all times’? Let’s not make it hard or confusing, it is neither.
‘At all times’ means in the course of our days and as we go through them, as occasions arise that require prayer, or the Spirit within prompts to pray, or when an opportunity presents itself for intercessory prayer or prayers of praise and thankfulness, and so on.
Christians, we are still in the flesh, but when we became believers we became spiritual beings. Prayer is the communication of the spiritual. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to pray, and this is precisely why it is ludicrous to teach that when we don’t know what or how to pray God gives us a special ‘heavenly language’ with which to babble so that even if we don’t understand the words, He does, and He answers the prayer of the Holy Spirit through this language being expressed by our mouths.
God hears and answers prayer from our heart, from our spirit, and when in Romans 8:26 Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers by interceding for us with groaning too deep for words, he is not talking about a special prayer language – he is talking about the Holy Spirit within us touching the Throne of God for us.
So the first point is, pray. In the flesh you communicate with people very casually and naturally as you interact with them. As a spiritual being, communicate with and interact with God, at His invitation to do so by the way, through prayer. Do not fail, do not forget, do not faint; and that is point two.
Point two: Do not lose heart. Don’t give up. Now what does that mean? Is God reluctant to answer? Is God holding on to the answer like a man playing tug-of-war with his dog?
Not at all. In saying to not lose heart Jesus is teaching that we should pray with confidence that God will answer. No other religion can boast this, believers, because no other religion has a Living God to pray to.
They can only pray to the ceiling or to their idols, and thankfulness cannot possibly be a factor in their praying because they will not get an answer.
Now a couple of decades back there was a popular teaching, and I think it is still around in some circles, that Christians should pray for something once, then after that keep thanking God for the thing for which we prayed. Pray as though you already have what you prayed for, they said, because you have asked and he will give it. So for example, if I am praying for a loved one to be healed from cancer, once I have prayed, thereafter my prayers should be, ‘Thank you, Lord, for healing my loved one of cancer. I thank you for the healing’. It’s a form of the name-it, claim-it doctrine.
The problem with that teaching is that the loved one often dies of cancer, and the survivor is left to wonder what in the world he was thanking God for all that time.
That is not what I mean when I say to pray with thankfulness.
Pray with thankfulness for the privilege of prayer and thankfulness that God cares and desires to respond. Then, whether His ultimate response to your praying is ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘later’ or ‘you’ve got to be kidding’, your thankfulness in praying is not nullified or rendered silly.
Let’s talk about
WHAT GIVES US CONFIDENCE AND THANKFULNESS IN PRAYING
The picture we are given in the parable is of an unrighteous judge. Some of your Bibles may even have that at the top of the page or just before the chapter heading as a subtitle.
The way we know that he was unrighteous is that he, by his own boastful admission (vs 4) did not fear God nor respect man.
Now if you think about it, these would be two top disqualifiers for a sitting judge. Even in our own dark and Godless times, in a society that neglects God and publicly disrespects him, still most people would want a judge who has some respect for humankind. If you suddenly found yourself brought before the bench, either accused of a crime or having been abused and wanting the abuser held to account, if you knew the judge had no respect for his fellow man you would have little hope of justice being served. In most cases, the person with the most money to bribe with would get the favorable decision.
It gets worse. Not only does this judge not fear God nor respect man, so self-absorbed and self-focused is he, that even knowing this poor woman has no other recourse and no other avenue of help, he lets her plead and pester him without a response until he begins to be personally affected.
Let me explain. The term in verse 5 ‘wear me out’ specifically the word ‘wear’, is the same Greek word employed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:27 where he talks of ‘buffet’-ing his body, in other words, beating up the flesh and keeping it under submission to the spirit.
So there are actually two ways to take this judge’s comment.
One, if we take it as most Bible translations have put it, ‘wear me out’, would be that he is tired of hearing her constant pestering. The second, if we apply the word ‘buffet’, or as some language guys like to stress, ‘hit me under the eye’, then we would take it to mean either that she is hurting his public reputation – giving him a black eye, so to speak – or that he is feeling beat up by her persistent assaults and he is giving up to get rid of her.
I explain all of this because I want you to see that no matter how we look at it, the one and only reason this unrighteous judge finally vindicates this widow is because he has begun to feel uncomfortable, and in his self-absorption he now must act, not for her sake, but for his own. This is his ultimate motivation for doing his job!
So when Jesus told about an oppressed widow who hangs around the courthouse pleading openly and constantly for help, was He intending to give us a picture of a child of God, praying for help and deliverance?
I assure you, He was not. This was another contrast, not a comparison.
This woman did not come to this judge in confidence. She had not come to him thinking that he was a good and compassionate man who would be happy to exercise the function of his office to bring justice to her situation.
She behaved the way she did because she knew the only way to get him to do right by her was to embarrass him before his peers until he broke down.
This judge is not like our God and we are not in the position of this woman.
I am not changing the subject here; I just want to bring something to your attention for your own contemplation, and to set the tone for making the rest of my point.
Here at Cornerstone Christian Chapel over the past few years, something that has often come up in our discussions is the realization that we all have a tendency that keeps most of the debates within the church raging on with no good and clear answers. That tendency we have is to ask the wrong questions.
Not just here at C3, but everywhere and in all times. We see examples of it in the Bible. That is why so often we read of someone asking Jesus a question, and whether they are sincerely needing a response or just trying to trap Him, the response He gives often does not seem to match the question at first. It is because He is giving them the answer they would have received, had they only asked the right question.
An example of what I am saying is found in the night visit of Nicodemus to Jesus.
He hints that there are those among the Jews, specifically the Pharisees and Scribes, who are speculating about whether Jesus has come from God based on the miracles He has done. In other words, He wants Jesus to tell him clearly whether He is the Messiah.
What he really should have been saying was, ‘Since I am a teacher of Israel and know the Scriptures, I am seeing things fulfilled that indicate to me that you are the long-awaited Messiah. What must I do to have eternal life?”
So when Jesus answers, He does not respond to the question asked, but to the one that should have been asked, and He just puts it out there. Unless you are born spiritually from above you cannot understand the things of the Kingdom of God.
You see, our text is about confidence in praying, which requires persistent faith – hence my sermon title.
Unfortunately, the question we very often hear asked in reference to praying is ‘How long should I pray for something before giving up and taking God’s apparent silence as a ‘no’ answer?’ Or something along those lines; you know what I mean. We’ve all heard the questions and most of us have at one time or another asked them.
Remember what I said about our tendency to ask the wrong questions? I think as we come to look at this parable and the comments of Jesus today, what we’re going to find – and I may be giving away all of my thunder here, but that’s ok as long as we all get the point in the end – I think what we’re going to find is that rather than asking how persistent we should be in prayer, we should be asking ourselves why we would ever doubt that God will ultimately do the best thing for us and do it in His own perfect time.
Because the Bible does not tell us about a reluctant, distant, stubborn, selfish God.
The Bible, indeed, Jesus Himself, teaches us that God is compassionate, loving, attentive to His children, and as Jesus says here in our text, “…will bring about justice for them speedily”.
Jesus taught us to pray and continue to pray without being discouraged if time passes without our seeing the answer. When He says that God will answer speedily, He is not saying God will hop to it because we’ve demanded it. He is saying that God will not delay an answer any longer than it takes for the answer to be in His perfect timing and according to His perfect will.
And let’s not miss this – He specifically said God will bring about justice for His elect. If He has chosen you, elected you, predestined you for His purpose and His glory, then He is well able to vindicate you at the proper time and bring justice in due season.
Ok, you may say, He is able. What does that have to do with His willingness?
Let’s answer that question by a look at what the Bible says about His character and His promises and His invitations.
HIS CHARACTER
God is His own best witness. Hiding Moses in the cleft of the rock for his protection, God passed by declaring:
“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Ex 34:6-7
Then in Deuteronomy Moses gives the people this assurance:
“Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.” Deut 7:9-10
Is the Lord like the unrighteous judge? Absolutely not!
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Tim 2:13
He hears the cries of His chosen ones and He will vindicate them faithfully and speedily according to His goodness and His justice.
The Psalmist knew this well; for he wrote “But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself; The Lord hears when I call to Him” Ps 4:3
HIS PROMISES
Out of Jesus’ own mouth we are given confirmation that God hears and answers the call of His saints.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11 “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Lk 11:9-13
“Draw near to God”, says James, “and He will draw near to you” James 4:8
HIS INVITATIONS
In John 6:35 and 7:37 are two familiar invitations from our Lord that give us assurance that He wants to meet our needs – that He wants us to ask.
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” 6:35
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” 7:37
Just a few passages, picked out to demonstrate the vast and even infinite difference between the judge in the parable and the Righteous Judge of all, who invites His chosen ones to pray with confidence that He will vindicate speedily, and thankfulness that He is always there to hear and to answer.
PERSISTENT FAITH
Now at the end of this particular discourse, Jesus makes a statement that at first glance sounds rather ominous. After all, we are all hoping that we will be here to be raptured, right? So if Jesus is expressing any degree of doubt that at His return He will find faith on the earth, the question rising naturally in our minds is, ‘What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to stop having faith?’
Let’s talk about this difficult question Jesus asks and see if we can clear it up.
From the content of the previous chapter in Luke and Jesus’ comments concerning His second coming, we can infer that His pointed purpose in telling this parable is to encourage them to not stop praying for that; to not get discouraged over the seeming delay.
I’ve handled this text in a more general sense today and I do believe there is validity in doing that. However as we come to verse 8 I don’t think we can separate His expression of doubt here from His words of encouragement in the previous verses.
I just want to make a couple of points from it for your later contemplations.
First, remembering that Jesus was saying this in conjunction with the promise that God, the righteous Judge, would speedily vindicate His elect, doesn’t this say to us that there would have to be something to vindicate us for? Persecution, slander, mistreatment, abuse, rejection…
I think so.
So what I’m seeing here, is that Jesus was expressing doubt that when He returns, He would find the lives of Christians expressing faith through obedience and faithfulness that incites persecution and rejection from a Christ-hating world.
Think about the lives of the patriarchs and the prophets. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. The world hasn’t changed, except to become darker in sin. God’s truth hasn’t changed.
So why are we (and I know I’ve asked this before) so comfortable in Sodom?
Isn’t obedience a demonstration of faith? Does not lack of faith manifest in disobedience? Praying doesn’t make us faithful, rather, we pray because we have faith.
Now I want to share with you that I did a little bit of research to find out how this text is approached, and the sermons I found listed from Luke 18:1-8 were with very few exceptions, titled ‘Persistent Prayer’, or some combination and form of those words.
But I don’t think Jesus’ focus was on persistent prayer, I think He was teaching about persistent faith.
I think Jesus was teaching that since we have a God who will speedily bring justice to His elect we should be persistent in our faith in His promises and in His imminent return for us.
Christians, I hear a lot of fretting about the political scene and I hear a lot of fretting over the economic scene and I hear a lot of ‘tsk-tsk’-ing about the moral decline in our society, and I hear a lot of other stuff from Christians – but I don’t hear a lot of, ‘Amen, come Lord Jesus’!
People, the world isn’t going to end because some madmen blew it up. The world isn’t going to end because world economy collapsed and everyone starved to death or died fighting over food. The world isn’t going to end because of the greenhouse effect or because a big meteor hit it.
The world is going to pass away with a roar and with the melting of the elements when Christ ceases to hold it together by the power of His word, and before that happens He is going to call His chosen ones to him, glorified, to be with Him forever.
With that in mind, and if we really believe that, we should be examining ourselves to be certain we are really in the faith, make obedience to Jesus and His Word the top priority in our lives, talk and live like those who believe God, pray with confidence and thankfulness for His promises and His invitations, and eagerly await His arrival.
The world and the people of the world cannot and will not do that. The world and the people of the world will grow increasingly fearful, increasingly self-centered, increasingly demonic. They will continue without hope and without God and in the end they will be destroyed.
But God will bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and He will not delay long over them. He will bring about justice for them speedily.
You and I, fellow Christ-followers, need to get our minds set on the eternal, on the Kingdom of God, on His character, His promises, His invitations…
…cease thinking as the world thinks and evaluating things the way the world evaluates, stop fretting over the temporal, and exercise persistent faith.
Because, beloved, Jesus is coming soon.
Pray. Do not lose heart.
