The parable of the widow and the unjust judge relates to our disappointment with God. Like the mistreated widow, we often wonder why God allows so much pain and injustice to go on. We pray and pray and yet no answer comes. The righteous perish and the wicked flourish. Sometimes we even wonder, “Is anyone listening up there?” We can be very vocal about our disappointment with God.
Jesus stands between God and man and explains that His Father loves us tenderly and that He will answer prayer; everything will be set right in the end! Then he comes back with the greatest puzzle to God, “Why don’t humans persevere in trusting God?” In spite of the fact that God does answer prayer, Jesus questions, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” This pain-filled question reminds me of the day Jesus asked His disciples, “Will ye also go away?” What a disappointment to Him! He has the solution to all our problems, but so many of us don’t trust Him. Can we sympathize with the heart of God?
Some time ago, I finished reading Philip Yancey’s book, "Disappointment With God." What a challenge! It was thought-provoking but also comforting. Compare James Dobson’s "When God Doesn’t Make Sense." Let’s talk a little about disappointment — both ours with God and His with us.
Jesus’ parable about the widow teaches that
I. GOD VALUES TRUSTING FAITH
Not just child-like faith, but persevering trust when everything seems backwards and upside-down. Faith that brings a miracle is a wonderful kind of faith, but what about the faith that believes in spite of unanswered prayer? Don’t forget what Jesus said to Thomas, "because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (Jn.20:29).
Some of the heroes in Heb.11 are remembered for their achievements, but others for their endurance. The writer recalls, "32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Heb.11:32-40). Notice the pivotal change at verse 35.
The kind of faith God wants most cannot be grown in the easy-going times of life. In fact, it is not even developed in answered prayer. If he gave us all the miracles we want, we would be hooked on the miracles and hunger less for Him. When God showered the Israelites with miracles and awesome demonstrations of His power, they were terrified and asked Him not to come so near. They promised they would obey, if He would only speak through Moses. Nevertheless, only a few developed a committed love to God to stand in the face of difficulty and remain true to Him.
The kind of faith God wants most can only be developed through pain and suffering—the times when we are so puzzled with God, His hiddenness, His silence, His unfairness. As much as I do not like those times, I begin to see they provide a closeness to God, a sweetness in our lives, and a pleasure to the Divine Heart that nothing else can produce.
“But the question naturally rose in the mind of Jesus, ‘How much of such overcoming faith will I find when I return?’ ” (J. E. Turner, "The Bible School Book," 1912).
Since God values trusting faith, we can believe that
II. GOD IS DOING EVERYTHING HE CAN DO TO STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH
God does not simply hang over the banisters of heaven critically judging whether we are faithful. He walks beside us, weeps with us, lifts our spirits, tenderly measures the tribulation so it will never be more than we can bear, and hopes for us to make it! But He cannot interfere. That would ruin the very goal He is trying to accomplish. He yearns to fully satisfy our hunger. He desperately wants us to succeed, yet He keeps His distance.
If He were to come too close, we would not be free to exercise faith by choice. If He is too distant, our poor faith will collapse. He must maintain just enough closeness to keep our faith alive, yet stay back enough to keep from overwhelming us with His presence in such a way we could not choose to love Him.
God allows tribulation to perfect our faith and patience. In II Cor. 4:17-18, Paul explains, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
The prophet Isaiah reminded us of Israel’s testing in the wilderness, "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Isa.63:9).
In the Luke passage, Jesus promised, "7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily" (Lk.18:8).
God may delay answering our prayer, but He does answer. Why the delay?
Pulpit Commentary explains, "The long-suffering of man is in consequence of the indisposition to act.... God bears long with His elect, not because He is unwilling to bless, but that He may draw them closer to Himself, that He may prepare them for fuller measures of blessing, that He may chasen their wills into completer union with His will, and so ultimately bestow the higher gifts of His fatherhood."
Since God is doing all he can to strengthen our faith, we can affirm,
III. GOD AGONIZES AS HE YEARNS FOR US TO HAVE VICTORY, BUT HE MUST WAIT ON OUR FAITH!
God and Satan have wagered on our performance. The results are all up to you and me!
Witness the story of Job. Heaven and Hell wagered on Job, but only Job could decide the outcome. God refused to overwhelm Job and He prevented Satan from breaking Job! The man was free to choose.
In his book, "Disapppointment with God," Philip Yancey contrasts between God the Parent and God the Lover. "Good parents nudge their children from dependence toward freedom. Lovers, however, reverse the pattern. A lover possesses complete freedom, yet chooses to give it away and become dependent. 'Submit to one another ,' says the Bible.... [God] desires not the clinging helpless love of a child who has no choice, but the mature, freely given love of a lover. He has been 'romancing' us all along."
No wonder someone remarked that when God chose to love, He became weak! He became vulnerable, because now humans could hurt Him in a way never before possible in eternity. He became weak because He limited Himself from overwhelming us. He became weak, because His power could never force us to love Him. Yet by choosing to love and allowing us to choose whether to love Him, the Almighty demonstrated the greatest strength of all!
Yancey explains, "As Douglas John Hall has put it, 'God’s problem is not that God is not able to do certain things. God’s problem is that God loves. Love complicates the life of God as it complicates every life.' And when His own love is spurned, even the Lord of the Universe feels in some way helpless, like a parent who has lost what he values most."
God longed for His covenant with Israel to succeed, but He knew Israel would not obey.
Yancey continues, "He spoke with rueful resignation, like the parent of a drug-addict, helpless to stop his own child from self-destructing; like the husband of an alcoholic who hears a blubbering promise to do better tomorrow or the next day, a promise his wife has already broken too many times to mention."
Follow the expressions of God’s love and His disappointment through the Scriptures. Hear Him as He weeps through the prophets over Israel’s unfaithfulness to him. Isaiah weeps, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" (Isa.5:4).
G. K. Chesterton remarked, “The central idea of the great part of the Old Testament may be called the idea of the loneliness of God.”
In Mt.23:37, Jesus felt that same disappointment, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"
He loved His own disciples deeply— even unto death—but He never forced them to love Him. And as Jesus looked ahead to His own Second Coming, he warned, "12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved . . . . 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened" (Mt.24:12-13,21-22).
He knew the times would be tough, but having warned His disciples, He could only wait to see their response.
Conclusion
Come back to Jesus’ pain-filled question, “When the Son of Man cometh, will He find faith on the earth?”
When He cometh — I have always thought this referred to the Second Coming, but Jesus comes in many other ways. He came in the Incarnation, in the Resurrection, in conviction to our hearts, in forgiveness, in answered prayer, in judgment upon the wicked, in revival times.
And He will come in times of personal revelation, in the Second Coming and eventually in the Great Judgment. The sad question on the heart of Jesus is, “When He comes, will He find us persevering in faith? Or will we have fainted and quit praying? Will He rejoice in the clinging trust of His bride (her firm confidence), or will He weep with her lukewarmness and unfaithfulness?”
He yearns to answer our prayer, in His time. He longs to bring us to full trusting faith so that He can reward our suffering through trials with His own wonderful presence. Only one factor can stop Him from pouring out His blessings on us—if we refuse to trust and obey.
