LUKE 18:1-8
Now
He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and
not to lose heart, saying "In a certain city there was a judge who did not
fear God and did not respect man." There was a widow in that city, and she
kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' For a
while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not
fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her
legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'
And
the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now will not God
bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He
delay long over them? 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"
(NASB)?
INTRODUCTION
There was a
small town that had only two churches and one saloon or drinking bar. Members
of both churches complained that the drinking bar gave the community a bad
image. On top of this the owner of the bar was an atheist. They tried to shut
down the place but were unsuccessful. At last they decided to hold a joint
Saturday night prayer meeting. They would ask God to intervene. Saturday night
came, and all through the prayer meeting a terrible electrical storm raged. To
the delight of the church members lightning struck the drinking bar, and it
burned to the ground. Next morning, the sermons in both churches were on “The
Power of Prayer.” Fire insurance adjusters promptly notified the saloon owner they
would not pay for his damages. The fire was caused by an “act of God,” they
said, and coverage for “acts of God” was excluded from the insurance policy.
Whereupon the saloon owner sued all
the church members, claiming they had conspired with God to destroy his building.
The defendants denied absolutely that they had done anything to cause this
fire. The trial judge observed: “I find one thing about this case that is very
perplexing. We have a situation where the plaintiff—an atheist—is professing
his belief in the power of prayer, and the defendants—church members—are
denying the power of prayer.”
Have you heard yourself saying
sometimes, “If God cares about me why are all these things happening to me?” If
God cares for me why doesn’t He do something? For our time this day, I would like
us to explore the topic: “The Father Who Cares about Your Situation in Life.”
Shortly after the Duke of Wellington
led his troops to victory in the decisive battle against Napoleon and the
French at Waterloo,
he was asked to compare the courage of the two armies. “My soldiers were not
braver than the enemy!” he observed. “But they were brave five minutes longer.”
In almost any area of life, staying
power is indispensable for success. The most gifted individual in the world
will accomplish very little if he/she quits under pressure, or if the mood to
endure hits only now and then.
Perseverance is not a very romantic
concept, especially here in the United
States where we have drive-through banks,
restaurants, pharmacies, and on-line degree courses. We would rather admire the
exploit than examine the endurance that made it possible. We are made to
believe that if something is really good, it is effortless. But we know better.
Endurance is essential. Where do endurance and staying power come from,
especially in the spiritual realm, which calls for a special kind of toughness?
We live in a difficult world that is
not friendly to the life of a disciple. The Lord was well aware of this, and
one of His great concerns was to prepare His followers for life in a hostile
world. His people can be resilient and spiritually tough. However, that
resilience is not the product of determination but of prayer. In the parable of
the unjust judge, found in Luke 18:1-8, the Lord directs us to the perseverance
that is produced by persistence in prayer.
I. THE INDISPENSABILITY OF PERSISTENT PRAYER V. 1
I
have shared with you repeatedly that Jesus does not tell parables for fun.
Every parable that Jesus tells has a context. The context of this parable is
found in Luke 17:20, where
the Pharisees wanted to know when the “kingdom of God
would come.” The kingdom
of God was a concern for
Jews of all theological backgrounds. Jesus Himself had announced that the
kingdom was at hand, and that “the kingdom
of God has come to you”
(Luke 11:20). Jesus
proceeds to give a discourse on His Second Coming (17:24, 30). That day will be a time when evil
is destroyed (17:27, 29).
But prior to that time, evil will flourish, and God’s people will know
suffering. Today Christians are persecuted and being killed in countries such
as Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eretria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, North Korea,
China, Iran, Iraq, and others. The question is how would the disciples make it
through those days of distress? How would followers of Christ make it through
these days of relentless persecution in many places? How would Christians make
it through times of distress, when the Son of Man “must suffer many things and
be rejected by this generation?” How do you make it through the tough times?
How do you make it through times that are a challenge to faith (18:8)? These
are the unasked questions that lie behind the statement that “they should
always pray and not give up.”
The
word “always,” implies a divine necessity. The word “give up’ describes
the temptation to quit in despair when we are tired. It means to throw in the
towel. Giving up is motivated by weariness that comes from living in a sinful,
hostile world, feeling worn out by injustice, mistreatment, misunderstanding,
and personal failure. How do you keep going when you feel bailing out? The cost
of being a disciple of Jesus Christ tempts us to lose heart. Swimming against
the current is tiring—why not go with the flow? It is easier to float than to
fight. How tempting it is to drift with the current morally, socially,
ethically, or spiritually! How do you keep going—by determination or positive
thinking or strategic retreat from the world? Our Lord’s formula is clear and
simple: “They should always pray and not give up.” The antidote to despair is
not determination but dependence on God, not positive thinking but prayer.
Prayer is not something you are permitted to do when you please. Prayer is what
we are commanded to do as God’s will for our lives. It is the only sure basis
of perseverance, since it is the means God uses to accomplish His will in our
lives. Furthermore, we must not only pray, we must always pray. Does this mean
that we are to spend all our time praying and doing nothing else? No, but it
does mean that we must do nothing without prayer.
The
rabbis warned the Jewish people against wearying God with incessant prayer and
indicated that prayers should be said only three times a day, although there
were exceptions. Islam also calls Muslims to their prayer mats five times a
day. In contrast, the Lord Jesus calls us not to say prayers but to pray
continually. God’s people, Christians who are often misunderstood and suffer
unjustly have one constant resource in a world that is not conducive to faith, hostile
to Christ and resistant to the gospel, and that resource is prayer.
II. THE INSTRUCTION OF PERSISTENT PRAYER VV. 2-5
The story takes us into the
legal system of Jesus’ day and introduces us to two people at the opposite ends
of the legal spectrum. On one hand, the judge is the epitome of power. His
position has invested him with authority, and within his own sphere he can act
with little fear of opposition. He is an independent man. His sense of his own
power is expressed succinctly: he “neither feared God nor cared about
people.” He is a hard-bitten man of the world. He has no sense of personal
accountability to God or submission to divine law. He was not concerned about
his reputation because he had no respect for any person. He is cold-hearted
person. And his heart is never troubled by sensitivity to people. He cannot be
reached on the grounds of either conscience or compassion. He does whatever he
likes, and is controlled only by his own inclinations.
On
the other hand, the widow represents the depth of helplessness and weakness. A
woman in a chauvinistic society, she has almost no political clout. Widows were
poor and they had no one to protect or deliver them. As a widow in that time,
she almost certainly knows dire poverty. God made several provisions in the Old
Testament for the fair treatment of widows. God Himself defends the cause of
widows (Deut. 10:18). God
places a curse upon the man who withholds justice from a widow (Deut. 27:19).
The widow could take the place of her dead husband in court and was considered
equal to a man: “Any vow or obligation a widow or divorced woman took would be
binding on her” (Num. 30:9). Any one who would try to deprive a widow of her
rights would have to face God, the defender of widows (Ps. 68:5). The prophet
Isaiah complains that the rulers of the land are rebels and thieves. “They
do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come
before them” (Isaiah 1:23).
The Prophet Malachi states that God will be quick to testify against those who
oppress the widow and the fatherless (Mal. 3:5). James states, “Pure and
undefiled religion before God and the Father is to visit orphans and widows in
their trouble” (James 1:27).
Nevertheless, widows were mistreated. Unfortunately, widows are mistreated
today as well.
The
death of the husband of this widow in Jesus’ parable has left her without an
advocate or a protector, and an insensitive person has exploited her weakness.
Justice may be on her side, but she has no weapon with which to fight. She is
helpless before an indifferent judge. Even in our contemporary world, justice
may be on the side of the poor but because he/she cannot afford a lawyer he/she
may lose the case.
The
Jewish legal custom based on the OT, called for priority to be given to the
legal needs of widows and orphans. But precedent has no power over such a
judge. The widow did not have any weapon with which to win this case. The only
weapon she had was the weapon of persistence. For some time the judge refused
to grant her justice. The phrase “grant me justice” is a legal term and really
means “take up my case,” or “help me to justice.” The widow asks the judge to
help her in spite of the judge’s reputation of disregard toward such requests.
True to form, the judge refuses to act. He probably dismisses the widow by
sending her home with the customary remark, “Next case, please.” The widow
would not take a no for an answer; she kept coming to the judge with the same
case. The reason many Christians quit praying is because they conclude that God
does not answer their prayers. However, the problem does not lie in the hands
of God, but in the hands of such discouraged Christians. The reason many Christians
do not see answers to their prayers is that often their prayers are too general
and aimless. The widow in this parable kept coming to the unjust judge with a
specific request; she came to him with the same petition. What is the dire need
in your life that you want God to intervene on your behalf? Tell Him and He
will act on your behalf. Persistence is the widow’s only resource, and finally,
the unjust judge gave in. Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says." He
wants the disciples to pay close attention to the very words of the judge. The
judge says to himself, it is true that I do not care about God’s law or
people’s opinion but this woman is getting on my nerves. He says this woman is
wearing me out. The phrase “wear me out” literally means “to hit below
the eye” or “to give a black eye.” Then he says, “If I give her what she wants,
then she will leave me alone.” The judge is motivated entirely by
self-interest. He has no interest in either justice or the woman’s rights. Yet
he acts on her behalf. So a powerless woman with no weapon but persistence
receives her rights from an evil judge.
In
the days of the Protestant Reformation it is said that “Bloody Mary” the Queen
of England made a statement that she was unafraid of any person except John
Knox when he was on his knees praying. The weakest saint on his/her knees is
more powerful than all the United States Armed forces put together. Prayer is
more powerful than any missile nations have invented. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
said that prayer is the slender nerve that moves the hand of Omnipotence.
III. THE IDEAL OF PRAYER V. 8
Verse 8 provides us with the
contrast: God and His elect. The Lord wants you to recognize that the one to
whom you pray is nothing at all like the unjust judge. He does not need to be
nagged or manipulated into acting on your behalf. The contrast is that God is
unlike the judge who refused to listen to the widow’s plea. All that God is,
the judge was not. God is exactly the opposite of all that the judge was in
character. God may keep you waiting as His child, but justice will be meted out
and that right quickly. God may keep you waiting in prayer; He may exercise
your patience, He may strengthen your faith, but at the proper time He will
answer your prayers. God is willing to hear and answer the pleadings of His
elect.
One
thing I want you to know is that your persistence in prayer does not change God
or make Him more willing to act. You only pray properly when you think of God
properly as One who answers for your good consistently with His own glory. You
also need to realize that you are not a helpless widow with no standing before
God and no weapon but your persistence. You are God’s chosen ones. You are a
participant in God’s eternal plan—the children of grace. Since you are the
chosen, the citizens of the kingdom, the children of the Father, you can pray
with confidence. If a helpless widow who had no weapon but persistence could
get her way with a hardhearted, unjust judge, how much more will God’s people
receive what we need from a gracious Father! As a child of God, I want to
submit to you that if you pray in accordance to God’s will, He will hear and
answer your prayer. Therefore, if you are wrongly treated as a child of God,
you can be certain that God will give you vindication or justice at the right
time.
The
term “cry out” expresses something of the intensity of true prayer. This is the
language of prayer—the cry of the heart out of the difficulties and failures of
life. That is the nature of persistence. It is the heart’s cry to the Father
out of the distress of life. We are not told why the Lord does not always
answer our cries for help on the first occasion. However, part of the answer is
to be found in the idea that God’s timing does not always coincide with ours.
The unjust judge delayed out of selfishness and indifference; the Father never
does. But His sovereign purposes are not always synchronized with our problems.
Another factor is that we are not always fit to receive what we ask for. Every
parent knows the difference between a child’s request and the child’s capacity
to handle it wisely. A teenager may be sure that he/she is mature enough to own
a car or set his/her own curfew. A parent usually perceives things differently.
It is also true that persistence can be part of a refining process. Delays help
you clarify what you really need. It filters out passing desires and
intensifies heartfelt desires. Perhaps most of all, persistence is part of the
fellowship process. The process of delay can be painful, but some of the most
precious moments of life are those times when life’s hurts cause you to keep calling
to God in prayer. As G. Campbell Morgan observed, “The man who makes prayer a
scheme by which occasionally he tries to get something for himself has not
learned the deep, profound secret of prayer. Prayer is life passionately
wanting, wishing, desiring God’s triumph.”
The
truth of the matter is that you will not experience all of God’s vindication in
this present life. Vindication for our Lord Jesus involved His resurrection.
A
story is told of a woman who went to a dancing club to dance and have a good
time. She had an expensive diamond pendant necklace on. When she went home she
discovered that she had lost her diamond pendant. Therefore, she called the
club manager. The manager asked her to hold the line. After a quick search the
pendant was found but when the manager returned to the phone, the lady had hang
up the phone. That is what many
Christians do to God when they pray. They don't hold the line longer for God to
respond to their request. They "throw in the towel" so soon. However,
what is important is for you to realize that God never puts you on hold and
forgets you are there. Delay is not a form of denial but a means of
preparation.
The
question that Jesus poses in verse 8 is very significant. There is the
temptation to give up in the Christian life due to injustice, disappointments,
discouragement, and worldly temptations. However, the ultimate question is not
whether or not you and I would fail, but whether we will fail to pray. The
Second Coming of Jesus would be like the days of Noah and Lot.
Will you abandon your faith in Christ and join the unbelieving crowd in their
dissipation, or will you continue to hold on to Christ? Persistence in prayer
is the key to victory in the Christian life.
