LUKE 18:1-8

Luke 18:1-8

This may come as a surprise, but we’re going to talk about a challenging topic today, of course. But it’s fundamental to the Christian life, and it’s a challenging topic because most of us fake it that we’re good at it. Well, maybe not fake it – but we try to hide behind a veneer of desire – of wanting to be good at it. And for most of us, it is a good and true desire. What do I mean? Well, we’re going to talk about prayer. I’ve been in ministry a long time, giving me the opportunity to have lots of people through my office and conduct lots of interviews of potential staff – even potential pastors for Alliance.

In many of those office discussions, not all of them, but many, and in most of those interviews, we talk about prayer. In the office, it goes like this – I’m struggling in my walk with Christ. I’m just not as close as I’d like to be, I’m struggling with this or that sin, I’m not maturing as I’d like. And so, I often suggest, this isn’t rocket science. A close relationship with God begins and ends with time in His Word as He talks to us, and times of prayer when we talk to Him. Think of it this way – how close would you be to someone you really love – your spouse, your parents, your kids, your best friend – if you listened to them and talked to them as much as you do God? Does your wife ever say, you just don’t talk to me? I wonder if God ever says that to us.

So anyway, in the office or the interview, I will ask the question, how’s your prayer life –– and here comes the veneer, the desire to be good at it. Most often, the answer is something like, not as good as I’d like it to be, I wish it were better, it could be better. What does that really mean? Well clearly, it’s a veiled, I’m not very good at it – but at least it’s a, I’d like to be.

Anybody like that this morning? I wish it were better? I hope you want to pray better. It’s sometimes true for me. I’d like my prayer life to be better. It’s a proper desire. We all know prayer warriors, and perhaps think, I wish I was like that. What is your prayer life like?

I have good news for us this morning. I have no intention of beating us up about prayer today. Nope, I have every intention to encourage prayer, because we have a God who loves His children, wants us to pray, and hears and answer our prayers. The God of the universe welcomes us, even invites us into His presence. That’s amazing. It’s in the text in our continuing study of Luke – chapter 18, verses 1-8. Read that with me.

I’ll tell you now – at the end our time I’m going to give us time to repent of our neglect of prayer if we need to, to commit to be people of prayer – that is, to turn the desire to be good at it, into action – and to pray. I’ll ask our elders – our leaders – to come to the front as we often do – to pray with and for you. It’s why we put communion earlier in the service – so we could act on what we hear today from His Word. You see, it really is an encouraging text. The outline is quite simple:


I. The Purpose of the Parable [first, that’s a little unusual] (1)
II. The Parable (2-5)
III. The Application of the Parable (6-8)

It’s interesting – Jesus usually just launches into a parable to teach His disciples, to include us, a lesson about living the Christian life – mostly, living in the kingdom since most of His parables are about the kingdom. But here, in this parable found only in Luke, Luke does something different. He doesn’t wait until the end to tell us the purpose of the parable. No, he tells us at the outset. Verse 1, now He [Jesus] was telling them [His disciples] a parable. And here it is, Luke plays his cards – to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. There’s my whole message.

Couple of thoughts about that stated purpose. First, like Paul would say later, we should be people of prayer, praying without ceasing, praying at all times. Which means, this is a bit more than saying grace at the table, although we should thank God for what He has provided, daily bread, a bit more than uttering a prayer as you wake up or even as you go to bed, although we could. This is praying at all times, without ceasing.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we spend all day every day on our knees. But it does mean that we are in an attitude of prayer all the time. What does that mean? It means our relationship with the Lord is so intimate, so close and intentional that prayer becomes the attitude and action of our lives. We recognize that He walks right beside us – actually, in us. We pray as regularly as we do most other things. It’s just who we are – we live in the presence of the King, and we can pray – when? Whenever – at all times. We are people who don’t just talk about prayer, but actually pray. Meaning, for example, when someone says to you, will you pray for this – you don’t have to say yes and then forget about it. You can pray right then. Yeah, let’s do that. I’d love to see this auditorium and atrium filled with people praying – hey, I’m going through this challenge at work or at school, I have this decision to make at home – let’s pray about that.

At all times – which is interesting, by the way. David told us in Psalm 55 that he cries out to the Lord morning, noon, and night. We find in Daniel 6 that three times a day, Daniel went to his house to pray. So, the rabbis taught that we should pray three times a day – and no more, otherwise, you might wear God out. That’s funny. Jesus seemed to be aware of that teaching, and stresses – pray at all times. And He will also tell us, God will hear. There’s certainly nothing wrong with having prescribed times of prayer – but here, Jesus says, pray at all times – whenever and wherever you want or have a need, or want to express thanksgiving or praise. We are people of prayer, and we walk with our God.

But notice second, in this spiritual discipline, that we not lose heart. You see, the truth is, maybe we do pray all the time, and seldom or never seem to get an answer. We ask for good things, right things. We pray for someone sick to be healed, someone lost to be saved, for someone sinning to stop. And our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears. And perhaps after praying for some time – maybe months or even years to no apparent answer, we lose heart. We think, what’s the use? Or even worse, maybe prayer doesn’t work. Or worst of all, maybe God doesn’t care.

We’ll come back to that. Look at the parable in verses 2-5. In a certain city – Jesus doesn’t identify the city – it’s a parable, with its truth applying to many cities – all cities. In this city was a judge. Stop right there. As we read further, most agree this was not a judge who settled spiritual matters – those were usually priests. The Romans allowed their conquered populations to judge according to their laws – in everything except capital cases. Only Rome could pass the death penalty. But in other civil cases, even criminal cases, they could hear and adjudicate the matter. In this story, the case seems clearly to be a civil matter.

But, we have a problem at the beginning. This judge was clearly unaware of modern jurisprudence – that judges were to be impartial. We’ve all seen the figures of lady justice holding a scale, with her eyes blinded from 16th Century on. The meaning of that is justice – judges – should hear cases and weigh the evidence and pass judgment on that evidence. They are blind to bribes and impartial, committed to truth, integrity and righteous justice. Not this judge.

Herein lies the problem. We read this was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. What that means is that he didn’t care about man, unless it furthered his personal agenda. Further, he didn’t fear God. He lacked the two qualities needed to be a judge, to pursue righteous justice. He actually broke the first and second commandments – to love God and to love people. He was only in it for himself. If the case didn’t benefit him, he wouldn’t hear it, he wouldn’t pass judgment. You can imagine, then, he only cared about the cases of the well-to-do who might grease his palms. Not this penniless widow.

Kind of interesting. In 2 Chronicles 19, King Jehoshaphat established character qualities for judges to be appointed – at least what this good king looked for. We read in verses 6-7:

6 He said to the judges, “Consider what you are doing, for you do not judge for man but for the LORD who is with you when you render judgment.
7 “Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe.”

That’s a judge’s job description. How did this guy get hired? You would think a judge in an Israelite city would quake in his boots – that he would render judgment without partiality and with righteousness. But he did not.

Which brings us to the second character in the story, verse 3. There was a widow – stop right there. In most ancient cultures, widows were near the bottom of the social and economic strata. They were often poor and indigent and relied on family members to care for them, if they would, and if they even had family members. It’s why having a son – besides carrying on the family line – was so important. A widow needed a man to care for her. In fact, she needed a man to speak for in a court of law. But, we note this widow came to this judge on her own. She was apparently alone. Her plight was likely quite desperate – and given her status in life and likely her lack of resources, this judge paid her no attention. (good story – protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, denouement)

By the way, we know throughout the Bible – both Old and New Testaments – that God had a special place in His heart for widows and orphans. He knew they could be overlooked, taken advantage of. He looked out for them. In Deuteronomy 14, as Moses is preparing the Israelites to enter the promised land, he’s talking about clean and unclean animals and then about taking care of the Levites. But then we read in verse 29:

29 “The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” Take care of the widows and orphans.

In Deuteronomy 24, they were not to go over their fields twice or beat their olive trees twice but to leave what remains for the orphans and widows. In chapter 26, part of the tithes of the third year went to the orphans and widows. [Exodus 22:22-24] It’s all over the place. One of my favorite verses is in James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…” God has a special place in His heart for the needy throughout the Bible. We should too. I love that we have a widows ministry called Treasured Sisters; that we have Team Alliance, a group of people willing to do physical labor for our widows. I love that we have so many in this church who have fostered and adopted children – orphans. I love it – and so does God.

This judge, however, did not. The widow came to the judge over and over – she kept coming. The idea is she came to him all the time – every day perhaps. In the market, in the city gate, in the neighborhood, at his house – he couldn’t get away from her. You see, he was her only recourse. She would say to him, “Give me legal protection from my opponent.” We don’t know what the issue was. Some have speculated that her deceased husband’s estate proceeds or dowry had not been given to her. Perhaps there were those who owed her or her husband and refused to pay. Perhaps this opponent had seized the opportunity to take some financial advantage of her – we don’t know. What is clear is that she was being wronged and went to the one who should look out for her. He did not. Conflict.

Look at verses 4 and 5, “For a while he was unwilling.” There was no personal benefit for him to take up the case, to settle the dispute, to execute justice for a poor widow. In fact, perhaps her opponent was a friend or bribed him. We don’t know. But I love this part, “but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect men, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.” Actually, it reads she will beat me up – literally, she will give me a black eye.

She was so persistent, he said enough is enough. Let me settle the case. She is beating me down. It’s the same word Paul uses in I Corinthians 9:27 when he wrote, “but I discipline my body and make it my slave…” Literally, I beat my body. Now that doesn’t mean he literally beat himself despite what some ancient hermits and monks have done. It was a figure of speech, just like this widow was doing to this self-admitted unjust judge. In fact, this parable is sometimes called the Parable of the Unjust Judge, or the Parable of the Persistent Widow. She won. Good for her. Should a widow, near the bottom of the social strata, be so overlooked?

Jesus then applies the parable in verses 6-8. At first glance it can be a little troubling. It seems Jesus is comparing this unrighteous judge to His Father – to God. Keep bugging God and He’ll give in. No. There are two ways to look at this kind of story – one is by comparison, and one is by contrast. And thank God we have a significant contrast here. Jesus is using what is called an a fortiori argument – that is, He is arguing from the lesser to the greater. The much lesser to the infinitely greater. As Kent Hughes writes, “The judge was unloving, evil, ungracious, merciless, and unjust. But God is loving, good, gracious, merciful, and just.”

Jesus starts in verse 6 by saying to His disciples, hear what the unrighteous judge said, meaning, consider it. Because this widow came to him over and over, beating him down, the judge finally gave in. If that’s the case, how much more will God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night. The point of the comparison is not to suggest that we have to go to God again and again, and if we pester Him enough, He’ll finally give in to our requests just to get rid of us.

No – it’s a contrast. It’s lesser to greater. Will not God who is perfectly just, perfectly righteous bring about justice for His elect. Elect is a word some of you don’t like, but it’s in the Bible. It speaks of His chosen ones. He will bring justice for those He has chosen who cry out to Him day and night. Now, in that statement, there is this idea of persistent prayer that we need to talk about. It seems to suggest that His people cry out to Him persistently, day and night. How’s your prayer life? But the idea is not to badger Him, to get Him to give in. No. There are lots of reasons God may not answer right away, if at all, in this already but not-yet kingdom.

You see, it is true, sometimes we pray and there are seemingly no answers. But we forget that no is as much of an answer as yes. That’s important – prayer does not mean that we always get what we want – but what He wants. We align ourselves to God’s will for our lives. Sometimes we pray for things out of God’s will – even though we don’t understand – but we can trust that He always does know and always does what is best for us. We can trust Him.

Sometimes He may be trying to mature us in grace. Remember that text Cam preached on a few weeks ago – II Corinthians 12. Three times, Paul sought the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh. Three times God said no. And He said this, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in your weakness.” Is God saying that to you? Then Paul said, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Sometimes we don’t get what we ask for because God has greater purpose in mind – to mature us in grace, so that we boast in His power which rests on us.

Now understand, there are actually three answers to prayer – yes, no, and wait. For His always glorious and perfect purposes, now may not be the right time for the prayer to be answered affirmatively. We might have to wait. By the way, unless God tells us clearly, as He told Paul, it is okay, in fact right to continue to pray. God is teaching us persistence in prayer – not because we have to twist His arm. He is maturing us. He does not want us to lose heart.

Look at the rest of verse 7, “will He delay long over them?” That’s bit confusing, because some of you have prayed for something for a long time – maybe the salvation of someone you love deeply. I have. What is this, “will He delay long over them?” We must remember that God’s timetable is not our own. For Him, in the context of waiting for His return, Peter told us, with the Lord, a day like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. That simply means with an eternal God, time is not relevant. He will bring about His purposes without delay in His timetable when it is right and best to do so. Until then, we keep praying, and trusting, and thanking.

Verse 8, I tell you, Jesus says, that He, the Father, will bring about justice for His elect quickly. Quickly could be translated soon, or it could mean God will bring about justice quickly when He comes. Remember, that’s the context of this parable. The chapter divisions – chapter 17 to chapter 18 were inserted and somewhat arbitrary. Jesus had just spoken to His disciples about His return – now He says, in the meantime. Pray. Pray for His return to make all things right.

You see, Jesus asks at the end of the text, “when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” That is not suggesting the Christian faith will be all but nonexistent. Jesus said He would build His church, and the gates of hell would not overcome it. His question is, will He find those faithfully praying, and faithfully praying for His return. Trusting His return to make all things right. Will He find us faithful?