Prayer and Persistence

Luke 18: 1 - 8 (December 27, 2009)

1) The Text

18Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

2) The Context

This teaching on prayer follows directly on Jesus' teaching on the coming of the Son of Man. Here, Jesus instructs his disciples with a parable, a story to make a spiritual point. Luke reveals the point of the parable in advance: "that they should always pray and not give up" (18:1b). The word translated "always" is Greek pantote, "always, at all times."[1] The word "prayer" is the common Greek word proscheuomai, "to petition deity, pray."[2] Jesus is teaching continual prayer, again and again, rather than continuous, non-stop prayer. To "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:13; 5:17; 2 Timothy 1:3) is to pray repeatedly, time and again.

I've heard Bible teachers say that once you've asked God for something that is displays lack of faith to ask for it again, since you ought to believe you already have received it (Mark 11:24). But Jesus teaches clearly that we are to continue to pray until we receive the answer. That continued pray is not a sign of little faith, but of persistent faith.

The danger is that we get discouraged and quit praying. The word translated "give up" (NIV) or "faint" (KJV) in 18:1 is Greek enkakeo, "to lose one's motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, 'lose enthusiasm, be discouraged,' "[3] from en, "into, entering into" + kakos, "base, wrong, wicked."

3) Interpretation

Through his parables Jesus disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed. Parables are stories that would seem to point to an obvious conclusion, but then jolt us by an unexpected ending. In the parable of the Good Samaritan the priest and the levite were the obvious people to help the man who was left half-dead by robbers. However, it was not them but the despised Samaritan who did the caring thing. We would expect the good Jesus to associate with good people and shun sinners, but instead, we find him associating with and including sinners. Through parables, Jesus upsets us by challenging conventional wisdom. He so upset the leadership of his time by his stories that they eventually had to eliminate him through crucifixion.

The parable in today’s gospel is particularly intriguing as it is itself capable of being turned upside-down. It is introduced as a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. It tells about an unjust judge who had neither fear of God nor respect for people. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” For a long time he refused but at last he said to himself, “maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for people, but since she keeps on pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worrying me to death.”

The normal interpretation is to say that as the unjust judge heard the widow because of her persistence, and not because of the merits of her case, so too God will hear us if we persist in our requests. We find a strong endorsement in the story for our prayers of repeated petition.

My seminary scripture professor pointed out a few difficulties with this interpretation. Is it not a bit strange to identify God with the unjust judge: to identify God with someone who has no concern for justice? Is it not strange to promote an understanding that petition is answered because of nagging God into action without any concern for the content of the petition itself? Is it not true that in the Old Testament, and in the Bible in general, God identifies frequently with the widow and the orphan? So, he would have us turn the parable upside-down and interpret it in this way.

We ourselves are the unjust judge who neither fear God or respect people. We are dominated by our egos and generally looking for what is in it for us. We are really stubborn in our self seeking. But God is persistent in love for us. God is the hound of heaven who wears us down, like the widow, by persistently pursuing us. Eventually, we wield and let God enter our lives and guide us to do the right thing. In this interpretation we see God as persistent in trying to break down our defenses. We see prayer as allowing this pursuing God to enter our lives and challenge us to change our self destructive behavior.

I much prefer this second interpretation because I think it gives us a better picture of who God is and of what prayer is. The spiritual life begins with God’s gracious gift. This gift often comes in strange wrappings. Sometimes it comes in a sermon or a religious book. More often it comes through a difficulty, failure, sickness or maybe a widow that comes to us looking for help. The gift comes from a God who is humble, who knows truth but who does not coerce us into accepting him or his gift.

To pray continually and to never lose heart is just to be in an attitude of openness. It is having no predetermined demands to make on God but to be continually ready, alert, and listening to the demands that God may be making on us. Christian meditation is this kind of prayer.

4) Thought Exercise

Reflect on the following questions this week. Take one area in your life and place it in God's hands. Make the same petition every day. At the end of the week, look back on your petition, not for an outcome, but for the way the petition affected you.

First, is our prayer petition centered on ourselves or upon God's will? In other words, are we willing to seek God's will in our lives? Only then, we will be able to sustain faith.

Second, if our prayer petition is centered on God's will, do we have the persistence to pray constantly for his will? Is our faith strong enough to trust God with an unknown future?

Third, are we willing to patiently wait for God to act? Will we remember that God sometimes acts at the last minute, but always the right time?