Persistence Pays Off – Luke 18:1-8
The parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge is one of the shorter stories that Jesus told to illustrate a truth to the disciples. It is only 8 verses of which only 5 of them tell the point of the story. Yet it is an important reminder that our need to pray and pray consistently is something that we are not to allow anything to cause us to abandon.
Today more than ever, people expect things to happen in an instant. Playing a game on your phone and your enjoyment is interrupted by an ad. You must wait 30-60 seconds for the ad to finish before you can resume playing the game. Of course, there is a solution to avoiding these interruptions – you can choose to make a purchase to stop the ads, or you can choose to close the program. But most of the time we just have to suffer the ads. Our impatience with many things in life can lead us to become frustrated, angry or even disillusioned. Our desire to abandon such things often seems like the best way to calm ourselves and get on with life. But it really isn’t a solution that helps us deal with the world around us effectively. It often leads us to insulate ourselves from others and narrow our life to only those situations that we feel we can handle by ourselves.
No matter how much we may know that solutions will not come easy and answers to problems will not just magically appear, the reality is that we will choose to give up or give in when we find life has become more of a challenge than we are prepared to face.
In the parable that Jesus tells, there is a widow who has an issue with another person whom she calls her opponent. She comes before a judge who does not fear God and who has no respect for people. He is a judge who believes only in himself. He sees no place for God, nor does he believe that his responsibility is to help people when laws have been broken. He really couldn’t care less for the widow. After all, widows had no status in that time. If there was no one in the family to take care of them, they were like outcasts in the society. So, the judge is constantly pestered by this widow who has no status in his eyes to begin with and yet will not let her issue die. She will not go away until he has done something about it. He knows that her cause is just and that should be his motivation for granting her justice but in reality, he is only willing to help her because she is wearing him out with her continual coming.
No doubt the disciples have noticed that Jesus’ words and actions have often fallen on deaf ears. People fail to hear the good news or believe that the miracles of Jesus are real. And even if they hear the good news and believe in the miracles, they are still not able to fully grasp the mission of Jesus which goes beyond the words and the actions. Through his ministry, Jesus is revealing the love of God, the grace of God and the mercy of God which are intended not just to bring hope for this life and time but to reveal the will of God to restore each and every person to a wholeness of mind, body and spirit. Jesus was never looking to be worshipped or celebrated. It wasn’t about him but about the One who had sent him. And that One was the very God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of David, of Solomon, indeed of the people of Israel. It was this God that the people were to pray to – even as their ancestors had prayed. And they were reminded by Jesus that those who believe and who have the faith to accept the message spoken by Jesus, that God would help them and bring them justice. But they needed to pray always and not lose heart.
As long as this life may seem at times and as long as it seems we can go without answers to our prayers, Jesus insists that God will answer and that true justice will prevail. We live in a time of waiting, a time when persistence and patience are most needed. But we still are to seek to make a difference in our lives and the lives of others in this world. Throughout his ministry – even when the words were not clearly said – we know that Jesus’ whole life was spent in prayer. It was not always evident by his posture or by the place, but there was a constancy in his praying. Paul echoes this when he encourages us to pray in everything. He also encourages us to let the Holy Spirit pray for us with words that we cannot even express. For prayer is more than words or posture or place. Prayer is the expression of our relationship with God that often has no outward appearance. It is to be our life.
But does such constant prayer, such belief that God will answer our prayer and that all will have a just end, is this what Jesus is saying here? Indeed, there will be a just end but the path to that end will not always be one that reveals the justice of God in the here and now. Jesus taught persistence in prayer yet still experienced many trials and setbacks. He persisted in his prayer even to the very foot of the cross and even on the cross itself. In spite of everything, he didn’t lose heart or faith.
Jesus knows how difficult it can be for us to pray and not lose heart especially when we feel that our prayers have not been answered. And yet he asks the question at the end of the parable: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
That is a question that has been heard by every generation of believers, and each generation has given its answer by their commitment to continue to pray, continue to hope, continue to trust and continue to not lose heart that the return of Christ will happen.
How do we remain constant in prayer and not lose heart or faith? We need to remember and pray the words of Psalm 51:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.
AMEN