October 21, 2007 Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “Persistence in Prayer”
Series: None
Text: Luke 18:1-8
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on October 21, 2007
“Then Jesus told
them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
Luke 18:1
Persistence in Prayer
A pastor was
giving the children's message during church. You know, the part of the service,
where all the children gather around the pastor and he gives them a brief
object lesson before dismissing them for children's church. On this particular Sunday, he was using
squirrels for an object lesson on always being industrious and prepared. He
started out by saying, “I'm going to
describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it
is.” The children all nodded eagerly. “This
thing lives in trees (pause) and eats nuts (pause)...” No hands went up. “And it is gray (pause) and has a long bushy
tail (pause)..." The children were looking at each other, but still no
hands raised. "And it jumps from
branch to branch (pause) and chatters and flips its tail when it's excited
(pause)..." Finally one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The
pastor breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. And the little boy said, “Pastor, I know the answer must be Jesus,
but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!”
It occurs to me that the little boy in this story had more courage than we often do. He knew what the answer was “supposed” to be, but he answered so it was clear that he had doubts about what he was hearing. So many times we sit in church and listen to a preacher expound on a text, and he makes twists and turns explaining what the Greek or Hebrew words actually mean. And no matter what a particular passage appears to say on the surface, the preacher is always going to give us the “real meaning” whether we want him to or not. Am I right? I can recall countless “here’s what Jesus really meant” kind of sermons when I was growing up. In fact, I sometimes do that myself when I preach.
I was convicted of that this week as I studied the text before us this morning. I was wrestling back and forth with the passage questioning what it means in the context in which it was spoken and what it means to us today. Is the parable Jesus tells about justice, or prayer, or perseverance, or crooked judges? I played through all these scenarios in my mind as I let the text soak in. And then I noticed something very important. The passage itself tells us what the parable is about—we don’t have to worry about guessing or speculating about Jesus’ intent in telling the story.
Look at the very first verse: Luke says that Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge, “in order that we might pray always and not lose heart.”
What that means is I can’t stand up here and tell you what Jesus really meant with this parable because Luke, the guy who wrote it down, has already done that. This parable is about keeping on praying and not giving up on God no matter how bad things may seem or get, because you can always count on God.
And so we must look at the relationship between prayer and losing heart. How does that happen? Some people seem to see prayer as the great spiritual vending machine where if we put in enough coins, we get what we want. But I’ve never experienced prayer like that. Many of us have a difficult time with prayer. Jesus disciples were even having problems with prayer. That's why Jesus told them this parable to begin with. So let’s be honest with one another here this morning—let’s call a squirrel a squirrel and Jesus Jesus, shall we? I’ll fess up—sometimes when I pray I wonder if God hears my prayers. I think to myself, am I really talking to God or am I only speaking to myself? So many of my prayers seem unanswered: I pray for health, but there is still a spot on the X-ray. I pray for peace, but the troops aren't home and the war rages. I pray to be a better husband, and dad, and pastor and yet I still make the same foolish mistakes. And so the first step from prayer towards losing heart is when our prayers seem unanswered or don’t seem to make any difference, and disappointment builds and doubt begins to creep in.
And what follows that disappointment and doubt is we begin to wonder, not only if God hears, but if there even is a God. Is there a personal God who cares for us, who hears and responds? Or did God create everything and move on to another part of the universe? Or maybe God is dead? Back in the sixties the seminary I later attended became a hotbed of theological controversy because one of the professors there wrote an essay titled, “God is Dead” in which he laid out a scholarly exposition of that thesis. What if it’s true? These are frightening things to think about aren’t they? But we’ve got to face them. We’ve got to call a squirrel a squirrel this morning.
In the end, the problem behind prayer turns out to be the problem so many of us have, a much more deadly problem—the one Jesus addresses here—we simply lose heart. We lose our faith. We give up even trying.
I mean, think about it. If we really believed in the power of prayer, if we really believed that prayer could bring peace in the world, if we were truly convinced that prayer changes things, heals broken lives and restores severed relationships, then we would be praying constantly wouldn’t we? You couldn’t keep us from praying. But isn’t our biggest problem with prayer the one that Jesus addresses here? We pray and things go badly, and so doubt and disappointment creep in, and eventually we simply lose heart.
It’s hard to believe that this was already happening back in Jesus’ day. His
disciples to whom this parable was addressed had witnessed first hand the power
of prayer. They’d seen miraculous things wrought by prayer with their own eyes,
and yet, they were losing heart. So Jesus tells this parable about an arrogant,
unjust judge and a humble but persistent widow. The judge ignores her at first,
but finally he says to himself, “Even
though I could care less about God and can’t stand humanity, I will give this
woman what she wants, just to get her out of my hair.” She won't give up
and she won't go away, so eventually he gives in and comes through for her.
Sometimes people are confused by this parable because it seems to suggest that God is like the judge in the story, but let me be quick to point out that Jesus was not saying God is like the judge. He makes that clear when he describes the judge as neither God-fearing nor having respect for people. What Jesus is doing here is not likening them to one another; he is contrasting them. This is one of those “how much more” parables like the ones where God our heavenly Father is contrasted with our earthly Fathers. Remember? “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:11-13).
Another common misconception I’ve seen with the interpretation of this parable is some people see it as simply saying the same thing my coaches used to say to me in high school when I would complain about how much my legs hurt, or when would practice be over, etc… Those of you who played sports know the traditional coaches’ answer to that, “Suck it up and go.” Is that the message of this parable? Suck it up and go? Is Jesus wanting us to understand that we’ve somehow got to earn God’s respect in order to get answers by time spent on our knees in prayer? Is he saying things will work out if we just prove to God how bad we want it? Is he saying we’ve got to drag things out of God?
No, ultimately I think the parable is more about having faith in the character and goodness of God than it is about dragging things out of a reluctant Creator. The question is not can we badger some uncaring God to the point where he will finally relent and grant us our wishes. The question is do we believe in the goodness of God enough to know that no matter how bad things seem now, in the end, he’s on our side and God, and goodness, triumphs.
To me that’s what the final cryptic verse in the parable is about. Did you notice? After affirming the goodness of God and his willingness to hear our cries, Jesus asks, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (18:8). When he returns, will Christ find people with faith to believe despite the fact that their prayers appear to have been unanswered for so many years? He doesn’t ask, “Will he find people still praying.” Plenty of people pray who don’t believe to begin with. Instead he asks, will he find faith on earth?
God is looking for people of faith like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the book of Daniel, who refused to bow down to foreign gods and were told they would be thrown into a fiery furnace who then replied, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” That is the kind of faith Jesus is talking about.
You also see faith like Jesus describes here in the one who endured what few humans have ever had to endure, Job, who right after crying out, “I have been wronged! I get no response; though I call for help there is no justice…” (Job 19:7) turns right around and says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God…” (Job 19:25-26)
Jesus is hoping to find people with faith in the goodness and final victory of God when he comes back regardless of whether our prayers are answered like we want them to be or not. When we pray we show our confidence that God hears, and cares, and acts.
And so, you may ask, why would God do this—why would he allow our prayers to go unanswered for so long? Is that how he gets his jollies?
There are a multitude of reasons for why all our prayers aren’t answered, among them because we ask for the wrong things, because God knows better, because it would be impossible due to conflicting prayers, etc… But the reason that I think relates to this parable best is one I heard once from Fred Craddock. Craddock says that the time we spend in hopeful and confident prayer, despite all the delays, and despite long seasons of silence and spiritual dryness, is the time that transforms us into the vessels that will be able to hold the answer when it finally comes. Praying with patience and hope while apparently not receiving answers to those prayers leads us into what Thomas Merton calls "pure prayer," prayer that is no longer focused on the self, prayer that's no longer even focused on the prayer, but prayer which through days of seasoning has come to focus the soul completely and utterly on the goodness and character of God.
And so I ask the question behind the parable this morning to each of us, “What
do you ultimately believe about the character of God?” Does he exist? Does he
hear our prayers? Is he for you? Or is he against you?
There's a old story
I’ve told before about a young boy who was walking along the
This morning allow me to remind you that the captain of the entire cosmos is our Father in heaven and he hears our every cry. So, like Jesus said, let’s pray always and don't lose heart. Amen?
As we close this morning I want to do something different. I’d like to open up the service to hear from some of you about some of the things you are praying for persistently. Perhaps it will help to share what unanswered prayers you are persisting in. We can pray with you and for you. Or perhaps you’d like to share something you prayed for persistently that was finally answered as a testimony to God’s goodness and faithfulness. I invite you to come as you feel led and then I’ll close us in prayer.