Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" 6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Jesus tells his hearers and us what this parable is about before he even tells it. This is unusual because most of the time he simply tells the parable and leaves it for us to figure out. But this is really, really important and he doesn’t want anyone to miss this point. He tells them “a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Fred Craddock writes it’s the ‘unavoidable truth that {this story} presents prayer as continual and persistent, hurling its petitions against long periods of silence. The human experience is one of delay and {this parable} honestly says as much, even while acknowledging God’s ways” (Craddock, Luke, pg. 209). It’s this delay, or our perception of God’s delaying that Jesus is talking about here. It is very human to wonder why God seems to take so long to hear our prayers or to answer them.
It’s been said that there are three answers to prayer: “yes”, “no” and “wait”. It seems to be that waiting is the answer we have the hardest time with.
The phrase “how long” is used 55 times in the Bible. Not just on the lips pf God’s people as they wait for rescue or salvation but also on God’s lips. God asks the children of Israel: “How long must I wait for you to turn to Me?” All the way back in the Old Testament, before the children of Israel had even gotten settled in the Promised Land, God was frustrated with them and asked: Numbers 14:11 11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
The people say “How long must we wait for you to save us?” The Psalms are our prayer book, they cover all of our emotions, wants and needs in some form or another and in Psalm 13, the frustration over God’s delay is recorded:
Psalm 13:1-2 NRS Psalm 13:1
And at the end of the New Testament when the scenes from heaven in the last days are revealed to John, still there are saints asking God “How long”:
Revelation 6:9-10 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; 10 they cried out with a loud voice, "Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?"
In our way of thinking “how long” sounds a whole lot like “why me?” When we stand in the midst of hardship and confusion, trouble or heart-rending pain and ask why, we are usually asking ‘Why me? Why is this happening to me?” There are several answers to that question, some of which are useful and some answers that are not productive at all. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the hurt we feel that we stop using our God-given reason to try to figure things out. God doesn’t ask us to just dumbly sit there and suffer, to just ‘grin and bear it’. He gave us brains and each other and we need to use both our own reason and the support of the people around us when we hurt or are in trouble.
Look at the situation that is causing the heartache and as “Did I actively do something to directly cause this?” If the answer is yes then you have some work to do to make amends for what you’ve done. The first step in any difficult situation is to take personal responsibility for your actions. You can’t blame other people for your problems without looking clearly and honestly at what you have done that has contributed to the problem.
When I say a clear and honest look, I mean just that. Don’t take responsibility for things that aren’t your fault. But by the same token, don’t blame your shortcomings and sins on someone else.
When you can honestly say that your problem comes from someone else’s actions, then you have another decision to make: Are you going to continue to live with or, try to do something about it or pursue some other more drastic option.
Now, I am not standing up here juts to give you advice on how to live. I’m not the “Dear Abby” of Bald Knob. As Christians we are called to be personally responsible, accountable to God and to each other for our actions. But we don’t do it all by ourselves.
This is a good place to emphasize that this whole process from beginning to end has to be bathed in prayer. Not just asking God over and over again for what you want but listening for the voice, the moving of the Holy Spirit that gives us insight, wisdom, courage and energy. It’s in prayer that we can see clearly, think rationally and make good decisions. That’s why the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Prayer is not a laundry list of requests or a one-shot deal, it’s a way of life that is characterized by constantly being in the presence of God, asking, listening, responding, back and forth in the most intimate of all relationships.
But we still haven’t looked at the main issue that Jesus is pointing to here, the reason He told this parable in the first place: the need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
Then there are situations where circumstances are totally out of our control. What happens when we pray and pray and there is seemingly no result, when all around us things seem to be going from bad to worse? The Bible is full of examples of people asking ‘how long?’ How much longer do I have to endure this? Look at Job who lost everything, whose wife told him to curse God and die. But God had an answer for Job. It wasn’t a comfortable or easy answer. Change your perspective God said. Realize who you are and who I am. That change in perspective is what makes all the difference.
Consider the Apostle Paul who tells us with brutal honesty that he pleaded for God to take away his ‘thorn in the flesh’, that sickness that plagued him. And God answered him. In 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Suffering is something we want to avoid at all costs. We don’t want to suffer, we don’t want to watch other people suffer, especially people we love. But suffering is part of being human. Suffering is what Jesus did for us. In the book of Isaiah, the prophecy points to the Messiah as the ‘suffering servant.”
What if part of the solution to our suffering is that’s God’s power is made perfect in our weakness? The only illustration I can make here is to being in childbirth/labor. That’s one of the worst pains I know. It comes and goes like a wave. It builds up, breaks and subsides and then starts all over again. Even in our deepest emotional grieving, like when we lose someone we love, our emotions have that same ebb and flow. For a little while, everything seems like it’s going to be OK and then the pain hits and life seems unbearable, unendurable. But in childbirth, you never forget there is a reason for the agony. And when you hold that baby in your arms, the pain is forgotten. The labor pains, even at their most intense, are bearable when you keep the result in sight.
I think that’s what Jesus is telling us here. Life is hard and it is always a temptation to quit, to give up but don’t lose heart, the end is in sight. My power is made perfect in weakness. Even while you are suffering, I am at work making all things new, your suffering is the birth pain of a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth. Not somewhere in the sweet by and by but right here, now. Even now all creation is groaning for that new birth. Not birth into a world of sin and death, but a world where sin and death have passed away.
Revelation 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."
Even now when we participate in the sacraments of the church, baptism, marriage, communion we are not just practicing human acts that symbolize some other time, some day that is coming, we are actually participating here and now in the Kingdom of God with God the Father, Christ our brother and the Holy Spirit, our comforter and guide.
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