Air Canada rescheduled one of our flights this summer. I did not like it one bit. Our Alaskan tour ended in Anchorage with a stay at a nice hotel. Then our luggage would be taken from that hotel to the airport and we’d fly home. Air Canada had other ideas. Inexplicably, AC delayed our flight one day which meant we had to book another room at a different hotel. One issue I had was the exorbitant cost of the hotel. The second was there was nothing to do in Anchorage to pass the time.
When we came home, I decided to rectify this injustice. My travel agent suggested contacting Air Canada and submitting a credit request. It was a “hail Mary” but I submitted the receipt from the hotel and the justification for reimbursement. Then I waited. I had little hope of a reply. But a few weeks later, I did get a reply. Denied. Insufficient cause.
What if I were unsatisfied with that result? What if I continued my campaign for reimbursement? What if I pestered, called, emailed, and refused to give up? Would they have relented and said, “Let’s just get this guy off our backs”? Perhaps. I’m not that person. On the other hand, what if I knew the vice president of operations at Air Canada as a personal friend? Why wouldn’t I call him first?
I don’t know people like that. But I do know the God who created all things and holds the universe in his hands. And I assume you do too. And we have access to our heavenly Father night and day. He knows us. He cares for us. He has the power and wisdom to help us in all our problems. If that is true, why do I sometimes struggle to pray? Why do I not go immediately to God with all our concerns?
Why Would We Lose Heart? (1)
Luke’s comment on Jesus’ parable addresses this question of prayer. He explains that Jesus told this parable to his audience, “that they ought always to pray and not lose heart,” (1b).
Why would we lose heart in praying? There are a number of reasons we could become discouraged in prayer. I once said that “prayer was hard work” in a sermon. One lady was incensed that I even called prayer “work.” She was already struggling with her prayers. But here are some common ones we all feel:
· We may feel that God doesn’t act. Prayers seem to go unanswered, so we quit.
· We don’t understand the delay. We live in an instant society where we are used to getting answers right away.
· We begin to wonder whether praying makes a difference. Then we look for other solutions to our problems. Human solutions.
· We get tired of asking and asking again.
· We soon wonder if God is even listening. Does he care?
· And sometimes we wonder if there are any consequences to NOT praying. Everything goes on as it always does.
So, Jesus tells a story is both an encouragement and a warning regarding prayer. Jesus recognizes that we will get weary in our prayers, but he says, “Don’t give up!” Why do we lose heart?
Our Misconceptions about God (2-5)
Because we can misunderstand God. Here’s the story: There’s a judge and a widow and a problem. Let’s look at the judge.
Judges in those days were chosen for their status in the community. Either they were respected and elite, or they purchased their position. It was a lucrative opportunity. Jesus says this man lacked two essential qualities for administering justice: “he neither feared God nor respected man.” And in v. 4 he brags about it. He didn’t listen to God’s Word, and he didn’t care about people. How do you get justice from this guy?
You have to erase the modern image of the courtroom from your mind. Picture instead this judge sitting in the gate of the city where passersby would stop for counsel and a ruling. You could even imagine this judge walking the streets and being assailed by crowds of people. Everybody is talking at once and raising their voices over the others to be heard. What gets the judge’s attention? Money. Bribes. If you have money, the judge will rule in your favor. He doesn’t care about the people or their problems. All he cares about is filling his pockets.
Here comes the widow. She has no money. Widows were often destitute. God has a special place for widows and orphans in his heart because they are the “least of these.” They are taken advantage of and left penniless. We don’t know what happened to this widow. Jesus simply tells us that she had been wronged and needed justice.
This widow is relentless and pesters the judge constantly. She’s in his face. In the morning she comes to him. In the afternoon she finds him. In the evening she reminds him of her situation. The next day it starts over again. She has no choice but to harangue the judge if she’s going to eat and live.
Finally, the judge says, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming,” (4-5). Notice in v. 3 she “kept coming” and in v. 5 “her continual coming.” She is persistent. Note also that the judge is afraid of being physically assaulted by this widow. The term “beat me down” is a boxing term. It is likely metaphorical, but it shows how relentless she is in her pursuit of an answer.
Some say this is how we should pray. That this is a template for praying and getting an answer from God. Please don’t misunderstand this parable. What Jesus is saying is clear: GOD. IS. NOT. LIKE. THE. JUDGE. We know this because Jesus says, “And will not God give justice to the elect, who cry to hm day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily,” (7-8a). He is not like the judge. You don’t have to wonder if God cares about you and your troubles. You don’t have to wonder if God hears you. He does. You don’t need to wonder if he loves you.
The Posture of Prayer
We also lose heart because we come to prayer with the wrong posture. In the three stories of Luke 18:1-17, we see a common thread regarding the person who prays to God.
The widow has so much going against her. She is a woman in a society that demeans the value of women. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus chooses her as the center of his story. But like the widow, we are in need. We relate to her condition. We often have no resources; no plan; no strength. In truth, we are self-reliant until that one phone call shatters your image of perfect health. Then we are as needy as the widow. And we run out of faith. We struggle to pray.
Jesus asks, “…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (8b). God’s faithfulness is consistent. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Ours? Not so much. But like the widow, we are needy and waiting.
Depending on the day, we may come to God like the Pharisee in the second parable. Confident and assured of our status before God. “I’m doing all the right things. Why wouldn’t God answer me?” Do you compare yourself with others who don’t do those righteous things? Does it give you the right to be heard by God? But the focus of this story, Jesus tells us, is the tax collector. Like the widow, he is of the lowest status among decent people. He is caught up in the pursuit of his own gain and a traitor to his people. And he reminds us that it is not the eloquence of our many words that gets God’s attention, but the simple, crude, honest cry, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”
Like the widow and the tax collector, Jesus emphasizes the child, another character with no leverage in society. Children had no pull in those days. Yet Jesus tells his listeners, “…whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,” (17). How does a child receive a gift? With awe and wonder; with joy and excitement; with a willing heart.
What is Jesus saying about the posture of prayer, then? That we come needy, like the widow; that we come humbly, like the tax collector; that we come with empty hands like the child, ready to receive.
The widow says: “Give me justice.”
The tax collector says: “Give me mercy.”
The child says: “Give me whatever you want to give.”
The posture is the same: Utter dependence on the love of God.
The Need for Prayer (1, 8)
With this posture, Jesus encourages us to keep praying even when the answer doesn’t come. Why do we lose heart in prayer? Because we can forget why we need to keep praying.
We pray because we believe that the One who knows what we need is able to give it. And the one who seeks the answer must also be willing to receive it.
The question is not: Is God like the unjust judge? The question is rather, “What will we do when it seems to us that God is like the unjust judge?” Will we give up or continue to pray? (Ray Pritchard)
From the beginning of this parable, Jesus acknowledged a condition that is familiar to all of us. Jesus told this story “…that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” We do, don’t we? We don’t get an answer to our prayers, and we stop praying.
What Jesus wants us to understand is that our need and the delayed answers aren’t the problem. The real problem is that we forget who God is. We forget that God is good. We forget that God loves us and sent his Son Jesus to us. We forget that if he can do that and save us from our sins, what can’t he do? And if we remember those things about God and that he is always ready to hear us, it doesn’t lead to prayerlessness but to persistence in prayer.
Someone said, “Persistent prayer doesn’t change God, but it changes us.” We don’t know the whole story God is writing. We only see our little piece of it. There are so many working parts that are beyond our finite wisdom. Remember the movie, Bruce Almighty? Bruce is given God-like powers to solve his own problems and later, the problems of the world. He is given the responsibility to answer all the prayers everyone is praying in the world. Frustrated with reading all the prayers (on his computer?) Bruce finally just says “yes” to all the prayers. And the results are catastrophic.
Why does God delay certain answers? We don’t know. It’s above our paygrade. But we are told to persist in prayer because God hears us, God cares for us, and God will give us what is just. And persistence in prayer does something to us as well:
· It purifies our motives.
· It forces us to confront our helplessness.
· It sifts deep-seated desires from fleeting whims.
· It makes us ready to receive God’s answer.
· It allows God to receive the glory because he is the One doing it.
Brothers and sisters, we need to pray.
What are you praying for?
I know that I will never be the man of prayer that George Muller was, but his persistence in prayer is a model for us. If you don’t know Muller, please look him up. Near the end of his life, he confided to a friend that he had been praying for two men to come to Christ for over 50 years. When the friend wondered why he continued to pray, Muller replied that if God had given such a burden, surely, it was because he intended to save those two men. One man did come to Christ before Muller died, and the other came to Christ shortly after his death.
Are you praying for someone to come to Christ in faith? Are you praying for your marriage? Are you praying for healing? Are you praying for guidance for your future? Do you want more of Jesus?
I want you to know that God is not like the unjust judge. We don’t need to pester him as if he’s forgotten our plight. We don’t need to pound on heaven’s door as if it were locked to us.
Remember how I had to wait for an answer from Air Canada? When we pray, we aren’t sending a request into some corporate black hole. We are coming before our Father. But if there seems to be a delay, God invites us to keep seeking him, keep asking, and keep persisting in prayer.
AMEN
