Pray Always and Do Not Give Up (Luke 18:1-8)

Pray Always and Do Not Give Up

 

Luke 18:1-8

 

Today’s word is Jesus’ Parable of the Persistent Widow, which is also called the Parable of the Unjust Judge. The purpose of this parable is mentioned in verse 1. That is, Jesus told this parable to his disciples in order to show that they should “always pray and not give up.” Furthermore, Jesus says in verse 7, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” So, the another purpose of this parable is to show the heart of God toward his people. Praying in hope is a very crucial and beautiful face of Christians’ life. When we face a difficult problem, we bring it to God and pray that He would solve the problem for our happier life. Thus, one of the most common images of Christians is “one who prays.” However, the widow’s prayer in this parable is somewhat different from our “daily prayers.” Her prayer is “a persistent prayer.” She had a crucial problem that she “must” solve.  But she didn’t have any power or ability to solve this problem. Nevertheless, she couldn’t continue her life without solving this problem. So, she went to and pleaded with the judge who could solve the problem for her. That was the only thing that she could do, and that was the only way that she could solve the problem. The parable says that the widow “kept coming” to the judge. For her, there was nothing more urgent and important than this problem. So, day and night, she thought about that, prayed for that, and acted. In the Bible, we can find two others who pray persistently like this widow, and we may think about them together in understanding this parable. The two are Jesus our Lord, and the Devil our enemy. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Jesus, as the High Priest, always stands before God and prays for saving those who come to God through him. On the contrary, Revelation 12:10 describes the Devil as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night.” The Devil reports the believers’ errors to God and demands God’s justice upon them. I believe that the widow’s persistent prayer is related to Jesus’ unceasing intercession and the Devil’s day-and-night accusation.

 

In the Bible, widows are, along with the fatherless and foreigners, treated as the weakest and poorest people. And God shows his special favor to them. Psalm 68:5 says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling.” And in Deuteronomy 27:19, Moses delivers God’s command, “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.” Despite God’s special care for them, widows suffer many difficulties in the world. In Luke 20:47, Jesus rebukes hypocritic teachers of the law, saying, “They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” This word suggests that widows in Jesus’ days were exposed to many abuses and injustices. And this is what we can observe consistently all the times and places, and the same thing happened to the widow in this parable. There was a widow in a city, and she kept coming to the judge in the city and pleaded with him, “Grant me justice against my adversary!” This story doesn’t say who the adversary is and what he did against the widow. Considering her persistence, however, we can guess how grave her desire for revenge was upon the enemy. In good contrast with the widow’s eagerness is the judge’s indifference. The judge in the city was a man who “neither feared God nor cared about men.” As quoted above, God said through Moses, “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the widow.” But this judge didn’t fear God and didn’t care about the widow’s pitiful situation. Although he was a judge, he was not interested in justice. Jesus called him “unjust judge” (6). This powerless widow suffered injustice from her enemy, and she was ignored by the unjust judge. She fell in such a hopeless situation. Even for this, Jesus says, “Pray always and do not give up!”

 

This widow did so. She kept coming to the unjust judge, and begged him, “Grant me justice against my adversary!” For a while, the judge ignored the widow’s plea. But she never gave up. As she didn’t give up coming and pleading, the judge finally changed his mind, saying, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming.” The woman’s eagerness won the judge’s unjust indifference. She moved him. Praying in hope was the only thing that she could do. When surrounded by unjust enemies and rulers, she might sit and cry alone in darkness, cursing the world and complaining to God. But she didn’t do so. She didn’t put out the flame of hope. She rose up and went to the judge. And she pleaded. She continued to do that. At last, she made him move. She made him do justice for her. It was not the judge’s power that did justice. It was her persistent prayer. Her prayer was much powerful than the judge’s power. By the prayer, she won what she wanted. It was because her prayer prevailed. Her prayer prevailed over the judge, over the enemy, and all the injustices.

 

In Luke 17:11-19, ten lepers called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Jesus healed them of their leprosy, and one of them came back to Jesus and praised God in a loud voice. Then, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” In Mark 5:25-34, a woman with bleeding for twelve years came to Jesus and touched his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Then, Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free from your suffering.” In Mark 10:46-52, a blind beggar Bartimaeus shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then Jesus opened his eyes and said to him, “Go, your faith has healed you.” The leper, the bleeding woman, and the blind Bartimaeus must have lived miserable lives, experiencing countless bitterly unjust treatments. For the worse, their illnesses were all incurable. There couldn’t be anything but despairing and complaining in their lives. But they didn’t waste their lives in sitting and crying. They rose up, came to Jesus, and prayed in hope. And Jesus healed them of their sicknesses. Jesus didn’t say that his healing power made them well. Jesus said that their faith had healed them. Their persistent prayers moved Jesus. Jesus had the power of God’s son. But even the power was prevailed by these poor people’s persistent prayers.

 

We may think, “I don’t have any urgent issue like that of the widow.” Is that true? We don’t know exactly what the widow suffered. Considering that she was a widow, however, we may guess that her plea might be related to her husband. God gave her the husband so that they would become one body, but now she had lost her husband, half of the body, and was living a terribly deficient life. And in fact, this is our life in this world. It is because we were tempted by Satan and committed sins, and as a result, we fell off from God. A soul without God is far more miserable than a widow without her husband. Although God sent Jesus as our Savior, we are still waiting for “full salvation,” which will be completed when Jesus comes again, that is, in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:27). Jesus says that when he comes it will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Luke 17:26-30 says, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.” According to this word, people, although living without God, enjoy their own busy and happy lives. They eat and drink, marry and are married, buy and sell, plant and build. We may wonder what’s wrong with them and why they deserve destructions by flood or by fire. How they lived was the same as how we are living these days. What was their problem? It was that they, fallen off from God, were like “a widow without husband,” but instead of seeking God, they sold their body and soul for things in the world. They didn’t have enemies and injustices, and therefore, they didn’t need to seek a judge. Rather than seeking a judge, they themselves felt guilty and feared the judge.  In order to deny the pain of guilty conscience from heaven, they were absorbed more deeply into the joy and comfort of this world. Even for God’s chosen people, we may forget Jesus the Lord who is to come, and be engrossed with busy works in this world. Instead of living as a widow waiting for the full salvation to be completed by the Lord, our true husband, we may be complacent here and now. Then, we can hardly understand the meaning of Jesus’ teaching “Pray always and do not give up.”

 

In verse 8, Jesus concluded the parable, saying “I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Jesus questions, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” In my understanding, Jesus is asking, “Can I find anyone who is missing and waiting for me so desperately when I come again?” In his book The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer said, “The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. He (God) waits to be wanted.” This is true. All the godly people in the Bible shared one thing in common. It was their holy desire for God. God said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” To this word of God, Moses should have been satisfied and said, “Thank you Lord!” But he wanted more, asking, “Now show me your glory” (Exodus 33:17-18). In his psalm, David sings, “Trust in the Lord ...... Delight yourself in the Lord ...... Commit your way to the Lord ...... Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him ...... Wait for the Lord and keep his way” (Psalm 37). David’s desire and joy were only in God and his salvation. Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8). God was graceful to them, but their desire for God grew even bigger. In terms of their desire for God, they were not cautious or prudent. Tozer also said, “God discovers Himself to babes, and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent.” A baby seeks its mother’s love and protection out of its instinct. This instinct was planted by God for the baby’s life and happiness. Out of this instinct, the baby seeks its mom until it is fully satisfied. This is how the widow was in Jesus’ parable. In seeking justice against her enemy, she kept coming to the judge. She was not wise and prudent. If she was wise and prudent, she might have tried not to offend the judge. She might have brought some bribe to please the judge. She might have taken a longer interval between her visits. But she was not so wise and prudent. She cried like a baby separated from its mom. And she got what she wanted. Seeking and praying to God is our instinct planted by God in us. Like a baby seeks its mother out of its instinct, a soul seeks God out of his instinct. This is our “wild” nature. But living in the world, our wild godliness has been tamed and civilized by human ways. As a result, we don’t seek God like a baby seeking its mother. We behave like a well-disciplined grown-up. This is not good. At least toward God, we must retore the baby-like “wild holy desire” given by God, out Father.

 

What we should remember is that the widow didn’t go to her enemy and fight with him. Instead, she went to the judge for getting justice. And Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” Satan accuses us day and night. When we stop coming to God and praying, we may be defeated by Satan, and as a result, we may be discouraged, thinking that God is “the unjust judge” indifferent to my agonies. But we have Jesus our High Priest who always stands before God to interceding for us, and through him we come to God. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” In Jesus, God is our graceful and merciful Father. And the more we have the Father, the more we desire Him. The richer we are with the Father, the thirstier we are for Him. That is the best blessing despite all our adversities. Then, we will be found to be faithful by Jesus who comes soon. May the Lord bless us so that our everyday is filled with the widow’s persistent prayer in hope.