Pentecost 19 (Proper 24C) 2022

Text: “6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:6-8)

What can be said about this parable? What is the lesson here? Pray more? Pray harder?

It’s true; Jesus told this parable about the unrighteous judge in order to encourage you to pray. But to make "You need to pray more” the ultimate lesson of the parable— to make that the takeaway— would be ignorant.

It would be ignorant because you’ve been there. You’ve been where this widow was. Some of you are there right now. How many mornings did you spend praying to God for your husband or wife? How many afternoons and evenings are you spending pleading for your brother or sister? How many sleepless nights did you spend, tossing and turning, agonizing over your son or daughter?

It would be ignorant to make “You’ve got to pray more” the ultimate lesson of this parable because you’ve been where she is. You’ve been her.

Even worse, to make “Pray harder” the ultimate lesson would be insulting. Would your husband have been ok if you had just prayed harder? Would your wife have been fine if you had just prayed a more? Is that the ultimate lesson that your Lord expects you to hear from the unrighteous judge’s words— “Shame on you! Things could have been different for your child if only you would have done more!”?

I sincerely hope that you would run me out of town on a rail if those words ever came from this pulpit.

To make “Pray harder” the ultimate lesson of the parable would be insulting. How hard, exactly, does He expect you to pray? What more does He expect you to do before He will do what that unrighteous judge was willing to do for that widow?

All He needed was to say the word and you would have done it, wouldn’t you? But it would seem that what you did was never enough.

“Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” Jesus asked. You may very well want to scream that same question right back at Him. Where is the justice in what your husband went through? Where is the justice in what your wife endured? How is your child’s suffering just?

After the death of his wife, the author C.S. Lewis wrote:

“[I am not (I think)] in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God is really like. Deceive yourself no longer.’” (Lewis, C.S. “A Grief Observed.” HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 1994. p. 23)

The lesson here is not about you and me. It’s not about how much you need to pray. It’s not about how hard you need to pray. It’s about God.

It’s about who He really is.

The unrighteous judge would finally have gotten fed up and given you what you asked for just to get rid of you. But not God. You prayed— morning after morning; you pleaded, evening after evening; you agonized, night after night, but He didn’t. The unrighteous judge would have said yes just to be able to send you away, once and for all. But God wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

He really, really wouldn’t. Never. Ever.

That is the God that we meet in Jesus.

How can you continue to pray and plead to Him when He allows your husband, your wife, your parents, your children to suffer? Because the One you’re praying to allowed Himself to be handed over to sinful men for you.

He has borne your griefs and carried your sorrows all the way to the the cross.

When those you love are suffering, you tell yourself— and, perhaps, others, too— how much you wish you could go through it instead of him or her. Whether we would mean it or not, whether you and I would be willing if we were actually able, there’s no question: Jesus did.

God didn’t promise that your husband/wife/son/daughter would get better, at least not in the sense that you meant it. But He did promise that, even after their skin has been destroyed, yet in his flesh they will see Him—they, themselves, will see Him with their own eyes. Everything that God permits in this life is to draw him, to draw her, to draw you closer to me and to that destiny. All of it is according to His plan to bring you to His side where you will dwell with Him, where He will be your God and you will be His people, where there will be no death or mourning or crying or pain because He has made all things new, and where He will wipe every tear from your eyes.

Now, that is a lot to trust while you’re waiting and hoping that God will do something. In reality, God has been hard at work for you long before you knew you needed Him.

Before the creation of the world, He knew your husband by name, chose your wife as His own child, and planned for your child’s salvation. He decided that He would send His own Son and give His Son’s life for yours.

He decided that, on the cross, His Son, Jesus Christ, would be pierced for your transgressions and crushed for your iniquities; that upon Him would be the chastisement that brings you peace; that with His stripes you are healed. In the proper time, He has given you justice through the cross. Your sins were paid for there so that, if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

When you brought your child to be baptized, just as He commanded you, His Son, Jesus Christ, was there. Your child was joined to Him in His death, he was buried with Christ so that he also shares in Christ’s resurrection. That water was not plain water, it was the washing of rebirth and renewal by my Holy Spirit, ‘so that being justified by his grace [you are] heirs according to the hope of eternal life’ (Titus 3:7).

When you came with your spouse to God’s altar to receive His holy meal, it was not simple bread and wine, it was the living bread that came down from heaven to give you the strength for that day. It was the very body and blood of Jesus Christ and, ‘Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever’” (John 6:58).

In the meantime, your pain and your fear are very real. Who could possibly count the number of tears that you’ve shed? Who could possibly count the number of sleepless nights you’ve spent tossing and turning?

God can. And He has. As the psalmist has written, “8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalm 56:8 ) On the last day, when God wipes every tear from your eyes, it won’t just be whatever tears happen to be left that He wipes away. It won’t just be whatever hurts you haven’t quite gotten over yet that He comforts. He will wipe every tear from your eye.

What can be said about this parable? You are God’s elect. He has given you justice through the cross. In fact, He has given you far more than justice. He’s given you far more than what’s ‘fair’. He has given His Son for you. And “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for [you], how will he not also with him graciously give [you] all things?” (Rom. 8:32). And He will not delay long over you. Do not lose heart. Pray continually. Believe in the Son of Man.