Untitled Sermon (3)

Alright everyone, let’s roll. Today we’re in Luke 18:1-8, and we’ll be talking about the parable of the persistent widow, and why it matters to us today here in 2024.

First, let’s set our cultural scene so that we can allow the Word to speak into it.

We can talk about the things that everyone experiences. Like the constant political turbulence…there seems to be a barrage of propaganda, lies, war, and censorship…and no party is innocent.

Morally, we are pulling further and further away from sensible values and foundations…

We are a people literally dismantling at the seams…sometimes it feels a lot like a baseball pulling apart after getting wrecked by a bat at the plate.

We are all experiencing these things and we are all impacted by them.

However, today I also want to bring up the issues that we experience on an individual level as well…

The adversaries that you and I face in life.

What are the things that keep you up at night? What has you crying out for justice?

What are the things that are unravelling you…?

A lot of us feel like the title of this sermon…we’re asking, “How Long, oh Lord?”

How long do we have to face this injustice and see pain in this world before You come back and make everything right?

This is an honest question, and even if you haven’t asked it yet, listen closely…because you will…

Unfortunately, we can’t know the answer to that question, How Long…but I can show you today that Jesus knows about our trials here…and he cares about his people…and so he’s given us the answer to a better question.

What Jesus wants us to ask instead of “How long…” is How…can I wait that long?

What is going to sustain God’s elect while we struggle in not only a world that seems to be crumbling around us…but sometimes even our own lives that can seem to be crumbling around us…

This is the question that God’s word wants us to ask…so let’s find out how our Good Shepherd leads us to the still waters of peace this time.

When in life have you had to have patience?

It’s the Amazon packages…isn’t it? You order something…especially books for yall seminary students…and it’s like even if the package grew legs and walked in the door the moment you hit “complete order” it still wouldn’t be fast enough.

There is that feeling inside though…the anticipation of finally realizing something that you’ve been waiting on. It’s exciting and straining at the same time.

Now let’s capture that feeling of anticipation, and then set our minds on things above as we look back at the text…

This anticipation you feel is similar to the feeling that Jesus is trying to target that he knows the disciples will experience…but notice that I said similar…it’s not exactly the same.

Jesus knows that the disciples are going to be anxiously waiting for his return…but instead of excitement…they will be waiting through exhaustion…through persecution…through heartbreak…through injustice…and so much more.

This is why he gives them this parable…instead of another.

Read verse 1 again and you’ll see what I’m talking about…”Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always, and to not…give…up…

We usually like to leave this text at just our need to pray always…but I want to dig one level deeper and see why we need to pray always.

Just before this…Jesus was discussing with his disciples what it will look like when he returns…but that time…on that day…it will be a bit different than before.

He says it will be like a flash of lightning across the sky ...it will be like the days of Noah, where there was normalcy…then quick destruction…or like Sodom, where people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building, then quick destruction .

Explaining more to his followers…Jesus says there will be two people in a bed, or two in a field, or two at work…then suddenly one will be taken…the disciples asked him…”taken…to where?”

His answer is grim…answering that they will be taken to their death.

In the second coming…Jesus returns as Judge. To be taken isn’t a good thing.

How does this connect with what we’re talking about today?

Jesus knows what the disciples are going to walk through…He knows that he is going to be hung from a cross and rise again to defeat sin and death…and he knows that the disciples are going to be sent with this message of reconciliation to God through His own blood to every nation…tribe…and tongue…

He also knows that for this same message they will be beaten…they will be arrested…and persecuted…and for this message they will eventually be murdered…

They will face injustice…and he cares for them.

Jesus is aware that they will wait in anticipation for his return and his judgment which will right every wrong…but he also knows…that while judgment will be swift…the wait for his return might not be…

But he cares for them…and he cares for us…so he tells them a story that is designed not to answer “How Long”...but to show them what will sustain them during their hard lives…to pray always in the face of injustice and trial.

This is the lens that we need to read this parable through…we do need to pray always…but why? So that we don’t give up hope in the return of Jesus…

His goal is to teach his disciples this so that they don’t lose the hope of his return…now let’s focus on how he accomplishes that.

Jesus opens the parable by introducing an unjust judge with two facts about him.

He does not fear God.

He does not respect people

But that’s weird…right? Because isn’t the judge supposed to represent God?

Great Bible study question…no! Luke is making a lesser to greater comparison…and this isn’t the only one he makes here, but we can explore that further later.

Looking back at the parable…we’ve also got a widow…we don’t know much about the widow, other than she has an actual adversary…there is someone who has done an injustice to her… and she is going to the judge over and over again asking for that to be made right.

This is no surprise in the Gospel of Luke…that Jesus would use this kind of example…

Luke is a big fan of making us feel uncomfortable with the way that he talks about social structures and wealth…just in chapters 17-19, we see a leper, 2 tax collectors, babies, a blind man, and now a widow as the protagonists of their respective units.

We also see prideful Pharisees with seminary degrees…a young man with an obsession with possessions…and even the Lord’s own disciples as the antagonists of those same units of text…

Look for these details as you read Luke and see what kind of people the kingdom consists of…we’ll return to this idea as well.

Jesus says that for a while, the judge didn’t want to help this widow…but a little later…he finally changed his mind…

Not because he changed as a person…but because she keeps pestering him…notice that word…the condescension…pestering…

She’s wearing him out…and so to make it finally stop the judge grants her request, and gives her justice.

Jesus paints this picture of a judge who hates people…and a widow facing real injustice…so that it will stick in the memories of both his disciples and of those reading this text even today while we walk through times of real injustice.

In light of that…I have a few questions…

How many of you see God that way…?

How many of you…while you look at the world…and the craziness in it…

while you look at your life…and feel the tension of it pulling apart just like that baseball cracked by a bat like I mentioned earlier…

How many of you see God as the unjust judge while you face your adversaries…that He’s only granting justice when it’s convenient?

The only way this text impacts you is if you’re honest…so be honest with yourself…is that you?

This is not the way Jesus wants us to see the father…like we’re pestering Him…

He doesn’t want us to see God as this Judge who takes forever to deliver justice and never answers prayers on the things that we are up against every day…

God knows what we go through…His Son is our great high priest who identifies with us in every way …no one has faced more injustice than Jesus…

And that’s why he continues on…and shows us the greater God compared to our lesser unjust judge…

We’ve talked about the lesser…now let’s talk about the magnificent Greater…

Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says…’even though I don’t fear God or respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me…I will give her justice so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming…”

He reminds the disciples of who this judge is…then He takes them all the way to the top…and tells them who God is.

“Will not God…” he says… “grant justice to His elect?”

He tells us about how God’s people cry out to Him day and night…and asks if God will delay in helping them?

The implied answer is “of course not!”

His very next line is “I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice.”

Now, that leaves us with a bit of an issue…it’s been 2000 years…and we still face the world, the flesh, and the devil all the time.

So what do we do with that?

I think we wrestle….

We wrestle with the text…and we ask ourselves are we willing to trust our Lord Jesus on this?

It has been a long time…but 2 Peter 3:8 reminds us not to overlook this fact…that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years…and a thousand years like one day…

When we delve into that issue, we find ourselves asking that incorrect question again…that “how long…” question…

Remember, that’s not what Jesus is answering. What he’s answering is…what will sustain us through this waiting period…?

His answer?

Pray always…pray always…pray…always!!!!

While we wait on God’s justice…we’re to pray always!

When you see the mass killings on the news…pray always…

When your job demands unfair hours…pray always…

When you get fired for no reason…pray always…

When your doctors don’t listen and fail you…pray always…

When the politics and economics of this country have left you battered…pray always…

When your Christianity is mocked and you’re ridiculed for your faith…pray always.

Cry out to God day and night…look to our Father for peace and calm…look to Him in anticipation while we wait for justice for allll the injustices that we have to face…and pray always.

We talked about comparisons a moment ago…we’ve seen that the unjust judge is the lesser to the greater God…what about the widow?

The widow aptly pairs with God’s elect in this passage…she is persistent…going to the judge day and night…in the same way that we cry out to God day and night…but there is one key difference.

This widow has no relation to the judge…no…she’s just a woman in a certain town…whereas we…we are adopted by God as children…we belong to Him…He bought us with a price…He loves us…won’t he grant us justice?

Look to God for justice…and pray continually…

Before we finish I want to talk about the last thing that Jesus says.

At the end of verse 8, he says, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

He ties the judgment of God to His return yet again….look at the wording of that last paragraph…

Justice, justice, justice, at least three times he says justice, and then talks about His return….He is our Judge.

But what is the faith he’s talking about? He is looking for the faith that has trusted God and been strengthened and sustained in this unjust world through prayer.

He’s looking for the faith of the leper that came back…the tax collector in the temple…the blind man healed…

Prayer is what cultivates this kind faith. Prayer always is what sustains this faith.

Will this be your faith? Or will yours look like the Pharisee…a giving member of the temple, prideful of his works and secure in his own lifestyle for salvation…

Or maybe the rich ruler…the one who has “done all the good things” but can’t leave his possessions behind to follow Christ…

These are the comparisons that he gives us…what will your faith look like?

We established at the beginning that we’ve got to be careful of the question that we are asking this text…

Rather than “How Long, oh Lord”...The proper question is…what is going to sustain God’s elect while we struggle in an unjust world and a life that can crumble around us…

We’ve seen the lesser judge and widow…we’ve seen the Greatest God and His elect…and we’ve seen that Jesus is coming back in judgment.

What are we meant to learn?

“Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up.”

We were meant to learn not to give up…Don’t quit…Even when there are real and personal adversaries on every side…pray to the Father…pray continuously…and He will give you what you need…

Psalms 6 says

I am weary from my groaning; with my tears I dampen my bed and drench my couch every night.

My eyes are swollen from grief; they grow old because of all my enemies.

But listen to the best part

Verse 8 says… Depart from me, all evildoers, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.The Lord has heard my plea for help; the Lord accepts my prayer.

All my enemies will be ashamed and shake with terror; they will turn back and suddenly be disgraced.

So I ask again…what makes you cry out day and night? What has you crying out to God for justice against your adversary?

By the Spirit that lives in us we can and need to trust God amidst the injustice of the world…pray always…and He will strengthen you.