Stories That Teach: The Danger of Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Luke 18:1–8 NRSV

1 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?”

This is God’s word for God’s people.

Thanks be to God.

Introduction:

Have you ever searched high and low for something—your car keys, your glasses, your phone—only to realize it was right there in your hand or sitting right in front of you? Or maybe you’ve been asking a question, worrying about how to solve a problem, trying to figure out what to do next… and the answer was right there the whole time—you just didn’t see it.

Sometimes the thing we’re searching for is right in our face. Sometimes the answer we’ve been praying for is already in motion. But we miss it because we stop too soon. We give up too easily. We lose patience before the breakthrough arrives.

We encounter something similar to this in our text on this morning as Jesus is asked a rather perplexing and important question; “When was the kingdom of God coming.

In other words, when will Israel be restored?

When will we be out from under the oppression of the Romans?

When will the Messiah come?

And I must say, I cannot blame this Pharisee for asking this question.

Let’s take a moment to consider what the Jewish people were experiencing at this time.

They are giving Rome a portion of their wealth through taxes.

They have a puppet king ruling them by the name of Herod, who himself is not a Jew.

They bow to the Romans and Israel is frankly a shell of what they once were.

The world is not ideal for them.

So, we can see why they are asking this question.

But, in asking this question, they fail to see that the answer to their question and thing that long for is standing right there in front of them.

The kingdom of God is at hand and we know that because God himself is stranding right there in front of them in human skin.

The thing and person that they are longing for is right there in front of them.

Jesus recognizes that they don’t perceive the kingdom of God at hand so he essentially tells them that they wouldn’t know when the kingdom of God would be at hand because their understanding of God’s kingdom is skewed.

And we know that it’s skewed because they are looking for signs, hints, and clues yet, they still don’t recognize that God’s kingdom is at hand.

Jesus then goes on to compare them to the generation of Noah and how the signs of God’s judgment were there yet, they didn’t take heed to the signs and eventually, they were all consumed by the flood.

Again, the very thing and person they are looking for is standing right there before them yet, they don’t perceive it.

Jesus recognizes this and he shifts his attention from the Pharisees who still look and wait for the coming of God’s kingdom and the Messiah to those who have recognized it. These people who have recognized it are no other than Jesus’ followers.

Jesus tells them a parable about an unrighteous judge and a widow.

And Luke tells us in Luke 18:1 why he tells this particular parable.

Let’s take a look at verse one for a moment.

Luke 18:1 NRSV

1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.

In other words Jesus is telling this parable so that his followers may not lose heart.

To drive home this point, Jesus tells of a widow who is representing herself in a court case. Unlike women in that time, she had no male to represent her against her adversary. She was all alone in her quest for justice.

And to make matters worse, her judge was one who did not fear or respect God.

So, we can see the dilemma that this widow was in.

Here we have a woman who has no help and is among the most vulnerable in that society in that day. Its obvious that her adversary is trying to take advantage of her and to make matters worse, she has a judge who cares nothing about God, justice, or her presiding over the case.

But the widow does something amazing here in this text.

She pesters the judge.

She constantly inquires about her case.

She constantly goes to the judge.

And eventually she got on his nerves enough that he ruled in her favor and granted her justice.

The judge in this parable said, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.

If we look at that last portion of what the judge is saying in this text, that is, “so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”, in the Greek, this phrase literally is translated as, “she has left me black and blue.” It’s a boxing reference.

The widow literally wore down the unrighteous judge with her request.

And it had nothing to do with the judges sudden change of heart, it was simply because this woman was making life difficult for him. His reputation was being damaged because he kept ignoring the lady and he couldn’t take it anymore.

He gave her what she wanted just so that the widow would get out of his face. When I think of this parable, I am reminded of a story in antiquity.

There’s an ancient story told about Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. One day, as Philip sat on his throne hearing petitions, a poor widow came before him seeking justice. She had been wronged and had no one else to turn to.

When she tried to speak, the king’s guards pushed her away. “The king is too busy for the likes of you,” they said. But the woman would not be moved. She kept returning, day after day, crying out for justice. Finally, in frustration, one of the guards told her that she was wasting her time.

Then she raised her voice and shouted so all could hear:

“If the king will not do justice, then he has no right to be king!”

When Philip heard those bold words, he stopped everything and ordered that she be brought before him. “What did you say?” he asked. The widow repeated herself, trembling but determined:

“If you are not going to do justice, you have no right to rule.”

Philip was stunned. Her courage pierced his conscience. The story goes that he not only granted her request but saw to it that her case was settled quickly and fairly. Her persistence—and her refusal to accept silence as an answer—forced king Philip to rule on her behalf.

Philip, like the unrighteous judge didn’t rule in the widows’ favor because of a change of heart or a respect for her. He ruled on her behalf out of fear of looking bad before his subjects.

And at this point Jesus pivots from the narrative in this parable to draw a contrast between God and the unrighteous judge.

He does this by allowing us to see that the Pharisees were asking the wrong question. The Pharisees were essentially asking, “how long”, Jesus poses another question instead, “how much more.”

In other words, if the unrighteous judge, who cares nothing about a widow who is being taken advantage of but still grants her request for justice, how much more will God grant justice to those who seek him.

This question that Jesus poses to his followers is one that informs them of a God who is anxious to hear their request.

And my sisters and brothers, Jesus is posing that very question to us on this morning.

We live in a world full of chaos and sometimes it causes us, at least me, how long, Jesus.

But, is it possible that Jesus is challenging us to approach our prayer lives differently on this morning.

Look at the boldness by this widow in this text. Look at the boldness in which the widow in the illustration I gave concerning Philip of Macedonia and the poor widow.

This, this is the boldness that Jesus wants us to have in praying.

He wants us to make bold requests of the father.

And Jesus said that when we make those bold requests for justice then the Lord will grant them quickly.

But, here’s where we see the tension in the text on this morning.

Sometimes it seems like God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way that we hoped.

I mean let’s be real.

Every request I have brought before God has not been granted.

As your pastor, I would be remised on this morning if I had you leaving here thinking that God always grant our request.

It would be ministry malpractice if I allowed you to leave this place of worship thinking that God always answer our prayers in the way that we hoped.

If you’ve been praying a long time, you know that it doesn’t work this way.

Sometimes God gives us a yes.

Sometimes God gives us a no.

Sometimes God says not right now.

Sometimes God doesn’t even say a thing. (That’s the one I struggle with the most) I often find myself in my prayer closet telling God, give me a yes, give me a no, give me a not right now, but don’t God, please don’t give me silence.

Give me an answer Lord.

We see examples of God waiting to answer prayers and you know who would understand this better than most; the Jewish people.

For over 400 years, the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt. They prayed and prayed and prayed.

Many of those who prayed for deliverance didn’t see the day of deliverance but guess who did; their offspring.

Sometimes we don’t or won’t live to see God answer our prayers but God will answer and sometimes our descendants are the beneficiaries of those granted requests. i.e. Solomon building the Temple when David wanted to.

One day in the not so distant future, we will do a sermon series on unanswered prayers and to that can sometimes strengthen our prayer lives.

But one of the reasons I bring up our request not being granted is because I want you to know that just because its no gurantee that God will grant our request doesn’t mean that we should be hesitant in making our request known to God.

And this is the point that Jesus is trying to make here.

Jesus wants his disciples, you and I to know that God wants us so badly to bring our requests to him.

When I think of this, I am reminded of how much it warms my heart when GiGi makes a request to me, even when I know I can’t grant it.

It does something to me when my little girl comes to me and says, “Daddy, can I or can you?” I don’t care how outrageous the request is, I just get giddy because my baby girl came and asked her daddy for what she wanted.

She made her request known to her father.

And I am going to tell you why it makes my day when she does this.

To me it shows me that she trusts her dad. It shows that she feels that her dad can do any and everything. It shows that we have a relationship.

Think about how much easier it is to ask a request of someone whom you have a relationship with verses someone you may not be as close to.

The closer you are to a person, the easier it is to make your requests known to them.

My sisters and brothers, I believe that God gets giddy when we make our requests known to him even when he won’t grant them.

What does that tell us about God?

What does it say about God in that he wants us to make our requests known to him even when he can’t give us the answer we want to hear?

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.