Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Problem With Prayer

Our Problem With Prayer

Martin Luther once wrote that out of difficult experiences emerge true Christians.

This parable is as much as about suffering as it is about prayer.

Or to put it another way, it is about how and why we must persevere in prayer because of our great need of God’s grace in our Lord Jesus.

Now when a Christian suffers, there is certainly the temptation to despair, to withdraw into yourself, withdraw from the world and even to look within.

Discouragement, losing heart in the midst of our trials: that is our problem with prayer.

But that is not our only problem with prayer.

I remember how the great theologian Tevye (aside: You remember The Fiddler on the Roof?) responded to his friend Perchik when Perchik tells him, “Money is the world’s curse.”,

and he answered, “May the Lord smite me with it!

And may I never recover!”

You see, not only suffering, but also riches may impede our prayer.

Comfort and ease in Zion are not always the blessing that they might seem at first.

You the trial hurts and weighs us down, but at least we feel our need and may be inclined by the trial to lift our eyes to heaven and cry out for relief.

But when there’s no felt need?

When we don’t feel the constant breaking of affliction?

Prayer too is often absent.

In both cases, whether in hardship or in ease, we have a problem with prayer.

And honestly, that problem isn’t so much about circumstances.

Here, Jesus knows his disciples are headed for great suffering, such suffering as could certainly bring a man into profound despair.

Perhaps you’ve been there too.

But to the rich, the Psalmist Asaf and the apostle James both has quite a bit to say too.

James say (Js.

5:1).

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.

You have laid up treasure in the last days.

4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.

He does not resist you.

Now, can you see that from the Bible’s perspective, riches and poverty are alike afflictions.

And both can impede our prayer.

But remember what our favorite Baptist, Charles Spurgeon, said,

God himself cannot deliver a person who is not in trouble… Even Jesus Christ, the Healer of men, cannot heal a person who is not sick.

More to say about this later.

But that is not our real problem with prayer, is it?

Because it is possible to be hard pressed by poverty, illness, age, and a myriad other hardships and still be men and women of prayer.

And it is still possible to be healthy, wealthy and enjoy general peace and prosperity and be men and women of prayer.

It all depends on one key factor: faith.

Lack of prayer indicates a very serious spiritual condition.

Unbelief.

Now, I am not saying that those who do not pray as we should are unbelievers.

What I am saying is that those of us who do not pray as we ought are beset by the terrible sin of unbelief: unbelief in God’s Word, his promises, his character.

And worse yet, prayerlessness is a symptom of rebellious self-reliance, and the belief that we can do it ourselves.

So let us summarize.

Our problem with prayer, whether in the trail or in peace is unbelief and rebellious pride in our ability, faith, not in God, but in ourselves.

This is our problem with prayer.

Our Encouragement in Prayer

Now the Lord tells his disciples a parable and the purpose of the parable is not hard to discern.

He tells us this parable so that “they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

(aside: the word “to lose heart, also has the connotation of losing enthusiasm for something”).

Now here, I will summarize the parable for you.

Parable Summary

The problem that the widow has.

The reasons the judge won’t budge: He’s out for himself; he wants a bribe; he needs a little encouragement.

But this widow has none of that.

She is the defenseless in society seeking justice, seeking what only this judge can give her.

But he is unwilling,

The judges fear: The judge does not want to beaten down by this widow.

The word itself means to give someone a black eye.

I do wonder whether this judge was also concerned about the bad press that a persistent and vocal widow may have given him in public.

(The program in Costa Rica “Los Perros de Traba).

But he finally relents.

Why?

How does this parable encourage us to pray?

Now we have come to the crux interpretum of the text.

For those of you who abhor a Latin phrase of two, what this means is that verses 6 and 7 are the most important verses for understanding this parable and what Jesus wants us to know about prayer.

First, verse six:

6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

Now pay close attention to what Jesus doesn’t say.

He doesn’t say: “Hey, look at what this widow does!

Look at how persistent she is, how she keeps going back at all obstacles and against all odds persists until she get the answer to her request.

Go, therefore, and do likewise.

This is NOT what he says.

What is says turns all of our expectations on their head.

He says, “Hear (or, Pay attention to) what the Unrighteous judge says.

Now, what in the world would Jesus want us to pay attention to what such a blatant SOB has to to say?

Perhaps it surprises us (and perhaps the disciples too) because we know this parable traditionally as the Parable of the Persistent Widow and we have all heard sermons that say:

Look at what this widow does!

This is how we ought to prayer!

In the face of every obstacle, dont’ give up, keep praying.

Don’t grow weary, because in due time, the Lord will answer you.

See what the widow does?

Go, therefore, and do likewise!

Be like the widow.

(or if you will, we could change the hymn, “Dare to be a Daniel” to “Dare to be a Widow”).

But this is clearly NOT what Jesus is doing.

If you think about it, those preachers that do that actually compare the widow with us and the judge, favorably, with God.

But this is NOT what Jesus does.

Jesus contrasts the judge with our heavenly Father.

We are not to look to the widow for instruction, but to the judge, because this parable is not about the widow, nor about us, but about GOD.

You see, Jesus encourages his disciples with this contrast: If the judge who is ungodly and unrighteous, who fears no and no god, gives earthly justice to this widow, how much more will your Father who loves you not give you justice when you cry out to him day and night?

You see, our great encouragement in prayer is this: God is faithful.

And praise God that the widow is not our example in prayer.

If Jesus encouraged us to prayer on the basis of the widow, we would be terribly discouraged and demoralized.

How many of us can say today that we are always consistent in prayer?

How many of us never give up?

How many of us are great rocks of faithfulness?

Oh, brothers, thank God it doesn’t depend on OUR persistence or OUR faithfulness, because if it did, there would be no hope or encouragement in prayer at all.