On LIne Bible Study - For the Week May 16-22, 2011

Lesson 493

Luke 18: ¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 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? ⁸ 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?”

Three things are required - humility, persistence, and faith. And note the instruction in terms of what we ought to be praying for - Justice, and Christ's return.

Humility: The widow is among the least important of persons in the ancient Near East. If she is representative of our status before God, then we are the least as we stand before the power of God. We don't need to get too self-deprecating about this; it's just to say remember who you are! Be mindful of our status and station before the creative power of God.

Persistence: Humility doesn't imply that our needs are not real or that our desires are not justified. Widows are granted protection in both Old and New Testaments (see Deuteronomy 24:17 and Acts 6:1). Life is a marathon that is to be lived with hope and energy. It is easy to resign ourselves to situations, to simply 'make do'. God did not give us brains and brawn so that we could be idle by-standers. We are to persevere, to be creative and resilient, to push through for what God intends for us (and others!) to have.

Faith: Will the Son of Man find faith on earth? Thomas Merton writes: You can only believe what you do not know. He goes on to say that faith unites two members of a proposition which have no connection in our natural experience. Faith is what stands between a current reality and a divine promise - it's what connects the two. If I understand Merton, he tells us that faith is not merely intellectual assent to a concept or idea; faith is a way of grasping for and taking hold of what should be but is not yet. I think of the woman who took hold of Jesus' garment believing that if she could just touch him she would be healed. Her faith was not only in the believing; it was also in the reaching out, the grasping for Christ. Apparently, the widow in the parable above is exercising the same faith - she believes an injustice has been done and she takes action believing that the wrong can be corrected.

This parable is found only in Luke. While it encourages persistence and faith in prayer, it also focuses our praying. It is justice that God is interested in.

So ... the parable offers up two challenges for us.

1. Do we pray for what God desires?
2. Are we willing to persevere in both faith and action in the 'praying for' and the 'doing of' God's will?