Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Luke’s Gospel, the 18th chapter:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ...[and then He said] will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
The widow keeps on coming to the judge, Jesus says. She gets him to the point where she almost wears him down, that point where your fingernail is almost chewed down to the nail bed. It hurts, but not as much as it’s going to when your teeth come back to rip that last little bit off. The nail comes off, a little blood at the end, and agonizing pain follows. Almost as bad as when you run your little toe into the table. You have a few choice words. But the pain remains.
And so the judge decides to relent, for giving her what she wants is much easier than giving her more time to rip his nails off. Giving in to the widow will be better than living with the agonizing pain of encountering her day after day after day. Giving in to this widow is going to be ever much less painful than withstanding yet another nagging woman in his life.
You see this judge was unrighteous. And though he may not have realized it, he was doing to the widow what the widow’s adversaries were doing to her. He was making it so that he was the bad guy. He was now her adversary. The one whom God had set in a position of power and authority and justice was doing injustice. He loved himself, but he had no love for God, and even much less love for his neighbor. He cared not for the plight of those whom he could help.
And this is what Jesus says is the big deal. The judge didn’t care one wit about this woman, he only wanted not to be bothered so that he could go on not caring about anyone else. All he wanted was to be left alone, and it’s as if he couldn’t stand it when anyone was actually happy. But then his heart began to turn when one little widow came into his life. But he couldn’t bear to actually care for the plight of the woman. So, instead of hearing her plea truly and thoughtfully and justly, he gives her whatever she wants so that he can send her away and never see her again and just go on back on not caring about anything or anyone except himself.
And that’s the parable. But, what’s it all mean? Jesus says the unrighteous judge is the exact opposite of God. The judge is unrighteous; God is the righteous one. The judge uncaring; God cares for all His creation. The judge will not hear the cries of mercy; God neither slumbers nor sleeps and hears the prayers of His saints always in His ears.
And Jesus tells us that God not only gives in faster, but He gives in out of love and concern for you. But, God doesn’t just give you anything you want, right? I mean, I would love to be taller than my younger brother. Yes, I once prayed for that. I’m still 6’1”, he’s still 6’4”. And then God gave me a brother-in-law who’s nearly 6’8”. It's just not fair. God didn’t answer that one. I also wouldn’t mind having hair, and when I started losing it at 16, God definitely didn’t grant that one.
But what of other prayers we bring before God? The serious ones? When our spouse is dying? When our parents are always angry? When our children are sick? When we face making choices between the electric bill and the grocery bill? What of those prayers? Why doesn’t God make the spouse get out of the bed healthy? Why doesn’t God make our parents happy together? Why doesn’t God let our children be whole again? Why doesn’t God provide a miracle to pay for all our bills?
That’s not what the parable is about. God may indeed provide for these things, sometimes, out of His great mercy, but this parable is about God’s justice, not His overabundance of gifts. It’s about the way that He does His work against those who trespass against Him. But let’s dive back in again to the parable before we completely hit on that.
You see, it’s not often the Scriptures tell us Jesus’ endgame before Jesus gets there Himself. If we’re given to know the meaning of a parable at all, usually Jesus gives the parable first, lets everyone get good and confused, and then, once the disciples ask, Jesus tells them the meaning. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
But, the writer of the Gospel must have thought it important enough to give us the end of the parable, the purpose of the parable before the parable is even told. It’s so that the disciples, a group that now includes us, would continually pray and not lose heart.
But why? I mean, why would we need to be reminded that we need to continually pray? The disciples certainly did. Like when they fell asleep in the garden? They were supposed to be up praying, and they fell asleep. They let the Lord down, if you remember how upset He was.
Are you praying continually? I mean, that’s what Christians do, right? Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. That’s what Christians do. So, how are you doing with that? Are you praying always? Do you pray ever? Declarations of Oh my God, don’t count. In fact, I’m pretty sure that, unless it’s in an actual prayer, when you say OMG you’re breaking a few commandments. So, again, how you doin’ with that prayer thing? Sounds like you need to listen to the parable more.
And then Luke tells us the other reason Jesus tells the parable: so the disciples wouldn’t lose heart. What’s that about? Well, later in this chapter, Jesus foretells His death a third time. And more than that, chapter 19, the next chapter, begins Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem, leading right into Holy Week and ending with Jesus hanging dead and bloodied on the cross. You don’t think their hearts dropped down in them like your stomach does right before your teacher called on you? You betcha they did. But Jesus tells them this so that they DON’T lose heart. Guess they messed up there, too. And I'm betting the same is true for you.
So, Jesus tells a parable for a specific purpose and doesn’t get at all what He wants. Jesus doesn’t get anything like what He wants. You see, Jesus’ purpose in this is to remind us that we should call out to God our Father, that we should plead with Him constantly so that He would hear us, because He always hears us, so that the Lord would do justice on the earth.
Instead, what we do is constantly sin. We use this parable as an excuse. “Well,” we say, “if the woman went constantly to the judge, and the judge granted her request because He was worn down, and God is going to take care of us even better, then I guess I have only to pray to God once, or maybe even not at all, since He knows my needs.” Gotta tell you, that’s not right.
See, remember, this is about God’s justice. It’s about the way that He does His work against those who trespass against Him. And what does God do? See, you haven’t prayed constantly. And you definitely lose heart, you lose faith in your creator all the time. I know this, because I do the exact same thing. Our hearts are sinful and deceitful and the run away from God. But what does God do when He see that we are sinful?
He pours out His justice on His Son instead of on us. He pours down everything He has of His wrath onto Jesus. He pours it all out. We should expect that God pour out wrath on us, we should expect that God’s wrath would take us away into Hell itself. That’s what we should expect. But it’s not what God does. God pours it onto His Son. When you sin, Jesus gets the blame. When you don’t pray, Jesus takes the punishment. When you lose heart, when you doubt in God, Jesus is numbered as the only trespasser against God. And instead of Jesus getting it, you are given the choice seat, you are counted as the saved one, you are God’s sons and daughters. Justice is given, but you are spared. You are transformed into the very image of Christ so that you are not given wrath but only mercy in the forgiveness of all your sins.
Imagine a faucet in a shower. And in that faucet is the ability to have the temperature the highest you can imagine. You can turn the faucet lower, but instead the temperature only gets higher and higher and higher, and it will never stop getting hotter. It gets unbelievably hot, lava hot, sun hot. Now imagine that is the only way to clean your skin. To get the dirt off, you’ve got to stick your body into that water, but if you do, you’ll be burned alive. You’ve got dirt all over your body and you must get clean. But you’ll be burned alive.
Now imagine that Jesus stands in there for you. Jesus takes His hair, his hands, His feet, and rubs them all over you to take your dirt off of you. And then He stands in the shower. He stands in the heat. He is killed. Instantly.
This is what Jesus does for us. Jesus takes the heat, Jesus takes God’s justice so that you don’t have to. God gives Jesus this justice because you have been washed in the waters of baptism. God gives Jesus this justice because you eat and drink of the Lord’s body and blood. God gives Jesus this justice because all of your sins have been forgiven. God gives Jesus this justice because your heart is turned by the Holy Spirit in repentance towards God. Your sins are forgiven, your dirt and stain are gone, because Jesus takes the justice, the wrath of God.
I’m sad to say, though you should pray, and pray often and continually, you won’t pray enough. And though you should keep coming here to hear God’s Word and receive His sacraments and not lose heart, you won’t ever do it enough. You won’t.
But Jesus has. And Jesus, as He takes all your sin away, He gives you every righteous thing He has done. Jesus makes it so that you do pray enough because He has. Jesus makes it so that you never lose heart, because He never did. Jesus makes it so that you are continually seeking after God’s justice because Jesus is the end result of that justice.
And because of this, my friends, this faith that you have, this faith that will preserve you unto everlasting life, God will indeed find faith on the earth. Not because you did it, not because you tried hard enough, but because Jesus did it all perfectly and Jesus will sustain His elect, His chosen ones, those who will see him face to face, until that final day. So, pray and do not lose heart, for Jesus does all this the way He always has and the way He always will, through Word and Sacrament, forgiving your sins by delivering to you the soul-purifying waters of baptism, by giving you the crucified and risen body and blood of Himself, and standing in front of you, through the mouth of the pastor, and telling you of the all-forgiving Word of God and the One who bore the justice of God, so that you would live forever with Him. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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