Always Pray and Never Give Up (Luke 18:1-8)

The Parable of the Persistent Widow (The Message)
 ¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And 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 about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

 ⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I 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?"

Commentary on the Lectionary Readings

Jeremiah 31:27-34

Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

I am not a very good swimmer. As a matter of fact, I cannot call myself a swimmer at all since I can hardly stay afloat for a swimming pool length or two before I am completely out of breath. Back in 1988 when I learned to swim, my instructor pointed out a few (ok, many) bad habits that, in her opinion, I needed to work out if I wanted to become a real swimmer. Instead, I continued to swim harder as if to try and “muscle” my way out of my problem. Almost 22 years later I continue to fall into the same bad habits. I guess, while kicking as hard as I could, I gave up learning. According to Jesus, his followers are people who don’t ever give up: their prayers are constant, insistent and expectant before God always.

On his way to Jerusalem, and by this Luke clearly means “on his way to the cross,” Jesus takes time to paint a picture of what a faithful follower looks like. Gratitude, as we saw in the previous chapter, is a bold characteristic of the Christian. And now Jesus explains that a second characteristic of the believer is an insistent confidence in and a bold openness to the benefaction of God. If you are like me, you are already working on a moral list of qualifications for the REAL follower of Jesus (#1: Filled with bold gratitude. #2: Insistent and expectant in prayer. Puff…) But as we look at this story, remembering chapter 17 and the ten lepers will help us avoid this moralizing trap. While the widow, a most vulnerable character in Jewish life, must act alone in her search for vindication and justice before a corrupt fat cat of a judge, the children of God will be vindicated because our “judge” is good and our motives clean: we do not seek the gift –we (like the one thankful leper) seek the giver when we pray (Hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done…) When we come to Jesus on our own merit we quickly give up. But when we come to Jesus seeking only Jesus, this is the type of person we will become: Filled with gratitude, persistent in prayer, seeking justice tirelessly

Paul’s mentoring to Timothy rings with fatherly confidence and courage: “Always be sober, endure suffering…” But the “sour grapes” of Jeremiah are much too real for many of us who think that “God grew tired of us.” Even when we may become a target of unjust actions within an unjust world, God promises to grant us swift justice and vindication. Jeremiah’s vision began to realize in the day of Pentecost when God’s Holy Spirit was poured into the hearts of the believers who did not grow tired and prayed to God incessantly. For God does not grow tired of us, and neither will we grow tired of seeking justice, coming again and again in prayer and worship to our God.

Pastor Alejandro Sotres