Being
a widow in Jesus’ day was no cake walk. Because they were women,
widows had no inheritance rights. If they had sons, the husband’s
estate was passed onto them. This was the widow’s best bet for she
would go along with the estate. If she had no son’s the husband’s
estate including her would be passed onto the closest male kin.
Usually, the estate was taken and the wife rejected. This left the
widow suddenly without resources. Moreover, there was a religious
superstition overshadowing widows. Most believed that if a woman’s
husband died before he was old then he was being punished by God for
some unknown sin and thus the punishment should be passed on to his
widowed wife as well. This often led to the ill-treatment and
exploitation of widows. Begging was often the only recourse for a
widow.
Regardless
of what God’s people did to widows, God himself had great concern
for their plight. The prophet Jeremiah quotes the LORD saying,
“Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows, too,
can trust in me" (49:11). Isaiah even quotes the Lord saying
that he will bring vengeance on those who abuse the orphan and
widowed, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once
was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her-- but now
murderers! Your silver has become dross; your choice wine is diluted
with water. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all
love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of
the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.
Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel,
declares: "Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself
on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly
purge away your dross and remove all your impurities” (1:21-25).
That
sets the stage for Jesus' parable here in Luke's Gospel in which he
uses a widow’s persistent pleading with a wicked judge to grant her
justice against her enemy as an analogy for his disciples to pray
continually and not to give up. The parable immediately follows
Jesus giving to his disciples a rather cryptic description of his
death and then his second coming and he paints a picture of the time
between the two being a difficult time which will try their faith.
The parable seeks to say that the disciples’ prayers and their
relationship to the Trinity are not like an exploited widow having to
continually pester an unrighteous, uncaring judge as the only means
for her to receive justice against her enemy. Instead God the Father
does indeed care for his chosen ones and will speedily work justice
for them against their enemies.
The Triune God of grace hears us when
we cry out and does indeed work in our lives to put things to right
for us, but maybe not so speedily. It often takes time, quite a bit
of time. The image that the New Testament Greek implies is that God
has to work it out, to make the justice come about in our real lives.
It is not just a simple decree. There must be time for consequences
to play out. People must take responsibility for their actions.
Therefore we are to pray continually while we wait and not give up on
the Trinity in whom we abide.
For further definition of what it is
to pray I took a tour of the word “prayer” through Luke’s
Gospel to see what sort of thing the people in Luke’s world prayed
for and how they prayed. Since Jesus tells us to pray continually I
think it would help to know what sorts of things we should occupy our
prayers with and how and why. Luke’s first mention of prayer is
when Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, went into the Holy of
Holies in the temple on the Day of Atonement while people stood
outside praying. While in there, an angel appeared and told him that
his barren wife, Elizabeth, would bare a child (1:10). This shows a
correlation between the people of God praying before and during
worship so that those who lead worship will hear a message about what
God is really doing in the life of his people.
Next, after Jesus was baptized by John
he stood there in the water praying and Luke says heaven was opened
so that we catch a glimpse of God, the Trinity – Jesus the Son in
the water, the Spirit descending as a dove, and the Father saying
this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased (3:21-22). Here
we see a correlation between prayer and knowing that in Christ
through the abiding of the Holy Spirit the Father does indeed claim
us as his own beloved children. God the Father loves us as he loves
his only begotten Son, Jesus, as we are in familial union with him
because the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us.
Next, we discover that Jesus often
slipped away to wilderness places (5:16) and up onto mountains to
pray. One night Jesus spent a whole night on a mountain praying and
when he came down he chose the twelve disciples (6:12). Another time
Jesus was praying alone with his disciples nearby and he asked them
who the crowds said he was. In the conversation Peter makes the
confession of faith that Jesus was the Messiah from God (9:18).
Thus, we see here that there is a correlation between prayer and
knowing one’s calling and who it is who calls us.
Another mountaintop experience was
when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain with him and
while he was praying they saw him transfigured in shinning white
standing with Moses and Elijah. Immediately following that
experience we have a another Trinitarian revelation. A cloud (the
Holy Spirit) enveloped them and God the Father spoke to them saying
that Jesus was his Son whom he had chosen and they should listen to
him (9:28). Thus there is a huge correlation between prayer and
knowing who Jesus is and what he has come to do for all humanity and
even you and me as individuals and once again we see that prayer is a
Trinitarian experience with Christ in the Holy Spirit before the
Father.
What
does Jesus say we should pray for? In the first instance he says
“Pray for your enemies” (6:28). Once while Jesus was praying his
disciples saw him and came and asked him to teach them how to pray
and he taught them the Lord’s prayer. “Father, in heaven
hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. May your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted
to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but deliver us from
the evil one." This is a good prayer to try to discipline
yourself to pray continually. Another thing to notice here as that
when people see us praying it just might happen that they become
inspired to pray and want to learn how to pray. In our passage today
Jesus tells us to pray always crying out for the Trinity to work
justice for us against our enemies (18:10).
Next Jesus talks of attitude in
prayer. In the passage immediately following this morning’s
reading, Jesus condemns the prayer of the self-righteous where we
thank the Trinity for how great we are and how good we have it and
reminding him of all the good we do and so forth. Have you ever
prayed saying “God I’ve down this and that and this for you and I
try to be the best that I can be. Could you please do this for me?”
That’s praying on our merits of which we really have none.
Rather, Jesus tells us to pray the tax collector’s prayer of humble
desperation, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Actually in the
Greek it says, “God, be for me, a sinner, a sacrifice that removes
my sin.” If we get used to praying like that continually we find
that the rest of our lives truly do begin to fall into place. In the
Eastern Orthodox traditions that have what they call the “Jesus
Prayer” that they continually recite. It goes, “Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Finally, when Jesus entered into the
Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John he instructs them to
pray so that they do not fall into temptation and they joined with
Jesus in his prayers. They joined with Jesus in his prayers. They
fell asleep albeit, but they joined with him in his prayers. Did you
know your prayers are never separate from the prayers of Jesus who
stands continually before the Father praying for us? His prayers
become our prayers and our prayers become his.
To wrap all this up, and emphasize a
main point for you, Jesus tells us to pray continually and not give
up because it is primarily in prayer that we meet Jesus in the
Holy Spirit and in him we share his prayer life before God the
Father. People who pray a lot have a deeper sense of who God is as
Trinity and who Jesus is, what he’s done for us, and what he calls us to. It takes prayer
to know God. Without it we simply won’t come to know the living
God whom we claim to serve. So, pray continually and don’t give
up. Cry out for God the Father hears you and your prayers as he
hears Jesus' own prayers. Amen.
