Thoughts going in, Sun Oct 17th

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?"

Several things hit me immediately about this passage. First, this is a parable that occurs only in Luke. There is no reason to doubt that Jesus spoke these words in this place, in particular, on his way to Jerusalem. Yet on the other hand, we know that all four of the gospel writers were not nearly as concerned with ‘chronology’ of events as they were with telling their story the way they wanted—and this has led to certain differences between the gospels. In other words, Luke may have inserted this story IN THIS PLACE as much for a theological reason as anything. Regardless, we need to remember that Luke was not there, himself, and was relying on his sources and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The point I’m attempting to make is that Jesus goes to Jerusalem to embrace his cross. And while we all know how that ULTIMATELY ends—death is vanquished and he rises again on the 3rd day—in a very real sense Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem to embrace ‘his’ cross is a mirror or parallel of the life of the Christian. We are ALL to, metaphorically, journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, take up our crosses, and follow him. In that sense, a parable that teaches the need for persistence in prayer HERE AT THIS POINT in the narrative, makes a LOT of sense.

The next thing that hits me is what I’d call a ‘glimpse’ at the signs of the times. As I type this I’m looking out my office window and seeing that the leaves on the trees and bushes around the church are turning color. It’s a beautiful time of year. The turning of the leaves is a sure SIGN that winter is coming. In like manner, this reading appears just five weeks before the last Sunday of the church year. The closer we get to the END of the church year, the more the readings start to talk about THE END…that part of the Creed where we say that “we believe that he will come again to judge the living and the dead, etc.” And even though we’re not quite there yet, we see signs that we’re getting close in this passage. It comes right after a discussion of the end in chapter 17, and the passage itself ends with the rhetorical question: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

As to the characters of the parable, OF COURSE they’re very colorful and very interesting. We would expect nothing less from Jesus. No shortage of commentary and outright guesswork exists about these two. A basic synopsis would go as follows:

THE JUDGE—IF he is a Jew, he is a very poor excuse for one. Experts of the era point out that SERIOUS/criminal offenses were heard by a tribunal, not a single judge, but that single ‘magistrate’ type judges were employed both by the Herodians and Rome to handle minor issues (usually revolving around money). Given that neither Rome nor the Herodians were especially known for their “fear of God,” such a judge would do nicely for them. The same historians tell us that these magistrates probably didn’t make a whole lot of money, hence they supplemented their income by refusing to hear cases unless properly bribed first.

THE WIDOW—First, the text never says that she is “poor,” though most commentators assume this to be the case. It seems like a safe bet given what we know of the era and also given the fact that a sure way to get an audience before the judge is through bribery—an avenue that appears closed to her. An extremely likely scenario could be as follows: the woman’s husband dies, making her a widow. Under Jewish Law the husband’s family is supposed to continue to house her and see to her needs. Perhaps, however, they’ve evicted her. Now she is in dire straights, given the fact that as a woman in this culture—without a man to support her and speak for her publicly, AND evidently without the support of her dead husband’s family—she is on the verge of becoming a destitute beggar.

What the widow needs is JUSTICE. This is all she wants. And she has no other recourse in the matter than to PERSIST in nagging the unrighteous judge. Luke now uses this parable to illustrate how disciples/Christians are to be persistent in prayer: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up, (vs1).” Then following the parable, Luke reports Jesus’ words of encouragement: “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, (vss 7-8a).”

To me the “problem” areas of this passage…and hence the problem areas confronting the preacher of today are 2-fold:

(1) Today’s church—at least the typical western incarnation thereof—is *not seeking the Lord’s justice/vindication. We might be “praying”…we might even be praying continually, but it’s likely for personal petitions or at the most noble, the salvation of the world. I think it takes a persecuted/wronged church to pray for justice/vindication (as per the widow)…and we just don’t have it that bad.

(2) The Lord’s promise about getting justice quickly DOES, in fact, seem to be delayed. We can hedge; we can talk about how God’s timing is different than ours; we can talk about how a thousand years with us is only like a day with God, etc. etc., but there’s no getting around the fact that for the suffering church today the promised quick justice/vindication seems delayed--whether by “2 days,” or “2 thousand years.”

How do we handle this?


Cheers,

TM