There was a barber who thought that he should share his faith with his customers more than he had been doing lately. So the next morning when the sun came up and the barber got up out of bed he said, "Today I am going to witness to the first customer who walks through my door."
Soon after he opened his shop that morning his first customer came in and said, "I want a shave!" The barber said, "Sure, just sit in the seat and I'll be with you in a moment." The barber went in the back and prayed a quick desperate prayer saying, "God, the first customer just came in and I am going to witness to him. So please give me the wisdom to know just the right thing to say to him. Amen."
Then quickly the barber came out with his razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other while saying "Good morning sir. I have a question for you... Are you ready to die?
For very good reasons perseverance is a character that is very much admired in this world of ours.
People who do not try and try again, until they are successful in whatever ventures they may be undertaking, are bound to fail. While those who do persist, and who labour unceasingly, who hang on, will generally accomplished a great deal.
If we go through the Bible, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we can find many examples of perseverance. We have Jacob wrestling with the angel at the River Jabuk, refusing to let this much stronger opponent go until he receives a blessing. We have Paul, who despite being imprisoned, stoned, flogged, beaten, shipwrecked and having to endure hunger, thirst, nakedness, and rejection, went to all the known world and preached the Gospel and therefore completed the job given to him by Christ at his calling.
The Gospel reading of this morning seems to me to be a classical example of the link between perseverance and blessing; between unceasing determination and the achieving of one’s goal.
Luke told us the story in the context of a challenge Jesus makes to his disciples to always pray and never to lose heart, in other words, do not give up until the prayer has been answered by God. His story told us of a widow who would not give up until she got what she wanted from an uncaring and unjust judge. Jesus concluded the story by saying “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”
The lesson from the story seems to be very clear – persevere and you will be blessed.
Today I want to lay down a challenge to you by questioning that teaching. Indeed I want to suggest to you that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples something entirely different.
I am certain that we will be in agreement if I tell you that we believe in a God of Grace, a God who freely gives to his people what they need.
In the Scriptures we can hear Jesus telling us over and over again: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” And over and over again we are told by him and by the Apostles that Jesus went to the cross for us. He died for us, while we were yet alienated from him, while we were his enemies.
Indeed the fundamental message contained in the Gospels is found in the Scripture that say: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.”
So how can we take this passage of the Scriptures and be in agreement that if we do something like praying hard enough, or just kept on banging on God’s door without mercy, then God will just roll over and give to us what we want?
This kind of saying reduces this Gospel to a mere matter of works and it makes a mockery out of any statement that tries to assert hat God is loving and giving.
Furthermore, these kinds of thinking will not only reduce the Gospel to a matter of works – it lays guilt traps for some people and creates pride in others.
“If you try hard enough – God will give you what you asked for – see what I have…”
And,
“If you do not try hard enough – God will not listen to you – you will not be getting what you want or need…”
How can we ever say such things and look one another in the eye?
How can we ever tell the person who is suffering from cancer – “You have not prayed hard enough?”
How can we suggest to the person whose child has been killed in an accident – “If you had remembered to pray to God every day this would not have happened?”
And how can we stand the person who suggests – that everything they are in possession of is because they worked hard and prayed hard to God until they got it?
Persevere and you will be blessed is simply not Gospel! This is definitely not the message that this parable is trying to teach us.
Of course, it is important to have virtues such as fidelity, commitment, and hard work, for those are attitudes in life that do take us places in this world, but it is not the good news that we celebrate in church each and every week.
Think for a minute another story in the Gospels that may be rather familiar to you – the story of the man who goes to a neighbour at midnight to borrow food for an unexpected guest. Consider the punch line of the story – how Jesus says that the neighbour will get up and give the man some bread, not because he was acting as a friend, but only because of that man’s persistence.
And think for a moment of the punch line of today’s story – how the unjust judge say to himself: “Though I have no fear of God and no respect fro anyone, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by her continually coming.”
Although both stories sound as if their lesson is “persevere and you will be blessed”, the reality is that they are told to draw a contrast:
- A contrast between God and the reluctant neighbour;
- And a contrast between God and the uncaring judge.
If a corrupt and unjust judge will give out justice just because the plaintiff is so persistent, how much more is God, who loves us and is concerned about us, willing to answer us when we call upon him?
This leads directly to the point of the parable – to the very reason that Jesus told this story. The words with which the story started – and indeed the word with which the story closes.
Just as a reminder – the opening line was: “Then Jesus told them a story about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
The concluding line is “I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to those who cry to him day and night….and yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus is teaching us, with the example of the widow and the unjust judge, to have faith, to trust that God in all his goodness will bring about the justice that we all seek, the blessings that we all require from God – and that we should continue in prayer for these things until they happen.
It is simply a matter of timing.
I once heard of a story which is a good illustration as to how often we confuse God’s timing with our own.
A newspaper in a certain village in the United States had been running a series of articles on the values of attending church. One day, a letter addressed to the editor was received. It read as follow:
“Print this if you dare. I have been doing an experiment. I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating on Sunday. I gathered the harvest on Sunday and hauled it to my barn on Sunday. I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbours’ who went to church on Sunday. So where was God all this time?”
The editor printed out the letter in full, but added his reply at the bottom of the article. “Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October.”
That is often our mistake as well, is it not? Many of us think that God should be acting when and how we want Him to act, as according to our own timetable and according to our heart’s desires. I know that I used to think that way, and used to keep on asking God as to why He has not taken any action as yet. However, by my own experiences I found that prayers do get answered, although they get answered not at the time I would like it to be answered, but a timing which I found to be better than what I was hoping or expecting.
We often forget the fact that our vision is limited, and that none of us are able to see the end from the beginning. We also often forget the fact that our own desires, although often very good, frequently runs against the freedom that God has given, for good or ill, to all people….
Bad things do happen to good people, my brothers and sisters.
And sometimes it would seem to some that God does not care:
- that he does not make a difference in our lives
- that justice will not come about
- that evil will prevail
- that death will have the last word
That is the reason why Jesus we need to pray always and not lose heart. That is why he asked “when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?”
Being persistence in prayer is part of what faithfulness is all about.
It means refusing to give in to appearances and continuing to trust in God to act in His way and in His time. It may sometimes appear that we are all alone. It may seem at time that God does not hear. It may appear that injustice and evil are prevailing. However, faith dares us to go on praying. Faith dares us to approach the reality that we cannot see and live by it.
This is what makes people of faith different from other people. People of faith, like and me are willing to live by what we cannot see, but believe to be real, rather than living by what we can see, and what the world tells us is real.
Many people in this world pray, my dear brothers and sisters, and they pray for different reasons:
- Many people took to prayers when they are in a jam and are desperate just because they cannot come up with some fast and efficient human solution.
- Many pray because they have an incurable disease.
- Many people took to prayer just because they cannot figure out any way in order to help themselves.
And often when they do not get the answer they are expecting from God when they expect it, they may be tempted to stop praying and starting to ask “Why?”
Is that faith? I do not think that is faith. It is not faithful living. It is not what Jesus calls us to do. Jesus calls us to pray always and not to lose heart.
God has a blessing in mind for us.
He has promised to stand by us and to vindicate us.
He has promised us a new heaven and a new earth.
He has promised to save and deliver those who trust in Him.
He makes His promises to those who are joined to His people, those who have faith.
Our God is a faithful God and He will always keep His promises, although His timing may not be the same as ours.
The real lesson behind today’s Gospel reading is not – persist and you will get a blessing.
There should not be a single bit of doubt in the minds of those who believe in God and His promises.
The real lesson is found in our reaction to the world around us – in our reactions to our trails and tribulations and to the trials and tribulations of this world.
Do we really trust in God? Do we really believe in God and His promises? Do we pray always and not lose heart in God and His promises? Or do we see this world as all there really is – and only go to God when we cannot do anything else, and then abandon God when things are not happening as we think or imagine that they should?
Where is the point in your own life at which you will need to let go of your fears, your frustrations, your impatience, your anger, and sink down into a patient trusting in God’s timing and His way of working?
Where is the point in your life at which you will need to stop asking ‘Why’ and instead trust in God to bring about that which He has promised you? That which he calls us to pray for and to look for and to expect during the time when nothing at all seems to be happening.
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
That is the question that this parable asks of each and every one of us.
May you be blessed in your own answering of this question, day by day, until the day when our Lord and Savior returns. Amen.
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