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Persevering Faith |
“One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. ‘There was a judge in a certain city,’ He said, ‘who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ Then the Lord said, ‘Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:1-8) (Also read: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5) This is a parable for all those who at one time or another have felt the burning urge to give up. Others parables tell of the nature of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is our highest priority; thus it is like a farmer who tills the soil and finds a hidden treasure and sells all he has in order to possess it. The Kingdom is our greatest joy; thus a woman who loses a coin sweeps her whole house and finds the coin and rejoices for that which had been lost was found. The Kingdom is forever expanding; thus a tiny seed, insignificant when it is planted, becomes the most dominant of the land so that birds come and nest in it. But this parable is different. It speaks not about the Kingdom itself, but about the nature of life in the Kingdom. Let’s think about it. I.) There are two main characters in the parable. First, there was a wicked judge. He feared not YAHVEH and did not respect others. His was not an elected position, so he was not accountable to anyone. He was without credentials for so important a job. He was a powerful man but a pathetic person. Second, there was the widow. As most widows would have been in her day, she was powerless. But Yeshua, here and on other occasions, honoured widows and judged severely those who took advantage of them, who “sold widow’s houses.” He honoured a particular widow He saw in the temple, giving her two pence out of the abundance of her faith. Here our heroine is a helpless widow but you would never know it. She was not to be taken for granted. She had been done wrong and brought her case before the judge to vindicate her. She may well have felt the intimidation of the court, but she didn’t let it stop her. She was a remarkable woman. The judge put her off. He had no time for so trifling a person. She was sent on her way, but she came back. She was sent away again but came back again. And again and again! In the end, the judge declared, in effect, “I’ve had it already. Because you have been so tenacious, because you have become a bother to me, I’ll grant your request.” What does this mean? Notice that Yeshua said this is a wicked judge. He expressed grace for her only because of her persistence. He is not like our Father in heaven who is love and grace and knows how to give good gifts to His children. The parable ends with a question: “Will the Son of Man, when He comes, find faith on earth?” It’s an open-ended question. Maybe yes, maybe no?! It all depends on whether or not believers tenaciously hold on. II.) There is a sense of urgency here. We can’t know the specific matter the widow brought to the judge. And it doesn’t matter, for we know the nature of it. It was something that consumed her thinking. This wasn’t a trivial pursuit. This mattered deeply to her. The urgency that attended her requests can’t go unnoticed. Perhaps here is a matter for the Church to be concerned about today. Lulled into a kind of easy slumber, we assume that all is well in the Church and culture. In our less than enthusiastic demeanour of spirit, our witness is often ambiguous and unconvincing. Perhaps we would do well to pay attention to the great religious awakenings that occurred earlier in our nation’s history; characterized by broken hearts over the conditions of the world, fervent prayers of confession and a readiness for the remaking that YAHVEH wants to do. III.) Persistence is a part of this story. The widow, in her distress, could have given up. Others would have in her situation. But she refused and chose to stay the course. One of the most noted chapters in the Bible is Hebrews 11. It begins like this: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen” (11:1). The preacher in Hebrews went on to discuss the great personalities of Abel, Noah, Moses and Abraham; all leaders who refused to give up when hard times came. Against these people of faith, he contrasted those in Israel’s history who became disobedient during the Exodus and turned away from YAHVEH. These, he said, “perished in the wilderness.” They came to nothing. IV.) Most of all, this widow is a model of what faith is all about. The parable’s purpose is given in verse 1: “to show them that they should always pray and not to give up.” I suspect that Yeshua had in His mind events that would come shortly to these early disciples that would try their faithfulness. They would be witnesses, even participants, in the hurtful events; betrayal, denial, an unjust conviction, hatred, beating, humiliation, crucifixion and death. That’s what was coming. But what about those who followed Yeshua? What would become of them? Surely they feared that they too would be arrested and killed. Perhaps the fears would rise that they could not, would not, be as faithful as He. Perhaps in the end they would lose everything that mattered. But Yeshua said that the picture didn’t have to be painted in that sad way. There was another way, the way of courage and faith. These two words seem to go together, courage and faith. Someone has said that courage is only fear that has said its prayers. So we are to continue our faith. Prayer, devotion, Bible study; these are food for the soul. Here we find our strength for the labour. Faithfulness to the call of YAHVEH upon us is no less essential than YAHVEH’s call on our spiritual forebears. . |