102319 – Luke 18. 1-8
Guess what? It is time for “another story.” The way Luke tells it, Jesus was just full of them…constantly…
This time – it is all about “showing” the disciples “HOW TO PRAY.”
I guess they DO NOT KNOW what they are doing…and need a little help. I guess they were giving up. They didn’t “GET” what they wanted…so they washed their hands of it all. So now, help is on the way…
This is a “HOW TO” story.
“How to Pray – 101” like an elementary- ground-level- must-have-class.
Okay, so he starts out: first the setting. There’s “this certain judge” in a “certain city” WHO has “no respect for God or for anyone else for that matter. I am “certain” of it, although it is not stated directly!
Apparently the only one he “certainly” seems to care about – is himself!
He is a JUDGE, after all.
A man of propriety and dignity… A man of honor and held in great respect by all the people.
Apparently, he must be the ONLY JUDGE in town. So he has a corner on the market of “judging,” as it were.
One Judge, One town, that’s all!
Otherwise, he would certainly tell people to go and see Joseph over there, around the corner. He will help you out! He is the caring sort. He likes to get involved in people’s lives. He WANTS to hear the entire story…every detail…go, and tell it to him…
In the same city – there’s also a widow who keeps “going to the judge.”
So, is it a story about PRAYER?
A story about an UNJUST judge”
Or, is it a story about a WIDOW?
Perhaps it is a combination of “all three.”
She is “demanding” that the JUDGE grant her justice, but he “refuses.”
Why does he refuse?
Maybe he just doesn’t care?
Maybe he’s got better things to do?
She’s a woman. She’s a widow.
Maybe because “this woman” should NOT even be talking to him in the first place!
After a while, though…
And we DO NOT know “HOW LONG “A WHILE is…”
And, that may be of SOME importance…
Does she keep bothering, pestering, stalking and harassing him for days, or is it weeks or perhaps months? I mean, it does make a difference…
“How long” has this been going ON” asked ACE in 1974? Someone is certainly going to ask the question.
All we are really told: Is this woman HAS a problem. She wants it resolved. And he seems to be the “only game” in town.
We ASSUME…
Repeatedly, troubling him, tormenting him, nagging and vexing and harassing him…the poor man…the poor judge.
This woman is “like a plague.”
She doesn’t know when to quit, or when to give up.
She doesn’t know when to STOP!
She is relentless “to a fault!”
More than a nuisance…she continually gives him a “hard time.” She is in his hair, day and night.
It must have been “getting bad.” Real bad.
So, Jesus uses “the old rabbinical twist” of from “the lesser to the greater.”
And trust me, you do not get much “lesser” than this dude.
He is the bottom of the barrel.
He is the worst. Horrible. Horrendous.
Why be a judge at all if you do not care about people? Their rights? Their receiving justice? Their happiness?
This judge is just awful.
That’s how we know that Jesus IS NOT making the comparison between the JUDGE and GOD in any way, shape or form.
This guy is the antithesis.
God is good. God cares. God hears.
God listens. God is the exact opposite of the JUDGE in the story.
And, if this “pittance of a man” will grant justice to a “pesky-tormenting-headache-giving-woman, it’s pretty certain that GOD will do “at least THAT MUCH…if not, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH MORE.
The judge reasons that he should decide in her favor. It’s not that he really cares about justice, it’s just that this lady keeps-forever-bugging-him. And he has “finally HAD enough.”
That does not happen with God. You cannot bother, trouble, worry, torment, nag, harry, vex or hassle God into giving you what you want. You are NEVER a nuisance to GOD. NEVER!
So keep asking. Pray continually. Be relentless. Be persistent. Be constant…
But the bottom line is this: Just Keep Prayin’ and NEVER GIVE UP.
Amen.