Genesis 32:22-31 | Psalm 121 | 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5 | Luke 18:1-8
Luke 18:1-8
1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ 6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
Introduction
As we undoubtedly will hear during the notices at the end of the service, we are just weeks away now, very nearly less than a month, from the Advent Bazaar. And that’s a very important thing, in part, because it means we’re also very near Advent—the season of expectant waiting and preparation for celebration of the arrival of Christ Jesus. Naturally, we almost always think of this in terms of his first coming, the Nativity, Christmas. In Western Christianity, however, the season is actually a celebration of both the first arrival of Jesus Christ and the second one, still yet occur. The word itself, Advent, Latin adventus, is a translation of the Greek word parousia, which almost always in reference to Jesus Christ in the New Testament denotes his second coming. Well, it is this concept, the second coming of Christ, and how we ought to be expectantly waiting and preparing for it, which is at the heart of our Gospel reading.
1. Context and Text
But the Gospel reading is a challenging one. It’s yet another parable. And in perhaps the most thorough academic work on the New Testament parables published in the last ten years, biblical scholar Klyne Snodgrass says: “I consider this one of the more difficult parables. If the introduction of any parable seems misplaced, it would be here.”
Luke states, in his introduction there in verse 1: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” What follows is a parable that seems to go rather off topic. But, the parable comes, unsurprisingly for Luke, in a longer section on the same theological trajectory—a concern for the end times (or eschatology). It begins back in 17:20, building to this parable. The theme will be revisited in a few more chapters.
Also unsurprisingly for Luke, the parable focuses on a widow who found herself having been unjustly treated. We are surely used to this by now, Luke always focusing on the poor, the disenfranchised, the lowest of society. And make no mistake, widows had it rough in the ancient world. When a husband died, widows were often left no inheritance. She might be coerced to stay in the husband’s family in order to survive, but would have a servile position, and may even be forced to marry a younger brother. If she returned to her own family, she or they would have to pay back the original dowry from the marriage. Often, widows would simply be sold into slavery for debts incurred by the husband or the lack of dowry.
We’re not told the nature of her claim of injustice. It doesn’t matter to the story. All that is important is that she is a widow, and she is obviously right. That’s never questioned in the parable.
And she is contrasted with an unjust judge. Again, Jesus is thin on the details. We don’t know why or how he is unjust. We simply know that he is. He neither fears God nor respects people. He is tethered neither to right and wrong nor to the benefit of others. He is apparently concerned only with himself.
These are the two characters. They are stereotypes. And the parable, then, is fairly simple, with these two characters driving it: the widow persists in bringing her claim to the judge. For some time, he refuses. And then, apparently annoyed with her persistence, he grants her justice with the hope of getting her to stop bothering him. It’s simple.
And it’s tempting to a simple conclusion out of it. The moral of the parable is persistence. ‘The squeaky wheel gets grease. The louder you cry and the more annoying you make yourself, the more likely you are to get what you want.’ Just look at the American presidential election. Or maybe: ‘just keep trying, and you’ll eventually get justice in this life.’
Except, this is not the moral of the parable, I don’t think. That doesn’t fit with Luke’s introduction or Jesus’s subsequent explanation. You see, this parable, as Jesus goes on to explain, is about something far more transcendent. He says:
‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.’
The logic of it is that of ‘how much more.’ If this unjust judge, who cares neither for God nor people, still grants justice in this life, how much more will God, who loves his people, be quick to give them justice. If the unjust judge eventually gets it right, how much more will God get it right.
That’s the logic.
Now you might be thinking: ‘Okay. So? So, if God’s a better judge than the unjust judge—which I think we can all agree on—then shouldn’t we be a people who are crying out for justice? Yes, the moral of the story is to keep crying out, just like the widow. Check. Mate.’ To that question, I say: hold on. Maybe.
Two things we need to remember here: first, it is the chosen ones who will first get justice in the sense of relief from injustice. That is, God’s concern here is primarily for his own people. Second, justice is a two-edged sword, especially in Luke’s Gospel. It may mean vindication for the innocent, but it also means condemnation for the sinful. So, before you start crying out for justice, you might want to make doubly sure you’re one of God’s people and that you really want justice in this ultimate sense.
This last point becomes quite clear when we consider the last verse. Jesus finishes his explanation with this question: ‘And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ Jesus puts this whole parable in eschatological context. This is not so much waiting for justice to happen here in this life on earth, but waiting for Jesus’s triumphant return in the final judgement. We are waiting for that justice. And Jesus’s question? When he comes back, will he find us, his people, being faithful? How will we be found waiting?
2. Application
That is an important question, I think. What will Christ Jesus find us doing when he returns? For most of us. I suspect, we spend very little time thinking about what happens when Jesus bodily comes to earth for a second and final time.
The picture painted in Revelation 19 is that of a righteous judge, clothed in white linen dipped in blood, on a white horse, flanked by the armies of heaven, a sword emerging from his mouth that defeats nations. Whether we take it literally or not, the indication throughout all of apocalyptic literature is that the Messiah will return to bring justice. He will judge the sinful and condemn them. He will set apart the righteous and reward them.
This kind of accounting, if we’re honest, probably terrifies us a bit. There’s a reason we do not want to think about it. If we’re truly honest, we know we’re sinful. That kind of accounting is not going to go well for us. Yet, and this is the beauty of being God’s people, we are justified by Christ Jesus. There’s a reason his robe is dipped in blood. He gave himself in his first Advent, sacrificing his life that he might take our punishment, pay our accounts, and rising again that we would not be bound by the punishment of death. If this is not you, my friend, then I urge you to talk to one of the clergy after the service. There is hope for the life to come.
As the songwriter and poet, Bob Dylan, wrote:
Don’t you cry and don’t you die and don’t you burn
For like a thief in the night, He’ll replace wrong with right
When He returns[1]
But if you are justified by Christ Jesus, privileged to celebrate his death and resurrection as we do each week here in this church, then the question comes back to where we started. How is it that you are going to spend your life waiting for him to come back and bring justice?
For most of us, I think we get caught up in this life. We may know, in a purely cognitive sense, that there is more than this life. But we sure live like this is the only one. We devote ourselves to the idols of this world: money, work, family, pleasure, power. I wonder, if we truly believe that Christ is coming back any day now: how are we to wait, as Christians? What does it look like to be those found keeping the faith when Christ returns? I have four recommendations:
First, actually expect it. Advent is the season of expectation. So, perhaps, focus on the second coming of Christ a little more this coming season. It would, ironically, be something of a return to more ancient ways of thinking and working out our faith. One of the foremost concerns of the early Church was the return of Jesus. For example, Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, gives marriage advice based on the imminent return of Jesus. Through the several generations of Christians, there was a heightened sense that Christ was returning any day and a great sense of urgency to be ready, a great longing. Perhaps we have lost that sense of urgency a bit. So, first, give it some space in your mind.
Second and third, Luke suggests two answers in the first verse: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Luke’s application is one of prayer and not losing heart while we wait for justice. We keep the vigil in prayer. I’ll be honest, this is one of the great joys I’ve found in my time here in Vienna so far. The Daily Office. There’s incredible depth to these prayers and to the act of giving yourself to them each and every day. I’ll leave it at that. Likewise, Luke says, we are to not lose heart. This is particularly difficult, of course, in the face of injustice and hardship. Nevertheless, we are to persevere through the hard times in the Church, in the Communion, in the world, in our personal lives, even simply inside our own minds. While the battles with sin and death rage on this world, we must keep our hearts firmly fixed on the gospel, on the concerns of Christ Jesus. A little more Dylan:
Of every earthly plan that be known to man, He is unconcerned
He’s got plans of His own to set up His throne
When He returns[2]
A fourth and final recommendation comes from the New Testament lesson. Did you hear the end of it?
As for me, (Paul says,) I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.[3]
Here is a man who is looking at the end, who is looking forward to second appearing of Christ, longing for him, and that crown waiting for him after the final accounting. He stands as one who fought the good fight, finished the race, and here’s our phrase again: kept the faith. And what does he tell Timothy to do while Timothy waits for that second appearing? Go back to the beginning of the lesson:
Continue, [Timothy,] in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings (called Scriptures in the next verse) that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.[4]
Look, I’m known, I think, to be something of a Bible guy in this church. Okay. I own that. So was Paul. And the message of the whole book of 2 Timothy is an important one: the thing that will get Timothy through the hard times in ministry is the Word of God itself. And given the eschatological dimension, Paul’s suggestion is likewise clear.
Conclusion
So, in the end, there they are. Four recommendations on how to pass the time in this waiting room called life, while we wait for Christ, the righteous judge, to come back and execute justice: 1) start by giving it some attention, 2) pray, 3), do not lose heart, 4) continue to give yourself to the Word of God. There is, I think, no better way to spend what may very well be these last days.
So, I pray: Father, who watches over us, grant us this day the longing of your return and the strength to be faithful, to be found keeping the faith when it comes. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[1] Bob Dylan, “When He Returns,” (1979).
[2] Bob Dylan, “When He Returns,” (1979).
[3] 2 Tim 4:6-8.
[4] 2 Tim 3:14-15.