Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ + Amen.
My son, Elliot, loves to go outside. As the weather has become cooler, Emma and I have started putting up a little tent on our porch for him to keep some books and snacks in, we’ve put out his walking-bike, we got him a T-Ball set, and have been using our wagon more and more. But with this growth in time spent outside, we’ve also had to deal with the fact that he wants to go outside more and more. I mean, he really wants to go outside. We’re still working on words, and so more often than not, Elliot notifies us that he wants to go outside by waving his arm behind him and saying “ahn? Ahn?” But if you don’t answer him and open the door, he’ll do it faster, and louder, and faster, and louder, until he’s had enough waiting and begins to cry. As parents, we’re faced with the option of either giving in and setting a precedent, or getting the first waves of the famous meltdowns of the “terrible twos.” While we do our best not to bend like the willow and open the door every time, sometimes it is just the best option to get him to leave us alone about it.
The parable we have for our Gospel Reading today is actually quite similar to this situation. Jesus tells a parable about a woman who continually came to the local judge begging for him to give justice to her. This woman in the parable was apparently so persistent, pressing this judge continually, that he finally gave in and provided her with justice because he was tired of her bothering him so incessantly.
We’re told that Jesus gave this parable “to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to lose heart.” So what does this parable mean? Is it just telling us that if we pray to God constantly, that he’ll finally give in, as if we’re his toddler annoying Him to let us go outside until He allows it? To take a quote from Paul’s playbook, “by no means!”
We are told that this judge neither feared God nor respected man. As far as having mercy on the widow, the judge didn’t care about societal pressure to help the needy, and did not care about God’s command to do so either. Even though the judge is in the same position of power comparatively, this unrighteous judge provides us an example to compare God to. If this judge, who is not a righteous man, who does not care what is good or just, gives justice out to this woman simply because he no longer wants to hear her complain, how much better will it be when we come to our Lord God who wants to hear from us, who desires to give good things to us? Jesus finishes this parable saying “will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.”
When we Christian’s quote 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and say “rejoice always, pray without ceasing,” we don’t say this because we believe that praying without ceasing will be a quicker route to getting what we want. We believe that God wants to hear from us in prayer, that He delights in answering our prayers, even if He does not answer in a way that we might want Him to. In his commentary on the book of Luke, pastor Arthur Just writes that the idea of “praying always” is not about spending all your time in prayer, but rather, having prayer always on your heart. Prayer turns us toward the Lord as the source of our joy and help. To “pray always” means to continually seek the Lord to be your help throughout our lives.
It is important to note that this particular parable is concerned with living in the End Times. At this point of the book of Luke, Jesus’s eyes are turned toward the cross. His teachings to the disciples in this parable are not just instructions to pray for the sake of praying, but as a guide for how to have hope in these grey and latter days. Even in this time, thousands of years after Christ’s death and resurrection, we still have the hope that our Lord hears us and will continue to bless and preserve us. We still have hope that Jesus will do exactly as He said He would, in that He will return to us to judge the living and the dead, and take those who believe in Him with Him to live eternally in the new heavens and new earth. The belief we have that Jesus Christ is coming soon is just as true today as it was for those who saw Jesus ascend into heaven with their own eyes. While soon might be relative, we take Jesus at His word that we must continue to be ready for His imminent return. This “praying always” calls out to the Lord in this faith and hope, knowing that He will truly deliver us from the evils of this world as we await that final day.
Your waiting for the Lord, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is not done in vain. We are in the end times. As we move forward toward the end of the church year, our eyes turn toward the end just as Christ’s were toward the cross. Even though we do not know the day or the hour, it ought to be in plain view that it is coming. We wait in certain hope of the Last Day and the Resurrection of all the Dead.
There may be days where that hope feels hollow, where that certainty may feel weak. There are long days in our waiting where we forget the Lord’s promises to return, or find sadness in how far that day could be from now. We might occasionally feel like that poor widow, begging for justice and not receiving it time after time of calling upon her judge. But remember, our Lord is not like that judge. He promises to listen to your cries for justice, and promises to give it to you. We live in the expectancy of Christ’s return, but in the meantime, we are not left to simply wait. He brings some of that joy, mercy, and blessedness and delivers it to us here and now.
When you are here, in church, and hear those words “In the stead, and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” that is your righteous God hearing your prayer and giving you mercy. When you hear those words “the body of Christ, given for you,” “take, drink, the blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of all your sins,” you are partaking in the blessed gifts of the eternity that awaits right here and now.
While we are welcomed to call upon our Lord God as our own “Father,” He isn’t the same as an earthly father. He does not simply give us the justice and mercy we call out to Him for because He wants us to shut up, like we are some toddler begging to go outside. He gives to us these gifts both now and in the world to come out of His goodness and love. All of this, purchased and won for us on the cross of Christ through the Father’s goodness and mercy, provides us with our assured hope.
Dear friends in Christ, pray always. Pray for the gifts of the Lord to come to you. Pray for the Lord’s forgiveness for your sins. Pray for those in your family, in your community, and for Athens Lutheran Church. Pray to the Lord, knowing that He listens to and answers your prayer with joy and delight. Most of all, pray that our Lord Jesus would come soon, and that we may all remain in hope for that final day.
In the Holy Name of Jesus + Amen.