{"id":10114,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=10114"},"modified":"2022-10-24T09:41:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T07:41:58","slug":"luke-181-8-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-181-8-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 18:1-8"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray always
\nand not to lose heart. 2 He said, \u201cIn a certain city there was
\na judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that
\ncity there was a widow who kept coming to him saying, \u2018Grant me
\njustice against my opponent.\u2019 4 For a while he refused; but later
\nhe said to himself, \u2018Though I have no fear of God and no respect
\nfor anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant
\nher justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.\u2019\u201d
\n6 And the Lord said, \u201cListen to what the unjust judge says. 7
\nAnd will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day
\nand night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will
\nquickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will
\nhe find faith on earth?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Another Ambiguous Parable<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the story of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1-13), this story
\nhas a disconcerting tone to it. We wonder what Jesus is doing comparing
\nGod to an unjust judge, even if that comparison is for the purposes
\nof contrast. Even when Luke goes out of his way to explain to us the
\npurpose of this story, persistence in prayer, it is still possible for
\nus to miss the import of this message. I have seen and heard numerous
\npeople cite this passage as justification for any number of abuses of
\nprayer. Even if I do not get what I want, what I seek, I will continue
\nto pray until God gives it to me. My persistence will pay off.<\/p>\n

I often wonder what people are thinking when they say such a thing.
\nCertainly one of the points of this lesson is that God, in contrast
\nto the unjust judge, hears the prayers of the people and is inclined
\nto dispense justice without the tribulation the Widow endures just to
\nget a hearing. Does God need multiple reminders? Are we to assume that
\nGod is not interested in justice unless we bring it to his attention?
\nIf, on the other hand, God hears us better than the unjust judge, why
\nare we not getting a response? Why must we be persistent? These are
\ndisturbing questions, but they reveal an even more disturbing attitude,
\nwhich is that prayer is all about me and what I want. A deeper look
\nat this story, as well as some of the other things that Jesus has to
\nsay about prayer reveal something different.<\/p>\n

The Purpose of Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a difference between what most people pray about today and
\nwhat Jesus likely means by prayer in Luke\u2019s Gospel. Today most
\npeople think that prayer is, at best, part of a dialog or conversation
\nthat we have with God. At worst, people think that prayer is us telling
\nGod what to do for us or give us to make our lives better. In Luke\u2019s
\nGospel, references to prayer have to do with the coming reign of God.
\nIt is this messianic, and in some sense apocalyptic understanding of
\nprayer (apocalyptic meaning dealing with the end of one age and the
\nstart of another) that is lost in most understanding of this and other
\ntexts.<\/p>\n

The Lord\u2019s prayer is asking God to help us live the future reign
\nof God in the present. In it we ask God to help us participate now on
\nearth in the things of that future reign that are coming through the
\nlife, death and resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus says elsewhere that
\nhe will grant prayers spoken in his name he is not delivering to his
\nfollowers, ancient and modern, a formula by which we might have his
\npower harnessed for our purposes. Instead he is stating that when we
\npray in his name, we pray in his way of being in the world, loving forgiving
\nand serving. When he says, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you,\u201d
\nhe is not stating, as some evangelicals claim, that we have but to ask
\nand God stands ready to give us what we want, but rather that when it
\nis God\u2019s future that is the focus of our hopes and prayers then
\nwe are surely praying for something that will come to pass. And in this
\ntext for today, when he is asking if there will be faith on earth when
\nthe Son of Man comes, he is not suggesting that with enough faith, our
\npersistent prayers will be answered affirmatively, but rather that if
\nour faith were place with the coming reign of the Son of Man, as it
\nhappens in Jesus, then our faith will be placed in the right promise
\nand the sure future.<\/p>\n

Messianic Hope, Messianic Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to some scholars, the messianic hopes of the people of Jesus
\nday were fixed on the new age that would be ushered in as the messiah
\nwould come. This age, predicted by Isaiah and other prophets, came with
\nspecific expectations. Many traditions about what the messianic age
\nwould be like and how it would come had developed over the centuries.
\nOne tradition taught that if all of God\u2019s chosen people would
\nkeep the Torah perfectly for just one day, the messiah would come. Another
\ntradition taught the people to pray fervently and faithfully each night
\nthat the messiah might come that day.<\/p>\n

I believe that these types of traditions form the background for this
\nparticular saying of Jesus in Luke\u2019s Gospel. Here Jesus appears
\nto buy in to the concept of persistent prayer for the coming reign of
\nGod. But of course the messianic expectations of the people will both
\nbe fulfilled and shattered by who Jesus is and what Jesus does. The
\npeople faithfully pray for a messiah. But will they have the faith to
\nsee the messiah in action, and the messianic age begin in a messiah
\nthat defeats not the political powers opposed to the Israelite monarchy,
\nbut rather the power of Sin and death that oppress all humanity? This
\nis the question, both for those original hearers of Jesus and for us
\ntoday.<\/p>\n

For the messianic reign has indeed begun in Jesus, though it is not
\nyet fulfilled. The victory over death has occurred in the death and
\nresurrection of our Lord, but is not yet fully realized in the world.
\nThus we too continue to hope for the final coming of the messianic age
\nthat is already present, but not fully apparent among us.<\/p>\n

For in Jesus, God has indeed answered the prayers of humanity, who
\npersistently cry for justice and an end of oppression. Yet so many of
\nus lack the vision and the faith to see them. We still live as if the
\nworld has not changed. We still return violence for violence and hate
\nfor hate. We fail to see the signs of God\u2019s new age and so we
\nfail to live as if it were true.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, God\u2019s action does not depend, as the people of old
\nonce thought, on our ability either to keep the Torah, or to pray. God
\nhas already acted in Jesus, and continues to act decisively in our world,
\ndespite our lack of faith. Faith, or the lack of faith, neither hasten
\nnor postpone the action of God to bring justice to our world and our
\nlives, after all. What our prayer does, what faith in God\u2019s way
\nof being in the world does, is connect us to the hope and fulfillment
\nof God\u2019s promises in such a way that we are able to affirm humanity
\nat the same time as we say no to injustice in our lives and in our world.<\/p>\n

One way in which this might be made concrete in our world today is
\nto look at the current \u201cWar on Terror\u201d that is being waged
\nby our government. Both candidates for U.S. president have followed
\na line of thinking that says, \u201cwe must bring those who commit
\nacts of terror and the nations that sponsor them to justice.\u201d
\nThis is good and right, but only to a point. What most people, both
\ncandidates included, fail to address seriously are the issues of poverty,
\ninjustice, and oppression that make certain peoples vulnerable to the
\ndesperation that leads to terrorism. A serious prayer for and call for
\njustice would also examine the roots of the problem and address them.
\nCould we not fight terrorism by also attacking at its roots? Could we
\nbe persistent in prayer AND action by seeking to bring to justice those
\ngovernments, including sometimes our own, who have aided those around
\nthe world who exploit and take advantage of the poor for personal financial
\ngain, by seeking to redress those wrongs by bringing food, medicine,
\neducation and other life giving gifts to those most affected rather
\nthan the death giving military response that seems to be favored at
\nthis point? Can we be faithful to a Lord who chose to die rather than
\nraise an army? Can we follow one who called on us to love our enemies
\nand pray for those who persecute us? If not, then Jesus question as
\nhe comes to us each and every day of our lives, whether he will find
\nfaith among us, is certainly appropriate and the answer may not be as
\npleasant as we like.<\/p>\n

The Gospel connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fortunate thing here, again, is that God\u2019s coming reign does
\nnot depend on us at all. God is at work for justice even when we are
\nnot. God loves and cares for all humanity even when we dehumanize and
\ndiscard one another. God\u2019s way of bringing justice is to join
\nour suffering and redeem it, even when we suffer and visit suffering
\non one another. That is what we learn from Jesus way of being in the
\nworld.<\/p>\n

And it is precisely this one who calls us and inspires us to follow
\nthis new way; just as God called people to resist oppression and form
\nfree societies here and elsewhere in the world; just as God called people
\nto resist oppression with non-violence that lead to change in South
\nAfrica and India abroad, and in our cities and towns during the civil
\nrights movement in our own nation over the last century. Those who lead
\nthese movements were people who understood that violent response to
\ninjustice only breeds more violence and injustice. God\u2019s way is
\nto follow another path to freedom as oppression\u2019s root cause,
\ndeath, is made impotent by the resurrection of Jesus. The only question
\nleft is will we have the faith to participate in that freedom now? Or
\nwill we fail to see it, and only hope and wonder why God is not answering
\nour prayer the way that we want? In this case our persistent prayer
\nis not about getting justice the way we want it so much as to connect
\nus to God\u2019s way of being in the world and to make us a part of
\nhis coming reign, which indeed is coming swiftly.<\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
\nTree of Life Lutheran Church,
\nConroe, Texas
\nlbouman@treeoflifelutheran.org<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, \u201cIn 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 saying, \u2018Grant me justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,727,108,110,141,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-10114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-archiv","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-18-chapter-18","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14329,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10114\/revisions\/14329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=10114"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=10114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}