Sermon for St Edward’s, Sun 19 Oct 25.
Readings: Luke 10:1-8, Jeremiah 31:27-34
Today we are going to think about prayer and a relationship with God.
In our gospel reading we first heard that this is a parable about persistence in prayer – the need to pray always and not to lose heart. But then we read about an ‘unjust judge’ who not only neither feared God nor had respect for people but unjustly decides a ruling of law not on evidence, but on the persistence of the plaintiff! It doesn’t quite make sense does it? Surely Jesus isn’t comparing God to an unjust judge?
Well no, and yes. So let’s dig into it…
In Jesus’ time Jewish courts were tried in the same way as civil cases – someone accuses, someone defends, the judge sums up and a ruling is given. There was not a police system of law, you brought your own case to the court and at the end the judge decides. When a judge decides on behalf of one party, they are the justified.
So here this woman is bringing her own case, whatever it is, to the court. We hear nothing of the other party or what the case is, only that she seeks justice over her opponent, and that she kept on coming before the judge. So we don’t know if this was a case ongoing and she just keeps badgering the judge or whether the case hasn’t come to court yet, but it is going to. Either way her actions would be illegal today and the judge would be thrown off the bench.
So, is the message as simple as, persevere and you get rewarded, badger God and God will answer your prayers?
Is it a simple comparison of God and the judge?
Well in one sense yes, because Jesus makes the comparison himself in vs7-8, he says:
‘Listen to what the unjust judge says..’
Listen to the words of the judge who caves because of the persistence of the woman, vs 4-5
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…
and Jesus goes on:
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
So God will grant justice to those who seek God, that much is the comparison, but it’s because God loves them, does not want them to suffer, the chosen ones, who cry out to God from their hearts, they will be justified. If this woman gets her wish when she has no legal claim, how much more will God’s people receive what they do not deserve, but get anyway. That’s grace right there. God’s people are rewarded with justification in eternity, i.e. we get to be with God in the end. Like the woman who gets justice, we don’t deserve it, we haven’t earned it, but God gives us that gift because, we are God’s people and we are loved. Does that make sense? So, God wants us to cry out to the Lord, day and night, not to twist God’s arm but because God loves us and wants the best for us.
But there’s more, there’s probably also a link here about Christ’s unjust death which we know is coming. There the judge/ the Pharisees/ even Pilate who washes his hands, rule unjustly, so that Christ is sent to death. The Pharisees were persistent in seeking their cause, seeking the death penalty for Jesus, and they were allowed to do what they wanted with Jesus, in the end, perhaps because of their persistence. And yet we know that God brings about the true freedom for Christ and for us. God brings about eternal justification.
But let’s go a bit deeper still. What does this mean for us today?
Firstly this passage shows us that God is not Google or a personal shopper, or just a yes man.
God is not a flawed ruler executing any old justice. God is Justice. God can’t be swayed by the deeds of the unrighteous, but hears the prayers of the faithful in compassion and love.
There may be times when we have prayed for something so hard and just feel like we are wasting our time. The passage does remind us of persistence, but I think that says more about us and our relationship with God than anything else. Because sometimes it feels like prayers are answered straight away and at other times it feels like weeks or years or perhaps never. But God is the Almighty who had the power to create the world, God doesn’t need us to pray 1000 times for the same thing, but I do think God wants to hear the cries of our heart.
When we cry out to God we go deeper in our faith, we share our inner most thoughts and desires and prayers, there’s a sense of persistence bringing about a deeper spiritual reality for each of us.
I mean how many of us pray more when we are facing something difficult or going through a hard time, right? In those times we probably cry out more than ever. And I wonder too if we would look back and say how close we felt to God in those times? I often use the example of when I injured my back and needed spinal surgery. I was in so much pain for months on end and yet I can look back and say that time was a blessing because I could do nothing by lie down for days on end, and I prayed and read my Bible more than ever before or since! it was the most amazing time with God despite the pain.
I don’t think the example of persistence here is about persuading God, it’s about us and our personal relationship with God. God doesn’t want us to stop praying or sharing, like the unjust ruler who just wants the woman to go away, God longs for us to be with God, sharing forever more.
Jesus says, vs 7-8
Will God delay long in helping them?I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.
We know our prayers are not always answered quickly and I don’t think this passage wholly means the more we pray the more out prayers are answered. As I said it’s about our relationship with God. I think sometimes the power of prayer is vast, and when many people cry out in power for a particular thing it can be powerful. But I think also the more we pray about something reveals how important it is to us. I don’t think God judges which prayers to answer on how often we pray for something.
And we can feel like that sometimes, why isn’t God answering my prayer? and the bottom line is we might never know – I am sure there will be a queue of people asking God questions like that in eternity. Sometimes God answers our prayers as we would like, sometimes it’s a maybe or a wait, and we have to wait for something. or sometimes maybe it is a no but it’s for reasons we don’t fully understand. Sometimes what we want and desire, requires someone else to change, but God is not a dictator in someone else’s life, or ours!
Unanswered prayer can be a difficult place to be, but if nothing else I think this passage reminds us God wants to know the desires of our heart, our pain, our longing and for us to keep on sharing that, not suppressing it or numbing it, but bringing it before the Lord.
We think a lot about God and the ruler in this passage but what about the woman? what does she reveal to us? I think she is revealing the desires of her heart to the judge. It doesn’t matter to her that her actions may be illegal, whatever she needs is deeply personal and painful for her. She, a woman, goes out of her way to seek out this man of power and authority, not just once but many times. in a culture where women didn’t have many rights. They could not just approach figures of authority, men. And we know she was a widow, perhaps she had no one else to speak for her or to fight her corner? She must have been putting herself in harms way or at risk of bring arrested at least. She had huge courage and boldness to do what she did.
Perhaps someone had wronged a family member? Perhaps her dead husband was a victim of some awful crime. She is crying out for justice from her heart’s pain.
Is that how we cry out to God? from our hearts? the depths of our pain?
At the end of this passage Jesus says, after saying God will grant justice, v8
And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
I’ll be honest I don’t entirely know what this line means, but perhaps what he is saying is, who are we crying out to? who are we sharing our deepest thoughts with? Are we sharing the cry of our hearts with God, in faith? in the hope and belief that God hears our every prayer? Are we believing that no matter what the outcome, God is love, wants to know our hearts, and has the best plans for us? or do we think of God as some kind of unjust ruler who can be bribed or won over with persistence?
In Jeremiah 31 which is the other set reading for the day, we read of God building up the church and then there will be a new covenant where we the people will know God for themselves, personally and truly.
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
We are under this covenant. This is what the Lord offers us, a personal relationship, we are not separated from God. Any one of us can bring our own worries, concerns, desires of our heart before God, and that is what God longs for. That is what Jesus went to the cross for so that we can have that personal relationship with God forever.
So wherever we are at today I want us to hold on that.
And I know there are many of us her today struggling with unasnwered prayer or the prayers we keep on praying and have prayed for years on end. This is still true for you. God lves you and wants to know the desires of your heart, kepp on crying out to the Lord, persist in prayer, tell God how you feel…
We finish listening to the song, “Still I will Praise” By Lucy Grimble.
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