“Always Pray and Do Not Lose Heart”
Luke 18:1-8

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost—October 20, 2019

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Many bibles, like this one, have a special feature, the words of Christ printed in red.  Out of those red words, which record Jesus’ teachings, about one-third is in the form of parables, like the parable in today’s Gospel Reading of the persistent widow and the unjust judge.

This particular parable is unusual.  In most of Jesus’ parables, the meaning is left open-ended.  That’s part of the purpose of a parable.  Jesus was preaching to large crowds of people.  They had different levels of spiritual understanding, and they all had their own individual problems for which they were seeking solutions, and questions for which they were seeking answers, from the Master. 

That’s why Jesus so often used parables in his teaching.  Because, the open-ended nature of most parables compels the hearers themselves to ponder the meaning, and allows them to take Jesus’ teaching and apply it to themselves and their situation in a personal way.  Parables are in this way like what the Apostle Paul says about himself, “I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some.”

However, today’s parable is different.  It is one of the few times when we are explicitly told exactly what the point of the parable is: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart.”  And Jesus explains for us that the judge in the parable represents God, and the widow represents those who come to God in prayer for help.  The significance of this symbolism is to be found in both the ways that God is LIKE the judge in the parable, and also how God is UN-like the judge in the parable.

Paul declares in today’s Epistle Reading, “Christ Jesus . . . will judge the living and the dead.”  That’s the #1 way God is LIKE the judge in the parable, as we just confessed in the Nicene Creed: “He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead.”

“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed,” Paul says in Acts. “The one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.”  “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” he says in 2nd Corinthians, “that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body.”

In Romans, Paul tells us the judgment that we all deserve: “For the wages of sin is death.”  Because of our sins, we all deserve the judgment of eternal death and damnation.  “But,” Paul continues, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

That’s the #1 way God is UN-like the judge in the parable.  For, Jesus says the judge in the parable did not “care about men.”  But, God cares.  He cares about all humanity and about you personally so much that he sent his Son to be our Savior.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Isaiah tells us WHY at the final judgment you will receive not death and damnation but the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.  We observed him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.”

You will receive the gift of eternal life because the Judge himself, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, already paid for you the wages of sin by his own death on the cross.  At the final judgment the Judge will declare you not guilty, because he has already suffered on your behalf all the punishment your sins deserved.  As Paul says in 2nd Timothy, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

And that is why you can “always pray and not lose heart.”  You can pray with confidence, because in contrast to the widow in the parable, you have an “in” with the Judge, he’s a friend of yours.  As the hymn says, “What a friend we have in Jesus . . . take it to the Lord in prayer.”

In the parable, the judge is tired of hearing from the widow, and reluctant to grant her request.  That’s the other way that God is UN-like the judge in the parable.   For, God tells us over and over again in his Word that he is waiting for, that he WANTS to hear, your prayers:

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

“Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

That’s the point of the parable.  UN-like the judge in the parable, God never tires of hearing your prayers.  And UN-like the judge in the parable, God is not reluctant to grant your requests.  “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”

“Jesus told his disciples [this] parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart.”