Thoughts for the Day

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ And the Lord said, ‘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. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

One of the Church Fathers, Saint John Chrysostom (c 347-407 CE) who was Archbishop of Constantinople (and whom we looked at on 13 September) said this of parables:

• “It is not right to search curiously, and word by word, into all things in a parable; but when we have learned the object for which it was composed, we are to reap this, and not to busy ourselves about anything further”

I totally agree but we have a bit of a problem with the Parable of the Unjust Judge. What is the object of the parable? Seemingly at the beginning it's about being persistent in prayer and "not to lose heart". But it could also be about issues of justice and mercy, with God as the just Judge; or about the Second Coming of Christ, and whether there will be any faithful on earth when he returns; or about having faith in the promises of Jesus. In the past I have always looked at this parable as about the need to persist in prayer and sometimes on how this can change us over time.

But what about if we think of prayer as the practice of hopeful trust in God. Non-believers can imagine we are talking to ourselves when we pray, but we trust that we are talking to God. Sometimes people ask us to pray for them when trouble occurs in their life. They latch onto something they see in us, which is often our hope and trust in God as our Heavenly Father who cares for us. When this happens we do not do this alone! We are helped by God Himself who sends His Holy Spirit to encourage us to keep on asking. God's love for us means He persists in encouraging us to continue in our prayers, for as Jesus says "Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?"

So today may we continue to be beacons of hope in a seemingly hopeless world. Then, like the widow be strong, keep the faith and persist in prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ,
so inflame our hearts with Your Holy Spirit,
that instead of trying to solve things on our own,
we turn to You in hopeful trust,
believing that Your solutions will always be best.
May we continue to grow into the children
You would have us be
as beacons of hope in a challenging world.
Amen.