Day 483: Praying for Christ's return – Luke 18 vs 1 - 8

1 And Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2-5 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”

6-7 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And 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. 8 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:1-8 English Standard Version

What would the meaning of existence in this world be if there was no justice? If those who are more powerful can trample on the weak and helpless, and never have to give account, what would be the point of standing up for righteousness and truth? Jesus had been speaking about the coming of God's Kingdom and had reminded His hearers how God's judgement had fallen suddenly upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and how such a judgement would fall upon Jerusalem too, even when they least expected it. He taught that God is righteous and will indeed bring about justice. But, as He often did, Jesus taught an important truth by means of a parable. What do you think the lesson of this parable was?

I think it’s that although God's justice might seem to us to be a long time in coming, it doesn't mean it won't eventually happen. Verse 1 shows that those who love righteousness will often resort to earnest crying out to God. When their lives are being made miserable by those who are oppressing them and treating them with cruelty and unfairness, they have no option but to call on God to bring about His justice in their situation. The Old Testament tells how the Israelites in Egypt were being harshly treated and we read: “The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning.” (Exodus 2:23-24) And, in His time, God came to their rescue and punished the Egyptians for their wrongdoing.

But all of that took a number of years – until the very night when God led them to freedom. So the parable Jesus told also spoke of a period of time going by during which the widow continually pled for help, even to the point of pestering the judge. And then He contrasted the apathy of that judge who cared nothing about God, to the ready willingness of God to hear the prayers of those who belong to Him. What sort of prayers does Jesus seem to be speaking about?

It seems to me the focus was on prayers asking God to intervene in situations where His people were being very hard done by, probably even to the point of being persecuted. It's the sort of prayer Christians in countries like Afghanistan and North Korea might be pouring out to God. In Revelation 6:9-11 we hear of such cries even in heaven. We read there: “When the Lamb (Jesus) opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” It's interesting to note that when the next seal was opened it described the final day when God's wrath was poured out on the world. (Revelation 6:12-17)

In vs 8 Jesus asks the question whether He would find such praying faith on the earth. To me the context suggests the question is whether Christians will be faithful enough to press on in the time of waiting, and will keep praying for God's Kingdom to be completed by Christ's return. Are we doing that?