The Trouble with Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. ² “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. ³ And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? ⁸ I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

1. Persistent Prayer

A. Jesus assumes that we will likely have trouble with prayer – v. 1

1. Prayer is often hard.

2. Jesus depicts the situation of his people in this world – vv. 2-5
   1. The widow
   2. The widow is a picture of God’s people
   3. A plea for justice, vindication and vengeance

3. Jesus assures His people of God’s intervention – vv. 6-8a

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? ⁸ I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

1. The unjust judge and the pestering widow
2. The contrast and parallel between God and the judge.
   1. The parallel.
   2. The contrast

3. Justice is certain but not immediate

4. Jesus calls us to perseverance in faith and prayer – vv. 1, 8b
   1. Why we need perseverance
   2. Will there be people with such faith when the Son of Man comes – the Day of the Lord?
5. The take away from this parable
   1. Ready and praying when the Son of Man comes – The Day of the Lord – who will have this kind of faith, who will be praying like this?
      1. Are we praying for His kingdom to come, here, on earth as in heaven?
      2. Praying to the one who can bring about change.
   2. Persistent in prayer
      1. Other bible verses
      2. Persistence requires faith because answers may not be immediate; it doesn’t feel swift
      3. Delay according to us is usually different than what God sees as delay
      4. Help may not be deliverance but may be persistence to endure
      5. Take time every day for prayer, different days pray for different things
      6. “It is possible, even in the frantic pace of contemporary American life, to make prayer a priority.” Craig L. Blomberg
      7. Consider the “Lord’s Prayer” as a model.
   3. What happens while we wait for the answer?
      1. God is working something out in us in our waiting.
      2. Don’t despise or despair in the waiting – God is working in the waiting
   2. The prayers of the self-righteous church-goer and the repentant swindler – vv. 9-14

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

1. The self-righteous Pharisee
   1. The deception of our self-righteousness

2. Symptoms of self-righteousness

a. Despising others – v. 9

2. second symptom of self-righteousness - Performing ‘holy exercises” – praying in the temple

3. The shallowness of our righteousness

2. The repentant sinner – v. 13
   1. ‘the sinner’ The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. NET Study Bible
   2. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (CSB) better translated “God be propitious to me -- the sinner!” (YLT)
3. Jesus’ shocking word v. 14
4. The Take away from this parable
   1. The message:
   2. Our attitude toward other people
   3. Our attitude towards ourselves
      1. Acknowledging our self-righteousness – spend time to let the Lord shine on our hearts, our motives, our actions, our inaction

Luke 18:1-14

Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. ² “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. ³ And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? ⁸ I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Summary:

Most of us would hesitate to say that we are great at prayer. In this passage, Jesus addresses three aspects of prayer through two parables. In the first, a persistent widow repeatedly appeals to a judge for justice. Through her example, Jesus calls us to pray continually and never give up, assuring us that God will bring justice to His suffering, chosen people.

The second parable contrasts two people and their approaches to prayer. One is self-righteous and looks down on others, while the other comes before God as a repentant sinner. This parable challenges us because, if we are honest, we may see something of ourselves in both individuals. May these two parables prompt us to examine our own prayers, deepen our dependence on God, and inspire meaningful change in our lives.

1. Persistent Prayer
   • Jesus addresses his disciples
   • Jesus begins this parable with the punch line
   • He ends the parable with a challenging question

A. Jesus assumes that we will likely have trouble with prayer – v. 1

• Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up.

1. Prayer is often hard.
   • “There are times when prayer will be hard, when we will be tempted to leave off praying and give it all up.... There may be times when we have no emotional energy, no warmth of feeling, for prayer. A creeping conviction of pointlessness slithers into our mind, and we find our motivation has sprung a low leak.” Dale Ralph Davis, On the Road to Jerusalem, p. 76

2. Jesus depicts the situation of his people in this world – vv. 2-5
   1. The widow
      • “The widow He imagines would not necessarily have been old.... We hear nothing of her specific difficulty. But her plea is, ‘Grant me justice from my opponent!’ What seems clear is that she is being wronged, she is defenseless, and she wants the judge to put things right in her case.” David, p. 77
   2. The widow is a picture of God’s people
      • “In His ‘application’ of the parable, Jesus parallels the widow’s circumstances with those of God’s people at large. God’s ‘elect’ also ‘cry out to him day and night’ for vindication (v. 7)
   3. A plea for justice, vindication and vengeance
      • “This ‘justice’ or ‘vindication’ (ekdikesis) also includes vengeance (cf. Rom. 12:19, ‘Vengeance [same word: ekdikesis] is mine, I will pay back, says the Lord’). The idea is that if God is to bring justice/vindication to His people, He must bring vengeance on their enemies and those who assault them. God puts things right for His people by putting down those who wrong His people. But this justice or vengeance is not something believers are to try to pull off for themselves – they are to wait for God to do so (Rm. 12;19).” Davis, p. 77

3. Jesus assures His people of God’s intervention – vv. 6-8a
   1. The unjust judge and the pestering widow
      • “[The judge] confesses that though he has neither piety nor compassion (v. 4b; that is, this will go against his ‘principles’), ‘yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will grant her justice, so that by her infernal coming she will not wear me out’ (v. 5).” Davis p. 79
   2. The contrast and parallel between God and the judge.
      1. The parallel.
      • “The parallel is that the judge says, ‘I will grant her justice’ (v. 5a), and Jesus says that is precisely what God will do for His people (v. 7a).” Davis p. 79
        2. The contrast
      • “And yet there is such a contrast in attitude and character – Jesus’ words in verse 7 contain one of His how-much-more arguments (i.e., if a scumbag judge would give such a widow justice, how much more will God...).” Davis p. 79
      • “God is nothing like that stone-hearted judge and His people are not regarded as irritating pests but are His ‘chose ones’ (elect). Davis p. 79
   3. Justice is certain but not immediate
      • “The point is that the coming of the Son of Man and of God’s justice is certain but not immediate. And in the meantime, ‘his elect’ go on living with this paradox. That is the paradox God’s people live with – and they go on crying out to Him day and night because there is no one else to whom they can go.” Davis, p. 80
4. Jesus calls us to perseverance in faith and prayer – vv. 1, 8b
   1. Why we need perseverance
      • “God’s people live in a world in which they are assailed, assaulted, and sometimes annihilated, and so, in face of that, they must never give in, lose heart, or throw in the towel; they must keep praying for God to put things right. This prayer requires unrelenting tenacity.” Davis, pp. 80-81
      • “We must remember the kind of prayer He speaks of – not prayer for a new job or for you house to sell or for your kid to get accepted into a certain university, but for God to give justice to His weary and beaten-down people.” Davis, p. 80
   2. Will there be people with such faith when the Son of Man comes – the Day of the Lord?
      • “[Jesus’ disciples] must not give in or lose heart in this matter [of prayer]. Such is Jesus’ concern behind His question in verse 8b. ‘Only when the Son of Man comes, will he find this faith upon the earth?’ ... the faith Jesus speaks of is the faith that shows itself in persevering prayer.” Davis, p. 81
      • “Jesus’ question doesn’t exactly suggest He expects to meet a ‘Jesus bandwagon’ at his coming. He queries whether at that time He will find people praying in this way. Will Jesus find a people still praying, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’? Or will our love have grown cold?” Davis, p. 81
5. The take away from this parable
   1. Ready and praying when the Son of Man comes – The Day of the Lord – who will have this kind of faith, who will be praying like this?
      1. Are we praying for His kingdom to come, here, on earth as in heaven?
   2. Persistent in prayer
      1. Take time every day for prayer, different days pray for different things
      2. “It is possible, even in the frantic pace of contemporary American life, to make prayer a priority.” Craig L. Blomberg, Preaching the Parables, p. 172
      3. Consider the “Lord’s Prayer” as a model.
         • Note: Doesn’t mean we should pray for things that are not according to God’s will.
   3. Persistent in other areas
      • “Persistence need not be limited to prayer. The woman’s faithfulness in doing what she believed reflected God’s just priorities encourages us to persevere in every aspect of Christian life and ethical living. In an age when commitment and loyalty seem to mean less and less in society as a whole, and at time even in Christian circles, there is a crying need for people to commit to staying in one community, in one church in one ministry, even when opportunities may arise for them to go elsewhere, simply for the sake of proving continuity and stability in the lives of those around them when so much else is transient and changing.” Blomberg, ibid, pp. 172-173
   2. The prayers of the self-righteous church-goer and the repentant swindler – vv. 9-14

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

1. The self-righteous Pharisee
   • The audience – those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.
   • “...in the first century he [the Pharisee] would likely have enjoyed a certain esteem. He represents the moral churchman, so I have dubbed him ‘the Presbyterian’ since that is my own ‘franchise.’ ... So there is this story about the ‘Presbyterian’ and this low-life publican or tax collector.” Davis, pp. 83-84
   1. The deception of our self-righteousness
      • “...to us ‘Pharisee’ connotes hypocrite while in the first century a Pharisee would generally be regarded as the embodiment of piety and spiritual earnestness. However, the Pharisee in Jesus’ story appears so crassly self-righteous that we want to placed ourselves at a vast distance from him. But it’s not that simple; this whole affair can be deceptive. How might you know if you are self-righteous?” Davis, p. 84

2. Symptoms of self-righteousness

a. Despising others – v. 9

• “Note how this plays out in the parable, in the Pharisee’s thanksgiving that he is ‘not like the rest of men...even like this tax collector’ (v. 11). ...despising others is a corollary of self-righteousness, a symptom of it, a companion to it.” Davis p. 84

• “There is also a peculiar danger in this parable and in the way you react to it. A kind of curious double reverse takes place. For you may look at Jesus’ characters and instinctively refuse to identify with the Pharisee (’That’s not me!’) and, for whatever reason, you identify with the publican – and despise the Pharisee! So you may fall into the pit of self-righteousness, for you may find yourself so much as saying, ‘Oh God, I thank you that I am not like that arrogant Pharisee, tooting his own horn, itemizing achievements, loathing other people.... if you identify with the publican, do you despise the Pharisee – and what does that say about you?” Davis, p. 85
• “The Pharisee was concerned with ritual purity. He wanted to remain separate from the others and acted aloof from them as well. His prayer calls attention to himself and reflects a certain arrogance, as he thanks God that he is not like a variety of criminals and lawbreakers.” Blomberg, ibid, p. 160

2. Performing ‘holy exercises” – praying in the temple

• “Our self-righteousness may appear in the holiest of exercises. The Pharisee’s prayer is really quite subtle.... It’s subtle, for (at least verbally) he ascribes to God the credit and praise that he is not like other men.... Observe the obvious: it is in prayer that his self-righteousness expresses itself.” Davis, p. 85

3. The shallowness of our righteousness
   • “Jesus underscores how shallow our righteousness is (vv. 11-12).... It consists not merely of the negatives of verse 11 but of the positives of verse 12. His was a sacrificial religion (fasting) and a generous religion (tithing). It affected his stomach and his wallet at least. And yet notice the focus of his righteousness. It has to do with tangible externals (fasting, giving) and in what he refrains from. Seems to be no searching of motives or thoughts or desires or hidden reasoning. No attention to depth matters.” Davis, p. 86
   • “How shallow and flimsy our righteousness is. What then are we to do? Where can one go or what can one do to get flushed out of his/her Pharisaism?... It is probably best if we simply recognize that our righteousness is shallow.... It may be the beginning of humbling yourself, so that God can exalt you (v. 14).” Davis, ibid, p.87

2. The repentant sinner – v. 13
   • ¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
   1. ‘ the sinner’ The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. NET Study Bible
      • “We should follow his plea. Notice the anguish he feels: he won’t life his eyes, keeps beating his chest.... Notice the isolation he knows: he calls himself, literally, ‘the sinner.’ The Greek has the definite article and sometimes that has no special significance. But here, it may be, he is seeing himself as ‘the sinner,’ i.e., as if he is the only person in the universe.... He stand before God all by himself.” Davis, ibid, pp. 88-89
   2. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (CSB) better translated “God be propitious to me -- the sinner!” (YLT)
      • “...the verb used [hilastheti;] has to do with turning away wrath by means of a sacrifice.... [It is as if he is saying] ‘Oh, that there was an atoning sacrifice for me!’ one that would be a sacrifice that would take his place and absorb his judgment.... he is asking for more than mercy...’Let there be an atonement for me.’ ... He cries for something beyond himself and outside of himself.” Davis, ibid, p. 89
3. Jesus’ shocking word
   • “Jesus seems to make life an upside-down-cake by what He says, If He had said that the Pharisee went down justified and that the publican was ‘struggling’ with it, folks could handle that, but Jesus flipped things on their ears.” Davis, ibid, p. 89
   • “Jesus decides who is righteous, it doesn’t depend on your feelings or achievements.” Davis, ibid, pp 87-88
   • “Clearly, Jesus is already preparing his hearers for a surprise ending. But still, he would have sent shock waves through the crowd as he delivered his conclusions.... Put bluntly in our twenty-first-century Christian language, the tax collector was saved. He had become right with God. The Pharisee hadn’t. The One who knows human hearts flawlessly recognized that years of conservative religious service, even involvement in a leadership role among God’s people, still had not led this Pharisee to a genuine relationship with God himself.” Blomberg, ibid, p. 161
4. The Take away from this parable
   1. The message:
      • “The message of Jesus’ parable...declares that God still loves tax collectors and all their contemporary equivalents, and he is willing to welcome them as saved people when they genuinely trust in him and repent of their sins, long before their lives are fully cleaned up. Besides, that’s true for all of us, because none of us will clean up all of the sin in our lives this side of heaven. God still loves today’s tax collectors, and he still hates the attitudes of the harsh Pharisees in our churches, who at the very least deserve stern rebuke for their loveless behavior, and in extreme cases, when they refuse to change, should receive the same kind of eviction from the church that Paul required for unrepentant Judaizers in Galatia (Gal. 4:30).” Blomberg, ibid, p. 164
   2. Our attitude toward other people
      • “It’s worth asking how often our attitudes are indistinguishable from this Pharisee’s when it comes to the notorious sinners in our world, especially when those attitudes match the Pharisees’ condemning spirit here rather than Jesus’ compassion. ... Throughout Jesus’ ministry, especially in Luke’s Gospel, sinners are given lavish welcomes at the slightest sign of genuine repentance.” Blomberg
   3. Our attitude towards ourselves
      1. Acknowledging our self-righteousness
      2. Prayer examples
      • O Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in thy sight,

Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;

Praise has been often praise-less sound.

My best services are filthy rags.” Aurther Bennett ed., The Valley of Vision, p. 150

• “But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;

My best prayers are stained with sin;

My penitential tears are so much impurity;

I need to repent of my repentance;

I need my tears to be washed;

I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness;” Bennett, ibid. p. 136

• O LORD, In prayer I see myself as nothing;

I find my heart going after thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to thee.

In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,

and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer I can place all my concerns in thy hands,

to be entirely at thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying. Bennett, ibid. p. 264-5

Bible Reading:

Luke 18:1-14

Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. ² “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. ³ And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me outby her persistent coming.’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? ⁸ I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Sermon Summary:

Most of us would hesitate to say that we are great at prayer. In this passage, Jesus addresses three aspects of prayer through two parables. In the first, a persistent widow repeatedly appeals to a judge for justice. Through her example, Jesus calls us to pray continually and never give up, assuring us that God will bring justice to His suffering, chosen people.

The second parable contrasts two people and their approaches to prayer. One is self-righteous and looks down on others, while the other comes before God as a repentant sinner. This parable challenges us because, if we are honest, we may see something of ourselves in both individuals. May these two parables prompt us to examine our own prayers, deepen our dependence on God, and inspire meaningful change in our lives.

Group Discussion

1. Discuss your understanding and experience of prayer.
2. The purpose of the first parable is explained. Why does the parable need an explanation?
3. The widow is most likely a description of God’s people. What are the things in which we need justice?
4. God will grant justice (v.7) and he will swiftly grant them justice (v.8). What does swiftly mean? Is that your experience? How would you explain “swiftly” to someone who says God has not answered my prayer?
5. The purpose of the second parable is described in verse 9. This parable is directed to people with two characteristics. Have you ever felt either of these characteristics?
6. We could criticize the Pharisee and look down on him. What does that reveal about ourselves?
7. How does a person today become like the Pharisee in this parable?
8. What might be ways to be delivered from being like the Pharisee?
9. What is shocking about Jesus’ declaration that the tax collector is justified rather than the Pharisee?

Pray:

1. Pray for God’s light to shine on the motives in our prayers.
2. For the needs of your group members.

This week's set list:

Graves Into Gardens – Elevation Worship

The Joy – The Belonging Co

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) – Hillsong United

Reckless Love – Cory Asbury