Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Luke 18:1-8
I was listening to a
commentary on this text of scripture and it had a rather interesting
explanation of what Jesus is literally saying about the woman in his parable. The
translation we have here is from the NRSV translation and it reads “Though I
have no fear of God and no respect for any human being, yet because this widow
keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out
by continually coming.”
But the literal Greek word
actually says “lest she come and give me a black eye.” That’s what
hypopiazō means. It’s a boxing term. This is one lady you do not want to mess
with. Like in many of Jesus parables it has this attention-getting twist.
Through the image of this
parable, Jesus gives us another lesson on prayer, “… to pray always without
becoming weary.” The question is never, will God hear my prayer, rather, when (
speedily ) and how ( justly ).
I think it would be true to
say, that everyone has given up on prayer a some time or other; either because
it seems to be lost in time, or we fail to recognize and understand how it has
been answered.
In Mtt. 6:8, in the
instruction on the "Our Father", Jesus reminds that the Father knows
what we need, even before we ask. We start off in prayer with what we think is
our need and how soon we need it. This is good to get prayer going. It is here
that "faith" becomes all important. Faith dismisses the question of
will God hear and answer my prayer, and turns it to a question of discernment,
how is my prayer being answer?
With this in mind some might
be led to ask, why make petition in prayer to God at all? Since God already
knows what is to be done, why pray? We pray, not to change God's mind, rather
to change ours. We bring our small and limited grasp of the situation to
prayer, so that it might be fulfilled, that is, filled up, expanded in ways far
beyond what we would have imagined.
When the man, who was born
blind, reached out to Jesus to make him able to see, Jesus opened his eyes, not
simply for him to have physical sight, but to see more deeply into the mystery
of God's plan for his blindness, for his healing and for his new purpose in
life.
As Jesus passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.… John 9:1
Clearly, the disciples were
incorrect in assuming this man's blindness was punishment for sin. Blindness
can be a result of the imperfection of the natural order. Modern medicine has
discovered ways to intervene in such conditions and in some cases restore
sight. No doubt grace can be a part of such a process and people of faith
recognize this and praise God for such knowledge given to man.
But if praying for healing
does not experience the recovery of sight, does this mean the prayers are
rejected? No, something greater is at
work and we must continue in prayer to discover what. No prayer made in faith
will be rejected.
Knowing this, first brings
peace to our hearts in our situation. Now this "prayer of faith",
sets out to lead us ever deeper into the mystery of God's greater plan for us,
and how this situation will bring glory to God and fulfillment far beyond all
our imagining.
The Christian Life rest on the
foundation of prayer. Prayer rests on the foundation of Faith. When the Lord
comes to answer our prayer, how will we know, how will we see him, unless
through the "eyes of faith"? The Prayer of Faith will not fall
silent.
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