Don’t Lose Heart- Luke 18:1-8
A Transcript From a Teaching on Luke 18:1-8 (Kristin Nave)
One of my greatest joys in life is talking about the Word of God, and I am so thankful to be doing that today. So please join with me in prayer before we dive in.
A few years ago, I was flying from California to Chicago by myself and I sat down in a middle seat between two other adults. Remember that time when we sat that close to people on planes? Those ancient days? I had been looking forward to some time to read my Bible on the plane. My husband laughs when I share that, because he knows that I often can’t help but strike up conversations. And that day was no different.
About 30 minutes into the flight I pulled out my Bible just as the man next to me pulled out a book to read himself. I glanced over and caught the title, “God is not Great”, by Christopher Hitchens. I couldn’t help but subtly smile at the irony of the two books we were reading. Sadly, Christopher Hitchens has since passed away since that flight but I had recently seen an interview with him on television about his book. He argues in his book that organized religion is “violent, irrational, intolerant” and essentially poisons everything. His book is seen as a rallying cry for atheists to make science and reason more prominent in society. Because I am fully convinced of the providential sovereignty of God, I believe there are no coincidences, and I was thanking God silently that I knew enough to be able to engage with this man about the book.
So I turned to the man with a smile and somewhat impulsively, without thinking through what I was saying, said to him, “Wow! We are reading just about the opposite of books possible!”
I was nervous about his response, but he turned to me, looked at my Bible, and smiled in return.
“Yes, you could say that”.
We then began a nearly hour long conversation about God, faith, religion. It turns out that this man held the career of a courtroom judge. And that is why it made his objection to God so interesting, and ironic. His main complaint about believing in God was in the suggestion that God allowed some people to go to hell and didn’t allow everyone into heaven. He didn’t like the idea about eternal punishment. I found it ironic, because it really came from a thwarted view of justice. And this man’s career was to uphold justice in the land. But you see his thwarted view of justice really stemmed from his lack of fear of God. And this is when we will turn to our passage for today. It is a parable in which Jesus tells about another judge who didn’t have a fear of God. Please join me in opening up your Bible to Luke 18:1-8.
18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 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 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus begins the parable by telling us the meaning, to pray and not lose heart. But to enter into this passage we need to backtrack a little bit. If you have the ESV like myself, your passage begins with an “and”. If you have the NIV, it uses the word, “Then”. Either translation shows us that this is a continuation of the previous passage of Scripture.
Jesus and his disciples are on a journey to Jerusalem, and on this journey Jesus was teaching them about the coming kingdom of God. He was exhorting his disciples to be ready for his coming, because no one will know the day and many will not be prepared. We can relate, can’t we? Many of us are unprepared for his coming because we are discouraged- his return seems so slow, and we are losing heart. In the face of persecution, it also seemed slow to Jesus’ disciples. And that’s why Jesus exhorted “them” as it says in verse 1, and us as well, for our first point today:
1. We should pray and not lose heart even though Jesus’ return seems slow.
“Losing heart” translates in this passage to growing weary or discouraged. We are currently in the midst of COVID, political divisions, racial tensions, and this doesn’t even include all the personal, daily trials we might be facing. So many of us are tempted to lose heart. How bad is it going to get before Jesus returns? Isn’t this bad enough? I don’t know about you but one of the things I have lamented over the most during this time we are in even more than the actual circumstances is over the lack of hope in so many people, even Christians. We are losing heart.
It can seem like “Always pray” is such a simple answer to “losing heart”. So instead, many in the world are turning to so many other things in their discouragement. I heard a pastor report a phone usage increase during COVID of 700%. Yes, this probably partially due to the fact that we don’t have face to face time. But listen to these statistics: Verizon reported a 75% increase in video game traffic, T-Mobile a 45% increase. Pornhub reported a 22% increase in subscriptions. The University of Utah health department reported a 55% increase in alcohol consumption compared to this same time last year. A survey conducted by OnePoll reported an impulse spending spike of 18%, even when so many jobs have been lost. Lastly, perhaps the saddest of all, the American Medical Association found this past week that cardiomyopathy, or “Broken Heart Syndrome”, has increased during Covid. This is a condition in which stressful events can cause a release of stress hormones that temporarily reduce the heart’s ability to pump- causing it to contract less efficiently or irregularly. People aren’t just losing heart. They are dying of broken hearts. And we know many Christian homes have not been immune to turning to things other than prayer when they are discouraged. What have you turned to? Have you turned to God in prayer, or something else?
Times are hard, and his return can seem slow. My friend and I were talking yesterday about how many people are saying it’s the end times right now. I heard a pastor share on youtube that he is confident the antichrist is here on this earth. So he also said to stock up on guns and food. My friend and I were commenting that it seems as though we are all looking for an escape. Yes, it is good to long for Jesus to come back. But in response to his seemingly delayed return, Jesus doesn’t say to long for his return, he tells us to pray, and not lose heart. Yes, we know we are closer to his coming today than yesterday. This is why in the previous chapter Jesus reminds us that no one knows when he will be coming. Think about the Christians in Nazi Germany. Perhaps they, too, were hopeful or confident the end was near. And yet here we are. What is interesting is in chapter 17, Jesus uses the story about Noah and Lot to describe the times before the world and city was destroyed. Jesus doesn’t necessarily mention the difficult things happening, the apparent evil or the sexual perversions. Look back at 17:28: In those days “they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building”. They were doing regular, daily life activities.
So whether we are in the midst of extremely difficult times or daily life activities, Jesus implores us to “always” pray, and not lose heart, even when his return seems slow. That is his main exhortation here. And he then tells us the story of the persistent widow to answer why we should pray and not lose heart, which is our second point for today.
2. We should always pray and not lose heart because even an unjust man can give us justice.
The widow was particularly weak in society at this time. She had a very low status and was somewhat of an outcast. We can see that is exactly how the “unrighteous” judge treated her, as he kept ignoring her. But God cares deeply for the widows, and the Jewish disciples listening to this parable would have known this. Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that God is a defender of the widows, and Isaiah 1:17 tells us that “Justice” among God’s people was measured in part by treatment of widows.
That is why this treatment she received from this judge was abhorrent to God. This judge was described to be “unrighteous”, and he described himself as one who did not fear God or respect man.
But because she was fervent in her pleadings, because she did not lose heart and continued to ask and hope for justice, she was given justice even though it was from an unjust man. But why is Jesus telling the story of an unrighteous judge? To contrast him with God the Father. He is using a “lesser to greater argument”. If the lesser is true, then how much more is the greater, true?
He tells us, “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?’ Which brings up our next point:
3. We should always pray and not lose heart because we pray to a perfectly just, wholly merciful, and completely loving God.
You see, all the widow had was her persistence. But us followers of Jesus? In contrast: The widow was a stranger (we are God’s elect according to Luke 18:7), she was one (God’s people many), she came to a judge that wanted to keep his distance (James 4:8 tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us), She came to an unjust judge (we come to a judge who is described in Deuteronomy 32:4 to have work that is perfect, ways that are all just, to be faithful and upright and without iniquity), she came on her own volition (we come to a God who the Psalmist tells us in 119:4 that we can ask Him to plead our cause), she had no promise (we have an insurmountable amount of promises that are said in 1 Corinthians 1:20 to be “yes” and “amen”), she had access only at certain times (we have access to God at all times through the Spirit according to Eph. 2:18, because Jesus made a way thru the cross) her pleadings annoyed the judge (our pleadings are described so sweetly in Revelation to be collected by God in “golden bowls”). Just picture that with me for a moment! Our prayers are being stored up in golden bowls in heaven! Oh our amazing God, the perfect judge, loving Father, and amazing Savior. This is the message I tried to convey to that judge on the airplane that day. I told him, yes. God executes justice, and the penalty according to Romans 6:23 for even one sin is death. In the courtroom of our life, God brings his gavel down and the penalty for every crime, every unrighteous deed we commit or even think, is death. But I also told him that while we were given the death penalty as our punishment, this God and judge brought his son in to that courtroom to take the place of our death penalty. He’s a perfect judge, enforcing justice, but he’s a merciful Father, offering his son as our savior from the death penalty. Perfectly just, but full of mercy.
- And this is the “why” and “how” of why we pray and not lose heart…because this is the God we bring our pleadings to.
- So when the sky is falling, the world is falling apart, and we don’t know why Jesus hasn’t returned to rescue us from all this injustice, Jesus calls us to pray.
- Jesus has the same answer to whether he’s coming tomorrow, or in 100 years: pray, and don’t lose heart. “Because I am a good and loving Father. I WILL come. I WILL bring justice to the earth and your suffering will end one day”. As he told his disciples in chapter 17 that even though they don’t know the time, his coming will be “as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other”. He is coming back.
And then Jesus does something interesting. He abruptly shifts to a question: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?” Jesus is not ignorant, nor is he truly suggesting the possibility that there will not be faith on earth. This is why the entirety of Scripture matters lest we take one Scripture and misuse it. We can look to Jesus’ words in other places to know that Jesus knew his people would be saved in the end, indicating their faith was preserved and that they truly were elect. John records Jesus saying of his chosen, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (10:28). Jesus was using this question to encourage his disciples to demonstrate their faith by praying and not losing heart. And this is our last point:
4. We ought to always pray so our faith and the faith of others’ doesn’t grow cold.
Jesus knows things will get hard, and he tells us things will get hard. He tells us in John 16:33 that in this world “you will have tribulation”. This word “tribulation” carries great weight, it’s not talking about a stubbed toe, or a flat tire. Jesus is preparing us for significant trial. He knows that in saying he will bring justice “speedily” in our eyes often feels slow. Especially when we see so much evil around us. Let’s read Matt. 24:9-14 together. Many betraying and hating one another? False prophets coming? Lawlessness increasing? Love for God decreasing? Sound familiar? I wish it said next, “But then a particular president would be elected and things will get better”. No, but it does say, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved”. The one who endures to the end through prayer, who doesn’t lose heart and allow their faith to grow cold, will demonstrate their salvation.
-Our endurance to the end does not gain us salvation, our endurance until the end through prayer is the evidence of our faith.
-And our faith not growing cold is not just important for us. It’s important for others. The next verse in the Matthew passage says, “The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”.
God isn’t rescuing us from this world yet. He is calling us to endure through prayer so that our love and our faith doesn’t grow cold. Because the gospel needs to keep being preached. The gospel needs to go throughout the world. It’s easy to keep our eyes on ourselves when we are tempted to lose heart. I know from experience.
About 6 weeks ago my daughter and I were at the grocery store. Before Covid, I loved the grocery store. It was a reminder to me of God’s provision, and a place to smile and talk to strangers. And then Covid hit, and it became a place where everyone seemed to fear the lack of provision and where people not only avoided your gaze, but also returned it with fear, sadness, and even anger. On this particular day, I had turned the corner of an aisle and had accidentally been going the wrong direction. When I noticed a person heading toward me and that I was going against the arrows, I looked up at the person and apologized. They did not accept the apology, and I got a nasty look.
I turned around and walked away. All these emotions hit me. Discouragement, weariness, anger, frustration. I’m so tired of Covid. So tired of fearful and angry people. So tired of wearing these masks, going the designated direction in grocery stores, all the canceled events, the sickness, I could go on…I felt sorry for myself. I was weary.
A bit later I went and stood in line, but I was just in the worst mood, distracted. I stood in line and just tuned out, kind of had that blank stare off into space. What jolted me out of it finally was realizing I had actually been standing in line quite some time. I looked at the customer in front of me, and what I saw, nearly brought me to tears. The grocery clerk, mask and gloves on, was clasping the customer’s hands and praying for her. She didn’t know her. She simply had asked her to pray for her. And it was beautiful. I have since talked with that grocery clerk since then to tell her how that day changed my life. Seeing her reminded me that this story is not just about ourselves. We don’t just pray and not lose heart for ourselves, but also for others. This is a hurting world. That cashier hadn’t forgotten the mission of God, even in the midst of a discouraging place such as the grocery store. You can bet she’s seen some pretty cranky, fearful customers. She has since told me that we have to stop looking to the left and right, to be focused so much on ourselves or circumstances, but to look up, to Him. You see God was working that day in the grocery store and doing an incredible work. But because I was losing heart, I nearly missed it. He’s inviting us into this amazing adventure of declaring the gospel to a hurting world. That is why we need to pray and not lose heart, so that our faith and others’ doesn’t grow cold.
Conclusion: What a message for the church right now. For you, and for me. When injustice and evil seems to prevail, when Jesus seems to be so long in his return, pray, and don’t lose heart. Pray, because you can know that your prayers are heard. Pray, because you go to a perfectly justice and wholly merciful God. Pray, because it will strengthen your faith and others, and help you endure to the end.
Let us leave with some of Paul’s last words before he was martyred.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing.
Paul didn’t get to see the return of Jesus. But he didn’t lose heart. He fought the good fight, he finished the race, and kept the faith. He didn’t lose heart, because as he said here, he believed in a righteous judge who would crown him with righteousness in the end.
Let’s pray.