1 Then Jesus used this story to teach his followers that they should always pray and never lose hope. 2 “In a certain town there was a judge who did not respect God or care about people. 3 In that same town there was a widow who kept coming to this judge, saying, ‘Give me my rights against my enemy.’ 4 For a while the judge refused to help her. But afterwards, he thought to himself, ‘Even though I don’t respect God or care about people, 5 I will see that she gets her rights. Otherwise she will continue to bother me until I am worn out.’”
6 The Lord said, “Listen to what the unfair judge said. 7 God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them. 8 I tell you, God will help his people quickly. But when the Son of Man comes again, will he find those on earth who believe in him?”
Read Luke 18:1-8 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
While the illustration Jesus shares in this passage is interesting, the passage closes with an almost cryptic, pessimistic view of the world at the time of the second coming.
Verse 8 ends with a question Jesus asks about the time of the end, “But when the Son of Man comes again, will he find those on earth who believe in him?” While this probably came as a surprise to the disciples and the early church that seemed to be growing exponentially, looking at this question today brings a completely different perspective with it.
Most of the first world culture could be viewed as “Post-Christian” which is another way of saying, it was Christian at one point, but it has since moved on. The view some people have is that Christianity was good for a time as the framework for culture, but it has outgrown its usefulness.
This is a broad generalization. There are some who wish that Christianity had never even gained a foothold in culture, and others who wish for Christianity to reclaim the key areas of culture that it once held.
According to the question Jesus shares, it could be seen as prophetic, representing the world today where culture is pushing anything past a surface, shallow belief in Jesus aside. Or it could be seen as a challenge to a group of disciples who were a tiny fraction in number compared with the world at their time, and as a continual challenge to Jesus’ followers throughout history to always remain on guard and actively pursuing a better relationship with Him while sharing their relationship with others.
Regardless of which angle we understand this question, we would be wise to keep our faith and belief in Jesus as a top priority in our lives, because everything in the popular culture is focused on stealing that focus away.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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