Reflective Bible Study

While teaching the disciples how to pray in Luke’s gospel, Jesus first gives them a model prayer before quickly transitioning into an intriguing parable-illustration that on the surface implies that God can be pestered into answering our requests.

In this illustration, Jesus tells His disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.” (v. 5-8)

This parable amazes me because it appears to encourage us to be extra persistent – even annoying at times – when asking God for something. In some ways, God is way more loving than I am because if a “friend” kept pestering me at midnight for some loaves of bread, I am uncertain if he/she would remain a friend. While they might eventually pester their way into getting bread, it would probably cost a friendship.

However, thankfully God is more loving and merciful than me, and when Jesus shares this passage, He frames it along the lines of us doing the asking and persisting, rather than us being the friend who is woken up at midnight.

While on the surface, this parable is pretty powerful, hidden in the details is an even more amazing truth that anyone, anywhere in the world can claim and act upon – regardless of if they are a Christian or not. As Christians and followers of Jesus, we can consider ourselves friends of God. In Jesus’ concluding line, He sweeps our friendship aside when He says, “I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.” (v. 8)

Jesus tells these disciples that regardless of a person’s view of God or of the strength of their relationship, persistence in their prayers will lead to answers – and this is even for those who are not considered friends of God. As I write this, I wonder if more people would see more blessings added to their lives if they would simply persist with heartfelt prayers, regardless of their view of God, their level of faith in Him, or their belief about whether or not He exists.

Persistent, sincere prayers appear to be one thing God wants His followers to model for others. Tucked inside this parable is the promise that anyone, anywhere can start being persistent with their prayers and can expect God to answer with a gift of what they need – which may look different from what they were asking for to begin with.

Part way through Jesus ministry, some Pharisees got together and challenged Him about making claims about Himself that appeared to be invalid, because no one else had validated them. When responding to this challenge, Jesus opens by making a startling statement. To begin His response, Jesus tells the Pharisees, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself, but they are true. I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going.” (v. 14)

Before answering their challenge, Jesus first acknowledges He does make some startling claims, but this is because they don’t know who Jesus’ Source of knowledge is. The point Jesus is making is that just because they don’t agree with His claim doesn’t make the claim any less true.

Jesus counterchallenges these leaders by making the point that they really don’t know what they are talking about because they don’t know where Jesus is really from or where He is going. However, Jesus does know where He came from and where He is heading – and this detail is crucial for us to have faith in Him.

The reason this is important is because Jesus is the only one who can take us to heaven. While there are plenty of worldviews that claim to have the knowledge about how to get to heaven, none of them can compare with the offer Jesus has given to us. With all the other claims about religions leading to heaven, Christianity is the only one where everything has already been done for us. With other worldviews, the focus is on what we have to do; Christianity’s focus is on what Jesus has done for us.

In this passage, Jesus tells us that the religious leaders are clueless regarding Him, which shouldn’t surprise us if we read the gospels with the goal of learning about Jesus. But just because the most religious people in the first century didn’t understand Jesus, we can trust Jesus knew what He was talking about. Jesus knew He came from heaven and He knows how to take us back with Him.

Perhaps it is just a matter of semantics, or simply looking too closely at the details of this passage, but in this passage is a subtle shift of wording that I find very interesting. As our passage opens, Jesus is teaching in a crowded home, and it is much too crowded to bring someone in to be healed by Him on a stretcher or mat. But this does not discourage this crippled man’s friends because they realize that the roof is not as crowded, and that there is ample “airspace” to lower their friend right in front of the One they know can heal him.

And this is what they do. What I find interesting is not found in the persistence of this man’s friends, but in Jesus’ words surrounding this healing and in the crowd’s response.

We are unsure what Jesus was teaching on immediately before being interrupted by the man and his friends, but Jesus’ first words don’t relate to healing but to forgiveness of sins. This causes a significant stir amongst the leaders present, because forgiveness of sins is an ability reserved only for God, and Jesus seems to be claiming He is capable of it as well.

The phrase Jesus says that stands in contrast to what the crowd reacted to is this: “Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” (v. 23-24a)

This stands in contrast to what happens after the man is healed: “He picked up his mat and went home, giving thanks to God. Everyone was amazed and praised God.” (v. 25b-26a)

It seems as though Jesus was pushing the religious leaders about who He was, and subtly drawing the focus to His role and mission on earth. However, the crowd, and even the man who was healed, seemed to be more focused on praising the God behind the miracle instead of getting caught up in the tension present over Jesus’ forgiveness comments.

While the Pharisees and experts debated over Jesus, the crowd was praising God – and this is exactly what Jesus planned to happen. Jesus stumps the Pharisees while inspiring praise to God.

In my own life, when I see blessings come my way, it is less about thanking the specific source of the blessing and more about praising the God who is the ultimate source of this blessing. That is one lesson I see Jesus teaching us here.

While visiting Jerusalem part way through Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish leaders in the temple get into a debate with Jesus. John’s gospel records this debate as well as what we can learn about the opposition Jesus faced.

As the leaders were getting more and more agitated at Jesus’ claims, we come to an interesting part of the conversation. After calling these Jews out for being children of the devil, Jesus says, “Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (v. 45-47)

It is important for us to pay attention to Jesus’ challenge here. If these leaders – or anyone – could prove that Jesus had sinned against God’s law, then they would have the right to judge Him. However, without proof, then they have no case. If there is no case that can be made against Jesus, then what He is telling them must be classified as true.

However, these people don’t hear/understand Jesus, and Jesus comes out and cleanly says this by telling them that they don’t belong to God.

The leaders respond by trying to change the subject: “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” (v. 48)

Before this point, the idea that Jesus was a Samaritan was not even in the discussion, and this attempted maneuver is a sign that these leaders have lost ground in their debate. They are now trying to grab whatever insults they can in order to save their reputation and worldview that said Jesus could not be from God.

Seeing what is happening, Jesus simply answers the question that they appear to have asked each other: “I am not possessed by a demon, but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.” (v. 49)

In every conversation Jesus had, in every healing Jesus did, and in every word Jesus taught, He gave honor to God the Father. Jesus received dishonor from those living in that century and that culture, and He receives dishonor from culture today.

As Jesus’ followers, we should not be surprised when the world discriminates against followers of Jesus. In some ways, we should expect to find plenty of examples of it. However, we should also remember that when the world throws everything at us to try and derail our focus from Jesus, we can know that when time and history have ended, those of us who have stood with Jesus will be standing with Him in a newly recreated earth.