Flashback Episode — Answering Our Prayers: Luke 18:1-8

For our episode this week, I want to share with you a parable Jesus shared that sounds very strange in my mind. While this parable is not the strangest parable I have read in the gospels, this parable would easily fit into a top five list of strange parables Jesus told if I were to create such a list.

However, while this is a strange parable, we don’t have to wonder what Jesus meant by sharing it. Luckily for us, Luke prefaces this parable by telling us why Jesus shared it, and in both the parable and its introduction, we see hints at how God responds to prayer. Our passage, with its strange parable, is found in Luke, chapter 18, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

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?”

With that closing question, this parable ends. Many Bibles call this parable The Parable of the Persistent Widow, and in my mind, this parable is an odd one for Jesus to have shared. In this parable, it appears as though Jesus compared God the Father, who loves us enough to send Jesus to redeem us, with an uncaring judge who doesn’t respect God or other people. After giving us these two contrasting characters, Jesus then challenges us to look for similarities between the two.

However, before we get too caught up on how Jesus misaligned these two characters in His illustration, let’s bring our focus back around to how Luke introduces the parable. Luke says in verse 1, “Jesus used this story to teach his followers that they should always pray and never lose hope.”

It seems like the goal Jesus has for this parable is to teach His followers to be persistent in their prayers. Perhaps even though we know that God is not like that uncaring judge, we might feel that way if we pray, and pray, and pray and don’t feel as though we have received an answer.

But if we look closely with how Jesus concludes this passage, we see an interesting paradox. In verse 7, we read Jesus giving us a promise when He says, “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.”

The paradox in this verse is that those who are persistent in their prayers will receive quick answers – but then it seems as though God might stall answering if we are not persistent. I have no idea what prompts the responses God gives, or why He chooses the answers He gives to prayers, but I do know there are four possible responses He gives when we pray:

The first possible response to prayer is giving us a “Yes” answer to our request. By far, this is our preferred answer, but it seems as though God only gives us the “yes” answer if He knows it will benefit us or those around us. The promise Jesus shared is that “God will always give what is right to His people”, so if we receive a yes, then we can trust God knows that our request will benefit us and those around us.

The second possible response to prayer is giving us a “No” answer to our request. In some ways, this might seem like the least preferred answer, but actually it isn’t. For some people, receiving a clear “no” is actually a blessing because they trust God has something better in mind for them. Jesus’ promise that “God will always give what is right to His people” filters the requests that are answered with a “no” as being outside what is right. While we might want the things we are requesting, God can see how these things would not be an ultimate blessing to us in the long run.

The third possible response to prayer is giving us a “No, but here is something better” answer to our request. In my own experience, this is usually the response I receive. Perhaps I don’t know how to pray, or maybe I simply pray too small, but once I realized this possible response to prayer, I am able to recognize that many of the times it feels like God is saying “no”, He may really be saying, “No, but here is something better”. When I claim Jesus’ promise that “God will always give what is right to His people”, I can trust that God has something better in mind when I don’t get exactly what I want. For this response and the next one, it’s up to me to learn patience and to not lose hope that God has something great in mind to give me instead.

The fourth and final possible response to prayer is giving us a “Not yet” or a “Wait” answer to our request. This is probably the most painful response we can receive because we want what we want and we want it now! However, a “not yet” answer to prayer is not a “no”, it is simply a delayed “Yes” or a delayed “Here is something better”. While I have no idea when the right time will be, I do have the promise that “God will always give what is right to His people”. Part of God giving us what is right is answering our requests at the right time and in the right way.

The last part of the promise Jesus shares tells us that God “will not be slow to answer” our requests. This means that even if we feel like we are talking to the ceiling without any luck, our prayers are passing through time and space and they ultimately reach God on His throne. God answers our prayers quickly, so if we don’t feel like we have received a response, chances are that the answer is either a “No, but here is something else”, or a “Not yet”.

Both these responses have an element of waiting involved. The “something else” God may give us might not be what we had hoped for, but in time we will see how His response was best for us in the long run.

However, the promise ends with a touch of pessimism. Jesus finishes verse 8 off with a question saying, “But when the Son of Man comes again, will he find those on earth who believe in him?”

God is quick to answer the prayers of His people, but with the way the world and culture is heading, we are speeding towards a place where people might simply give up on Him. God wants to answer our prayers with what is best for us, but if no one is praying to Him, there will be no prayers that He can answer.

Does God need our prayers to help us?

Easily I can answer that with a “No”, but God values our freedom of choice and our free will over forcing good into our lives. Even though it might bring Him pain to watch, He will stay out of our lives if we choose to reject Him, and if we are indifferent to Him, then any blessings He gives may be more subtle than clear.

God doesn’t want to stay an arm’s length away from us. He wants to be right next to us. But He will only come near to us when we ask Him to and move towards Him.

As we close out another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and claim the promise He gave us through this strange parable that “God will always give what is right to His people”.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, with the goal of learning directly from the Holy Spirit and the message about God that has been preserved through history.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or move away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!