Select here for a pdf version.
Luke 18:1-8
A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
In the Gospel text for today there is this widow, and she’s pounding on the door of the unjust judge. The first thing you realize about this parable is that it’s funny. It’s classic Jewish humor. She pounds and pounds on the door. The judge thinks: “How can I get rid of her? She keeps pestering me. I’m just going to give in.”
We remember that a parable has one point, and we need to be careful not to make a parable into an allegory, that is, a story about ourselves and what we should do.
It’s completely wrong to think that God is like the unjust judge, and the only way God is going to respond to us is if we pound on the door. It’s also wrong to think that the Lord testing us, like Job.
No. A parable has one point. The point of this parable is based on Jewish rhetoric, called a trope. For example, when someone begins a story: “Once upon a time,” we know what’s coming is a fairy tale.
In the parable of the persistent widow there is a rhetorical device which is not explicitly stated, but implied, which is “How much more.” If the unjust judge hears and gives, how much more will your heavenly Father hear and give.
What is justice? We are familiar with this from elsewhere in the New Testament, especially in Matthew 6 and 7. The last half of Matthew 6 is about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and what it says is, if the Lord takes care of the birds of the air, how much more will he take care of you (Matthew 6:30)! He knows all of your needs and he takes care of them.
Then in Matthw 7 comes: “Knock and it will be opened to you,” and: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).
You’d think, in light of the fact that this is the way God works, that the churches would be full and the people would be active, and they’d focus on the fact that the Lord is so good and gracious that all they can do is praise him.
As you notice, that’s not the case. Why is that?
One reason is that many people are practical atheists. It’s not that they have studied modern philosophical atheists and nodded in agreement, but rather that they are cultural atheists, practical atheists.
There are three ways of describing this.
The first one has to do with the problem of evil. Here it says: Notice the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, but as you and I know, the birds of the air fall, the lilies of the field wither and die. The grass is thrown into the fire and burned. There’s evil. There are tragedies, accidents, illnesses, earthquakes, droughts, wars, and times of inflation where everything is lost. There’s just evil.
There’s big evil in the world and people say: “God, you’re not doing very well. If you give gifts to those who ask, what’s going on?”
You can see in the Psalms that the good will prosper and the evil will have trouble, but that also doesn’t work out as it says.
What people end up saying is: “We sure don’t know what God is about.” They have a saying among themselves that almost sounds as if it’s from the Bible, but it’s not: “God helps those who help themselves.” In both senses of the term. What you have to do is help yourself because it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. The evil aren’t punished. In fact, the evil prosper. The good are crushed and go down the drain. This then is the first reason for practical atheism.
The second way has to do with the idea that everybody is saved anyway. People think there’s a great by and by out there, somewhere, somehow, and in the meantime, what’s important is here, but this thinking is a kind of sentimental love, sloppy agape. Whatever happens God pats everyone on the head and says: “That’s all right.”
There are certain problems with this. It makes God into a monster. All the meanness, cruelty, and terrible things that are done are met with a heavenly pat on the head, as if the Lord says that’s interesting what you did, but it doesn’t matter.
God becomes a monster, and everything becomes relative and meaningless. If everything is true, nothing is true. That’s a principle of philosophy, not theology, but it helps us see the problem.
The third way this practical atheism is seen is by what is happening in our culture about death. Attitudes are changing. Those of us who are older still view death as a terrible thing, and maybe there’s something to worry about. But what is happening is that younger people are saying there is death, and that’s the end. There is no judgment. No Lord. Once you have that idea it changes what you do about it when it comes.
It’s like the ancient motto: “Eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (Isaiah 22:13.) That’s from about 740 BC. Seize the day. That’s all you got. Make the best of it because death is not only the end now, but forever.
To be sure, the prophet condemns this view heartily. Moreover, it doesn’t work out that way because people do ask about the meaning of it all, and then create their idols and their idols end up being family, career, and certain causes. But what is not asked is really the big question: Where are you going to spend eternity?
If there is no eternity, there is no question.
But if you ask: What is the Christian point of view? – that question is considered embarrassing and fundamentalist.
What does the Bible say? The answer from the Bible has two phases. It is stated remarkably in Psalm 73: “How come the evil prosper and the good come to a bad end?” And the answer comes in verse 23: “Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.” And in verse 25: “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” And verse 26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
In Habakkuk the writer puts it this way: “Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olives fail and the fields yield no more food, the flock will be cut off from the fold and there be no herds in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 4:17-18).
The same is true of Psalm 121 (paraphrase): “Where is my help? My help is found in the one who created heaven and earth. He is the one who is in control.”
Then in Isiah 50:10 where it talks about what it means to have faith: “ . . . [The one who] who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord.”
That’s the Old Testament answer, and it continues in Matthew 5 and 6: “How much more?” If he takes care of the birds of the air and the grass of the field, how much more will he take care of you?
But the New Testament has a further answer. That’s what is decisive.
The further answer uses the same literary trope or device—how much more. It is found in Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not give us all [good] things with him?” That’s really what its about. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all – How much more? – is what is implied here.
How much more us will he give all good things to us.
What does it mean? It means the answer is very different.
It means he has conquered death on the cross. He has conquered the evil one so the evil one has no power over us.
He has conquered the power of sin which comes from the evil one so that everything is changed. It’s done his way, not our way.
Of course, we continue to say: “Lord, you didn’t do it right. Listen to me, Lord. I’ll tell you how you should run the universe.”
And he says to us: “I’ve taken care of it. I’ve taken care of all of these things.” because he gave his own Son for our sake.
Then it concludes in Romans 8:37-39 in an astonishing rhetorical device. He says: “In all these things we are more than conquerors.” How can you be more than a conqueror? But that’s exactly what it says:
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul should have added “Amen.” He didn’t, but we can. Amen