Luke 18:1-8

This is one of the few parables on which Jesus lets us know its purpose at the very beginning, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” The story is about a city judge who was hard-hearted. “Who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.” And a widow who was hard-minded. She kept coming to him with the same plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.” She did it in such persistent ways that he granted her request just to get rid of her. Jesus shared this parable with his disciples and us as an encouragement to be persistent when we pray.

I would like to make one thing clear from begin: The parable we just heard is not about a nagging widow or an unwilling and hard to convince God who can only be convinced when he sees us praying by day and night. The Judge in the parable does not represent God. This parable is about a God who bears the suffering of people. It is about a God who always listens the cry out for justice. Christ’s parable teaches us that we are to continue to pray and not hesitate or become disappointed if our prayers do not seem to be answered right away. God will answer at his time which is the perfect time.

This story has a lesson for us Christians from the Western hemisphere, and the lesson is: learn to be patience and trust that God is listening even when He does not answer right away. We are a society short of patience and perseverance. We would like to have all the answers for our problems fixed quickly. Because that is the way we live. Everything we need, we needed it by yesterday. Prayers for many people have become “a process of giving God an ASAP’ to-do’ list” and that is not what the Bible teaches us about prayer. Prayers are request not orders and is up to God how to answer and when to answer.

I mentioned before that Jesus gives us this parable as an example of persistence and patience. Persistence and patience as the result of our knowledge of God’s word. Persistence and patience as the result of our faith and confidence in God. You see, I believe this widow knew her Bible and she knew what God had promised to her as widow, particularly she knew Exodus 22:22-23 and she dared to believe what God told Moses. This is what God told Moses, “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. ²³ If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” This widow dared to embrace God’s words and made them hers. She was sure God was listening to her cry and that faith and confidence in God gave her courage and patience to face an unjust judge, a judge who did not fear God nor man. That faith and confidence gave her courage to face the judge day after day for who knows how long with the same demand, “grant me justice…”

Pray and do not give Jesus said. People give up after trying many times and not getting the result they expect or want; people give up when they get tired of doing the same thing without results and yes, we can give up praying when we do not see God’s answer. Jesus knew that and that is why he says to us today, pray and do not give up. “Pray believing you will receive”, says James in his letter; believe against all hope, Paul says in Romans.   

My sisters and brothers, history tells us that every successful man and woman in the history of Christianity were people with the same type of faith the widow had. They were examples of courage, strength, and most of all persistence as a result of their trust in God. The God who called them, the God who promised to be with them always. Let me share one of many examples we find in our history of praying with persistence, John Wesley. Let me read some parts of his diary.

1738 Sunday a.m., May 7, preached in St. Lawrence’s, was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday p.m., May 7, preached at St. Katherine Cree’s church, deacons said, “Get out and stay out.”
Sunday a.m., May 14, preached at St. Ann’s, can’t go back there either.
Sunday afternoon, May 21, preached at St. John’s, kicked out again.
Sunday evening, May 21, preached at St. somebody else’s, deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.

John Wesley was asked not to preach in these churched because his way of interpreting the Bible did not exactly agree with the traditional way of the Anglican Church. Any other preacher could have been discouraged and disappointed, but not Wesley and his perseverance and patience gave fruits. Now listen to another part of his dairy a year later. 1739, Tuesday, May 8, afternoon service, preached in a pasture in Bath, 1,000 people came to hear me. Sunday, September 9, preached to 10,000 people three weeks in a row in Moor fields. End of his diary’ quotes.

1738 could discourage any other preacher, but not John Wesley, he was a man of faith, he had courage, strength, and patience from God. He was persistence and he saw the fruits even when it took a whole year.

When I read the Bible, I see God answering prayers right after people finish praying, one example is Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2:1-6, “In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, ² so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

I was very much afraid, ³ but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” ⁴ The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

⁶ Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so, I set a time.

This is a prayer answered right at the moment. John Wesley’ prayers to continue preaching took a year. However, there are others that took the whole life. Listen to Luke 1:8-13, “once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

I believe Zechariah and Elizabeth started praying for a son ever since they were young; ever since they realized Elizabeth could not have babies. And I also believe that when time passed by and God did not answer, when they got old, they stopped praying and conformed to their reality. Maybe they even thought that God had forgotten their prayer.   

Zechariah and Elizabeth were asking God for a son; however, God did not answer in that moment because God wanted to give not only a son for them, but through Zachariah and Elizabeth God wanted to provide the one who will prepare the way of the Lord and the moment, the time was not yet.

I love verse 13, “But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.” How many years ago they started praying? I do not know. How long ago they had stopped praying? I do not know either. One thing I know, God did not forget. On his time, when the time was right, he responded Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer.

The message from the Widow, John Wesley, Zechariah, and Elizabeth’ stories for us is do not give up believing God; do not give up praying; do not give up waiting in the Lord. The answer you are waiting for may take some time, but you will see God’s answer to your prayers. Our God is faithful. 

If there is something, I would like you to remember this Sunday is to be persistence, believe in God and in what He has promised. Dare to believe against all odds; dare to believe even if you have been praying for years already.

 “Fix your eyes and faith on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”