Jesus had just been saying some mysterious things about the final advent of the Son of Man—a time when we will desire to see him, but will not be able, a time of false signs, scoffers, and the indifferent.
Jesus speaks of a future time—a time not unlike ours—when faith will be difficult, a time when believers will have to suffer many things and be rejected—like the days of Noah when so many doubted and so few believed, when the holy man doing God’s will was laughed at and belittled.
But then he tells this funny story about a pushy old woman and an unjust judge. It’s meant to be a funny story, I think, but no less profound for being so. The lesson is simple: believers are to be persistent in prayer—“importunate” to use the old-fashioned word.[1]
God, who is far more just than any earthly judge, will answer prayer; but believers must be persistent and not give up, even when the world is laughing at you, even when God doesn’t seem to be listening!
But this raises a question: Why make us beg? Sounds difficult at first, but the answer is actually very simple. And any parent knows the answer.
What happens when you shower gifts over your child whenever your child asks for something—whatever, wherever, whenever? You know the answer: you end up with a spoiled kid! You end up with something like what the economist Gary Becker called the “Rotten kid theorem.”[2] You end up with a kid that doesn’t know the value of work or cooperation or generosity. Your kid ends up being rather a jerk. We’ve all seen it. We recognize that kid; you’re probably calling to mind that kid right now.
Good parenting involves placing constraints and limits on our children, providing them with proper incentives rather than giving them everything they want right away. Good parenting is about teaching our kids how to work, earn, save, budget, and compromise; it’s about teaching them how to be good citizens not selfish leeches. For good reason we don’t spoil our children: because we want them to learn how to order and purify their desires. We want them to want the right things at the right time in the right way. We want them to grow out of the childishness of thinking, “I want it now!”
Think of it another way. What if you’re praying for deliverance from some bad habit, some vice or addiction? Certainly, God is powerful enough simply to take that vice or addiction away from you—he’s God almighty! However, in his wisdom God wants you to pray and struggle. He wants us to really want our freedom from sin. If we pray only once or half-heartedly or only occasionally for liberation from sin, it’s probably the truth that we don’t really want to change, that we don’t want to stop sinning. Like Augustine we pray, “make me pure, but not yet!”[3]
No, God wants us to struggle in prayer, to beg, to be persistent, because that’s how God purifies our desire and redeems us in a way that keeps our freedom intact. It’s the way God calls us to holiness while still keeping us human. You can’t force a person to love you, and God doesn’t want to force you to love him. He lets us struggle, because that makes for a more perfect love.
So, we see the wisdom of the Lord’s teaching. Jesus is essentially saying that we should be spiritually mature in our prayer, persistent. Our words of prayer should really express our desire, desires slowly made holy as they slowly conform to God’s will. This is the sort of faith Jesus wants to see when he returns, faith in the slow struggle, in the daily prayer to be delivered from evil. Why else have we been given the Lord’s Prayer to pray every day?
Now to keep this faith alive, we need to help each other. As Paul said to Timothy, “Keep the faith!” “Stay close to the word of God!” “Be persistent!”[4] Like Moses against the Amalekites, sometimes you’ll have to help the person next to you keep his or her prayers alive; sometimes you’ll need to help them keep their arms up![5]
A funny little story, but a great lesson for the Church. Keep the faith! No matter what, keep the faith! If they laugh at you, keep the faith! If they scorn you, keep the faith! If they ignore you, keep the faith! And pray! Beg God for holiness, beg him for peace, beg him for purity!
And as God is your Father, he will listen! He hears you now; and as your Father, he loves you. You’re his child and he wants you to learn how to crawl, to walk, to run! He wants to see you grow. You just can’t give up. Jesus wants you to stay faithful and keep on the path. It’s possible I’m talking to you today, that God is talking to you today through me. Listen! And keep the faith! Amen.
[1] Luke 18:1-8
[2] Gary Becker, A Treatise on the Family
[3] Augustine, Confessions 8.7.17
[4] 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
[5] Exodus 17:8-/3
© 2022 Rev. Joshua J. Whitfield
