TGBC: this I know
The Good Book Club
Saturday, March 17. Luke 18:1-17
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’
And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’
People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’
THOUGHTS FOR SATURDAY. The parable of the unjust judge, like the neighbor friend who doesn’t want to get up and give his friend three loaves of bread, and like the dishonest manager, is another of the incredibly atrocious parables that can be laid right at Jesus feet: came from the mouth of the Lord himself. A pious Christian hesitates, fears to say it, but this one, like the others, indicts God in a way that ratifies our experience of God: “What do we have to do to get God to hear us, to answer our prayer?” is a common question when people are really hurting and prayer seems futile. I am one who maintains that the equivocation “sometimes God says ‘no’” is stark b.s., we don’t need to rationalize God or make excuses for God. What’s the answer? Or ARE there satisfactory answers? Your witness.
With the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, Jesus terms human expectations upside down, rattling our certainties. True repentance is holier than certitudinous righteousness. Ye who do truly and humbly repent you of your sins, …, and intend to lead a new life …
And in a day and age when children were considered far below adults, especially adult males, and to an extent not even yet quite fully human, Jesus’ saying “suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew's beloved version) would totally have upended all values and expectations. For myself as a child, this picture on the walls of the children’s Sunday School rooms at East Hill Baptist Church, Pensacola, was a most promising and assuring element of my faith. "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
All three, the judge and the widow; the pharisee and the publican, and the little children, teach against holding others in contempt and oneself higher.