Category: sermon

WORK IN THE VINEYARD

Matthew 20: 1-16 NET.

¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. ⁴ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. ⁶ And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ ⁸ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay starting with the last hired until the first.’ ⁹ When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ¹⁰ And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ ¹³ And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. ¹⁵ Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

We have been following the Gospel chronologically and stopping to analyze the commands of Jesus. Last week we looked at Jesus’ instruction to the rich young man in Mark 10. If I had chosen Matthew’s Gospel, that passage would have been Matthew 19:16-30. So, the following passage in Matthew is today’s text. It contains a parable that is not in any other place – the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Because it is a parable, we will not find a direct command in the passage itself. There is an implied command. Before we get to that, I want to look at today’s passage itself and see what we can learn from it.

Jesus is describing the work of the Kingdom.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like what happens to the characters in Jesus’ story of the workers in the vineyard. Matthew’s Gospel is about Jesus as the king of the coming kingdom. Matthew presents Jesus as the son of David and Abraham (1:1). Matthew presents evidence proving that Jesus is the rightful king of the coming kingdom by showing that he descended from David. That evidence is in chapters 1-4 of the Gospel. Matthew also shows that Jesus is the sacrifice God intended to provide atonement. Jesus is the sacrifice provided by God in place of Isaac in Genesis 22. That evidence is in chapters 26-28 – the final three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. So, the focus of the seven chapters at the beginning and end of the Gospel is on who Jesus is as the coming king.

The other 21 chapters in Matthew’s Gospel are about the coming kingdom itself. Chapters 5-7 are called The Sermon on the Mount. It contains Jesus’ instructions for believers on representing his coming kingdom in this present age. Chapters 8-11 tell us how to spread the kingdom by evangelizing others. Chapters 12-13 encourage us to stay committed to his coming kingdom. Chapters 14-19 teach us how to live by the standards of the coming kingdom.

The focus changes around this point in Matthew’s Gospel once again. The following six chapters are all about when the kingdom will come and set up his kingdom on earth. This section will teach us more about the Second Coming than any other place. That is why Matthew chose to include this parable here. The parable as a story is about a day working in a vineyard. But the story is about working for the King today as we look forward to Him coming from the sky and setting up his kingdom on Earth.

The parable focuses on the workers’ pay at the end of the day. Although the landowner hires different workers at different times during the day, he pays them all the same wage regardless of how long they labored in the vineyard when he went to settle with them. Since the parable is about the kingdom, the work that is done in the parable symbolizes all the work done by kingdom citizens today.

It seems unfair.

Workers were hired to work the vineyard in shifts. Some started early in the morning. Others showed up to be hired at 9 am. Then noon, then 3 pm. Then, finally, a group started at 5 pm.  That meant that they only worked for one hour. When the last group got in line for their day’s pay, they were paid the standard wage. Every worker in the vineyard that day got the standard salary.

The first group – the one starting early in the morning- began complaining about the day’s pay. It was the pay that they had agreed to. But it didn’t seem fair that the pay was the same as that given to the last group – the one that only worked an hour.

The landowner insisted that he was not mistreating anyone. He paid everyone the same price. He was right to treat all his workers the same way and reward them with the standard wage. But it just seems unfair.

Part of the reason we can’t get our heads around this story is that we are accustomed to working for hourly wages. Business owners hire people by the hour and pay them according to a scale they can afford. For unskilled labor, it just makes sense. But it makes less sense if the employer ignores that arrangement and pays everyone the same wage regardless of their work hours.

But our modern problems with how this story unfolds are not that much different from the problems its original hearers and readers had with it. Remember that the story did not tell us how to pay our employees. The point of the story was not about proportional remuneration. It’s about the kingdom of heaven. It’s about what will happen when the kingdom in heaven comes down to earth.

Many things will happen when Jesus returns to Earth to set up his kingdom here. But one of the most important things is that he will gather all his kingdom citizens.  In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says that he is coming soon and has his reward to pay each one according to what he has done (Revelation 22:12).

But even reading those words, we might get the impression that the coming kingdom will be inhabited by some who are rewarded more than others. We know that society today is like that. Some make more money than others. Some can afford bigger houses, newer cars, and better clothes. Life is about status. There is an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class.

In other words, life today is unfair. Our Constitution tells us that all are created equal, but the moment some people are born, their inequalities scream out. Most seem trapped in a life that grants them undeserved blessings or challenges. Some people are exceptional and go from rags to riches. But most do not break the mold.

It is fair because of God’s grace.

The message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard is that when King Jesus returns to set up his kingdom, there will be a hard reset. Everyone who has ever come into the kingdom will receive the standard wage. Each will receive the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

No one deserves this gift. It is a gift. That is why it will not matter how many hours you work in the vineyard. We will not be saved because we worked a single hour in the vineyard. Our salvation is based on the fact the landowner sought us out. Whether he found us first thing in the morning or just an hour before quitting time is irrelevant. We are saved because of the shepherd seeking out lost sheep.

Our God is seeking the lost even today. Some of us have been working hard for him for decades, but our time in service will not make us any more saved than those who answer his call on their deathbeds. Our conversion is not a work we perform for him. It is an act of grace by him.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross. That is why the Apostle Paul tells us that our status is all the same – there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female — for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Since our status is the same, our reward will be the same.

The kingdom that comes from heaven will not have upper and lower classes. He is preparing a place for us that will not reflect our greatness or lowliness. Jesus told us that we will receive the kingdom like a child. All our status, accomplishments, and things we take pride in are considered nothing because they make no difference to God. Our greatness does not impress God.

The problem that the rich young man had in last week’s message also relates to this story. The Lord told him that there was one thing he lacked. He told him to sell all he had and give it away to poor people. But this seemed so unfair for Jesus to ask him to do that. He had worked hard for his wealth. He had made wise decisions. It seemed unfair for Jesus to penalize him for making sound financial decisions. So, he was sad and left sorrowful because he had much wealth.

But Jesus is the king of his coming kingdom. He has every right to treat all of his citizens the same. He is not obligated to let anyone who does not agree to his terms into his kingdom. It is his kingdom. The king says “Come” to whoever wants to come. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the thirsty one come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge” (Revelation 22:17).

The Apostle Paul discovered this amazing fact of God’s fair grace. He told the Philippians that if “someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things — indeed, I regard them as dung! — that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness — a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,

and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:4-11).

Paul was a rich man who made the right choice. He decided to follow Jesus, but he first had to divest himself of all his “greatness.” Nobody gets into the kingdom by deserving it. We all bow to the one who bought us by his blood. We all surrender our ideas of fairness and receive his kingdom as little children. We all surrender our self-reliance and self-sufficiency and become objects of mercy.

For further study:

Buchanan George Wesley. The Gospel of Matthew. Wipf & Stock 2006. pp. 775-779.

Clarke Howard W. The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Indiana University Press 2003. pp.164-167.

Davis Daniel J. Parables of Matthew. FaithQuest Brethren Press 1998. pp. 49-57.

Fortna Robert Tomson. The Gospel of Matthew: The Scholars Version Annotated with Introduction and Greek Text. Polebridge Press 2005. pp. 168-169.

France, R.T. The Gospel According to Matthew. Grand Rapids (MI: Eerdmans, 2007. pp. 746-752.

Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010. p. 62.

Vann Jefferson. The Coming King: a new translation and commentary of Matthew’s Gospel. Piney Grove Publications 2023. pp. 197-199.

Let The Kids Come

Mark 10:13-16 NET.

¹³ Now people were bringing little children to him for him to touch, but the disciples scolded those who brought them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ After he took the children in his arms, he placed his hands on them and blessed them.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel authors to tell the story of Jesus, he did not have them list his commands. Each of the commands of our Lord came within a context, and the Gospel authors were careful to fill in the details of their stories so that we could understand what Jesus commanded and why.

In today’s story, Mark tells us that the disciples were doing something that made Jesus angry. When he saw what they were doing, he was indignant. The last thing any employee wants to do is to make the boss indignant. It is better not to be seen at all than to be seen doing something that makes the boss mad.

Today’s lesson tells us something about the importance of Jesus’ command. It is important enough for Jesus to underline, highlight, and put in bold print. Our attitude toward children is something that our Lord cares very much about. It is a priority for him. Let’s take a closer look at today’s passage to understand why.

Jesus loves little children (13-14,16).

People (presumably, their parents) were bringing little children to Jesus for him to touch. It was a tradition for prominent people in Israel to bless little children, just like for grandparents to bless their grandchildren. Jesus sometimes criticized the Jews for unthinkingly following their traditions, but he had no problems with this tradition. He loved little children. They were not a nuisance to him. He would smile at them, and they would smile back at him. He enjoyed spending time with them.

I’m sure by this time, the disciples knew that Jesus would want to spend time with children typically, but they had just heard him predict that he was going to be betrayed and killed in Jerusalem. Mark records that prediction in chapter 9, verse 31. Hearing something like that would naturally make a person sad. So, the disciples were not in the mood for frivolity. When they saw the children lining up to be blessed by their master, they probably thought he didn’t have time to waste on them. He was important and had an important message to share and limited time to do it.

But Jesus always has time for the people he loves. I am so grateful for that fact, and I know you are too. Jesus was not just formally touching the foreheads of these kids. He was taking them in his arms and embracing them. He loved kids, and he still does.

That fact should challenge us as a congregation. We should make time for the kids. We should figure out how we can help their parents raise kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We should minister to the children. They are not just the future of the church. They are essential to Jesus now and should be just as important to us now.

One of the reasons that kids are so important is that we adults can learn something from them.

Children can teach us how to receive the kingdom (14-15).

Jesus said that we should let the little children come to him and not try to stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Little kids can show us how to respond to the gospel. It’s not that they are sinless and innocent. We know they are not. But little children know how to depend on others. Unless they have been harmed, they naturally trust others. Children seem to have a supernatural ability to forgive even if they are harmed.

I think it is this ability that little kids have that Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to. He tells them that children instinctively know how to receive the kingdom of God.

When Jesus taught his disciples about receiving the kingdom, he used many illustrations to help them understand how it was done. He talked about different soils and their capacity to receive the seed and produce crops of different levels. He spoke of sacrificing things in this life to receive eternal life at the resurrection. He talked about the simplicity of asking for and seeking the kingdom.

Kids are not ashamed to ask for what they want. I saw a commercial the other day about a man at an ice cream truck who was trying to tell a bunch of kids about a football game. The kids were not interested at all in football. They wanted ice cream. The man kept talking about football, but the kids kept bringing the conversation back to ice cream.

What Jesus was talking to his disciples about here was receiving the kingdom. The kingdom of God is coming to earth in the future, but it can be received today. It is an inheritance promised by God for our future, but it is an inheritance we can put our faith in today. Kids take hold of a promise and get joy in it. They love sitting on the older man’s lap and reviewing their Christmas list. They love reminding us that next month is their birthday.

Jesus drew attention to the fact that children know how to receive the kingdom. We adults have lost this marvelous ability to accept a promise as a present reality. We have matured beyond the capacity for confident expectations. That is why we must return to school and learn from the kids. They know how to receive the kingdom.

We might miss the promise if we don’t learn this valuable lesson from the kids. Jesus said…

Only those with child-like faith will enter the kingdom (15).

Unless we learn to receive the kingdom today, it will not be waiting for us at the resurrection. Unless we live in confident expectation of it now, we will not be able to enter it when Christ returns. Matthew spends an entire chapter in his Gospel telling us that there will be many people when Jesus returns who will learn that they only thought they were true Christians. Five were ready when the Bridegroom came in the parable of the ten virgins, but five were not. In the parable of the Talents, one servant failed to invest what he had been given. His laziness earned the loss of everything he thought he had. One group inherited life in the parable of the sheep and goats, but the other did not.

That is what Jesus is talking about here. If we don’t receive the kingdom today, we will not be able to enter it when it comes tomorrow. There is only one way to receive the kingdom: like a child. When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus had taken a little child and had him stand among them. That child had been his visual aid. He represented what it is like to receive the kingdom. It’s not about who is the greatest. It doesn’t matter who is the strongest, the smartest, the wealthiest, or even the wisest.

The gospel of God’s grace is available to all of us. God has handled our sin problem by nailing it to a cross with his Son. Nothing stands between us and a future life of eternal joy and blessing. But we have to say yes. We must put our pride and self-importance aside and come to Jesus for his blessing. We can’t work our way into his kingdom. We can’t accomplish our way into his kingdom. We can’t achieve our way into his kingdom.

Jesus says for us all to come to him. We work hard and carry heavy burdens and must learn to accept his grace like little kids do. Jesus says for us to go to him, and he will give us rest. We don’t earn that rest. He offers it freely. All we have to do is go to him.

Jesus’ command for all of us today is to let the kids come. He is not too busy to spend some time with us. He wants to smile at us and to watch us smile back in return. He wants to bless us with his touch. He wants to take us in his arms. “Like a shepherd, he tends his flock; he gathers up the lambs with his arm; he carries them close to his heart.” You have a Savior, and he loves you, and he wants to bless you. He does not have a list of things you must do to win his approval. All he asks is that you come to him and receive him like a child.

For further study:

Barclay William. The Gospel of Mark. Revised ed. Westminster Press 1975. pp. 241-244.

Byrne Brendan. A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel. Liturgical Press 2008. pp. 160-161.

Carrington Philip. According to Mark: A Running Commentary on the Oldest Gospel. University Press 1960. pp. 211-213.

France R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press 2002. pp. 395-398.

Gundry Robert H. Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross. Eerdmans 1993. pp. 544-551.

Hughes R. Kent. Mark (Vol. 2): Jesus Servant and Savior. Crossway 1989. pp. 55-60.

Marshall F. The Gospel According to St. Mark (Revised Version). 1st ed. George Gill 1921. pp. 53.

Moloney Francis J. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary. Hendrickson 2002. pp. 196-198.

No Longer Bound

Romans 7:1-6 NET.

¹ Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. ³ So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. ⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

The Apostle Paul considered preaching the gospel as the objective of his life – what he had been set apart for. He was eager to proclaim the gospel to everyone everywhere he went. When he sat down to write his epistle to the Romans, he wanted to explain why. That is why no matter what topic Paul gets on, it relates back to the gospel sooner or later. This is the message that Paul says he is not ashamed of. There were lots of things before his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road that Paul was ashamed of, but he was not ashamed of his decision to accept the gospel and live by it from then on.

Paul explains the gospel in the early chapters of the Book of Romans. He outlines the doctrine of justification by faith in the grace of God, made possible by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He explains that there is no other way to be saved other than by faith in the grace of God. Paul himself is the perfect example of the statement made by Peter in Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” Once Jesus came to Paul, Paul was only about Jesus and his gospel.

It would be safe to say that Paul was a committed man. That was true of Paul before he became a believer. When Paul was rounding up Christians to have them punished, persecuted, and imprisoned, he was also a committed man. He was busy harming the body of Christ with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other.

That was why Paul needed to write the Book of Romans. He knew how easy it was for a person to do the devil’s work and be fully persuaded that he was following the Bible. He knew that Rome contained a large community of believers raised on the Old Testament law just like he was. So, in today’s text, he addresses those people.

The audience: those who know the law (1).

In Rome, there were many Gentiles, but there were also lots of Jews. Many proselytes had turned to Judaism before they heard the gospel and pledged their lives to Christ. Paul is addressing those people in today’s text. He is writing to people who know the law of Moses.

Earlier in his letter (chapter v2), Paul had addressed those who boast about knowing the law yet continue to dishonor God by transgressing it. Now, he has returned to talk to these people – those who claim to know God’s law. He knows that they will be tempted to live like he did. He had lived as an enemy of God even while he claimed to be defending God.

For Paul, a change had to happen. It did not matter how much he knew the law; the law itself would not turn him into a servant of God. He thought he was living by the law, but every aspect of his life was breaking the law and the heart of God.

The old bondage: the flesh attempting to obey the law, producing death (5).

Paul says that “when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” Just carrying around his Bible was not enough. Just knowing what God wants, as revealed in the Scriptures, was not sufficient. Sin had a grip on Paul’s life. It was producing death and using the law to bring death about. It’s like a criminal who steals a surgeon’s scalpel. That scalpel was designed to cut out disease and repair injury. But the thief uses the same scalpel to harm instead of heal.

So, what Paul is saying is that he was in bondage. Just having the Bible and knowing the law – was not enough for him to get out of that bondage. Something had to happen to set him free from that bondage. If it didn’t happen, the knowledge of the law would keep him in bondage.

That is why it is so important for Paul to address these people. They were people like him. They were Bible-toting, Scripture-memorizing, law-abiding sinners as he had been. But unless they experience the gospel, they will never experience the freedom that he now lives in.

Freedom through the cross: release from the law’s lordship (2,3-4,6).

Note that Paul talks about a married woman who is released from the law of marriage when her husband dies. When he dies, she is set free from that law. So, Paul tells these biblically knowledgeable Christians that when Christ died on the cross for them, they died to the law. Paul says that all believers have been released from the law because when Christ died for us, we died to what had controlled us when we were merely followers of the law.

Paul explains this new freedom Christians can walk in with the illustration of the married woman whose husband dies. Before her husband dies, she is bound to him by their covenant. After his death, she is released from the bondage. She is now free from the previous commitment and all its responsibilities.

Now, this is where some people have grossly misinterpreted Paul’s meaning. Paul is not saying that all Christians are released from the law as God’s instruction. He’s saying that because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can live free from the law as a tool for sinning. We are free to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We are free from the bondage that made us sin, regardless of how much we studied the law.

The freedom Paul talks about here is only half of the equation. Once the death of Christ set us free on the cross, it remained for each believer to put their faith in that atonement and to begin walking in step with that new life. Paul explained that to the Romans by using the illustration of a second marriage.

Remarriage: joined to Christ for productive service (3-6).

This woman who became a widow did not remain a widow. She is joined to another man. She becomes a newlywed again. We, believers, are released from the bondage to the flesh to serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.  Unless we allow the Holy Spirit to take over, we are in danger of going back to living in bondage to the flesh.

The warning Paul gives the Romans here is significant for you and me today. We can walk with the Bible in our hands and still be walking according to the flesh. We can claim to be doing what God wants yet all the while be doing what we want. What we want and what the devil wants is the same thing. The law no longer binds us as the devil interpreted it. We are set free from that bondage.

However, just being set free is not enough. We have to be who the gospel says we are. We now have a new husband. We are the bride of Christ. We now have a new covenant. With it comes a new commitment. Self is not on the throne anymore. Christ is the Lord. We are joined to him.

We serve the same God that we thought we were serving before. But now, his truth is revealed to us clearly by his Holy Spirit inside us. The life we live is not a legalistic interpretation of the letter but a life empowered by the Spirit to know and accomplish our Father’s will. Anyone who has ever lived that life for a second can never be convinced to go back to the old life of bondage and control by the flesh.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus fully atoned for all your sins and set you free from your old life of trying to please God with your works. We are now free to serve in the new life of the Spirit. We are no longer bound!

For further study:

Abendroth, Mike, and S. Lewis Johnson. Discovering Romans: Spiritual Revival for the Soul. 2014. pp. 110-113.

Achtemeier, Paul J. Romans: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 2010. pp. 113-118.

Dewey Donald Kent et al. Walk through Romans: Based on the Sermon Outlines of Dr. Howard F. Sugden. Morris Publishing 2010. p. 66.

Erdman Charles R. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans: An Exposition. Westminster Press 1925. pp. 75-77.

Forrester E. J. A Righteousness of God for Unrighteous Men: Being an Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. George H. Doran 1926. pp. 140-145.

Hutchings N. W. Romance of Romans. 1st ed. Anniversary gift ed. Hearthstone Pub 1990. pp. 196-207.

MacGorman J. W. Romans 1 Corinthians. Broadman Press 1980. pp. 60-61.

DEPENDENT PRAYING

Luke 18:1-14 NET.

¹ Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. ³ There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.'” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says! ⁷ Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” ⁹ Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ ¹³ The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’ ¹⁴ I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

It used to be that the only way we could learn more about our friends was by spending time talking to them. As we conversed, we learned about the things our friends liked. We would also learn what kinds of things made our friends mad or irritated them. Nowadays, we can find out those things without even holding a conversation. All we have to do is scroll through their posts on social media. We can find out their political views, how religious they are, and whether they are pet lovers.

Jesus doesn’t post on social media. If we want to discover what Jesus is all about, we must do it the old-fashioned way. We need to study the Gospels. As we have spent quality time in the Gospels looking for the things that Jesus commanded his followers, some themes keep occurring repeatedly. There are some subjects that Jesus keeps coming back to. One of those subjects is prayer.

We cannot help but conclude that prayer is essential to Jesus. It may or may not seem necessary to us, but for some reason, a strong prayer life is something that Jesus harps on. Prayer keeps showing up as high on the agenda of things that matter to Jesus. We have already looked at several of the commands of Jesus that relate to praying. He has told us to pray secretly so that our Father in the sky will reward us openly. He has told us not to be reluctant to ask for what we need and to keep on asking. He has told us to ask for more harvesters so the gospel can reach more people. We don’t have to worry about whether God wants us to pray. God always wants us to pray.

In today’s text, Jesus is underlining the message he has already given about prayer. Jesus told the disciples a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart. That was the parable of the persistent widow. It was very similar to another parable that Jesus gave, recorded seven chapters earlier: the parable of the persistent man who bothered his friend at midnight to get some bread to feed his guests.

Jesus teaches a second parable about prayer in today’s text as well. It involves two publicly praying at the temple: a Pharisee and a tax collector. There is very little new material in this parable too. Jesus had already taught his disciples not to pray for others to see. Otherwise, the public perception of your righteousness would be your only reward. 

But despite the apparent absence of new material in today’s section, I see these two parables giving us significant instruction about prayer. The overall theme is a particular kind of praying. I call it dependent praying. This passage gives us three keys to praying prayers that reach heaven and make a difference here on earth. We can’t choose to use one or two of these keys. All three must be used together, or our prayers will not be dependent.

The first key is persistence.

No surprise here. Luke tells us the reason for Jesus’ instructions. He shows his disciples that they should always pray and not lose heart. The Holy Spirit in the word of God is showing us the same thing. God values the persistent prayer and the persistent pray-er. He wants his children to trust him so much that they keep asking because they refuse to believe he does not care. He wants children who refuse to take no for an answer because they want what God wants and are unwilling to settle for something different.

The God who created our bodies wants them to be whole, not sick or disabled. We see that in Jesus. He didn’t turn those people away when he encountered illness or injury. He healed them. He didn’t give them a seminar to help them heal themselves by increasing their faith. They asked, and Jesus answered. They needed healing, and he gave it to them. Later in this chapter, Jesus meets a blind man as he approaches Jericho. The man will get the attention of Jesus and his disciples by repeatedly crying out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus will ask this man, “What do you want me to do for you.” The man will say, “Lord, let me see again.” Jesus gave that man what he asked for because he had the faith to ask.

The God who created us wants us to be restored to a right relationship with him. We see that in Jesus. He was parading through Jerich when he suddenly stopped, and nobody knew why. Then Jesus looked up into the sycamore tree. There was Zacchaeus. Being a short man, he couldn’t see over the crowd. But he did not give up. He climbed the tree. Jesus noticed his persistence. He told Zaccheus to come down because he would eat at his house. Later, Jesus said to him that salvation had come to his household. It pays to seek God persistently.

Brothers and sisters, we pray but are tempted to give up too quickly. We lose heart when the prayer is not answered immediately. We are like that fox that tries once for the grapes, and when the first try doesn’t work, we claim that the grapes are sour anyway. God has an answer for us, and it isn’t sour grapes. We have to keep trying. Someday, we will be on display before the universe, and the Lord will tell all of creation, “These are my people. The ones who refused to give up.” These are the children of Jacob, who wrestled all night and would not let go until he received a blessing. These are the children of Jabez, who kept praying for the Lord to enlarge his tent. These are the children of Hannah, whose prayers were so passionate that Eli thought she was drunk. Jesus commands us to pray and keep on praying.

The second key is wisdom.

Remember I said that all of the keys have to be used together. It’s like going to the bank to get something out of a safe deposit box. There is more than one key, which must be used together. The second key is one that logically precedes the first. In other words, persistence without this key is useless.

You can persistently go to the bank and withdraw more and more money until you have nothing left in your account. But if your problem is not financial, the funds will not help. You can read your horoscope daily and get guidance from the stars, but if the stars do not determine your fate, reading your horoscope will not help.

When Penny and I visited our ministry in Thailand, we would walk the streets and notice that in front of every house, there was a shrine to the spirits. Those people persistently worship the wrong god. Their persistence was useless. Jesus warns us that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

The second key is wisdom. It recognizes that there is only one solution to our problem, not two, not two thousand. Wisdom knows God is sovereign and seeks him because he is the only deliverance.

In the parable of the persistent widow, the widow got the justice she was after because she recognized that the judge was her only solution. She had no other resources. She had no other options. She had to keep bugging him because he was the only way out of her dilemma.

The third key is humility.

The second parable Jesus tells also contains a key: dependent praying is humble praying. The parable targeted some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

I was once visiting a man who was terminally ill, and I had come to pray for him. I prayed for God to heal him. Another Christian was visiting the same man, and that man prayed as well. Our prayers were like night and day. That man prayed confidently. I remember feeling embarrassed that I could not pray such a powerful prayer. He seemed to be knocking out the demons of disease everywhere.

The truth is the man eventually died. I don’t know the heart of the other Christian who prayed with me that day. But I do know that his prayer could not be characterized as humble. We may feel humiliated when we come to the throne of grace, begging God to answer our prayers. But the truth is our humility honors God because he is the answer.

The Bible says that we should come boldly to the throne in prayer. Hebrews 4:16 says we should “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” But this confidence is not self-confidence. We always come to God from the standpoint of need. We need his help. We need his grace. His grace is unmerited favor. We cannot help ourselves. If we come to God praying with confidence, that confidence has to be in his love, compassion, and power, not our own.

So, the next time we go to the throne, we should remember to pray dependent prayers. These prayers persist as long as needed to get the answer. They are prayers that recognize that God is the only resource we have. Dependent praying is wise enough to seek the answer from the only One who can give it. There is no plan B. Dependent praying beats the breast and says, “God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am.” Humble prayers reach the throne.

For further study:

Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1997. Pp. 230-234.

Beyer Douglas. Parables for Christian Living: Seeing Ourselves As Jesus Sees Us–Parables from Luke. Judson Press 1985. pp. 89-95.

Carlozzi Carl G. Pocket Parables. Tyndale House 1985. pp. 92-93.

Coates Thomas. The Parables for Today. Concordia Pub. House 1971. pp. 41-43.

Kok Joel. Luke: Taking Up the Master’s Mission: A Study Guide. CRC Publications 1997. pp. 34-36.

Olson Rudolph. Parables of the Bible. Valley Press 2000. pp. 58-59.

Schaap Ward B. The Character of the King: Studies in the Parables. Baker Books 1994. pp. 64-74.

Welborn Amy. Parables: Stories of the Kingdom. Loyola Press 2003. pp. 35-37.