Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution gives indicted criminals the right to a speedy trial, and the U-S Supreme Court case Barker v. Wingo developed a four-part test to determine whether or not a trial was in fact speedy. In today’s Gospel Reading, although Jesus does not give the nature of the widow’s charge against her adversary, the judge certainly seems to have denied her speedy justice. Still, the unrighteous judge eventually gives justice to the widow, and Jesus argues from that example that God will all the more speedily give justice to His elect. You and I may have our own tests of whether or not God’s justice is speedy, and we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”.
The so‑called “Parable of the Unrighteous Judge” in today’s Gospel Reading is often mistaken to be about prayer in general, but both the context and the Parable itself make clear that this particular Parable is not about prayer in general. You may recall that last week’s Third Reading was about Jesus’s healing ten lepers and the Samaritan one’s being saved by faith. In the verses between the end of that Third Reading and the beginning of this week’s Gospel Reading, Jesus both answered a Pharisees’ question about the coming of the Kingdom of God and told His disciples about the suddenness of the Son of Man’s coming, likening His coming to the sudden and unexpected comings of judgment on the large number of the faithless in the times of Noah and Lot. And, the Parable He then tells links the cries of the elect in prayer to the coming of the Son of Man. So, the prayers to which Jesus refers are for the justice His final coming will bring.
The so‑called “Parable of the Unrighteous Judge” also can be misused to reinforce false notions that we might have about prayer. We talked about such false notions in the our recent 28‑session Midweek Bible Study on a “Lutheran View” of the “Theology and Practice of Prayer” (you can hear it online if you missed it). For example, we might falsely think that, if there are more people praying for something, then God is more likely to answer that prayer affirmatively. Or, we might falsely think that, if even as individuals we ask God for something we want and ask persistently, then He will give us what we want, as it were, just to get us off His back. Even that individual persistence in prayer in order to have it answered favorably is not the point of the Parable in today’s Gospel Reading. Today’s Gospel Reading encourages our “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”, and the Reading encourages such praying by contrasting the unrighteous judge in the Parable to the Righteous Judge, our Almighty God; we are always to pray and not to lose heart because of the nature of our God to Whom we pray.
What Jesus had told His disciples about the suddenness of His coming naturally filled them with alarm and anxiety. They would need to be strong and patient continually, “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”. We also need to be strong and patient continually, “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”. How do we do with such prayers? Do we pray more for what we think of as justice against our adversaries or for what we think of as deliverance than for the justice the Son of Man brings when He comes to judge the living and the dead? Do we become so frustrated that God is not answering our prayers when and how we want that we stop praying altogether? Does our ceasing to pray even go on to become a loss of faith? Sadly, too often we sin in these and other ways, for we are sinful by nature, in a way like the unrighteous judge, neither fearing God nor respecting other people. For such sin and sinful nature we deserve nothing but death now and for eternity.
In St. Luke’s divinely‑inspired Greek version of today’s Gospel Reading, there are a couple of sentences that are difficult to translate and interpret. One is the latter part of verse 7, which in the English Standard Version we heard a few moments ago reads, “Will He delay long over them?” Yet, the Greek verb used there apparently in the New Testament never means “delay”. Rather, the verb seems to refer to God’s patience with us, a necessary time of grace intended to kindle repentance and faith (see 2 Peter 3:9). So, we repent: we repent of praying more for what we think of as justice or deliverance than for the justice the Son of Man brings when He comes to judge the living and the dead. We repent of our lack of prayers and our loss of faith. We turn in sorrow from all our sin, we believe God forgives our sin, and we want to do better than continuing to sin. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin, whatever our sin is. God forgives all our sin for the sake of the Son of Man.
The Parable in today’s Gospel Reading emphasizes the contrast between the unrighteous judge and our Righteous God. The unrighteous judge was selfish, andhe really knew no justice, acting only to stop being bothered; our Righteous God is selfless in love and mercy, and He embodies justice, acting to save those whom He created. The unrighteous judge’s giving justice to the widow arguably cost him nothing, while our Righteous God’s acting to save us cost Him everything: the life of His Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Who bore His judgment for the sins of the world, including your sins and mine. We, who are by nature like the unrighteous judge, not fearing God or respecting people, are, in Christ, made righteous, given faith in God and respecting people as a result. In Christ, our lives are delivered, as was Jacob’s in today’s Old Testament Reading, where we are told that he strove with men and with God and prevailed (Genesis 32:22-30). And as the widow in the Gospel Reading strove with the unrighteous judge, we also strive with God “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”, and, in Christ, we prevail.
Most of us are first incorporated into Christ at the Baptismal Font, washed by water and the Word and so forgiven of our sin, delivered from death and the devil, and given eternal salvation. Thus, like Timothy addressed by St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading, many of us from childhood have been acquainted with the Sacred Writings breathed by God and preached in the Church to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5). When we know and feel sins in our hearts, we privately confess them to our pastors, who individually absolve us by Christ’s divine command. So absolved, we come to this altar rail to receive bread that is Christ’s body and wine that is His blood, given and shed for you and for me, and so we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In these ways—baptism, preaching, absolution, and the Supper—God gives us faith and preserves us in it, He incorporates us into Christ, He makes us righteous, and He enables us to be confident both that He has elected us and that, as we are “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”, the Son of Man will come speedily with that justice.
Such prayers for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice are the fruits of faith. The Gospel Reading says that we “ought always to pray”, which does not mean we pray continuously (that is, without interruption) but rather continually (that is, regularly). Apparently the Jews in general at the time of Christ rejected the idea of continuous prayer, and, some 500 years later, the official Christian Church persecuted as heretics a group of Eastern monks who engaged in prayer without interruption. We continually pray our Father in heaven that His Kingdom come. We do not lose heart and give up because such prayers seem to go unanswered for an almost interminable and unbearable period of time, troubling and humbling us, as we bear our crosses, the afflictions God permits us to carry on account of our faith. Like the souls St. John saw under the altar in heaven (Revelation 6:9-10), we regularly pray the Lord to bring ultimate justice, and, bring it, He will. The Son of man will give justice to us speedily.
In society’s flawed justice system we and others may not always see the speedy justice envisioned by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, but God will give justice to us speedily. Whether or not we realize that speediness now, we will realize it later. Quickly and without further warning the Son of Man will come. In the Gospel Reading Jesus says that God will keep faith with those who are “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”. God’s faithfulness is not the question; our faithfulness is. In the Gospel Reading Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” By God’s power, mercifully and graciously working through His Word and Sacraments, we will be among those believers He finds in the community of His Church, living each day with repentance and faith. In the words of our Hymn of the Day:
All honor, praise, and majesty / To Father, Son, and Spirit be, / Our God forever glorious,
In whose rich grace / We run our race / Till we depart victorious.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +