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+ + + 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. (Amen.)
My mother has been a widow now for more than eight years, and in those eight years she has become increasingly outspoken to both her congregation and other congregations about widows’ needs, and to some extent rightly so. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament draw attention to the needs of both widows and fatherless children, who do not have a husband or father to defend them (for example, Exodus 22:22; James 1:27). Indeed, widows and orphans’ unique desperate need for justice is part of the background for the parable of a sort that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel Reading: a parable that the Divinely-inspired St. Luke uniquely records and specifically says the point of which is that we ought always to pray and not lose heart. Yet, the content of the Gospel Reading itself—with its discussion of judgment and mention of the coming of the Son of Man—and its immediate context in the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke—in which Jesus had just been discussing the coming of the Kingdom (Luke 17:20-37)—make clear that Jesus is not talking about just any prayer for something specific, or even about prayer in general, but Jesus is talking about prayer specifically for God’s ultimate justice at the coming of the Lord. So, this morning we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Praying for God’s ultimate justice”.
The parable in today’s Gospel Reading arguably is often mistitled as “The Parable of the Persistent Widow”, since the widow’s “persistence” is not specifically mentioned, and, though her repeated coming to the unrighteous judge eventually prompts the unrighteous judge to give her justice, God’s elect’s crying to Him day and night is not what prompts God to give them ultimate justice, but God’s own righteousness prompts God to give them ultimate justice. So, the parable might be better titled “The Parable of the Unrighteous Judge”, or the parable may be best titled simply “The Parable of the Judge and the Widow” (see SQE §236). Though the unrighteous judge is totally unlike our Righteous God, we are to be like the widow, always praying for God’s ultimate justice and not losing heart.
When we pray and do not get what we ask for in the time and way that we ask for it, we might wrongly think of God as an unrighteous judge (Kretzmann, ad loc Luke 18:1-5, p.362). Based on a misinterpretation of the parable, we might be most concerned about marshalling others to join us in beating God down so that He gives us what we want in the time and way that we want it, and so we might email, text, tweet, and otherwise request prayers from as many people as possible. We might wrongly think that things like justice in this world are most important and not even pray for God’s ultimate justice. We might have prayed so much for God’s ultimate justice and grown weary of waiting that we stop praying and lose heart. Or, we might have so resigned ourselves to God’s giving us what He wants in His time and way so that we do not always pray, or maybe we even do not pray at all.
We sin in regards to prayer, and we sin in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature—as unrighteous as the judge in the parable. Our sinful nature and our actual sin warrant both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. God’s ultimate justice would so sentence us to death and damnation, if God did not call and thereby enable us to repent of our sin and trust Him to forgive our sin. For, when we so repent and believe, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
God is not an un-righteous judge but a righteous judge. To still be righteous, God could not just ignore our sinful nature and our actual sin, but, instead of righteously punishing us, God righteously punished His Son. God loved the world by sending His Son into human flesh to die on the cross for us, in our place, the death and damnation that we deserved. The righteousness of Christ’s keeping the law for us and the righteousness of Christ’s dying for our failure to keep the law are both freely given to us, as we repent and believe—believe not just anything, but believe the content of the faith revealed in the Bible, such as Who Jesus is, what He has done, and how He gives us the benefits of what He has done. The Son of God first came humbly as the Son of Man and suffered many things and was rejected by that generation (Luke 17:25), but risen and exalted now, He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. But, as we are righteous in Christ, that judgment with God’s ultimate justice means our full and final deliverance and freedom from our adversaries of sin, death, and the power of the devil.
In today’s Epistle Reading (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5), we heard how Timothy was acquainted with the sacred writings from childhood and how they are profitable for training in righteousness. Regardless of when we first came to be acquainted with Holy Scripture, all who are baptized can point to their Baptism as when and where they know that God forgave their sin, rescued them from death and the devil, and gave them eternal salvation. As we receive them in repentance and faith, God’s Word and Sacraments are means of Grace and also signs of His grace towards us. We do not have to wonder whether or not God has elected us to salvation, but we can be sure of God’s electing us to salvation, as we regularly hear His Word read and preached; we can be sure of God’s electing us to salvation, as we privately confess the sins that trouble us and are individually absolved; and we can be sure of God’s electing us to salvation, as we receive in the Sacrament of the Altar bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us and so as we also receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. These holy things are our food and drink for our way through this life, food and drink that get us through the things that God in His wisdom permits us to face for as long as He permits us to face them, food and drink that help us always pray and not lose heart.
Some of you may know The Babylon Bee, “a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles” on various topics, including religion (Wikipedia). Just in time for this morning’s Old Testament Reading (Genesis 32:22-30), The Babylon Bee Friday satirically reported that scholars now believe that Jacob’s epic wrestling match with the Angel of the Lord ended after Jacob performed a professional-wrestling throw called a “powerbomb” that, they said, forced the angel to tap out (Babylon Bee). More seriously, Jacob’s wrestling with God can be said to be an image of prayer (Astley, CPR 32:4, p.29). As our Lord intended the parable in the Gospel Reading to encourage us, we always pray for God’s ultimate justice and do not lose heart. We pray as a congregation, as families, and as individuals; we pray aloud with our lips, silently in our minds, and with the desires of our hearts. For example, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray both for His Kingdom to come, meaning that we might lead godly lives there in eternity, and for Him to deliver us from evil, meaning that He might take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (Small Catechism, III:8, 20). No matter God’s timing, we trust in His promises. Fewer and fewer people on earth may repent and so believe, but all the elect will be saved and delivered by God’s ultimate justice, and they have His peace and joy, both already now and for all eternity.
Widows, orphans, and those of us who are neither widows or orphans may or may not get justice in this world. But, God will give His justice to His elect, who are righteous by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. As we let them, God’s power and mercy keep us in the faith until the end (Kretzmann, ad loc Luke 18:6-8, p.363). As we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 121; antiphon: vv.1-2), the Lord will keep our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +